Wednesday, January 6, 2021

#IWSG - January 2021 - The winners!! - Dark Matter: Artificial.

 

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the link above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. We encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the January 6 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren , J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner Sandra Cox, and Louise - Fundy Blue!


Want to know more about the IWSG?  
Operation Awesome recommends it and has a post up about it this week. Check it out!
 
We need co-hosts for the next few months! If you can help February, March, April, or May send Alex an email.

January 6 optional question - Being a writer, when you're reading someone else's work, what stops you from finishing a book/throws you out of the story/frustrates you the most about other people's books?

2021 so far for books ...
Book 1. DNF - stopped reading when a perfectly nice female MC was torn, but professional, about the way her boss made her apply for a promotion she wanted and when she didn't get it she turned into a crazed trash-talking psycho. If it had been one of those 'take this job and shove it' moments, I would have kept reading. But don't make the lead character a nutbar in chapter 2.
I'm out!
Book 2. DNF - stopped reading when the female MC mentions that the guy she works with, who will be the love interest in the book, has 'humped and dumped' at least fifty women in the 3 years that she's worked with him. That she know about. Yeah.
I'm out!
 
And now....
 
IWSG Anthology winners!!!

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Dark Matter IWSG Anthology Contest:
Stephanie Espinoza Villamor - a librarian writer mom who lives with her husband and young son just outside Las Vegas.
CD Gallant-King - a loving husband and proud father of two wonderful little kids, C.D. was born and raised in Newfoundland and currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario.
Kim Mannix - a fiction writer, poet and journalist currently residing on Treaty 6 territory in Sherwood Park, Alberta.
Steph Wolmarans - an educator, mother, wife, beekeeper, and speculative fiction author.
Tara Tyler - Tara Tyler is a math teacher who writes to share her passion for reading with others.
Deniz Bevan - a firm believer in burning the candle at both ends, she is generally writing a new novel while editing another, and blogging about her reading and research adventures—and sharing travel photos—weekly on her blog
Charles Kowalski - his thrillers for adults have won the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold Award and been nominated for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and the Adventure Writers Grandmaster Award.
Olga Godim - a writer and journalist from Vancouver, Canada.
Elizabeth Mueller - an award-winning author, Elizabeth lives in Texas with her husband, five lively children, five indoor kitties, a few outdoor kitties, seventeen chickens, and a horse named Hazel.
Mark Alpert - a contributing editor at Scientific American and the internationally bestselling author of ten novels.


As Stephanie’s story was the official judge’s top pick, her story is now in the title.



Dark Matter: Artificial
An Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology

Discover dark matter’s secrets…

What is an AI’s true role? Will bumbling siblings find their way home from deep space? Dark matter is judging us—are we worthy of existence? Would you step through a portal into another reality? Can the discoverer of dark matter uncover its secrets?

Ten authors explore dark matter, unraveling its secrets and revealing its mysterious nature. Featuring the talents of Stephanie Espinoza Villamor, C.D. Gallant-King, Tara Tyler, Mark Alpert, Olga Godim, Steph Wolmarans, Charles Kowalski, Kim Mannix, Elizabeth Mueller, and Deniz Bevan.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a journey across time and space. Prepare for ignition!

Release date: May 4, 2021
Print ISBN 9781939844828 $14.95
EBook ISBN 9781939844835 $4.99
Science Fiction: Collections & Anthologies (FIC028040) / Space Exploration (FIC028130) / Genetic Engineering (FIC028110)


Big thanks to the official judges:
Dan Koboldt
Julie Gwinn
Damien Larkin
Ion Newcombe
Colleen Oefelein
Lynda R. Young
David Powers King



And don’t forget, the IWSG Twitter pitch event, #IWSGPit, happens January 20!