Donald J. Bingle April 2020 Newsletter |
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Given the disappearance during the recent troubles of conventions, whether they be scifi and fantasy cons, game conventions, or writing programs, fans have been missing out on a lot of camaraderie, fun, and chances to interact and find out about what is happening in their areas of interest. Fortunately, at almost the beginning of the pandemic, several virtual/online/Facebook conventions popped up to fill that void. One of these, Con-Tinual: The Con That Never Ends, was created by author Gail Martin and friends. It not only has separate threads on Facebook for vendors, author readings, author interviews, crowdfunding posts, filking, fandoms, gaming, movies, and more, it also has its own YouTube channel with scores of videos on new releases, discussions of fan-favorite television series, publishing advice, and more. I've already done one of their new release panels and I'm scheduled to chat with other authors about mysteries, coming up soon. If you miss conventions, you should definitely check Con-Tinual out. |
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Flash Drive, the third book in my Dick Thornby Thriller series, has now been out for more than a month, but I haven't really seen much in the way of posted reviews yet. If you've read it, or any of my other books, please consider posting a review on your favorite online bookselling site or on Goodreads or your favorite blog. And, if you don't have the book yet (ALL Kickstarter book rewards have been sent), you can find it on Amazon, BN.com, and Kobo, or ask your favorite book store or local library to stock it for you. Go HERE for all the links. |
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| | Board Game Arena: Play Games Online for Free Along with the camaraderie and fun of attending conventions to sell books and interact with my fellow authors, the pandemic has complicated gaming. Back in the day, you could spend an hour or two trying to coordinate schedules with your gaming friends in order to spend six to eight or ten hours playing board games. And, you could go to conventions and do the same thing, only for eighteen hours a day and with strangers. Fortunately, just after what turned out to be our year plus long staycation began, I was introduced to BoardGameArena.com. Here, I can connect with my friends (or strangers) and play classics like Puerto Rico, Oh Hell!, Carcassonne, Russian Railroads, Elfenland, and other familiar games, or try out (and do my best to master) games I didn't yet know, like Kingdom Builder, Res Arcana, Potion Explosion, KingDomino, and much, much, much more. You can play some games for free, but premium games (or hooking up two players from the same IP address) costs a very reasonable fee of $24 per year. Here's a referral link from me. | | |
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| | Latitudes, The 2nd Annual Literary Review by the Hawaii Writers Guild The Hawaii Writers Guild not only provides a forum for writers with a connection to Hawaii to connect with one another, it provides programs one can access online (with interviews of authors, including me, and videos about publishing topics, including mine on crowdfunding your work. And, yes, I have a story (non-fiction memoir) in the latest iteration of Latitudes. You can find my story, Consequences of Inconsequential Words, here. Another local gathering, the Volcano Writers Group, has also put out a book with stories and poems from its members. You can find Out of Our Minds -- Voices from the Mists (no, i did not come up with that title) on Amazon here. It includes a reprint of my story, Day of the Shadows, as well as my (Yikes!) poems, Green Flash and Starbright. Shorter Newsletter? My analysis of opens, clicks, contest entries, and such suggest my past newsletters have been too long, so I'm shortening things up this month. Let me know what you think. | | |
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MARCH CONTEST WINNERS Jeanette was the winner of a free print copy of The Mindful Eye, by Mary Konczyk. Randall was the winner of a free print copy of Black Heart of the Dragon God by Jean Rabe and Craig Martelle. |
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Donald J. Bingle is the author of seven books and more than sixty shorter works in the horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, romance, comedy, and memoir genres. His books include Forced Conversion (near future military scifi), GREENSWORD (darkly comedic eco-thriller), Frame Shop (murder in a suburban writers' group), and the Dick Thornby spy thriller series (Net Impact; Wet Work, and Flash Drive). He also co-authored (with Jean Rabe) The Love-Haight Case Files (a three-time Silver Falchion winning paranormal urban fantasy about two lawyers who represent the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magic-filled San Francisco; sequel is in the works). Don also edited Familiar Spirits (an anthology of ghost stories). Many of Don's shorter works can be found in his Writer on Demand TM collections. Get the audiobook version of Net Impact at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes and the audiobook version of Wet Work at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes. Full disclosure: Various links in my newsletter or on my website may include Amazon Affiliate coding, which gets me a small referral fee (at no cost to you) if you purchase after clicking through. |
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