Like My Dentist, But With Bushier Eyebrows

Before we move on to something entirely Vortex, I want to mention the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.

CreateSpace still sends me notification about the annual event. If you have a full-length novel to offer up to public onions and orchids and your skin is thick, entries are accepted between 1/24 and 2/6 or until the 5,000 entries cap is reached. You can find my take on the contest here. Maybe we were all feeling our way its inaugural year-2007-but I don't think the inter-dynamics of the entrants have changed much. It is the nature of competition's beast and a months-long testimony to the drying up of lucrative publishing opportunities. It's not always a genre-friendly contest, so it's important to look at this year's panel of general fiction and young adult judges to see what writing realm they hail from.

Now for this guy....

Does he look familiar? Has he ever once walked through your dream world? Sat down at the next table in an outdoor cafe? Passed you on the street as you walked to work in your bathrobe?

According to thisman.org, the goal of the site is, "to help those who have seen this man in their dreams and to foster communication among them; to understand who this man is and why he appears in an apparently pattern-less array of situations in the dreams of such diverse human subjects."

Some theorize he's a dream surfer, able to enter people's dreams through heightened psychological skills. Others subscribe to Jung's theory that he is an archetype that emerges in times of stress and hardship. Me? I'm sure it'll end up being some type of social experiment in some psychologist student's doctoral thesis. It is fun to read the testimonials, though. If you can speed read past the jokesters to the legit ones, it can get creepy.

What's your theory on this man?

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Winter Writing Festival

Need a little writing motivation? Head over to the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog where we've kicked off the Winter Writing Festival. This writing challenge is (1)goal-driven (2)catered to each writer's needs no matter what work-in-progress stage or experience level he/she is (3) community-backed for those who thrive on accountability, and (4) guilt-free because it does not fall across any major holiday or have the inherent pressure of NaNo.

Throughout the festival, my blog posts will be signed with a point total (one for each day I reach my writing goals). I hope the back end of February brings fifty.

For more information about the challenge, head over to the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog or the site created specifically for the Winter Festival. Happy writing!