Dianne Pearce's Blog, page 12

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BIRDSHIT?

Well, you won’t find out that way! Go read it! It’s one of my weirder chapters too. I’d love to know what you think.

all THE KINDLE VELLAS try ’em, FREE!

WHAT IS KINDLE VELLA?

Kindle Vella (or KV, or Vella) is a new service from Amazon that allows anyone to go online and start reading a book IMMEDIATELY! The books are all serialized. They may release one chapter per week, or even a chapter daily. The first three chapters/episodes of any book are free.

USA-ONLY:

For now, Vella is only available to reader in the USA, while Amazon tries out this pilot program. DPP is in on it, and we are even beta-testers for the comments and polls functions. So, some of our stories have comments, and some have polls, and some have both.

FREE AND NOT FREE:

All series (books) being serialized have the first three episodes as free.

For episodes after that, you have to buy them.

You buy them by buying tokens. Most chapters/episodes average out at about six cents/episode.

You cannot currently give tokens as gifts, or buy tokens with gift cards, and you cannot buy someone a Vella story to read, like, “I’ll get this for my friend!” Nope, not now you won’t. But maybe in the future!
And hopefully in the future more countries will be able to get it too.

IS IT GREAT?

DPP’s jury is still out on this one. We’re trying it, and we like how we can put in notes for our readers, and get comments back. As authors it is nice to have connection with readers, because otherwise we never do, and we want to know what readers think. But, it so restricted at the moment with the USA-only tie that we’re not sure how we feel about it. Certainly since we have worked to edit people to are writing their entire novels on their phones, it is appealing to those of us who love our small hand-held devices.

ONE BENEFIT: the reviews a book gets there go with it when it goes into paperback.

ARE YOU THE BETA READER TYPE? ARE YOU JUST INTERESTED IN THE LATEST THING? DPP IS LOOKING FOR YOU!

We’d love to have some folks try out our Vellas and then take a survey on the experience so we can find out what readers think.

Contact us if you want to join in the fun and give us your honest feedback: editor@devilspartypress.com

What do we have on Vella currently?

PICK A READ! ANY READ!THE PUMPKIN KING AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR

GRAVELIGHT PRESS PRESENTS:

Do you desire to make your spine tingle, your hair curl, and your blood run cold? If so, dare to partake of the dark sacrament of this forbidden tome. Within these arcane pages you will encounter an organist who can summon the dead, trade lives using the currency of the damned, meet a college professor with a very creepy teaching assistant, and experience a night of Trick-or-Treating like no other. Enter if you dare! This story is complete and heading to print Halloween 2023!

Written by master story teller R. David Fulcher

Follow David on Twitter!

JUST A HOUSECLEANER

When Patsy finds her friend and client has passed away in her living room, Patsy’s only thought is how to take care of her friend’s dog and estate, but someone in her friend’s life has other ideas. Can Patsy, still grieving the loss of her friend, help save her friend’s estate?

Written by Amy Willard, a real-life housecleaner!

CAPES AND MASKS:

David Yurkovich, acclaimed author/illustrator of the graphic novels LESS THAN HEROES, ALTERCATIONS, and DEATH BY CHOCOLATE presents a collection of short stories spotlighting the heroes and villains of Combustible. Featuring the tales, “The Vocalist,” “The Confectioneer,” “Mid-Life Crisis,” “…as a Mad Immortal Man,” “The Night it Rained Rembrandt,” and more, CAPES AND MASKS expands the realm of superhuman stories beyond the norm.

HIBERNACULUM:

HIBERNACULUM, an original sci-fi novel by Anthony Doyle set in the not-too-distant-future, will take you to a world where human hibernation has become a common occurrence. For the affluent: it’s the equivalent of a luxury holiday, or a way to sleep through cosmetic surgery. For the sick: it’s a place to rest and wait for a cure. For the activists: it’s a way to decrease their carbon footprint. For the rest it’s a means of surviving in a world that has grown too costly. Would you hibernate?

NEW SANTA/CRIMSON RED

Santa and Mrs. Claus are dead, both victims of tragic, but separate, accidents. Now, The Order of the Beard – a septet of immortals representing the seven continents – must appoint worthy successors. But not even The Order is perfect. They have no idea of the raw carnage that’s about to unfold as the Claus’ marriage begins to unravel. Will New Santa be the last of a long lineage? Award-winning author David Yurkovich presents an all-new black comedy for anti-Christmas enthusiasts everywhere.

