Here are the details, from J.W.’s blog:

The prize of the blogfest will be a $15 Amazon gift card. I’d like to think everyone has switched over to a Kindle (because it’s what all the cool kids are doing…), but the gift card should sate any reader’s addiction.

You can receive up to 3 points for the blogfest. Here’s how:

All points will be randomized into a number generator at the close of the blogfest.

To refresh from the previous post, here is the criteria to submit:

Suggestive topics to consider when critiquing:

• Does the character have a personality I can fall into easily? This includes any dialogue exchanged.
• Is the world around them set up to compliment the character as they’re introduced?
• Are there secondary characters to assist with the hook?
• Lastly, would I read more?

Finally, your sign up link. I hope to see many of you here on February 13, 2012!

Peace and Writing Love,

JWP

So, check back here on February 13, 2012 to see an excerpt from one of my upcoming sci-fi/horror shorts!

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That’s right, dear readers, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and the Fresno Sci-fi & Fantasy Writers are going to be out in force the weekend before like an army of cupids and merry makers, bringing love and sharing our love of books with you!

We have TWO Big Valentine’s Weekend Events!

Open Mic Night at the Clovis Book Barn

Friday, February 10th 2012, 6:30PM to 9:00PM, the Clovis Book Barn is hosting and the Fresno Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writers are coordinating! Join Us for an evening of fiction, poetry or music! Share your writings or that of your favorite author’s! Entertain and Be Entertained! If you would like to get on the mic, a sign up sheet will be available on site, or you can pre-register at the Barn or by emailing me, Rob Lopez, at forsakenstars AT gmail DOT com with your name, title of your piece, genre (sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, poetry or music) and length of the piece. This event is Free and Open to the Public!

The Clovis Book Barn is located on 7th and Clovis Avenue in Old Town Clovis at: 640 Clovis Ave, Clovis, CA 93612

Facebook Event Page is Here.

AND

Book Lovers’ Day at The Brass Unicorn

Saturday, February 11th, 2012, 1:00PM to 5:00PM, the Fresno Sci-fi & Fantasy Writers and The Brass Unicorn are teaming up to bring you an afternoon filled with romance, wonder and excitement! Book Signings and Readings by Roh Morgon, Christopher Wood, EAJ & Mellie Smith, Jim Geiser and more! Art prints & sketches by yours truly, Rob Lopez! And of course The Brass Unicorn’s wide selection of books, music, crystals and tools for those on the path to self discovery and spiritual fulfillment! This event is Free and Open to the Public!

The Brass Unicorn is located next to the Starline in the Tower District at: 845 E. Fern Avenue, Fresno, CA 93728

Facebook Event Page Here.

So what are you doing for Valentine’s Day Weekend?

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Anyway, until a miracle or a windfall (which at this point are practically synonymous) happens, feel free to drop a fiver or more in the paypal bucket over to the right there, and I will send you a digital gift of appreciation. Or, even better, check out my portfolio at http://roblopezart.wordpress.com/, and if, after perusing some of my work, you think you can use my talents, click on the hire me button!

I know times are tough for most everyone, for quite a long time now, but even with no gas in my tank (mostly metaphorically speaking here), it’s hard to imagine my life without storytelling.

So I’ll keep at it.

To my last breath!

Thanks and God Bless!

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Though we are readers, we are writers and over the course of a year or more of reading one another’s works, we can develop biases and preconceptions within our group, but when we get to take one of our works and read it to a crowd, we not only get the thrill of receiving immediate responses such as laughter, gasps or applause, we can also glean what might not work via the lack of an expected response, or we might stumble over a phrase we thought sounded fine in our heads or catch something we hadn’t ever noticed before, good or ill, because the audience does.

And not to mention the moments after a reading, chatting with the audience afterwards to get their opinions. For the most part they will be polite, or you’ll enjoy the rush of someone telling you what they really like or what a piece meant to them or recalled in their own lives. Or, someone may let you know what maybe didn’t work for them or point out a discrepancy or plot hole–don’t be so quick to disregard these comments. You may have just read an excerpt of a much larger work where such holes are plugged, but they just might have a point.

I think I’m rambling a bit now. I mostly wanted to express my sincere gratitude that I am a part of such a wonderful writing group and that we have such a wonderful place to share our stuff with the public and that I hope our audiences continue to grow and that Fresno and Clovis and the surrounding areas cherish the local talents and merchants they have.

Thank you again, Peggy and Dan and the rest of the folks at the Clovis Book Barn, and we can’t wait to do it again next month!

* * *

Open Mic Night Recap

What a night! We opened up with a killer piece of gothic poetry by my roleplay gaming pal, Ryan Laburada, “A Visit from St. Gothiness,” which he found over at deadlounge.com It’s a gothic version of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” more popularly known as T’was the Night Before Christmas and attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. Christmas may have passed, but the spirit lives on.

