JULY - 2020 - MICROSTORY CONTEST (COMMENTS ONLY)

[Paula]

Jot wrote: "Back from camping. Time to write a story..."
Sounds like fun, Jot; I hope it went wonderfully.

[Paula]

Okay, cut a couple hundred words off my piece; it's down to 740 words now. And no more pun--but it wanted to say more than a pun, in fact.

[Jot]

Yeah!

[Jot]

Finally up. Enjoy...

[Tom]

Justin, well done. Your story reminded me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXSyq...

[Justin]

Thank you Tom, much appreciated - and the performance too. For whatever reason I had a really, really hard time with this month's prompt.

[Greg]

Got one in! Been a very busy last few weeks - back in the office after working from home for 10 weeks. Now half as productive and twice as stressed.

[Justin]

Oh jeez, did I really title my story the same as Chris's? Sorry about that Chris! I'll come up with something else. I wasn't that happy with it anyway. Sheesh!

[Jot]

Sooner or later it had to happen :)

[Justin]

Okay, so I've changed the title and I've extended/revised the ending. It felt unfinished and now I feel better about it.

So if you've read my story already, there is a new ending.

Thx!

[J.J.]

Lovely crop of stories here.

But my apologies everyone, my oldest friend contracted the virus, so it's been an anxious time. Thankfully she's on the mend. Not sure I'll get something in on time, but will have a try.

[Jot]

Prayers for her and a speed recovery.

[Tom]

Best wishes, J.J.

[Marianne]

Thanks, Tom. Finally finished distributing dead friend's stuff. Still trying to make things easy for my mom. Getting doctors'appointment coordinated in time of covid, a gray hair generating thing.

[Marianne]

Fyi, everyone, this Saturday, July 25 is filming for Life in a Day 2020. Check it out on youtube for rules You too might make it into the movie like I did 10 years ago :)

[Paula]

Kalifer wrote: "Whew! A lot of work for a joke. The Iditarod will never be the same. I told the joke to my team of huskies and they didn't get it, but they still smiled a lot. One husky, March-Wind, howled, not at..."
Somehow I missed seeing this, Kalifer! Yeah, feed those puppies well; March-Wind sounds really, uh, cool!

[Paula]

Jon wrote: "Paula wrote: "Jon, I'd be glad to beta-read your novella, IF you can send it in doc or pdf."

OK Paula thanks!"
Jon, message me via Goodreads message function for my email address, so you can send your novella by pdf. Looking forward to beta-reading it.

[Paula]

Really liked your story, Jot--super well done ending with a lot of impact.
Wondering if the "grizzly remains" (about 1/3 of the way into the story) were inspired by the camping trip; I sure hope not, but hey.

[Jot]

No, as it was just beach camping. Though on a sad note, we did see a beached humpback whale on the shore. They used a machine to bury it in a deep hole in the beach. :(

[Paula]

Wow, Jot, that is sad--terrible, really. They are extraordinary animals.
On a different subject, do any of you here know whether there is a way, with Amazon, to publish a .mobi (for Kindle) version and/or a POD version of a book *without* having to use Amazon's KDP process? Using KDP for publishing through Amazon requires giving Amazon an exclusive on the book for 90 days; since I want also to publish it through B&N and/or Smashwords, Ingram-Sparks, etc., I don't want Amazon to have an exclusive for three months. But when I go through my Amazon author's portal to "publish through amazon", the only option for either mobi or pod publishing seems to be KDP.; do any of you know whether there is a work-around? If so, how does one get to it? ---Thank you! Jack McDaniel here has enormously and kindly and generously helped me with the pre-press preparation for the 2nd edition of my 2018 novel, and I was set to go ahead and upload it to Amazon--and this came up! Thank you for any suggestion (even if it's only, "Yeah, well that's how Amazon now--" or the like.

[Jot]

I remember having the ability to 10 years back, but that machine is dead. I might have done it straight from LibreOffice, which does allow the export in EPUB format.

[C.]

Paula,

See:
cloudconvert.com

[Paula]

Jot wrote: "I remember having the ability to 10 years back, but that machine is dead. I might have done it straight from LibreOffice, which does allow the export in EPUB format."

Thanks, Jot. Interesting. I think the issue may be one of what Amazon is, for its own profit-grinding reasons, allowing--but hey, I don't know, really. Thank you!

[Paula]

C. wrote: "Paula,

See:
cloudconvert.com"

C., this will help with getting it uploaded on amazon as a .mobi and as a pod book?!

[C.]

Hi Paula!

This is a cloud-based web service that does file conversions for many types of publishing formats.

As to what formats you need and how to submit I have no clue.

Hope this helps.

[Paula]

Oh, C., thank you! Have you used them? I so much appreciate any info of this sort. Thank you again.