The Extreme Writing Now Ghost Stories Contest is finished and we have a winner. But, announcing only one winner seems like a grisly crime, because each entry was superb, chilling, and extremely entertaining.

Once again, I want to thank Jennifer Akers for talking on the unenviable task of judging the contest. Here is her letter announcing the winner:

Let me congratulate all the writers who submitted stories for EW’s Ghost Story Writing Contest because all the stories were wonderfully written and entertaining. Alex joked that I had a difficult job as the judge, and boy, was that was an understatement!

The contest’s only “rule” – write a ghost story. Each one of your stories had the elements to win: inventive, scary, twisted, and written with your voice and perspective of what makes a good ghost story.

Since I can’t choose everyone (yes, I looked into the possibility), I narrowed it down to one story that captured my attention with a fast storyline, unique ending, and a creative twist on the contest’s title.

Let’s crown the winner – Congratulations to Dabear for “The Ghost Rider“, his horrific paranormal tale of a love lasting beyond the physical world!

Enjoy your win, Dabear — with lots of bragging rights — and your prize of the paranormal thriller, Haunting Injustice, by Mickey Mills.

A special thanks to Alex for giving me the opportunity to judge Extreme Writing’s Ghost Story Writing Contest.

Thanks again Jenn and a big round of applause goes to Dabear!

You can read all of the extraordinary stories at Ghost Stories.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Mickey Mills, the author of Haunting Injustice, was our guest on EWNN Sunday, October 24^th, 2010. And what a guest he was. We talked about his experience gained while writing the book as he ventured west on his girlfriend, Pearl. Hold on now….Pearl is his Harley.

The entire archived show can be heard at EWNN.

Mickey also announced a special “Friends of the Show” deal. Well, that’s what I’m calling it:

For a show special, anybody that would like a signed copy of Haunting Injustice, can go to my website, The Prodigal Scribe, and if they sign the guestbook, I will send them a link to where they can order a signed copy for $10, shipping included.

I kid you not…that is a heck of a deal!

Thanks Mickey!

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

I would like to officially welcome Mickey Mills to Extreme Writing Now. Mickey, who answers to the handle of The Prodigal Scribe, is the author of the wildly popular, Haunting Injustice.

Mickey is my kinda soul; in more ways than one. It would seem that we both have decided to push our writing at about the same time in our lives and we are having a blast doing it. There is a kind hearted edginess to Mickey that has mass appeal; a great cat.

He is a biker.

Mickey wrote the lion’s share of Haunting Injustice while on a Harley and He road trip out into the vast American West. Tent, truckstops, and Starbucks were just a few of his writing rooms while he was on that trip. His take on the trip can be read at The Prodigal Scribe.

The inkslinger hails from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and is planning on penning his second novel while on a bike trip along America’s East Coast. Meanwhile, he has joined as at EWN and has published two pieces in the short time (less than a week) that he has been a member. Starpilots is a humorous 55 word flash fiction piece and Moose McCloud is a beautifully written piece about loving hearts and tolerance.

Mickey will be our guest this week at the Extreme Writing Now Network (Sunday, October 24 at 6:30 p.m. EST) talk show, where will discuss his book and experiences of writing on the road. Mickey is also planning a surprise announcement on the show, so tune in and don’t miss what is sure to be yet another fast and entertaining 30 minutes.

To add to all the excitement, Mickey has agreed to send out a signed copy of Haunting Injustice to the winner of the EWN Ghost Stories contest going on right now. IF you are interested in joining in on the fun, visit Ghost Stories for all the details.

Before I let you go, I would like to point out a great review of Mickey’s book. The review was written by our own Bev Owens and can be found at Haunting Injustice.

Have a rockin’ day!

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Last Week’s Highlights From Extreme Writing Now

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Last Week at EWN

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

The Past Week at Extrewme Writng Now

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Last Week At EWN

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

We are going to hold a new contest and Tara Masih’s Where The Dog Star Never Glows is up for grabs. Once again, we will use the FaceBook fan page, but the length of the contest will be longer.

For starters, you need to register as a member here at EWN. It’s free, it’s fun, it’s delicious!

Open prompt flash fiction. Anything less than 1000 words will be accepted. We will use the WordPress editor for word counts. Only one entry per contestant, and all entries cannot have been previously published.

Post your entry as a blog post under the Flash Fiction category. Drop a link in the Ink Well group forum (here at EWN) at the Tara Masih contest thread and that link will get posted at the fan page with a special note. The entry with the most “likes” will win a copy of Tara’s book.

Submissions will stop being accepted after midnight EST (-5 GMT) August 22nd with voting being tabulated at midnight EST (-5GMT) August 28th; six extra days to shill for votes

The winner will be announced on the EWNN broadcast of August 29th.

Good Luck!

p.s. Thank you Carrie!

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Sunday, August 1^st, EWNN had Tara Masih on the show as the guest. Tara is the author of two books, the latest being a compilation of her work titled Where The Dog Star Doesn’t Glow. Tara’s work displays amazing depth, especially considering the challenges of the word economy restrictions inherent to flash fiction.

Tara and Alex chatted about some of her work, more specifically her pieces This Heat and Fire Island – 1977. This Heat is a very deep look at post traumatic stress syndrome that is the affliction of many combat veterans, and Fire Island – 1977 is an autobiographical work of Tara’s that tells of a day at the famous resort when she was a teen.

Karen gave one of her marvelously melodic readings; this treatment was of Tara’s critically acclaimed piece, Catalpa.

Bev Owens, the show’s co-host, talked about Women On Writing, a web site dedicated to helping women writers, and their quarterly contest. The third quarter contest submission process is underway with a limit of 300 submissions. The current contest is open prompt and all submissions will be judged by guest referee Kathleen Ortiz. Submission length is 250-750 words and tagged with a $10 entry fee.

A public challenge was issued by Bev for Alex to write a piece for the contest and he agreed to take her up on the challenge.

In addition, the fact that the Extreme Writing Now FaceBook fan page is growing in the number of friends as well as more authors joining the network. The fan page grew by just over 10% while the network saw a gain of just about 20%.

The general feeling about the show is that it was met with great success, and the steam is just building. To hear the archive of the show, see the post sidebars anywhere at EWN.

Join us every week at 6:30 pm EST (-5 GMT) at EWNN.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

This Week’s Round Up At EWN:

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.