R.J. Conte's Blog, page 7

“Peach Fuzz” by Amy Curtis

Here is the winning entry for my first flash fiction contest.  This piece won because it received the highest scores from the judges for both technical competence and how emotionally moving it was.  Congratulations to Amy Curtis!

Thank you to all of our amazing judges who gave freely of their time and energy to make this a success.  These friends mean so much to me!

[image error]Liz Sheller Liz is a lifelong reader who has proofread so many of my works.  Well-read and meticulous, Liz is a mom of three, in...

WINNER of the RJ Conte Flash Fiction Contest!

WE HAVE A WINNER

[image error]

The official winner of the RJ Conte’s Flash Fiction Contest is…

AMY CURTIS with her entry of “PEACH FUZZ.”

She will win $100 and her flash fiction piece published right here on the blog within the week.

Thank you to all the participants, to all the judges, and to everyone who made this a success. All of the entries were fantastic – there wasn’t a single dud among them.

Because I’ve entered my own fair share of contests, and know that often you send a precious work of fiction...

Artificial Love’s Cover Reveal!

It’s here!  Artificial Love’s AMAZING cover is here!  Thank you, thank you, Seedlings Design!

The pre-order is up too if you want this short story. 

Today is My Thirtieth Second Birthday

Today is my 30th 2nd birthday.

I’m already thirty-two years old, so I’m not using Hobbit speech to say the same thing. I mean that today, thirty whole years ago, I became a Christian. I was born again. My second birthday.

It was a meaningful day today because it was also the deadline to submit my addition to the Beatitude and Woe anthology Bear Publishing is putting together. I will sign again with a small press, submitting my short story, The Tears of the Emperor. *I* shed a lot of tears wri...

To Court a Queen

Guys, I always buy what H.L. Burke writes.

They’re clean, pretty family-friendly, and tons of original fun.  Heidi comes up with amazing plots and characters every time.  There are no H.L. Burke dud books.  Each one is pretty fantastic stuff.

Check out her latest, and pre-orders are up!

 

He doesn’t want to get married, but he wants to be a frog even less.

[image error]

Knight errant, Devin, takes a shortcut through the woods, only to be captured by fairy forces. The fairy queen has run out of breathing m...

The Plastic Surgeon or the Mom – What Kind of Author Are You?

In my mind, there are four different kinds of authors in relation to their characters.  There is no right or wrong here, merely different motivations for the stories we write, as well as different personalities at play as we interact with our characters.  Which kind of author are you?  Let me know in the comments!

 

The Plastic Surgeon[image error]

This kind of author is up on trends and high on entertainment value.  They’re not writing to get across a moral.  They’re not interested in dissecting their c...

When You Feel Like a Drop in the Bucket – Helping Fight Abortion

I spent three days of last week in an angry, emotional fog. The abortion news hit me really, really hard, and I cried and panicked my way through 72 hours. If you didn’t know, that’s okay. I didn’t even want to talk about it. I posted a lot on Facebook, but mostly stayed at home and sobbed my way through some emotional prayer times.   I just felt this deep, angry, panic that there was nothing I could do to rescue all of these children. Nothing I could do to stop evil. And it felt like...

Love Thy Transgender Neighbor

This is a blog article for those who believe that the Word of God is completely true and that we are to obey what God says in it.  If you are not a Bible-believing Christian, this article isn’t for you.  I have not written it to have transgender debates.  Thank you.

 

I live in the pacific northwest.

I love it here.  It’s gorgeous, the trees are more numerous than the stars that can be seen in the cloudy sky, and the summers are to die for – light up until 10 pm at night and most days a perfe...

My Fault is Free Only This Weekend!

My Christian romantic comedy with a the quirkiest ENTP main character, is free ONLY this weekend! 

Robots, Cowboys, and New Books!

THE DAY the marauders came for us started with an ominous gray horizon. Dust flew in on the heavy winds that stirred up the dirt and grime stuck to every inch of our farmhouse, silt and debris like tears gathering in the corners of the old building’s eyes.

It had been eleven months since our father had passed, struck down by the roving gangs of rebels that plagued our country from the bottom up, the battles for power that had been fought, without end, for an entire generation.  No end to this...