SIMONA’S SON

Mob boss Filiberto “Bear” Zappia made his bones maiming his victims before killing them. Now, a squeal has emerged who can send Bear to prison. He needs his best hitman, Angel, known as Ice, to find and whack the squeal. Ice has special ways of torturing his victims. Bear wants Ice to send a message to the squeal and all future rats. But something is wrong… with Ice. His mother, Simona, made a deal with God to trick the mob and save Angel from Hell. But what happens when God changes the deal?

COMING SOON!

Those fantastic Vella titles will soon be joined by:

Noir collection: HARDBOILED And LOADED WITH SIN

Check this blog for links and announcements.

Thanks for all you do to help DPP keep-on keeping-on. We’re getting more late-bloomers published this year than ever before because you read our books!

WHAT IS OUR MOST POPULAR VELLA SO FAR?

Well, a mother never has favorites, but readers do. So far, in the number one spot for readers is NEW SANTA. I guess folks just love Christmas! (Or hate it!)

When you read a DPP book, it means everything!

NEIL YOUNG CONCERT TONIGHT! I AM SO EXCITED!

And to celebrate, let’s revisit this oldie but goody: IT SHOULD BE A LIKE A HALF AN HOUR VOLUME 2

First of all, I already know it’s a long song. Go cry to your mama. I love it, and I want it even longer. I could float down the Mississippi on this and never care a wit about the world.

Go Neil go, just don’t stop so soon Man.

we were before waring

Congratulations to OLD SCRATCH PRESS founding member Robert Fleming, whose poem “we were before waring,” featured in impspired was a Delaware Press Award winner.

WAY TO GO ROBERT!

we were before waring

we wore hair keratin like baboons &
knocked our chests like gorillas

we wore skin like zebras &
bent-over to water like wilder-beasts

we wore muscle like lions &
paw swatted flies like bears

we wore bones like swine &
dug dirt worms like robins

we wore blood like falcons &
taloned on branches like pigeons

we wore fig leaves like chameleons &
hide motionless like a rat out-preying an ambush snake

you named us Adam & Eve
we were before words

25 HOTTEST: GIGI EDWARDS BRYANT

READ MY INTERVIEW with Gigi Edwards Bryant in 25 HOTTEST!

I could have talked to Gigi all day. I was impressed with her immediately She is a wonderful woman who has never stopped striving for herself, or foster youth, and I am so lucky the magazine asked me to interview her.

Here is an excerpt from the article, and for the rest, grab a copy of 25 hottest!

EXCERPT

Gigi Edwards Bryant is a fifth generation Austinite and seventh generation Texan. She knows Texas well.  Texas’ foster care system is where she spent her childhood, from age six to age eighteen, which is the age children are typically aged-out of the system. This experience may seem unique for a professional and successful woman like herself, but it is all too common for too many children in the United States. This difficult and live-altering experience is where Bryant found her purpose in life. Her mission is to keep a crystal-clear lens on our most vulnerable citizens who cannot take care of themselves or use their voices to cry out for their care or safety when it matters the most.  This is what lead Bryan to become the strong advocate she is to this day.

If Bryant were going to be a typical “former foster child” of the foster care system she would not have succeeded on the designed path. That she is so successful is a testament to her own perseverance and her strong faith in God, a gift from her great grandmother that the system could diminish within her. Bryant became a successful college graduate twice, is a beloved wife and mother, the architect of the Write to Me foundation, and a steadfast volunteer to help reform the foster care system in Texas. Most importantly, she remains a tireless voice for children who are too young, too afraid, and too disenchanted to speak until years after aging out. She commits her time, talents, and resources to making life better for children, their families, and their communities. Her projects are direct services, when needed, and without long waits. 

Today Bryant is a public speaker, community volunteer, and business owner. She uses her experience to provide passion, vision, and clarity, to what our children in the system require. She stresses the importance of hope, education, community and family, and she works with singular devotion to have her message heard by those in government who have the power to make changes. She believes that through faith, hope, and forgiveness, we can learn to be encouraging, loving and caring care when it feels like extraordinary events and experiences have captured our last breath. 

