Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Going for another two-fer today:

Flip Flop: Writing then and now.

Happy New Year!The third Bernard and Melody story.

Theodore wrote: "That's interesting. I didn't receive a notification. Good catch.

You had to subscribe to their newsletter to receive the notification, I think. I had done that back when I submitted.

Theodore wrote: "BTW, the Long List only contains 75 entries, so at least we made the first cut."

Ah! I hadn't noticed that. Thanks!

In semi-related news, neither Ted nor I won or even made the short list (runners up) in the Brilliant Flash Fiction contest. I noted that Ann Zimmerman, who often posts in the Indies Unlimited contests, did make the short list. The prize winners and short list stories are here, along with the full list of participants (180 of them). I don't know if they will be publishing all the stories later.

I prefer the funny scam calls, myself. I got one a few years ago that actually made me laugh. This came into my voice mail, so I didn't have the pleasure of talking with them directly. The names in the following account are not what he used. I can't remember them, only that he used very plain English names.

A guy in a thick Indian or Pakistani accent identified himself as "Officer John Smith" from the Baltimore police department, told me that a complaint had been filed against me by one "Agent William Johnson of the IRS." I was informed that I needed to call a certain number to resolve the matter, "before you get arrested."

The give-aways in this call were so glaring as to be funny. A guy named something like John Smith with that thick accent; a Baltimore officer calling someone who hadn't set foot in the city for quite some time; the IRS engaging a local police department to track down someone they want to talk to. The one clever part of this scam is that if you checked the number showing on the caller ID, it turned out to be an actual BPD phone number. But the number they gave for the call-back was different.

Funny, yes, but I'm sure they wouldn't be doing it if someone didn't fall victim to it. I suspect if you actually call them back, the punch line would be, "You need to pay $$$$ to settle this complaint or you'll be arrested."

My youngest daughter worked at a local bank for a few years, and she said they would get seniors coming in to withdraw money because they'd gotten a letter threatening them with legal action if they didn't pay a few thousand dollars to settle a tax liability. The payment was to be made by cash into a Bank of America account. She actually stopped one hysterical older fellow from making the withdrawal and told him it was a scam. The IRS would never collect delinquent taxes that way! Her bank then informed BoA of the scam account number so they could shut it down.

Carole wrote: "Shared- I don't see where to vote, though"

Thanks! The voting won't open until Wednesday morning. I'll post a link to that when it's available.

Carole wrote: "Posted another article to Medium! Click here to read it. I am a writing machine. lol

https://medium.com/@caroleproman/the-..."

An elegant reflection. Clapped and shared.

I was about to say, I don't know if it's a good idea to publish two Medium articles in one day, but then I saw that Carole did, so . . . okay! I've published two in one day! ;-)

Nonfiction: Suddenly the Swan!: A personal astronomical high-point from a few years ago.

Fiction: Final Walk: A flash fiction story about a failed relationship . . . or two . . .

After a few weeks of not entering, I'm back in the IU Flash Fiction competition this week: Forest of Giants. My story is actually titled "Hey! Giants!" but I don't generally post the title there, so I don't confuse their word counter, whoever that is.

There aren't too many entries this week and Ted is out of the running since he (well, Alyssa) won last week, so I may have a shot at it this time. ;-) I hope you like it. I'll post the voting link on Wednesday when it becomes available. Thanks!

All caught up on claps, I think.

Amy wrote: "Completely unrelated to writing, other than I wrote it, for quite literally no reason.

https://medium.com/@debzcooper/id-rat..."

Clapped. Medical procedures are so much fun . . .

Angel wrote: "Hi, guys! Little do you know I have been sharing you guys' Medium articles and such on my social media by phone and now by computer. I will always support my fellow indies. I've been mostly quiet b..."

Thanks, Angel!

M.J. wrote: "Just finished writing my fourth novel. It's off to ferment and show itself off for my editor. So I wrote this article in my euphoric state. It's a quickie.
http://bit.ly/MJONMEDIUM31618

TGIF, and ..."

Clapped for you. I don't write in your genre or get quite as emotional as that when I hit "The End," but there is no doubt something magical about writing those two words.

Ben wrote: "Here is my latest article for Medium! It's my second paid article, just trying something different!

https://medium.com/@ben.jackson.write...

Enj..."

I don't fly much, but I agree with all you said here and gave you some claps. I also highlighted a particularly clever sentence. ;-)

No, I haven't picked up that one yet. Unfortunately I'm finding myself swamped with things and not getting much done on my own novels. Too many irons in the fire, as usual...

Thanks, everyone! Read, clapped for, and commented on Alex's post.

Chrys wrote: "Thanks for the great review, Dale!"

You're quite welcome! I really like this series, as you can tell.

I put my second Bernard and Melody flash fiction story on Medium today: An Incident at the Grocery Store. Enjoy!

I'm not posting this one to my blog since I already featured him, but I've reviewed Chrys Cymri's The Cult of Unicorns on GR and Amazon. It's a great read!

Thanks, Carmel.

Here's my latest, a new nonfiction piece (rather than a reposted one): What You Are.