DON CHAMBERS, “TEXAS TWO STEP”
Congratulations, Don! A job well done!
Runners-up:
Dagnee, “The Widow McCarthy”
John Byram, “Redemption and Resurrection”
Adrian Lankford, “The Constable”
We have a winner, but our judge, Janice Singleton, said it was a difficult decision.
Thanks to Janet Taylor-Perry for being our liaison with Janice.
Thanks to the group members who took the time to enter a short story.
Thanks to everybody for their support of the contest.
JP
When you run across a bit of information for us, feel free to post it here.
Day-by-day country music history: http://www.cmt.com/news/this_day_in_country_music/ 
Linda Ronstadt will reach her 69th birthday on July 15. I just spent the afternoon listening to her music, and enjoyed every minute. What a pity her voice was silenced by Parkinson's disease!
Those silver pipes could sing anything. She sang "Crazy" as well as Patsy Cline, and "I Will Always Love You" better than Whitney Houston. She sang country, and pop, and is in the rock and roll hall of fame.
One of my most favorites still has to be Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me, because it came at a time in the women's movement that you youngsters won't recognize. Yes, I know, I write about women, but Ronstadt sang for everybody.
There are a few things I find irritating as a reader: prologues (Why can't it be chapter 1, if it's part of the story?), technical information overload (I don't really want to know; I'll never need the information again), dreams (how presumptuous of a writer to assume the inner workings of the human mind--and yes, I'm guilty of this), and whole sections of text in italics (if there's that much to say, just say it). As a reader, I find all the above cumbersome and distracting--why do I have to pay special attention to this/ why can't I just read it in the story? It's like going for a walk in the country and having to climb over logs!
Okay, there are country songs about Mama, trains, and pickup trucks, drink, and drunks and prison. What are some other popular themes for country songs?
This is the the most recent thing I've learned: Deep POV. It's almost as limited as first-person, using the third person subjective, told through the eyes of one person at a time. I was having a hard time understanding some of the reviews I got until I read about it. Instead of saying "Susan was upset with Bob because he...," you say something like "Damn that Bob! Why did he have to..."
I like the immediacy of it. When I finish my current story (in first person, for practice) I'm going back to rewrite my first two in Deep POV. JP
Checking out the dif in foreword, prologue's and such. Found this interesting.
http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/07/06/pr … -prologue/
Mike--I just read the article, and I have to say I'm in the group of readers against prologues. My main complaint? I want to read the story, not the background junk. Feed me the background info as we go along, as it becomes relevant. I don't want to know that A was victimized when he was three years old and now, the story opens and he's a man of forty, it's a hot summer's day and his friend dies in a car crash. If I need to know, tell me later.
Even worse is the little patch of sitting on the beach, his medical practice has been resumed, he won his case in court, and he's spending the zillion dollars he won to take his beautiful girlfriend to some tropical island to drink alcohol and have the native islanders wait on them hand and foot that some writers call an epilogue.
Give me a break! I call it padding the word count. JP
Don't despair!
Janice Singleton, our final judge, is still working on the finalists' stories. The name of the contest winner will be posted as soon as it becomes available.
Ms Singleton is the author of Caught: From Correctional Officer to Federal Inmate
Not sure where to get assistance.
I can't read the in line reviews without paying for premium, but then... it won't allow me an option to pay for premium.
If I can't access reviews during the "trial" period, it's not going to be much of a trial period.
If I can't just go ahead and pay to see reviews either, well...
Yeah, got nothing.
This is exactly what I predicted when we had this out six months ago. Try going to the drop-down menu under your name and select "billing." This should give you options for upgrade. JP
Thanks, everybody. I'm getting a better picture of it now. Surprising how men say they remember so little about the event. It must be a frightening experience, at its root.
Thanks, Mike. I was trying to think of a way to get rid of Sandy, other than killing him off, since Rita already took that route. I was trying to make a little more of the scene than my son-in-law's description: "I just went to the Post Office and got my draft card." (He's too young to have been there in those pre-Vietnam days, anyway.) Remember any details about the big day? did you go alone?
But what did an eighteen-year old-boy do to register? Were eighteen-year-olds drafted?
I was one of a pair of girls in the house. Can somebody explain the procedure for registering for the draft back in the day?
My friend is right--you guys are nuts.
Don't you have anything better to do with your time, such as write?
