Today’s the big day: the Blog RSS contest conclusion. Did you see the secret message?

Well, someone did. <drum roll please>

Andrew Rosenberg

will get The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley AND Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.

But wait, there’s more!
Livia King, neuroscience grad student, writer, intrepid volunteer and very very soon to be bride, wins How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey.

AND:
Deb Smythe wins How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats to our winners!

Note to prizewinners: if you already have a copy of your prize, then we can talk substitutions. Email me with your shipping information: jordan (at) jordanmccollum.com

And there’s still more!

Don’t be disappointed if you didn’t win one of our fabulous prizes (I know it’s hard, but please try.) I have something for everyone.

Our blog series on deep POV has come to a close, but there’s always more to learn. I’ve assembled the posts from the blog series into a free PDF guide to deep POV—with bonus features not found in the blog series.

All our guides will be available on the new Free Writing Guides page.

What would you like to see for future contests and prizes?

Are you an RSS or email subscriber to this blog? If so, you’re in luck. One day in the next two weeks, there will be a message in the footer of the post for subscribers only.

But that’s not all ! The more subscribers we get by August 15, the more prizes I’ll give out. So spread the word—tweet, email, Facebook, MySpace, whatever. As more people subscribe to this blog by email or RSS, I’ll post the secret message with final instructions more than once. (I can’t give an upper limit, because even I’m not sure how high I’ll go right now .)

Prizes

Like I said, the more subscribers we get, the more prizes we’ll have. Prizes may include:

• The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley AND Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
• How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey
• How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey
• $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com
• $20 gift certificate to iTunes

Not a subscriber yet? Let’s fix that! You can subscribe to JordanMcCollum.com via RSS or email.

(And if you’re wondering “What’s RSS?,” you’re in luck once again. Here’s a simple explanation of how to get updates from your favorite blogs delivered to you for your reading convenience:

)

See? It’s easy and convenient. So subscribe today for a chance to win fabulous prizes!

And stay tuned for the stunning conclusion of our series on deep POV next week, followed by reviews of aspiring author websites!

And now, we interrupt the blog series on deep POV for something completely different.

If Hemingway were alive today, he’d probably sue me for this. But he’ll have to be content to roll over in his grave.

Ernest Hemingway is often hailed as the greatest writer of the 20th century. My favorite story of his [supposedly] was allegedly the product of a $10 bar bet to write a story in six words:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

For me, no matter how many times I hear this story, it never fails to evoke an emotional response. That’s some powerful flash fiction. It has inspired several anthologies of flash fiction, including Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure and I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure.

But today I was thinking: what if Hemingway were alive today, in the age of the Internet? What would his poignant ad look like on, say . . . eBay?

Technically, I believe that’s still only one word . . .

How would Hemingway’s story look on craigslist? A local classifieds site? What should my other five words be?

In the unlikely event that you’re not already reading the masterful blog of literary agent Nathan Bransford, I seriously recommend it. He’s a great resource for learning all about literary agents—what they do, how to get them, how not to annoy them and inadvertently sabotage your writing career with an ill-fated rhetorical question.

And apparently he’s also a wonderful human being, because instead of just being super kind to writers, he’s spending next week volunteering in a South American orphanage. No joke. Since he didn’t want his blog to lie fallow, he called for guest bloggers for next week. Out of over two hundred and fifty entries, guess who was one of the chosen five?

I know, can you believe it? (Um, me, guys. It was me.) So be sure to subscribe to Nathan’s blog and keep an eye out for five award-winning posts next week.

In the meantime, we’ll continue with our series on deep POV (though if my post runs on a Tuesday or Thursday, we’ll rearrange the schedule to accommodate that). And in other news, I’ve assembled our series on creating character sympathy into a free PDF guide.

Many thanks to Nathan, and I’m looking forward to the guest posts there as well as our continuing series here.