Ryan Laburada kicks off the evening with a Visit from St. Gothiness

Mellie Smith gave us a couple of sneak peeks of her works in progress. The first was from a novel tentatively titled Danae, which begins with a young girl being inexplicably thrown out of a ship into a dark, stormy sea. Her second piece was from our upcoming antho with an excerpt from The Right Honorable Line of Woadsbury, wherein a knight and a bewitching lady are caught in a mystical bond of love. (In case you’re wondering, I’m describing the excerpts here, not the whole works.)

Mellie’s lovely husband Ed Smith (and yes, that’s how I introduced him that night), also gave us a Woadsbury sneak peek with an excerpt out of Guardian at the Gate, concerning a man who goes back to the 13th century and decides to guard it from those who might follow him.

Roh Morgon gave us a taste of Breaking Through, and which involved blood suckers and shape shifters and a dragon! Can’t wait to see more of this! Her second piece of the evening was from Monster, a prequel to Watcher: Book 1 of The Chosen, and gave us an unsettling glimpse at how the premise of Watcher came to be.

Roh Morgon reads from Breaking Through

I followed Roh’s first piece up with Forsaken Star’s Azzi’s “Astronaut Vampire’s Lament,” and then later, provided a glimpse into my other universe, Spiral Legion, with an excerpt from Ko maua la moana male ‘ana (Our Ocean Wedding Day), a work-in-progress about a mermaid (sci-fi version, genetically enhanced) Anjaneia, and Derrick, a Coast Guardsman on the happiest and possibly scariest day of their lives. The excerpt included an undersea rescue and Anjaneia’s nightmare about their coming nuptials. I even provided a visual aid–my design of Anjaneia’s wedding dress.

Anjaneia's wedding dress design from my story Our Ocean Wedding Day

Don Gilbert served as our ‘main attraction’ if you will, by providing us a full reading of his exciting sci-fi short Deeds Committed in a Prior State of Existence. I’ve had the pleasure of reading the story for one of our review meetings, but hearing him tell it was a special treat! The story involves the creator of Time In A Bottle, a service that will transport you back to a favorite moment in your life, and a man who would rather go back in time to stop a rather painful event in his life–the meeting of his parents!

Alisha Vargas read an excerpt from the biographical novel Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy, chronicling his misadventures at a major record label. The excerpt covered Dan’s first day, deciding which muffin to take from the breakfast table, and trying not to poke fun at Fat Joe, realizing that he’s not much different than the gangsta rapper.

Alisha Vargas reads from Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy

Earl Scialabba gave us a couple of rollicking excerpts from his upcoming sci-fi novel Mall Planet, which included a fight by a cliffside and a space battle. I was particularly tickled by the idea of a Jetta in space firing phasers. More, please!

Earl Scialabba reads from his upcoming sci-fi novel Mall Planet

The evening ended with a nice round of creepies. Sarah Peterson provided us with a short short story titled The Cheat, about a person who cheats death. Tirzah Duncan regaled us with a poem written in honor of the day (Friday the 13th) titled The Thirteenth Chime, as well as a flash fiction piece titled Upheld. Ryan Laburada brought us full circle with a horror short titled Room for One More from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Collected from American Folklore by Alvin Schwartz.

Tirzah Duncan reads The Thirteenth Chime in honor of Friday the 13th

It should also be noted that Christopher “töff” Wood received a certificate and print for Naming the FSFW Mascot. She is hereby known as “Scritch.” As a side note, töff also went ahead and named Scritch’s trout dinner “Scamp.” Please visit the FSFW facebook page for more!

Ali, Sarah and Sam enjoy Open Mic from the comfort of a couch corner!

After the Open Mic Night

A few of us went to Carrow’s afterwards and talked about the evening, our works and the upcoming anthology. A good time was had by all, but we knew we had to cut the night short because the following day we would gather again to discuss the anthology in earnest.

Mellie, Earl and Ed discuss Woadsbury...or Earl's apartment?

Ali and I enjoy the afterglow of another successful Open Mic Night

* * *

Saturday 14, 2012: A Woadsbury Day

Half of our Woadsbury writers couldn’t make it–work, opera rehearsals, outings to the coast–but we forged ahead and hammered out some of the more confounding details, kinks and obstacles for our upcoming anthology from the stories of those in attendance: Töff, Roh, Earl, Tirzah, and myself, and our gracious hosts for the day, Ed and Mellie. Also in attendance were Ali, one of our tireless editors, Sarah, a fellow FSFWer, and Ninja, the Smith’s cat, an adorable distraction.  Mellie made a delicious chili, a Spritely Juice drink and cookies, and Sarah made PB&J finger sandwiches. I brought tons of reference material and finally sketched out my Beastly Baron (with his new name, Blaez) and his Beauty, the fairy Aille. We even talked about some of the stories of some of the folks that couldn’t make it so that we could get an overview of where the overall anthology is going. It turned out to be a pretty productive meeting.

