Ninja News, Eureka, WV, and How Do You Want to be Remembered?

Ninja News!

Today is another Special Participant Feature at the A to Z Blog. This time I interviewed author Marta Szemik. Her theme for the Challenge was “Changes Throughout History” and it was very cool.

Christine Rains is hosting a blogfest to celebrate her upcoming release, Fearless. Those of you who followed her during the A to Z Challenge know it’s an awesome story. For the blogfest, which runs August 7-9, she’s asking – What was Your Childhood Monster?

Jeremy Bates is hosting the Dog Days of Summer Blogfest from August 10-12. Visit his site for details and to sign up!

David Powers King hit seven hundred followers this weekend and he’s hosting a Magnificent Seven Giveaway! Congratulations, David!

Tips on acting professional as an indie author (or as a human being!) from Mel at Writings, Musings, and Other Such Nonsense.

Don’t forget the giveaway for CassaStar and CassaFire at The Writing Nut ends on July 31.

And since it is the last Wednesday of the month, you know what that means! Next Wednesday is another posting for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, and we have many new bloggers joining us.

No More Eureka

I’d failed to mention this last week, but after watching Warehouse 13 Monday night, I was reminded that another great series is gone – Eureka. It was one of my favorite shows and now it’s finished. No more mishaps at Global Dynamics. No more Fargoisms. And no more one-liners from Sheriff Carter, like the classic “Yeah, that can’t be good.” Soon the SyFy Channel will be nothing but wrestling…

Word Verification

I’m running into this a lot again, mostly on the sites of new bloggers. I believe word verification must be the default setting for comments. Unfortunately, the blog owner never sees it on his own blog. If you’re not sure or you want to turn it off, go to your dashboard, click on settings, and then click on posts and comments.

And on a serious note… (Because it’s not always about the snark)

How do you want to be remembered?

Many of us are writers and authors, and we want to be remembered through our books.

But when I really thought about it, my books don’t rate that high on my list.

I want to be remembered for being genuine. For being genuine in my support, attitude, and love for my fellow human being. I want to know I made a genuine, positive impact on this world, even if it’s just a little bit. I won’t always succeed, but it's what I strive to achieve. I want to get to Heaven and hear the words “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

How about you?

Ready for some blogfests and giveaways? Ready for the IWSG next week? Were you a fan of Eureka? Is your word verification on by accident? And how do you want to be remembered?

Be sure to visit Marta at the A to Z Blog!

The Big Idea, Cursing, and a Ton of News

I have the honor of a guest post at Sommer’s Tell Great Stories today! It’s all about the BIG IDEA. She is an awesome writer and motivator, so stop by after you’re done here…

The Movie 411 Awards are now open for voting!!! I’m up for two awards, but my buddies Cinemarvellous, Melissa, iZombie, and MsMariah are also up for awards and need your vote. Nebular’s Cinemarvellous is in the running for three awards including GOLD. I don’t care if you vote for me but please vote for my awesome buddies!!!

I was also asked to contribute an article to The Specusphere, an online magazine for Australian writers. It’s called The Long Road to a Surprise Best Seller, describing how CassaStar became an Amazon Best Seller a year after its release. Actually, it’s more of my best guess!! Anyway, I was really honored that they featured my article.

Fantasy Nibbles reviewed CassaStar this weekend and I couldn't be more pleased with the review! Thanks so much.

Some awesome new books:

Ground Rules by Cate Masters came out last week.

Marta Szemik’s Two Halves also came out last week. It’s available at Amazon



Congratulations, ladies!!

Other cool happenings:

Jamie’s Mithril Wisdom just celebrated two years of blogging.

MaineWords is holding a 200 followers giveaway.

My buddy TS at The Non Review just celebrated two years of blogging and is almost to 300 followers.

Jen at Unedited is competing in the My Heroine Tournament as Hermione and she needs our help to win the fight!

And Reid Kemper is hosting a Blog Swap Blogfest.

Jenna at Meandering in a Field of Words gave me the Great Comments Award.
I have so many awesome buddies who always comment! But I decided to limit it to five who stop by here every single time:
Nancy Thompson
Suze at Analog Breakfast
Laila Knight
Robyn at Life by Chocolate
Christopher at Socially Awkward

Recent posts by David Powers King and Michael Offutt tackled cussing in books. I thought that would make a good topic for a CassaFacts post.

I don’t mind cussing in books if it fits the story and the characters. I recently read The Lies of Locke Lamora and there was a fair amount of language – but the characters were low-life thieves, and as the story progressed and they became more wordly, the cussing decreased. So it fit.

Another example is Game of Thrones. There’s some cussing but it fits. Now Spartacus… that is SO over the top! I’m not sure why they even bother with proper sentences.

So, how much cussing is in CassaStar and CassaFire? Well, how much cussing do you see on my blog? In my books, it’s probably even less. And here’s why:

I write science fiction space opera. Like Star Wars. Now, how much cussing is there in Star Wars? It just doesn’t fit my genre.

While I don’t mind reading it, I could never write something that was curse-word heavy. It would just bother me, as I do feel my writing is a reflection of me.

I think back to the books I read when I was younger. Adult fantasy and science fiction rarely had anything inappropriate in the content, so I was allowed to read it when I was a child. My passion for reading came from books such as The Sword of Shannara. I wanted my books to be appropriate for young people as well. I wanted a kid who loves Star Wars to be able to read CassaStar as well.

And finally, while I’ve read plenty of books that used cussing excessively, I have never read a book and thought “You know, if the author had just dropped the F-bomb a few times, it might’ve been a good story.”

So I ask you guys – did I make the right decision with my books?

Now, go check out my guest post at Tell Great Stories and vote for the The Movie 411 Awards!