Bienvenue Press is hosting its 3rd Annual Halloween Flash Fiction Contest! The contest will open August 5th and remain open until September 30th.

Entry and Submission Guidelines:
*Only original, unpublished flash fiction is eligible for this contest.
*Entries must be 1,000 words or less.
*Stories must have a Halloween setting.
*Send submissions in the body of an email to submissions@bienvenuepress.com.
*Include your bio, social media links, and picture of yourself with your submission

What Winners Receive:
*2nd and 3rd place and an honorable mention will be posted on our blog with your bio and links.
*1st place will win $50 (USD). (You must have a PayPal account.)

Questions? Email alvincent@bienvenuepress.com

1. The acknowledgement section for Corroded is full of people, but the one that stands out the most is Laurie Halse Anderson. Yes, THE Laurie Halse Anderson. I was blessed to win a full manuscript critique during a fundraiser for the Joplin, Missouri tornado victims in 2011, one of the last full critiques she was able to do. I’ve been in contact with Laurie both before and after the critique and she’s been nothing but supportive. An ultimate mentor—my thanks, again!

2. Mary Weber is the character that changed the most from how she was portrayed in the original drafts. She’s stronger and more relatable than she was to begin with, thanks in part to honest critique partners and beta readers who shared their displeasure of her with me.

3. In both of my books, my secondary characters vie to over-run the main one, and Corroded is the ultimate example. Ben…

Middle grade writer and recommender-extraordinaire of books, Laura tagged me in this fun blogging event. Here are the rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Write a post to show your award.
3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
4. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
5. Select other bloggers you want to give this award to.
6. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them & provide the link to the post you created.

Now onto the fun stuff!

The story of how I started my blog.

I’m pretty new to the blogging world. My first post was written on May 26th, 2016, so I’m just a smidge over a year old.

I started the blog because I wanted another way to connect–not only writing and mothering and magically things–but to connect those things with other folks. I had…

Author Carrie Dalby is back here with us again. Today she’s talking about relationships…

When I came up with this topic, I immediately thought of relationships between characters. But as a writer, relationships are much larger than what is in the book. Yes, you’re an artist creating stories, but you are also a professional and working with others is an important part of that. Let’s break it down.

As a writer, you’re in control (for the most part—sometimes the characters don’t do what you expect them to) for the relationships on the pages of the story. You need to make sure your characters interact with their family, friends, environment, etc. in a consistent manner—even if that means people at school/work/social settings see a different side of the character than the people at home. Whatever the character’s attitude is (even if it changes over the course of the book) needs…