An Open Book

2013 Wicked Women Writers Challenge – How Will You Survive?

Welcome to the 5th annual Wicked Women Writers Challenge – hosted by HorrorAddicts.net

Where women show how horror done right is horror that stays with you forever.

Snag the long promo Snag the short promo

2013wwwlongpromo Click and have a listen to the Norns!

What is the Wicked Women Writer Challenge?

A challenge to all women horror writers, published or unpublished. Not only do you get to show off your prose, but we challenge you to perform your story in a podcast recording for all our listening pleasures. Both your written story and audio podcast are publicly judged and voted upon by the fans to determine who becomes 2013 Most Wicked. Each podcast story must be crafted by the entrant and will be limited to ten (10) minutes.

2013 Theme: How Will You Survive?

Premise: Life is never convenient. Why should the apocalypse be any different? Our challenge is how would you survive in an untimely apocalyptic situation.

Story Elements

Upon acceptance in to the 2013 Wicked Women Writers Challenge, your destiny will fall under the Norns Hand of Fate. The Norns will randomly assign the following required elements to help you craft your apocalyptic survival story.

Location: Where will you be when the inevitable strikes? The office lunchroom, stuck on the freeway, a public toilet, or at the gynecologist? We’re pretty sure it won’t be while you’re hunkered down in an underground missile silo with a fully loaded bug out bag.

Disaster: How will the end of the world strike? There is an endless spectrum of how humans will meet their ultimate demise. EMP blasts, super volcano, economic collapse, aliens, terrorist invasion, asteroids, or possibly even zombies are but a few of the ways to end humanity, as we know it. Will you be prepared? What Will You Do to Survive?

Item: It wouldn’t be fair to trap you in a room full of flesh-eating slugs and not give you a fly swatter now would it? Each challenger will receive one item to help them out of their dire situation. Use your item wisely.

Caveat Disability: You are trapped in your designated location. Unfortunately, you have an untimely disability. There is someone or something trying to kill and possibly eat you. Will you escape or battle it through to the bitter end? What might await you on the outside if you do manage to escape? How Will You Survive?

WARNING: The Norns are feeling itchy this year. This challenge is not for the faint of heart.

Ladies, are you ready for this year’s Wicked Women Writer Challenge? Please email your name, headshot, and short bio (under 50 words) to wwwchallenge2013@gmail.com to tempt the hands of fate.

Killion Slade, our 2012 Wicked Women Writer Winner, will contact you for further challenge details and timeline. Deadline to enter the 2013 Wicked Woman Writer Challenge is June 20, 2013.
Please note: The earlier you enter the challenge, the longer you’ll have to prepare, write, edit, and produce your contest entry before the deadline. Contest slots fill up fast!

Good Luck and May the Norns Take Pity on Your Mortal Soul!

Ahhhhh I won this years WWW Challenge. You can hear the story on HorrorAddicts.net and scrolling down to Episode 49 and just below the how to vote instruction episode you will see all six WWW stories mine is the last one and is titled Barring Lilith. The story will be able to be posted here in late spring sorry about that but it is the deal I have with HA.

I am thrilled to have won the votes for this compition. I enjoy working with Emerain Rich on HorrorAddicts.net So big thanks to everyone who voted for my story and since I am so late posting this announcement I am coupling it with the Announcement for the coupon that runs to January 1, 2011 for The Mark of a Druid for only .99 cents on www.smashwords.comthe coupon Code is KK77F.

The Mark of a Druid is now available for Iphones and Droid applications. Whoot I can honestly say I didn’t think I would have the first novel out in all formats, but now  I can say it is! Get it everywhere and I mean that. I am writing again. The move set be back but I am working on When Ethers Descend I hope to have it ready by summer 2011 but we will see how editing goes that is always a tough process for me.

I am also working on Truth Slithers which I hope to have done this coming year too. Look for changes in the Podioracket show line up in 2011. I am taking a much needed vacation for the holidays and heading to my mom’s house. So except the next post in 2011! Have a great Holiday Season Everyone!

The Wicked Women Writers are at it again! You have until Nov 16th to vote for the most wicked woman write who will carry the title Most wicked for 2010!

This year there are more contestants and more stories. The rules were this the theme was the 7 deadly sins. Each of us was given a sin and 30 days to write record edit and produce a audio version of the sin we were assigned. I got LUST! Imagine that! As you can guess this is not a story for the little ones and it is not work safe, you have been warned!

I had a good time with this story and now that I have listened to all 6 of the entries I must say you will have a hard time picking!

Once you have heard them all email Emzbox@sbcglobal.net with your vote. In the subject line put WWW and your vote goes in the body. One of the voters will win schwag from all of the women!  You can only vote once. The winner will be drawn at random and each writer will send you something.

So pop over to www.horroraddicts.net and listen to them all!

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

I want to shout out a huge thank you to a number of folks who are going out of their way to leave reviews, rate and leave comments for The Mark of a Druid. Then I am going to do the same thing for a number of folks who are out there playing our duel release promos and other promos in support of Arlene Radasky’s The Fox and Rhonda R Carpenters’ The Mark of a Druid.

Podiobooks: Thank you, Rennie, JaneInPA, Barry, Theresa, Ren&Merlin, Emerian, Rowan, Arlene, Miss Amie; You are all very kind and it truly a joy to have comments good or bad so that I can gage how I am doing in the endeavor and it really helps other people decide to listen.

