BlogFest Winners to be Announced Monday Night

Hi All:

We're so happy with the response to our giveaway!  There are so many entries that it will take us a little time to draw the names.  Please check back Monday night for our list of winners.

Happy Monday!

BlogFest 2011 Giveaway

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Fiction Flurry!  Fiction Flurry is a writing critique group based in Marysville, Ohio.  Our members write in a flurry of different genres:  YA, Romance, Historical, Inspirational, Paranormal, and even a little non-fiction now and then.  This blog is devoted to lovers of reading and writing.

So, we know you have a lot of blogs to visit in a short period of time, but we would like to first tell you about the short story anthology we recently published.  We would love for you to check out Tales of Summer Romance: A Collection of Short Stories.  There are seven summer-inspired stories by Fiction Flurry authors, including Regency Romance Author extraordinaire, Susan Gee Heino.  The e-book is only $2.99 and half of the net proceeds from the sale of this book between now and the end of 2011 will be donated to our local humane society.  How can you go wrong?  You get some fun summer stories and help cats and dogs find homes!  Click here to purchase the book or download a sample.

So enough shameless plugs.  Onto the business at hand.  Here's what Fiction Flurry is offering during this giveaway:

1.  Amazon.com gift card, $15
2.  Barnes and Noble gift card, $15
3.  Starbucks gift card, $15
4.  3 winners will receive a free copy of our e-book, Tales of Summer Romance

We ARE open to international entries.

Here's what you need to do to enter:
1.  Be a Fiction Flurry follower through Google Friend Connect (see right margin)
2.  Leave a comment indicating your e-mail address, your favorite genre, and whether you prefer e-books or hard copy books, or both.
3.  Though it is not required, you will be entered for this giveaway twice if you follow us on Twitter or friend us on Facebook.

Have fun!  Here are your next 5 blogs, if you're going in alphabetical order:
57 For What It's Worth
58 Free & Frugal Mommy of One
59 Frequent Reader, Infrequent Blogger (INT)
60 From the Shadows
61 From the TBR Pile

THANK YOU to http://www.ajourneyofbooks.com for organizing this BlogFest! 
If you are keeping track, here's the link to the tracker:
http://blogfest.ajourneyofbooks.com

Get Ready...BlogFest 2011 Giveaway July 15 through 17

   Come back to Fiction Flurry from Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17, 2011 to enter our giveaway for some great prizes, including gift cards and copies of Fiction Flurry's new anthology of short stories, Tales of Summer Romance.

See you tomorrow!

Short Stories: Love'Em or Hate'Em?

As I hope you now know, the writers of Fiction Flurry have just completed an anthology of short stories entitled, Tales of Summer Romance. There are seven short stories, all centered around a summertime setting and each with a romantic twist.  (Additional information can be found here.) Short stories can be a great way to hone your writing skills. They require you to get to the point and limit yourself to only the most important details. Every word counts when you are restricted in the number of them that you can use!

On the flip side, if you are a reader, a short story can be a perfect, brief escape. As one of our members stated: a short story is to a novel what a 30-minute television show is to a three-hour movie. Sometimes, you simply don’t have a big chunk of time to commit to reading an entire novel. You just want a “quickie.”

If you love a good short story, you are in luck! The internet abounds with sites created for the specific purpose of sharing and promoting shorts. A few which come to mind:

American Literature

Classic Short Stories

Short Story America

From Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Tell-Tale Heart" to O. Henry’s "The Gift of the Magi" to Stephen King’s "The Body" (which was made into the movie Stand By Me), short stories offer a spectacular return for a very small investment.

How about you? Do you like to read or write short stories? Do you have a favorite short story or short story author? Share it with us!

Tales of Summer Romance: A Collection of Short Stories

The authors of Fiction Flurry proudly announce the publication of our anthology of short stories!  Seven romance stories, including historical and contemporary genres, will delight you on these hot, lazy days of summer. We are happy to feature a story written by Susan Gee Heino, whose third book, Temptress in Training, was released this week.

What's even better than a playful summer read is knowing that your purchase of Tales of Summer Romance will help the Humane Society of Union County, Ohio.  From now until December 31, 2011, half of the net sales proceeds from the sale of our book will be donated to help the pooches and kitties in our area.

Tales of Summer Romance is an e-book available for $2.99 now at:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69671

You can download the book today to your PC, Kindle, NOOK, Sony Reader, or Kobo directly from Smashwords.  The e-book will be available soon on Amazon, Apple, and Barnes and Noble. 

We want to thank our followers and readers for your support and loyalty.  Fiction Flurry hopes that you enjoy these short stories.  After all, what's better than summer love?

Review: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford




3 ½ Stars out of Five

It is 1942, and twelve-year-old Henry Lee straddles two very different worlds. At home, his immigrant Chinese parents refuse to let him speak his native Cantonese, yet at the same time insist he wear an “I Am Chinese” button on his lapel. At his all-white school where his parents have sent him “scholarshipping,” Henry is regularly ridiculed and even outright physically harmed for being different. Yet despite what might seem to be dire circumstances, there are some bright points in Henry’s life – his black, jazz playing, street corner performer friend Sheldon, and the new girl at school – Keiko. But Keiko is Japanese – the sworn enemy of both America and China. Add to this mix the chain-smoking lunch lady, Mrs. Beatty: is she a friend or a foe? (Hint: think Coach Beiste from Glee!)

