Yes. . . fight and struggle!

It is Wednesday, 28 July, folks. This means two things: 1) I turned 32 yesterday, and 2) It is time to vote on the title for the short story collection.

Remember when I said the winner of the vote would win an actual, physical object? I weren't a-kiddin'. The winning title, in addition to, you know, being the name of the book, will score its creator the e-reader of his choice (I can say his, as no women entered the contest. . . sadface). Your options, gentlemen, are: Kindle, Sony Reader, Kobo, or Libre Pro.

There are five options (one I got via email), so vote at the link:

Like an election in a despotic nation, vote early and often.

Good luck, men. We're all counting on you.

Title-ize our Embookenations!

Or, to put it in a language that more closely resembles English, what should I title the collection of short stories that formed Tweet_Book_4?

It's no shock that I kind of suck at titles. I mean, look at the three I've already done -- they're not going to win any "most awesome title awards" anytime soon, so here's the challenge:

Come up with a title for the book of shorts we completed on June 30 in the comments below. If we get enough suggestions (i.e., more than two), we'll have a poll to vote in the winner (as the last one proved, polls are more popular with you lot than I ever would have imagined).

If we went with just the short stories from Tweet_Book_4, the length of this one would be around 53.5k words -- but I'm also including the Supplementals from 47 Echo, which means the book will weigh in around 66.5k. Use that knowledge when crafting your titles, if you need to.

And bonus! The winning entry will earn more than bragging rights this time. They will earn. . . something that must be mailed to them! Yes! A physical object to be revealed when we have a winner! So, get on that, will you? (Oh, and guest writers are in no way barred from entering -- you'll still get something mailed to you if your title wins.)

Moving on. . .

So, what's the next Tweet_Book going to be?

I've thought about that rather a lot lately (especially the last three days, which I spent mostly in Bat Country thanks to not-insignificant doses of medically sanctioned painkillers). I do want to keep the project going, but I have many other obligations -- the much-theorized "real life" -- to keep up with.

I think I know the story I want to do, but my thought at the moment (while, admittedly, still halfway to Bat Country -- I'm on half-doses of everything today) is to do it half-speed, from a combination of the Web and my Blackberry.

One thing's for sure -- it won't be the 47 Echo sequel. As I'm working on that one now, it wouldn't be a Tweet_Book kind of thing -- I wouldn't be writing that one live, so it wouldn't be true to the spirit of the project.

As always, any ideas or suggestions you have are most welcome. For now, though, back to the day-job work, as it does, y'know, pay the bills.

Tell them what they've won, Johnny!

So, I said in the next couple of days, I'd explain the reason behind the poll I did last week. Well, it's been a couple of days, so I'll make with the explainin':

One of the most fun things during the original "47 Echo" was the guest stories -- but not just the stories themselves, though they were all excellent. See, at the time, the universe I was writing in wasn't completely sketched out, and I used flavors of what my guest writers submitted to shape and inform the universe. In some cases, characters from the shorts popped up in the book -- at least one of them became a member of the team.

So, the three stories that took first, second, and third in the poll will have some element of them, be it a character, organization, or event, inform part of the "47 Echo" sequel, which I'm writing as we speak. I'm quite happy with how all of the stories for the shorts collection worked out, but these three are guaranteed to make some definite impact on the second book.

Also, last night turned out to be a good writing night for me -- only 1000 words, but I managed to kill off a problem in "47 Echo 2" that was really, really making the whole thing a chore. Now on to the fun part.

Oh, who am I kidding? They're all fun parts.

The results are in. . .

And, as you can see, we have a clear first, second, and third.




So what does this mean? Well, more to come on why I ran the poll in the first place in a couple of days. For now, congrats to all the guest writers -- you all did great, and I'm very happy to have hosted your stories.

More news soon. . .

I have my favorites. . .

So, I've picked 10 out of the 20-odd stories from this time around. Got a favorite of these? Let me know.

Yes, it's an online poll. Click it. Vote. Otherwise, the terrorists win.