James M. Jackson's Blog, page 14

Tracy L. Ward - Guest Author

Please welcome a fellow member of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, Tracy L. Ward. She describes herself as introverted, driven, enthusiastic, organized, and modest. She describes her writing as dark, descriptive, evocative, unexpected, and intriguing.

In addition to her novel writing, which she discusses below, she penned a short story in the collection Fish or Cut Bait that included one of my shorts. Without further ado, here's Tracy.
What makes a great short story?
I think a great...

Guests Author - BK Stevens

Please welcome short story writer and novelist B. K. Stevens today. I’ve known Bonnie for many years, first from the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She describes herself as hard-working, inefficient, bookish, and grateful. Her work she describes as humorous, serious, carefully plotted, and candid. I don’t often give a shout out to other writers’ blogs, but if you want to get into the heads of writers as they craft their opening pages, check out B.K.’s blog http://www.bkstevensmysteries.co...

2016 Guest Author Q & A slots now available

Back by popular demand: Guest Author Qs & As for 2016.

I think I have contacted everyone who specifically asked me about early 2016 slots, but it occurred to me I should let everyone who reads the blog know.

If you interested in participating in my guest author blogs, please check out the questions below to determine if you think answering them interests you and your readers. If so, send an email to blog@jamesmjackson.com (not my normal email address, please) and let me know of yo...

Cori Lynn Arnold - Guest Author

Please welcome guest author Cori Lynn Arnold. I know her from the Guppy Chapter of the Sisters in Crime where she has more than filled my shoes at the web maven. She describes herself as productive, anecdotal, traveler, short, and curious. She says her writing is sardonic, characters, feverish, mystique, and curious. 

All those who comment will be entered to win a free paperback copy of Northern Deceit. Drawing to be held on Saturday at 9 am. Now, assuming you too are curious, here a...

Jane Gorman - Guest Author

Please welcome Jane Gorman as today’s guest author. She is a fellow member of the Guppy Chapter of the Sisters in Crime and describes herself as lively, thoughtful, imaginative, careful, and happy. She says her writing is grounded, engaging, intriguing, and deceptively optimistic. Without further ado, here are her eight chosen questions and answers.
Describe your most productive writing venue. What makes it best for you?
I write best when I’m outside. Usually, that’s just sitting in my backyard...

Black Box Concerns

I started out my home computer life an Apple guy. In 1985 I bought an Apple IIe. The “e” meant it was enhanced from the original Apple II. I chose the 128KB of RAM memory instead of the standard 64KB because I was a heavy computational user. My most recent computer, a Dell XPS 8700, has 8GB of RAM (a 62,500 times increase). For a few bucks more I could have had another 8GB of RAM, but I didn’t need it. My first machine handled 8 bits of data at a time; the new one handles 64 bits. Processing...

Joan Leotta - Guest Author

Please welcome Joan Leotta, a sister member of The Guppy Chapter of the Sisters in Crime. She describes herself as scattered, silly, loving, performer, and a writer, and her writing she describes as eclectic, encouraging, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Without further ado, her are her choices of questions and her answers.
Describe your most productive writing venue. What makes it best for you?
At the present time I write in our living room—my office is too messy. Actually, anywhere I can lay...

No Social Security COLA Adjustments for 2016

Unless something really wacky happened to cost-of-living in September that I don’t know about, Social Security recipients will not receive cost-of-living benefit increases for 2016.

Here’s the math:
The benefit increases only occur if the average CPI-W for July, August and September exceeds that for the highest previous average for the same months (which occurred in 2014). In 2014 the three CPI-Ws were
234.525 for July 234.030 for August 234.170 for September
702.725 total for the three...

Carolyn Wilkins - Guest Author

Please join me in welcoming Carolyn Marie Wilkins as today’s guest author. In addition to being a member with me in the Guppy Chapter of the Sisters in Crime, she describes herself as unpretentious, openhearted, insightful, multi-talented and warm. Her writing is fun, addicting, entertaining, eye-opening and engaging. Here are her eight choice optional questions:
You have a table for four at your favorite restaurant and can invite any three people, living, dead or fictional. Who are your guest...

Whither eBook Subscription Services

Last week marked the announcement that the eBook subscription service Oyster will be shutting down in early 2016. This summer, Entitle—one of the original three eBook subscription services—quietly closed its doors. Scribd, the third of the group, had to backpedal from its promise of “unlimited” books per month to throttle the usage of its romance readers. Since the original three commenced operations, Amazon entered the market with its Kindle Unlimited. Google has hired the folks from Oyster...