Itunes: Thank you, Audrey67, Tabitha, Winerebel; I know Itunes doesn’t make it easy to leave a review so I wanted to be sure you knew I do appreciate you reviews and am so please you are loving the book. One of you said that you couldn’t wait and went and bought a copy, Thank you and if you email me your address I will be happy to send you a free signed bookplate so your copy is autographed.

Amazon: A.R., Devoted Reader, P.B., Rowan, Dr. Sally Witt; You thoughts and comments a truly appreciated and on Amazon mean more than just a comment they help this book move up in the rankings so that it comes up on searches in its area more frequently. So Thank you!

And a huge thank you to all the podcasters out there that are playing the push promo and helping us spread the word. JDAZE podcast, Edwardgtalbot.com, Celticmythpodshow.com, Michele Rogers, Horroraddicts.net, The Dr. Sally Witt Show, Jeremy James. Thank you for all you do!

Learn more about upcoming web event at The Buzz http://www.themarkofadruid.com/mod/?page_id=376

Yesterday Arlene Radasky and I did a very fun interview with Dr. Sally Witt on Blog Talk Radio. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Dr-Sally-Psychic-Healer/2009/01/17/Two-Celtic-Time-Travel-Themed-Authors-Psychic-Rhonda-Carpenter-open-for-Readings This interview is two fold and available in the achieves of her show. The first hour Arlene and I talk about how we met and why we are releasing our books together in time for Valentines Day. You can hear each of us read from the books and it is a fun hour, the second hour was an open reading hour with myself and Dr. SallyWitt! Very fun!

Today Arlene and I had a recorded interview with Emerian Rich of http://www.horroaddicts.net and http://www.emzbox.com. I had so much fun doing this interview too. Emz is a h00t. I love her show and I am soaking up her tips on how to more scary! I believe Episode #016 will air on 1/29/09 where the co-authored horror short that Arlene Radasky and I wrote, Walk-In will be played for your listening pleasure.

In Honor of Emerian Rich I am featuring her this week.

http://www.horroraddicts.net/

Tune in and listen to what is happening in the Horror Addicts world of books, movies, music, events and podcasting.

Emerian Rich

This is a face you just want to sew buttons on? Hold Still!

There you go. Now you belong forever! All messing around aside, I love her show and I am enjoying her pod novel Nights Knights By Emerian Rich and you can get that free here http://podiobooks.com/title/nights-knights  

Remember to enter The Mark of a Druid 2009 Contest #2 in the 2009 Contest Series at http://www.themarkofadruid.com. This week’s winner will be announced in just a few hours in the weekly blog! Win a free singed copy of The Mark of a Druid and other very cool Celtic stuff this week it is a Sterling Silver Celtic Cross. The Next Winner to be announced 2/01/2009.

I actually got time with all the marketing going on to write some on the next book in The Mark of a Druid series, When Ethers Descend.

Keep Writing, I know I will!

Rhonda R. Carpenter

Photo by Henry Diltz

Welcome Readers!

This has been a very interesting busy week here in what I call the Vortex.

It has been challenging with all of the things happening on the marketing front, Podcasting front and personal front to get any new writing done. I ask myself this week why aren’t you writing. This story is screaming in your head and you need to get it out.

I discovered to my shock and horror that the answer was, “I don’t have time.” Immediately my personal coaching brain said, “Liar! Yes you do. You must make time in what ever way you can with your schedule. Stop with the excuses and just do it.”

The internal struggle was on. You know that fight that goes off in your brain about where to put something you want to do when things are really busy. My fight went something like this. “Take something off your plate so you can put this on. There isn’t anything I can take off. Get a platter! No, no, no, you will get sick if you take on anymore. You are running on 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night and you know if you don’t get at least 6 to 8 your migraines are worse. Think outside the box, Rhonda.”

That was the key! I simply hadn’t thought of the option I had in front of me. I didn’t need to write it or type it to get it out of my head. I needed to be able to save it. Right? So out comes the micro recorder and I so could have done this on my computer if I had been in the office, but I wasn’t going to be. I had to be out for several days this week. The time in my car is pretty much downtime. I don’t talk on a cell and drive. I usually listen to books or music on the road. I was caught up on the books I committed to reviewing so this was a prefect way to still get the story out of my head and saved. Sure, I would have to type it later but that is easy to do and there is ALWAYS editing to do.

Problem solved. I reordered that part of the story and will type it up in a few days. See I get up every morning and want to write. It is a joy to bang out a story and play and develop the characters and plot lines. And just because I am marketing for the formal release of The Mark of a Druid and the 2009 Contest Series doesn’t mean I should stop the creative process of writing forward.

I guess you could apply this to anything you want to do. Maybe you answer isn’t’ a micro recorder, but if you think outside of the box and don’t place limits on what the answer might be it will come to you.

So what stops you from writing? Put yourself in check. Stop letting your excuses win. If you love to write like I do—then it is time to write in whatever way you can. Let me share this secret with you. No one is going to write it for you. It is your story, your idea, maybe even your dream. Don’t give up on it. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t let it keep rattling around in your head. You will feel better if you get it out and by doing so you are creating a stronger desire to go for the dream.

Announcements

Remember to enter The Mark of a Druid 2009 Contest series at http://www.themarkofadruid.com under last weeks blog you will find the questions for Contest #1 and the Contest 2009 page has all the rules. Win a free singed copy of The Mark of a Druid. The first Winner to be announced 1/18/2009.

Write to you next week!

Rhonda R. Carpenter