Girls, let's make more valuable use of our time--let's go get a drink!
dags--nice to know you're trying to keep us lined up. I just finished teasing Charles f bell on the site forum, so I'm guilty as charged. It's just that sometimes I can't resist puncturing a pompous balloon when I see it, because it amuses me. But the amusement doesn't hold up when I think about taking the fight outside, or to Fight Club. Too much effort involved. I'll be happy to go a few rounds with someone who starts a fight here, though. JP
Charlie, Charlie, Charlie!
Please notice I said "if." A lesson in logic: if A, then B.
I know you have wisdom to impart, it's just very important to remain clear-headed, and to express your thoughts in a manner understandable to the human race. I never can figure out what you want to say. Not that I try that hard. I'm an old lady, and I'm using the time I have left to do what I want and say what I want. JP
If it happened, it was destined. If it didn't happen that, too, was destined. Somebody's prediction isn't your destiny, unless you're writing fiction, and lucky for us, you are. A prediction is like a weather forecast: sometimes right, other times, not so much. So then, if whatever happens happens because it was destined, then no, you can't escape your destiny. If you are destined to save the world, then no matter what you do, your actions will save the world.
You are destined to have a nice day.
So why did I start this group? Because sometimes you don't want to write a whole book, or even a short story, to communicate.
I like the old songwriters, like Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, but there's also Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Burt Bacharach, Barry Manilow, Elton John, Chuck Berry--get the idea? There are lots of them.
Writing lyrics is an art, and every time I hear music whose lyrics demonstrate a command of language, I think, "I wish I'd said that!"
So, with that in mind, take some time to visit this website. It's got easy instructions, with pictures, to get you started.
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Song-Lyrics
IF YOU KNOW ANOTHER HELPFUL WEBSITE, PLEASE POST IT HERE!
COP SHOP TALK: English Lingo Quiz
It always makes me laugh when I read in British novels that someone is pissed. When I was a kid, that word was a no-no. The words below are courtesy of British mystery writer Katherine John. What do they mean to you, and in what country do you live? DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE?
1. Jumper
2. Pissed
3. Trainers
4. Pudding
5. Kerb
6. Crisps
7. Take-away
8. Estate car
9. Skivvies
10. Biscuit
Sol-just wanted to find out if the formatting option for Kindle you introduced a week or two ago was for Kindle Scout, or regular Kindle publication? JP
It's an html format that can be used for Kindle, B&N, and probably Kindle Scout. I'm not sure what format Scout requires the work to be submitted in.
I'd like to use the formatting feature. I tried a couple of times, but the chapter headings are messing me up. Because I posted each chapter with its title, I'm getting a chapter heading twice. I can fix that, by going into each chapter on site and removing the title from each posting, but I can't fix this: every chapter title generated by the computer reads "Chapter --, v.1, title." I can't figure out a way to keep it from giving a version number. I didn't post it in the title, it seems to be coming from the basic information. What can I do about this? JP
We have to have a resume?
Just in case you weren't joking:
No, you don't HAVE to have a resume, but you can put all your previously published works in your bio, when they ask you for one. I figure, the more you publish, the more you have to select from. And for those of you prizewinners (ahem! dagnee and Adrian), the more prizes you can list, the more impressed people like me (inexperienced) will be. JP
Congratulations, and good luck!
CONTEST FINALISTS
The finalists in the short story contest are as follows (in no particular order). We hope to announce the winner on or around July 1. The prize, provided by the Next Big Writer, is $50.00.
TITLE AUTHOR
The Constable Adrian Lankford
Honor Amongst Thieves amy s
Blood from a Stone mikejackson1127
The Mind’s Eye mikejackson1127
The Widow McCarthy: A Boston Jones Mystery dagnee
The Case of the Painted Perp Mike Roberson
Redemption and Resurrection John Byram
The Look mikejackson1127
Takedown Alkemi
Texas Two Step Don Chambers
Thanks, all of you--you're too kind. Please don't send congratulations--it embarrasses me. 
First, I just wanted to post the name of the magazine in case anyone else has a crime story and wants to see it published. These guys have accepted all two of the stories I've submitted, and they're pretty nice about helping you get your story ready. The main requirement seems to be the weirder, the better.
Second, I wanted to invite all you who have progress to report to post your notice here, so we'll know where to look for it.
Thanks for supporting the Cop Shop. JP
Another story posted on Out of the Gutter at http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/201 … beach.html
You may have read it already "The Blonde on the Beach."
No pay, but you get bragging rights for your resume. They like crime stories. Just one or two weeks to hear back from them. There's about a five-month lag before publication, if you're accepted.
Anybody else published a short story? Post your notice here, so we can take a look.
