Ten Reasons I Love '100 words or less' writing contests

1. Confidence Boost. Winning's great. But even a mention would make me scream, shout and dance around my living room with the thought that 'I just might be good at this writing thing' dancing around in my head.

2. To laugh, cry and/or smile--at other people's stories.

3. Hone my craft. 100 words or less forces me to get rid of all the unnecessary -ly words and other bad writing habits, leaving a bare bones good story. Or at least it makes me practice, practice, practice.

4. Meet other writers. I met justwritecat when we both entered the same writing contest and liked each other's entries. Now, we follow each other's blogs. Go check out her fabulous blog at http://justwritecat.wordpress.com.

5. Sometimes I really, really want the book and/or prize and hope my entry will be good enough to win it......I still haven't gotten my hands on Personal Demons.

6. A break from my own WIP.

7. Expand the short story idea into a longer short story or maybe even a novel.

8. To complain to my friends and family about how 'the judges just didn't get me'. For which they respond, 'I liked your story better'. Friends--they're great.

9. The chance that an agent might see my entry, love it and sign me immediately based on my undeniably God-given talent. *crosses fingers*

10. I just love writing.

Did yours make the list? You don't have to tell me ten things. One is good! Why do you enter 100 words or fewer contests?

"The Little Death" Review

"The Little Death", a crime fiction novel, written by P.J. Parrish follows the story of Louis Kincaid, a private investigator. Kincaid gets thrown into a world of money, power, prestige and sex and must see through it all to solve the murder of an outsider like himself. While "The Little Death" is not the first of the Louis Kincaid novels, that fact does not take away from the story or the character. The pain, grit, social class, and the back story of Louis Kincaid barrels through the novel. I would not change a thing about "The Little Death". I loved it for its plot and twists. The ending can only be described with the old adage "a secret is not a secret if more than one person knows". "The Little Death" gets 5 out of 5 stars for the feeling it conjures of peering into the world of the rich and sometimes famous.

"The Classmate Murders" Review

"The Classmate Murders" by Bob Moats is reminiscent of the hit television show "Murder She Wrote". The story follows Jim Richards, security guard turned amateur private investigator, as he tries to solve the serial murders of his high school classmates. Lucky for him, he has a band of bikers, the police, and an old high school flame to help. Jim Richards is a lovable character. I found myself rooting for him in love, life, and solving the murders. There is plenty of humor though at times I would have loved to see it in dialogue rather than narrative. The plot seemed to go just as expected until the very end when an unexpected ending arrives. If you loved "Murder She Wrote", you'll love "The Classmate Murders". It gets 3 3/4 stars out of 5.

What I learned at WriteOnCon

WriteOnCon was the first ever free online writing conference and I had the pleasure of attending. I hope you did too. It was a kidlit writing conference, however, as an aspiring women's fiction writer I learned a great deal about writing in general. I am applying two of the things I learned in my blog. With social media, such as a blog, I learned that 1) I should be consistent and 2) a short 200 word post is okay as long as I write about things I enjoy regardless of whether that gets me 4 followers or 400 followers. Yay! So here I go. I will post on my blog once a week, every Tuesday. However, I reserve the right to post "something that interests me" besides a book review if I have not read a new book by Tuesday of each week. Stay tuned for my review of "The Classmate Murders" tomorrow.