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is coming to a close for this year! I added more words to the name because that makes it better.

You have 48 hours left until Friday the 15th at midnight EST when the contest officially closes. And then, to be honest, you probably have until I get up on Saturday morning when I get to my computer and write about how the contest is over.

So far there have been some great works submitted, the usual slew of drawer...

Over at Chuck Wendig's blog he has a weekly fiction contest. It's looked like fun to me for a few awhile now, but I haven't had time to enter.

Well, I finally got a short story finished by the deadline. . This was really weird because I love the 4th, and summer in general, and taking all the mainstays of those and making them dark was kind of painful…in a fun way.

Anyway, here it is:

Cook-Out

by

Joseph Devon

...

(I really need to shorten that next year) has TEN days left for entries.

Get a move on people.

To inspire you I've placed Jack Davies latest entry below. Please click on it for a larger size so you can actually read it.

I laughed.

Quite hard.

Over the course of almost a decade of writing I've come across a few tips that I felt like sharing with other writers. These are pretty simple and should help you on your collective creative journeys.

So let's get started.

My 5 Tricks For Every Writer:

1. Write: This is the really annoying one. This is the one I trip up on most. I look up articles on writing and read blogs about writing or remember books I loved that made me want to write…but all the while I'm not writing anything.

One simple...

Upon I was immediately inundated with a slew of new entries. I was happy about this, glad that the iPad was attracting more casual artists to the contest.

I wanted to share one of these works which I found particularly evocative.

This was submitted by Jackson P. It was created using the "Cupcakes" app on the iPhone.

I found this to be a stunning entry.

The multi-flavored jellybeans, of course, represent each character's constant struggle with...

Looking over the budget for the I realized that an iPad is well within range for a prize offering. So I added one to the prize list. A lot of people who enter maybe aren't crazy big on the art stuff so this is a nice fun prize that anyone can enjoy and play Angry Birds on.

There's only like three weeks left so get to reading and and then start sketching and drawing and photographing and whatever crazy voodoo it is that you do so well!

Mush...

This past weekend was the New York BBQ Festival. I went and stuffed my face. This is one of those things that my group always talks about going to but then never does. This year I'm happy to say we made it, though I do have to recommend arriving at around 11:00.

I go there five minutes before everyone else and managed to eat a fried blackberry pie while waiting. Then I wept openly on the sidewalk. God that pie was good.

Sadly I ate it too fast to photograph, but here are some other shots. Most ...

During the course of an average conversation with someone I've just met, the fact that I write books usually comes up. This is always followed by the question, "Oh? What do you write?"

I always respond, "Urban fantasy."

Why do I respond in that way? Because that's what I write. Urban fantasy. Here is the definition straight off of wikipedia:

My Cafepress store is open again! That little square button on the right will take you there or just .

What's available?

Well, have you ever wanted to wear my words across your chest?

If so…that's sort of weird.

But have you ever wanted a t-shirt with my favorite Probability Angels quote concerning scotch on it?

Something like this with sleeves?

Long sleeve, short sleeve and fitted .

Also there's a new fridge magnet. Go nuts.

Hopefully there'll be more of this stuff to...