A Woadsbury meeting at Ed's and Mellie's

Tirzah tries to make a point while Mellie mulls another.

An Ed's eye view of the meeting.

Now it’s Sunday, and I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ve got to finish reviewing Tirzah’s story, I’ve got to finish my Ocean Wedding Day story, and get to work on posting a new page of Forsaken Stars!

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The members of the FSFW will read from our own sci-fi, horror and fantasy works or our favorite authors from any genre, and we invite the public to do the same. Poetry and music are also encouraged so if you’re a local poet or musician, this is a great opportunity to try out new material.

A Book Barn, or Clovis Book Barn as they are known on the web, is the largest used bookstore in the San Joaquin Valley area. They specialize in Local history, Children’s books and California & Western History. They have hundreds of thousands of used and collectible books! The barn is seven thousand square feet! They’re friendly, helpful and have lots of places to sit and read and their selection and prices are phenomenal. If you can’t find it in their store, chances are it’s in their warehouse.

The Book Barn is located at 640 Clovis Ave, Clovis, CA 93612, that’s on the corner of Clovis Avenue and 7th Street in Old Town Clovis.

For more information on these and other events, visit Clovis Book Barn’s facebook page and don’t forget to click “like!”

Established at their first meeting April, 19^th 2008, Fresno Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writers is a group for local writers that meet face-to-face and discuss their work. November 2010 they published their first anthology, I Dreamed A Crooked Dream, and are hard at work on the next anthology, Woadsbury.

For more information on the group, please visit fsfw.net!

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Here is my entry, clocking in at about 1,187 words:

Ninth Circle

A Forsaken Stars Tale
written by Rob Lopez

Vampires don’t dream. Their sleep is an empty black void. They’re dead, of course, so they possess the memories of their vessel—and most vampires believe they are that person that once lived—though the body is inhabited by the spirit of a demon. That demon barely recalls what it was like in hell, though they carry the pain of hell’s existence in every fiber of their being, and they are certain they don’t want to go back. The Vampire Azzi knows that he not only does not want to go back, but wants to escape the eventual inevitable non-existence of hell by seeking redemption. An impossible road for a vampire, to be sure, and he is not the first that has walked this path, but something in his dark heart of hearts tells him if he is repentant, if he fasts and sacrifices, if he shows others the way, then maybe, just maybe, he has a snowball’s chance in hell. Like his kindred, Azzi does not dream, but unlike most of his kindred, occasionally, in the dawn of the night, Azzi remembers what it was like in hell. And what brings a fangy smile to his space faring face is that the deepest parts of hell are not fire and brimstone. Dante had it right. Hell’s throne room is quite cold. Devoid of any heat whatsoever. A snowball would do pretty well there.

“He wants to see you.”

“Hmm? What?” _________ said, preoccupied with his task of watching over his brethren, frozen in the ice below his feet. He too was frozen, and every movement was agony, as the light-cells in his body cracked and broke with each twist or turn. He stood above them, his duty to patrol the ice lake. Nothing had happened for millennia; and if it had, he could not recall it, for he could only see the future and it mostly included this.

“Lucifer, King of Dis,” a small, European-sounding goblin said, and waved him towards the gates. They seemed so far away. Two giants stood at each side, hunched over with the pull of gravity on their monumental, frost-covered bodies. They held the shafts of warhammers in their hands, and he wondered if they could actually lift the great stone hammer heads over their helms, and if he were ever to become the source of their fury, if they could lift them faster than he could act.

Hell—this hell, at least—seemed a very slow place.

After a time he reached the gates (he made no gesture or raised his eyes to the giant guardsmen), and passed through into the House of Satan. If it was possible, it was colder within than atop the lake of ice. He descended into a large antechamber. The walls were jagged, and though there were no windows, crystal outcroppings seemed to take their place and offered garish reflections. No, there was no light to speak of, but somehow he could make out the immense chamber. Another goblin appeared and escorted him down a long arcade, but before he was halfway through, the goblin froze and first his arms fell off and then his legs, until finally he collapsed in a heap of solid chunks of flesh of pale pink and green. ________ continued alone.

At the end of the hall were two iron doors covered in chains. He drew his sword, thick, gleaming and nearly his length, from its scabbard and struck at the chains, but after two blows, his sword shattered. “How did the goblin get out to tell me that I was wanted?” He wondered, and rattled the chains. Nothing.

