Breakthrough Breakout Party, 7 x 7 Award and Interview at Imagine Today!

Hey everyone, it's the second and final day of scientifically-minded blogger and author Stephen Tremp's Breakthrough Breakout Party at his blog, to celebrate the fact his novel Breakthrough, the first of a trilogy, is available for FREE for two days. Head over here to show your support if you haven't already, and don't forget to download a copy! Here's the blurb for Breakthrough:

In a world where the Information Age is moving at breakneck speed, breakthroughs in areas of science that were once fodder for science fiction are now becoming a part of our everyday life.

A group of graduate students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have stolen a breakthrough in opening and stabilizing Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or wormholes, as they are commonly known, that allows them to transport people from one location to another. Their goal is to assassinate any powerful politician and executive controlling the world's banking system that would use this technology for their own greedy gain rather than the advancement of mankind.

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

It sounds great! I can't wait to read my copy. :)

In other news, I have been awarded the 7 x 7 Link Award by another blogger buddy I've had the pleasure of meeting lately, Michael Pierce. His YA fantasy novel, Provex City, is available now from Amazon.

RULE #1: Tell everyone something that no one else knows about you.


When I was ten or eleven, I was a militant vegetarian, but only for about six months. I was heavily influenced by my brother, who was an activist for Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. We would lecture people about the evils of McDonald's cattlefarming practices, and I remember staging my own personal hunger protest at my Scout group, when they ordered Big Mac meals for everyone.


RULE #2: Link to one of the posts that I personally think best fits the following categories.

Most Beautiful: F is for Family
This is an easy one. This A-Z post is clearly my most beautiful because it includes pictures of my darling wife and all four lovely kids. (You'll just have to ignore my ugly mug.) In it, I got unashamedly soppy about how my other half encourages me in my writing.

Most Helpful & Most Popular: J is for Journalism
My most popular post in terms of comments was my first challenge for the last Platform Building Campaign, but I think this A-Z post was the most helpful. I trained in journalism and discussed how its principles could be applied to creative writing. I've not seen this topic blogged about anywhere else, so I think it offered a fresh perspective.

Most Controversial: To Chapter or Not to Chapter?
I guess this post about whether or not to write in chapters is the closest I've been to being "controversial", as a couple of commenters said that they'd never considered not writing in chapters.


Most Surprisingly Successful: Platform-Building Campaign - First Challenge

I never know how people will take my work, so I was pretty surprised when around 90 people responded with positive feedback for this entry in Rach's most recent Platform-Building Campaign.

Most Underrated: Painting With Words

I've gone with this early post, not so much because of the slightly ropey painting/writing analogy (I guess I was lucky to get two comments considering I had about six followers!), but because I included a link to one of my published stories as a sample of my work. Neither of them mentioned it, which was slightly disappointing!

Most Pride Worthy: 

This one right here because I announced that I won Knights of Micro Fiction. I've not had any amazing news to share (apart from this!) so far but hopefully someday!

Now I need to pass it on to seven bloggers. I'm going to go with my seven most recent followers this time round. Here they are in reverse order:

Shahnila Shafiq

Aldrea Alien

Ashna Banga

Fairbetty

Tina
Andrea Teagan
Hope Roberson

Enjoy!

Update: Just wanted to let you know that Kathy McKendry has interviewed me at her blog Imagine Today. If you can check it out, that would be great!