Books By Alan

Click on book covers for reviews and previews.

RealmShift

"an inventive and action-packed story"

"a gripping, thought-provoking tale"

"a novel I am loath to put down. A most surprising read. Quite a ride"

"fast-paced and engrossing"

"RealmShift is phenomenal. If it’s not already on your bookshelf it should be."

MageSign

"a fast-paced ride through a visceral reality"

"a fast paced supernatural adventure that will leave readers rethinking how they view the Cosmos"

"a gritty tale of blood rituals, mystery, and mysticism… grabs hold of the reader and doesn’t let go"

"fantastic qualities … horrific at times... I highly recommend it"

"Alan Baxter takes the reader right to the edge and then pushes us over. And I thank him for it."

Ghost Of The Black

"Excellent pacing"

"I’ve found myself not wanting to stop reading"

"Everything about it is bang on"

"very, very readable."

Wise Words

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." - Morpheus, The Sandman - Dream Country (Neil Gaiman)

"A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensly right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt." - Mark Twain

"At the beginning there was the Word - at the end just the Cliche." - Stanislaw J Lec

#fictionfriday at Twitter

May 30, 2009

By alan

J M Strother over at Mad Utopia came up with this idea for authors to build up their platform using Twitter. The hashtag symbol is used for Twitter searches and is a powerful tool for following trends or news items. Strother has suggested using a hashtag of #fictionfriday to post regular pieces of short fiction on your website or blog, then tweet the link on Twitter every Friday, accompanied with #fictionfriday. He’s modeled the concept on the popular #followfriday hashtag, which is a great way for Twitter users to recommend other Twitter users to their followers.

I think Strother is onto a good idea here, so I thought I’d share. I’ll try to post some flash fiction here periodically and tweet about it and we’ll see if this thing has legs or not. I might start by tweeting about some of the flash fiction already on my Dark Shorts page. If anything comes of it, I’ll start writing some new pieces as time allows.

If you use Twitter and you’re a writer, get on board and spread the word. Do you think this idea is a good one? Share your thoughts in the comments.

9 Responses to #fictionfriday at Twitter

J. M. Strother on May 30, 2009 at 6:47 pm

Thanks for the mention, Alan, and glad you’re on board. I think this has great potential to raise awareness for a lot of writers among readers. Word of mouth, what this essentially boils down to, is any marketer’s best friend. Hope to see you next Friday and many Fridays to come.
~jon
Twitted by keikomushi on May 30, 2009 at 6:53 pm

[...] This post was Twitted by keikomushi – Real-url.org [...]
Sally Hanan/Inksnatcher on May 30, 2009 at 8:13 pm

It looks like a good idea, and hash tags seem to be popular.
alan on May 30, 2009 at 11:07 pm

JM – No worries, it’s a good idea!

Sally – spread the word and let’s see if this thing takes off or not.
David Such on May 31, 2009 at 12:56 am

Hi Alan,

Just letting you know that the beta version of FlashWRITER is available for download from my blog (http://davidsuch.blogspot.com/).

Any and all feedback is most welcome.

Cheers,

D
alan on May 31, 2009 at 1:23 am

Hi David – thanks for the update!
Declan Stanley on May 31, 2009 at 4:24 am

I was just starting to post on my blog a series of flash fiction stories that I have written. I’m thinking I’ll make Friday my weekly posting day and join the #fictionfriday trend.
alan on May 31, 2009 at 5:46 am

That’s great, Declan. Follow me on Twitter and I’ll check them out.
#fridayflash online fiction community – The Word – According To Me on August 26, 2009 at 7:41 pm

[...] online fiction community By alan Back at the end of May I blogged about a new idea doing the rounds called Fiction Friday. The idea was to have people write a short piece of flash [...]