Sometime later, he returned to the entrance of the house and looked out at the two guards. “Your mothers were demonfuckers. You know this, right?”

The guards looked at each other and turned on him in anger.

________ gave them a toothy grin and ran back into the house.

Running was a laborious chore. His long-cold innards were on fire from the action, and for a brief moment, he felt alive again. He was, to his delight, much faster than the guards and had to wait at the iron doors of Lucifer’s private chamber for an eternity before they appeared. They raised their hammers at him. He crouched and braced his black wings against the doors. When the hammers fell he leaped and pushed off the doors at the same time, twisting in the air, scraping between the giants’ shoulders. Lancing pain arced through his wings as many of the feathers were ripped from their moorings, having stuck to the icy iron surfaces. He fell against the ground and felt much of his frostbitten skin crack, break and bleed against the solid marble floor. A clang rang out throughout the House of Satan as the hammers fell against the iron doors. The hammerheads split against the chains. Ice covering much of the walls and ceiling cracked and fell to the ground like snowflakes. Statues tipped and dropped, shattering.

The iron doors creaked open.

________ noticed a dull red glow from within and saw his chance. As the guards turned he rose and ran at them. They raised their broken hammers again and waited, this time closing their ranks. He leaped at them again, this time in a dive, and he slid between their legs to the other side, through the doors. The hammers fell, missing him again. He kicked the doors closed behind him and searched for something to bar them.

Then his eyes froze in place.

So cold…

It wasn’t just that it was colder than the vacuum of space here; it was that it was heavier, as if they were inside the core of a planet or the event horizon of a black hole. He could hardly move.

He knew then that the Giants would not follow him.

Only an angel could resist the crushing gravity of the Throne Room.

But he wasn’t an angel anymore. He was one of the Fallen, stripped of his vast powers and much of his supernatural strength and endurance. Strange, how he had forgotten that until now. Perhaps it had to do with association.

For he was near an old friend.

He looked up—it took some effort, and he was exhausted for it—and saw the Satan, Lord of the Underworld, sitting atop a throne of stone, swords and chains, his six black, leathery wings pinned to it. He held a cup in his hands, the liquid bubbling and steaming, and even from where he knelt, it smelled most foul. Lucifer had three faces, the central fair and beautiful, but whose eyes had become black as obsidian; the left shriveled and aged, rotting away; the right crimson-skinned with two great heavy black horns protruding from its forehead and one jutting out from its chin.

The horned one spoke, “It has been too long, my friend.”

Breathing was difficult, speaking nigh impossible, “Aye, Luci.”

Azzi would wake then, in his casket, blinking his black, almond shaped eyes and try to forget.

END OF SCENE

* * *

Here are the Snowfest/Blogfest details from Roh’s blog:

1) What: Write a scene that takes place in the snow. It can be snowing or not, just as long as snow is part of the setting. And for those of you who like an extra challenge, write a scene in which snow is the main focus of the characters, whether they’re building a snowman or fighting for their lives in a snowstorm.

2) Word count: 1,200 words or so (I can never keep my own entries in any blogfest under 1,000!)

3) Blogfest date: February 2, 2012

BONUS: Watcher Giveaway!

One entry will be selected at random to win a free copy of Watcher: Book I of The Chosen.

Click on the banner below to enter!

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Here’s the Captain Sera Besh art–with a nice snowy background and call to action titles–which will be a part of the Epic Snowball Fight for 2012′s fund drive. Join us, give during the drive which runs January 9th through the 20th, 2012, and receive a one-of-a-kind piece of art, which, at last count, aims to include about a hundred and nine different characters!

To learn more about the Comic Creators for Freedom, visit the website, or check out Lora Innes’ Guest Editorial at CBR (Comic Book Resources)!

And get the latest updates as more artists complete their art for the fight on Twitter @Comics4Freedom!

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So here’s Captain Sera involved in some kind of snowball fight…a work in progress for the Comic Creators for Freedom in the fight against human trafficking! This will be Sera’s and my second year with the Comic Creators for Freedom (previously known as Comic Creators Alliance), a group of comic artists and their female creations that are banding together during the month of December to create a piece of art that will be awarded to those who participate in the fund drive that will happen Monday, January 9th, for National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and run through January 20th.

You can find more details at the Comic Creators for Freedom website, get the latest updated via twitter @Comics4Freedom or like us on facebook!

If you’re a webcomic creator, I hear there is still time to participate! Visit the CCF Project tab here. The deadline for submitting the snowball fight art is December 31st! (I know, I’m cutting it close as usual, it’s been a crazy month, I haven’t even updated the comic yet! *super sad face*)

If you would like to donate, then just stay tuned and the donations drive will go Live at the CCF homepage Monday, January 9th!

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