She has served over fifteen years as a Governor appointee to significant boards and commissions in Texas, including Chairing the Texas Department of Child Protective Services, which she considers full circle in a circle that looks and feels the same. She also Chaired the Texas School Safety Center.  

Part of what has allowed Bryant to be such a valiant crusader for children’s rights has been her own success. In 1993, after a 20-year career in information systems within the State of Texas, Bryant started GMSA Management Services, an Austin based business development consulting firm. The firm, recognized as one of Texas’ outstanding small businesses, focuses on community outreach/involvement, employee engagement, and business development.  In addition to her firm, Bryant is currently elected to the Austin Community College District Board of Trustees, in her second term. In 2004 she began the Write To Me Foundation, which provides rite-to-passage experiences to youth who have lived in, and through, the foster care system. The Foundation’s signature PROMRack, provides prom and graduation assistance. This year the PROMRack event will take place on April 23, 2023 at Juan Navarro Ealy College High School from 10 am to 4:30pm (CST). Donations are always welcome (www. writetome.org). Other services include assistance paying bills and addressing immediate needs that could be the difference between existing and giving up. The greater purpose Bryant wants to achieve through her service to others is to be a living example of the power in giving back, even if it means using her history of painful experiences to pave the way.  

Find out more about Gigi by clicking the photo below:

ANTHONY DOYLE WEAVES HIS MAGIC ON SPILLWORDS

Anthony Doyle, author of HIBERNACULUM, writes a great story. Check out another story by Doyle on Spillwords. Give him a LIKE and maybe he’ll be the #1 story of the month!

LORD, SOMETIMES I HATE STUDENTS

Sometimes, when I help students, it is exhausting.

Like today, for example, when Sean appeared on my screen to tell me he just needed to satisfy his teacher that a Writing Center tutor had “looked at” his paper.

His paper that said, in plain clear English, that women make less in sports because they don’t try as hard, and their sports are not as interesting to most people, and that it has nothing to do with any gender pay-gap, or bias.

If you click on that photo above, you will go to the CNN article on this.

And that should prove to you that women making less money in sports has everything to do with men, and nothing to do with women playing less well, or less hard, or being less interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2021/09/03/us-soccer-federation-president-cindy-cone-intv-camerota-lfg-vpx.cnn

https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaabrams/2019/06/23/why-female-athletes-earn-less-than-men-across-most-sports/

https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/lawandarts/article/view/8956

The Fight for Equal Pay in Women’s Sports

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2022/12/historic-win-for-women-s-equality-in-sports

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/what-the-us-soccer-equal-pay-case-means-for-sports/

https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/22375

https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/carla-harris-nneka-ogwumike-kara-nortman-womens-sports-access-and-opportunity-podcast

When I was a little kid, I thought Bruce Jenner was pretty great for the decathlon, but NO ONE, not Pete Rose, Mohammed Ali, Wilt the Stilt, no one captured my imagination like one of my absolute heroes, Billie Jean King.

And that, all these DECADES later, we should still be having to prove to young men that sexism exists in sports can mean ONLY that their parents, their mothers and fathers, and schools too, through what they say, the local games they attend, what they spend their money and free time on, and the attitudes they have, are continuing to enforce and reinforce the notion that women are inherently not as good as men.

Which is another reason for keeping trans women off of women’s teams, right? Because if you have trans women on a team, and cis-gendered women win the game, that might mean that women and men are equal, so, in no way can we allow possible gender contamination, because that might empower both cis and trans women, and we cannot have that happen! (Sarcasm…. just in case I need to tell you. Cis and trans women should be empowered.)

Do you live in a place that enforces “norms” about gender, race, religion, ability, etc.? I did. And I left. It was not good for my family, and I was able to go, so I went. But what if you are not able to go, or don’t want to leave a place or people that you love? What do you do?

MEET MY BRILLIANT FRIEND

Jeffrey is curating this years’ HALLOWEEN PARTY, so check him out! Find out what this guy is all about.
And sign up (at the bottom of his site) to find out about freebies and specials related to Halloween Party!

MY NEWEST POST AT AUTHORS ELECTRIC

Check it out and see what I have to say about the NBCC opportunity FOR YOU, and one of my favorite books, THE THINGS THEY CARRIED!

CHECK OUT THE NEW POST AT OLD SCRATH PRESS, FELLOW POETS!

You can read the post here.