Tuesday 19 June 2012

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:

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!

32 comments:

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

I'm with you on "the better half" - couldn't do it without them, could we? :)

I want to know what happened at Scouts - did they feed you at all or were you out of luck? Did you get in trouble or anything? Brave move for a kid. :)

kjmckendry said...

These all sound like great posts, I'm going to check them out now. :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Nick for the shout out! It's much appreciated!

And its great to get to know you a bit better.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Congratulations to you and Stephen!
Breaking down a story into chapters is the last thing I do.

Martin Willoughby said...

Well done you for sticking up for your principles at scouts...even if you did change them later.

J.L. Campbell said...

Dropping in on you to say howdy. Stephen has been busy. Good stuff! And you've been making waves yourself.

Jennie Bennett said...

I've never considered not chaptering either, probably becasue I need breaks in my stories :)

Jenn said...

That's so cool that you stood up for your beliefs at such a young age. Good for you!

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the interview, Nick. And The Militant Vegetarian sounds like a great MG book for boys (or girls). Hint, hint.

fairbetty said...

Hey! Thanks for the award :) I look forward to reading your posts.

And congratulations on your KOMF piece getting recognized. Great job. :)

Tina said...

Wow, Nick, thanks so much! I don't know exactly when I'll be able to post about it, but it will be soon and I'll be sure to give you credit!
Stephen rocks. I own both his books and can't wait to read them. I'm BuNoWriMo right now so hopelessly behind on all the great books my buddies have been releasing lately...looking forward to July!
Tina @ Life is Good
Post A-Z Road trip!

Ashna said...

Thank you so much for the award! :) I'll be sure to check out Breakthrough... it sounds very interesting! :)
Though I'll really have to think about the questions!

Ashna said...

Also, should I give the link to Shahnila's blog?

Aldrea Alien said...

Oh snap! I'm staring at those questions and drawing a blank for some of the answers (teach me to gloat about never getting the 7x7 awards :P).
Love your choices and congrats on being a winner in the Knights of MicroFiction. ^_^

Nick Wilford said...

Madeline - I don't remember getting in trouble at Scouts, I just remember being laughed at! No, I refused any food. I was seen as a bit of a weirdo at Scouts and this didn't help, lol. :P

Kathy - Thanks! And thanks again for the interview and picking me as a KoMF winner. :)

Stephen - No problem. Glad to do a bit to help the cause. :)

Alex - Thanks! Just checked and you commented the same thing at the original post. I still think it's the way to go. Forgotten I'd known you so long, too!

Martin - I don't know if I really had principles. Just trying to emulate my brother - not sure why as he was hardly cool! I used to get into things obsessively for a short time then go off them. Glad it hasn't happened with writing!

J.L. - Howdy to you too. Yes, Stephen's been everywhere! Sorry I've not been over at yours in a while. I'm trying to get into a better routine but a LOT is going on right now (end of school year, events left, right and centre).

J.A. - I don't write without a break. In fact, I have a lot of them in the form of little asterisks. So my WIP exists as a collection of scenes rather than chapters. I just find it hard knowing where to draw the "end of chapter" line!

Jennifer - Thanks! It didn't make me look cool in terms of fitting in, but it was just before the age when that seemed so important.

I totally lapsed after though. I'll eat a Maccy D's any day of the week now, even though I know it's bad!

Linda - Thanks for checking out the interview. Ha, I like your suggestion! It never occurred to me. :)

fairbetty - You're welcome! I look forward to your post, too. I hope you'll do KoMF again, I enjoyed your story.

Tina - No problem. I look forward to it! And good luck finishing BuNo!

Ashna - You're welcome! Got a couple of books to finish, then I'll start on Breakthrough.

I struggled answering a couple of the categories too, and it was a bit time-consuming too, but still fun! If you know Shahnila's link, it would be great if you could let me know. It's not there when I click on her avatar in the Google Friend Connect.

Aldrea - I was a bit "creative" with answering a couple of the questions! (Controversial, moi?! I wouldn't say boo to a goose. Seriously). Anyway, hope you manage and I look forward to reading it. And thanks! :D

Tara Tyler said...

congratulations! its fun to revisit old posts!

Ashna said...

Great! As much brain wracking as it seems, I'm sure it'd be fun too! I'll do a post in a couple more days. :)

Here's the link to Shahnila's blog:
http://bookishtimes.blogspot.in/

Morgan said...

I saw your interview over at Kathy's and I loved it! You've really got things put together, Nick. That's so neat for your family. Loved your links posted ;D (And go Stephen!)

Precy Larkins said...

Hi Nick! Thanks for following my blog. I'm following you back. It's nice to meet you. ;)

Susan Oloier said...

Militant vegetarian :-) I've never heard it stated that way. I was quite radical in college when it came to animal rights and belonged to PETA when they weren't so over the top.

Andrea Teagan said...

Thanks for passing this on to me :)

I am looking forward to reading all of those posts that you mentioned.

I love your blog!

Andrea

C.B. Wentworth said...

I'm looking forward to checking out the links you've posted. :-)

My sister is a vegetarian (but not militant) and I admire her commitment. Its tough to take a stand like that and stick with it, even if for only 6 months. Bravo!

Hope Roberson said...

This is a really cool award! Thank you! I'm taking a blogging break for a few weeks, but will definitely pass this along when I get back! Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the award, will hopefully post about it soon :D

Charmaine Clancy said...

Stephen's done a fantastic job promoting this novel, have it on my iPad ready to read.

Misha Gerrick said...

Congrats on the award! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey Nick, it's just occurred to me that I haven't seen a blog post from you in a while and it turns out that I'm not following you any more! AHHHH! I have corrected this terrible turn of events. Bad blogger.com.

Nick Wilford said...

Tara - Thanks!

Ashna - Look forward to it. I've now let Shahnila know. Lucky that you knew her! :)

Morgan - Lol, it's keeping everything together that can be challenging. Thanks!

Precy - No problem! Nice to meet you too.

Susan - Sadly my radicalism had worn off by the time I got to college!

Andrea - Thanks very much. Enjoy the award! :)

C.B. - That's cool. It was a phase for me more than anything. I was passionate about it, but I ended up craving sausages!

Hope - You're welcome. Enjoy the break and I'll look forward to your post!

Shahnila - You're welcome, it's nice to meet you.

Charmaine - It's on my Kindle. I'll get to it ASAP!

Misha - Thanks!

Freya - Lol, things like that happen. Blogs mysteriously disappear from my Google Reader. Nice to see you!

Precy Larkins said...

Nick, I tagged you in a meme (hope you don't mind): http://readywritego.blogspot.com/2012/06/blog-awards-i-cant-ignore-anymore-part_21.html

:)

Golden Eagle said...

Congratulations on the award!

I'll have to check out those posts of yours.

Leigh Covington said...

Congrats on the award and I got my copy of BREAKTHROUGH! So excited!

Nick Wilford said...

Precy - Thanks! :) I'll check it out.

Golden - Thanks!

Leigh - Thanks. I'm looking forward to reading it.