Wednesday, January 31, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Gary Frank - author of Forever Will You Suffer

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Barry Lyga - author of Fan Boy and Goth Girl

Monday, January 29, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Christopher Paul Carey - editor of Farmerphile and contributor to Myths for the Modern Age

Sunday, January 28, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Dana Marton - author of Undercover Sheik

Saturday, January 27, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Michael A. Arnzen - author of Play Dead

Friday, January 26, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Kaye Dacus

Thursday, January 25, 2007

More Author Website Giveaways

Maria V. Snyder - author of Poison Study and Magic Study

K. J. Howe - author of One SHot, Two Kills

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Author Website Giveaways - Heidi Ruby Miller and Jason Jack Miller

Over at my ambasadora live journal, I'm going to blog about a different author's website everyday - but they have to be giving something away.

If you're an author giving something away on your site or having a contest, please let me know in comments at ambasadora titled I'M GIVING SOMETHING AWAY, along with a link to your website.

Also, anyone who links to Heidi Ruby Miller and Jason Jack Miller will be entered into a drawing for a free signed copy of MOON Pennsylvania Camping. Just email webmaster at moonstonewritings dot com with the links.

As a bonus, anyone linking from their blog to any Author Website Giveaways entries on ambasadora will be entered into a drawing for a copy of the latest Eye Contact, the literary journal of Seton Hill University which features fiction, poetry, photography, and artwork signed by contributors like Jason Jack Miller, Lisa Cooper, and Moira Richardson. Just let me know in comments at ambasadora titled BLOG LINK, along with the link to your blog.

Drawings will be made on February 2 - Groundhog's Day or Imbolc, depending on which you observe. ;)

Best,
Heidi



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Author Website Redesigns

#1: Christopher Paul Carey

#2: Anne Harris

ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


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Friday, January 19, 2007

Doorways Poetry Contest

This month Doorways Magazine will be featuring Michael Arnzen's poetry along with an interview with the horror writer/poet and Seton Hill professor. The magazine is also running a poetry contest. The deadline is this Sunday, January 21, 2007 (sorry for the late notice).

Guidelines from Poetry Editor Stephen M. Wilson:

DOORWAYS POETRY CONTEST #1: What I'm looking for are 8-line acrostic
poems using 'doorways'. Each line must start with the letters from 'doorways' in order:

D
O
O
R
W
A
Y
S

(can use caps or lower case interchangeably)

The winning poem will appear in issue #1 of Doorways (the featured poet for this issue is Michael A. Arnzen).

The winning entrant for contest #1 receives:

* Publication in Doorways (plus contributor's copy)
* $10
* Four signed books from Featured Poet, Michael A. Arnzen: Freakcidents (lettered-winner of the Stoker Award), Gorelets, Chew (first poetry collection), Psychos (first poetry anthology edited by Arnzen).

To Submit: Paste poem(s) in the body of an email, hit return once and put (END), hit return 10 times and put your name, byline (if different), mailing address, and email address.

The reason for this formatting is that the contest will be blindly judged and I want enough blank space between the end of the poem and the author's name to keep it blind. For this reason, please DO NOT include an intro letter or bio (if your poem wins, I will contact you for a bio).

You can send as many entries as you wish, but send each entry in a separate email.

Mail entries to: DoorwaysPoetry@yahoo.com
with "DW Contest Acrostic" in the subject line.
The deadline for contest #1 is Jan 21st, 2007.


X-posted to ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Book News

#1: Nalo Hopkinson's latest novel is out - New Moon's Arms. You can read an excerpt at Hachette. She'll be touring the US in a few weeks.

#2: Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell has been nominated for the Romantic Times Bookreviews Reviewer's Choice Award, along with The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi, Carnival by Elizabeth Bear, The Dead Letters by Tom Piccirilli, Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder, and Farthing by Jo Walton. Romantic Times is the same magazine sponsoring the American Title III Contest where K J Howe is a finalist.

X-posted to ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Author News

#1: Christopher Paul Carey's interview about Farmerphile is in issue #353 (March 2007) of Starlog.

#2: New Orleans Review has the story Dispositions by Timons Esaias up on their site.

X-posted to ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


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Sunday, January 14, 2007

My Final Residency at Seton Hill

This past residency was my favorite,
probably because I had the opportunity to do so much public speaking: teaching my module on The Importance of Attending Conferences and Conventions (dubbed HeidiCon 2007 - I'll post the mock program later for a good laugh), reading my thesis (thanks to everyone who sat on tables, on the floor, and stood in the hallway to listen to me),
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller

giving the commencement speech (it looks like I started a new tradition on this one), plus I gave five different phone interviews in between classes for the Millionaire airing.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller

