Alan Baxter's Blog, page 128

Operation Ebook Drop

Operation Ebook Drop is an idea started up by an author called Ed Patterson. The idea grew from the concept that a lot of service personnel overseas have ebook readers, but can't access the Kindle store on Amazon.com because they're away from the Whispernet service provider (which wirelessly transmits Kindles). Patterson decided that it would be a good idea to offer troops free ebooks via a Smashwords coupon. That way the troops could download Kindle friendly versions or any other ebook...

Reviews and how to take them

A recent post on Musings Of An Aussie Writer that made direct reference to me and reviews of my work got me thinking about reviews. A lot of people react badly to reviews, even when they're primarily positive. I don't know why.

As far as I'm concerned, as an author, once I put my work out there I have no right to tell people what to think of it. I always make my writing the best I think it can be before I let it go public. Often that's the only way it can or will go public.

After that I always ...

Conflux 6 only 3 weeks away

draft program for the con here, but that's actually a little bit out of date now. I think a new program will be updated there any time now...

Want to get your hair pierced?

I went out for a ride on the motorbike with Halinka today and we stopped in a little town for lunch. I did laugh when I walked past this window.

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Darkening – #fridayflash

For this week's #fridayflash piece of fiction I went digging around in my short story archives. I'll often write up part of a short story, or write a short story as flash fiction, to get the ideas down and return to them later. Sometimes I'll develop those ideas into a proper short story that I'll try to sell somewhere, sometimes they're better left as flash fiction (which I may also try to sell somewhere) and sometimes they're better left alone completely (like the great ideas you jot down...

Editor Unleashed 25 Best Writing Blogs 2009

Bizarrely, this very site is one of them.

I must say, it's been a good couple of weeks. I was very pleased a little over a week ago when I discovered that I'd been nominated for the 25 Best Writing Blogs at the Editor Unleashed website. I'm a big fan of that site and usually float around their discussion forums from time to time.

A couple of days later I got confirmation that The Word was being archived by the National Library of Australia due to its "national significance". I'm still having a ...

Karen Lee Field's flash fiction contest

My friend Karen Lee Field has recently done a complete overhaul on her writing website. She combines her interests of writing, reading, genealogy and history on the same site. To celebrate the overhaul, Karen is running a flash fiction contest. The prize is a $25 Amazon voucher and an electronic copy of the fantasy anthology, Speculative Realms. The winner will be decided by public votes, and one lucky voter will also receive an ebook of Speculative Realms.

The contest is a themed one. You...

The surname book meme

I picked this up after spotting it at and . It goes like this:

From the biggest bookcase you have, pick out one book whose author's last name starts with each letter of your last name. If you have no books by an author whose last name starts with a particular letter, go to the next letter. If you have two of the same letter in your last name, get two separate authors, not two books by the same author. Bonus: If you can, pick the first book you haven't...

Decennial General Meeting – #fridayflash

For this week's #fridayflash story, I present a whimsical little yarn about a bunch of trolls, lamenting their lot in the modern world. It's not really a complete story, more a vignette, a snapshot in the secret lives of trolls. It's possible that there's a bigger story hidden in here somewhere, but for now I'll let this piece go as a #fridayflash whimsy.

Decennial General Meeting

'Sorry I'm late.' Glom collapsed onto a log, running one hand over his knobbly face. He smoothed back his tangled g...

The Word to be archived at the National Library of Australia

I'm sitting here a little bit stunned at the moment. Apparently I have cultural significance to my country. A few days ago I got an email from the Digital Archiving Section of the National Library of Australia. At the top of the email it said: Request for permission to archive The Word : the website of author Alan Baxter. I started smiling, wondering which of my friends was yanking my chain.

Then the email started talking about how:

The National Library of Australia aims to build a comprehensive c