I would most definitely recommend this novel. I think author Jamie Ford has done a fantastic job of pacing, for one. So many times, authors are encouraged to start “in the middle of the action” and then just speed headlong from scene to scene. Ford allows this tale to deliciously unwind, while the reader is given the rare opportunity to savor every nuance along the way. The book actually opens with Henry as an adult, having just nursed his ailing wife through a losing battle with cancer and also contemplating how to mend his relationship with his son, Marty, who is soon to graduate college. Ford deftly moves the story back and forth in time from 1986 to 1942 and back again, like a slow, sensual dance, taking the reader right along with him. I was constantly driven to read “just one more chapter,” the ultimate compliment to any writer.

Just as adult Henry is adjusting to his new station in life, a commotion in what was once The Panama Hotel – a gateway between Seattle’s Chinatown and Japantown – shakes his world, and causes him to reflect back, remembering the place…“where he’d once met the love of his life.” I especially appreciated the fine details that Ford gives throughout the entire tale. I could feel myself sink into the depths of the dank basement of the Panama, lit only by bare bulbs, and feel the damp air send chills along my spine as Henry surveys the long forgotten belongings of entire families. In addition, the relationship between Henry and his own parents is richly drawn. Yes, it is rife with conflict, but the reader is equally invited into the intimate world of the Lee home, where Henry’s father (a Chinese nationalist) and his mother (conflicted by the two men in her life) sincerely want to create a better existence for their only child.

In an historical context, Ford’s novel reminds us (by “us,” I mean the collective us of America) of a most troubling time in our own recent past. Sadly, I believe there will be a number of readers who may be completely unaware of the fact that the U.S. government once imprisoned over 100,000 of her very own citizens. I sincerely hope that everyone who reads this novel will use this as an opportunity to learn more about this chapter of American history and about Executive Order 9066 which was issued by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order set up an “exclusion zone” that consisted of the entire Pacific Coast where any persons of Japanese descent – despite their US birthright – were prohibited to live, work, travel or otherwise occupy unless interred in a special camp.

I always find it especially engaging to read the version of any book which contains a “Reader’s Guide” within. I appreciate the extra insight the author gives, as well as delving deeper into the motives/characters of the particular piece. In this instance, there was also a Q/A with author Jamie Ford. When asked about the split-narrative, Ford gives this response (from the 2009 Ballantine Trade Paperback Edition):

I wanted to give the book a more redemptive ending. That’s a literary way of saying, “And everyone lived happily ever after.”

The short story wrapped up on a fairly tragic note. And even if I continued the story in the ‘40s, there really wasn’t a way to give it an ending that felt satisfying. I mean, after the war was over, it didn’t suddenly get better for Japanese American families. Their lives had been completely turned upside down – sort of like people who survive a hurricane. Sure the wind stops blowing and the floodwaters recede, but what do you have left except rubble, and does that provide happiness or just relief? It took decades for most of these families to recover. It just seemed natural to have that redemptive ending come years later as well.

Also, I think that most people can relate to seeing their first love again, at a class reunion or just by chance, and there’s this wave of nostalgia and melancholy – it’s very poignant and universal, I think.

So, now I toss this over to you. Whether you have read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet or not (and I suggest that you do!), I want to know: do you still remember your first love? How old were you when the two of you met? Do you still see this person? What would you do if you were to run into him/her on the street this very afternoon?

http://www.bethnbijoux.blogspot.com/

Ode to Thomas Jefferson, Patriot and Writer

This Fourth of July, I think it's important to pay homage to some of the greatest writers in American history.  They weren't novelists or poets.  They were the technical writers of their day.  There's no glory in technical writing, but as a reader trying to figure out how something works, you know immediately if the technical writing is bad.  The writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were the ultimate technical writers, weren't they?

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison, among others, wrote the documents that have been our nation's "user's guide" for over two centuries.   If you're like me, when you're trying to assemble some complicated toy on Christmas morning, nothing annoys me more than poorly written directions.  Think about the set of directions written by our founders:  they are general enough to leave room for interpretation, but specific enough that essential rights are identified and preserved.

The writing process for the Declaration of Independence was not unlike the publishing process of today.  We can consider Jefferson the author.  He presented his draft to John Adams and Ben Franklin, his writers' critique group.  It was a painful process for Jefferson, who had chosen every word of his draft with intention and care.  Nonetheless, Adams and Franklin suggested some changes.  The document then went forward to the Continental Congress, or the publishers, who made additional changes.

The Declaration was a proclamation of rights and a notice to the King that because he refused to recognize these rights, we were leaving the umbrella of his rule.  The Constitution, written in large part by James Madison, is the real blueprint for how our government would operate with the goal of preserving the rights enumerated in the Declaration.  Where Jefferson was artful in explaining abstract concepts, Madison was masterful in the specific implementation and protection of those concepts. 

If you're a writer or just someone who appreciates well-written instructions, I hope you spend some time re-reading these important documents and recognize the skillful craft that went into their creation.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!