Other highlights:
-meeting the first year students

-starting the first annual SHU poetry round robin
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-hearing my critique partners, Mary SanGiovanni and Christopher Paul Carey, read their own theses. I'm so proud of you guys. I finally understand what everyone meant when they said, "You're so lucky." I couldn't have asked for better critique partners. And, to think we stayed together from the beginning. I'm looking forward to our new group with Jason. What will we call ourselves...?
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-being so happy for Mary when Jersey Jason showed up at her reading after driving 8 hours to get there
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-watching Maria 'act out' her thesis, while referring to the harcover of Magic Study rather than the printed out pages the rest of us were using. :)
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-listening to Ana deliver her thesis with that wit only she can carry off
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-breakfasting with the Hampton Inn gang - Monica, Richard, Adrienne, Sabrina, Alex, Glenn, Traci, Shara, CPC, Aubrey, Tricky, Hanna, Miles, Sherry, Michele, and Mary (hope I'm not forgetting anyone)

-hanging out with Tricky in all his rock star glory
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-sneaking off for a quiet dinner with Mike, Al, and friends
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-attending the screening of Mike Arnzen's movie Exquisite Corpse and Larry Connolly's movie Echoes
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Mary SanGiovanni

-being the first class to turn in our thesis electronically
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller

-attending Arnzen's humor class, Pat Pic's class on guerilla marketing, Russ Howe's Middle Ages class, and doing impromtu theater with Steven Piziks
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-dining with the other grads at Mountain View Inn, including Rachael Pruitt who came in just to see us and passing the phone around to talk to Ceres Wright - I teared up
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-attending the wine social - I could actually relax this time because Traci Castleberry was in charge
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-seeing Toby again
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller

-meeting our guest speaker children's author Bruce Hale
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-attending the Alumni Luncheon
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-practicing for graduation
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Heidi Ruby Miller

-listening to Mary's prayer
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller

-getting positive feedback about the grad program insert we whipped up with the pictures, bios, and book blurbs of all the graduates

-having Lee McClain be there for our graduation
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller


-seeing some of the alums who made the trip out
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Christopher Paul Carey

-having my family there to share this special place and time with me
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Photo by Jason Jack Miller

I'll be posting the 200 other pictures we took by the end of the week in my LJ gallery.


Other thoughts on the Seton Hill January 2007 Residency:
Christopher Paul Carey - "I also had a blast at this past (and sadly my last) SHU WPF residency. I survived..."

Mary SanGiovanni - "Jay came all the way up from NJ to surprise me..."

devilwrites - "It's hard to describe residency this go around..."

funk_doctor - "Came back from SHU to find I lost six pounds..."

guardian_vasya - "This has been a fantastic week..."

Jason Jack Miller - His entries are ongoing.

Traci Castleberry - "And I'm FINALLY home..."

Mike Mehalek - "I'm still here in PA..."

redstargoddess - "Residency is over!!!"


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Friday, January 12, 2007

Millionaire Viewing Party

Thank you to everyone at Seton Hill for hosting such a wonderful viewing party for me, especially Becca Baker who acted as my "publicist" during one of the busiest weeks of my life.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I even got to meet the president of the university.
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If you didn't catch the show, I used my last two lifelines (including calling Toby), but missed the $50,000 question so went home with $25,000. That and the experience of working with the people on the show was worth the wait in line at auditions and the trip to New York. It was all truly incredible.

At residency I gave Toby a copy of Yertl the Turtle because neither of us will ever forget that question. :)

One last thank you to my other phone-a-friends: Maria Snyder, Pat Picciarelli, Mike Arnzen, and my Mum Sharon Ruby. And, also a thank you to Jason Miller for being my on-air companion and my life companion.


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Thursday, January 04, 2007

I'm going to be on TV

On October 5, 2006, I went to New York City to tape an appearance as a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. My episodes will air on Thursday, January 11, 2007, and Friday, January 12, 2007. (Right after my graduation from Seton Hill.)

If you want to watch me and Meredith, you can find the time in your viewing area here.

Some of you will recognize my phone-a-friends:
Mike Arnzen
Toby Buckell
Pat Picciarelli
Sharon Ruby - my Mum
Maria Snyder

I'm having a viewing party for family and friends after the second episode on Friday at Seton Hill University.

Besides being an experience of a lifetime and telling you that Meredith Vieira is one of the warmest, most down-to-earth people I've met, I can't say much more. You'll have to tune in to find out how I did and who I used as my lifeline.

And, by the way, my husband Jason also passed the test and auditoned in Pittsburgh and is still in the contestant pool.

Best,
Heidi


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Author News

#1: The second issuing of Timons Esaias' The Influence of Pigeons on Architecture is out through Yellow Pepper Press.

#2: K.J. Howe has an interview up with RITA-award winning author Susan Crandall.

#3: Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell is the June SciFi Essentials books this year.

ambasadora, penncamping, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Publication News

#1: Erica Satifka's short story is up at Clarkesworld, and it has received a nice review at Tangent Online.

#2: The Writer's Digest Books new edition of On Writing Horror (edited by Mort Castle for the Horror Writers Association) contains two articles (one on pro writer's workshops like Odyssey, the other on academic writing programs like Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction) by Michael Arnzen and Tom Monteleone.

ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


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