Well, it has finally happened....

(EDIT, UPDATE!) 5/06/07:
I have turned in my Round Two Materials and will be up tomorrow, 5/7/07, for voting. Please help me!! You only have until SUNDAY, May 13 to vote for WINDY CITY! Just go
to this page which is my round 2 thread, and register. You should receive confirmation fairly soon, but if you don't, contact Ian at Ian@dimestoreproductions.com
When you are confirmed, just go again to my thread, Round 2: Windy City, and do a "Quick Reply" (dialog box at bottom of page) with a "yes" to vote me through. Easy! If you have trouble, let me know by any means necessary!)


I am posting. Ha ha. Actually, I finally got a bit of positivity going on. We'll see how it all pans out, but for now, I'm pretty happy.

I entered a contest called Small Press Idol put on by a lovely outfit called Dimestore Productions. It's awfully involved, but the long and short of it is that a lot of people have entered, wanting to get their
projects published, advertised and sold. I decided to try it out.

A Call to Action:
Here's where YOU come in. If you manage to read the rules, you will realize that Windy City will need PUBLIC VOTES to make it into Round Three. There are a LOT of entries to beat. And a lot are really well done, but really, the biggest challenge will be to GET VOTES. I need anyone who cares to help me out and anyone they can pull in and anyone they can pull in...and so on and so on. I need votes to stay in this. The people who I'm up against have more experience and more time and means to get out the vote. I have to rely on my friends and whomever I can reach to vote me through-all the way to the end.

So far, Windy City has snuck into Round 2. To pass Round one, I had to provide a cover rough (see above) and a "story pitch." If anyone is interested in following WC's progress, here's a handy dandy link to the Dimestore site:

http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/SmallPressIdol/Idol07/index.html

That'll take you to the main contest page, where you can mull over the rules and all. Here's one that takes you to my entry:

http://www.dimestoreproductions.com/SmallPressIdol/Idol07/Windy-City.html

And, for super freak-out, here's a link to Silver Bullet Comics' webzine interview with moi. OK, so they interviewed everyone who passed through Round One with a unanimous vote from the three judges. I'm still allowed to find this cool.

http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=4509

In order to vote, you have to register, I believe. It's quite easy. Just like any other site, choose Register on the left hand side of, I believe, any page of the site and follow the directions.

Do NOT vote yet. I have to assemble and send in my materials for Round Two still. The materials for this stage are character sketches and biographies. Round Two Voting will begin soon, but will continue until May 6th. This date may change. I'll update this blog soon and regularly to give anyone who is able to help current details.

The Final vote in Round 4 for the big prize will not just be a vote. You'll have to actually BUY a copy of the book on the website. That's how Dimestore makes its money. Pretty shrewd, huh? Well, at that stage, I can only hope you'll want a copy of Windy City and that you can afford it. I'm not sure how much it'll be, but probably around 3 bucks, I'm thinking....Only one vote per person, thus the registering, and only ONE Book will count as a vote. Buying multiple copies will not increase votes for any book. That's why I need everyone's help. I need a lot of different people to vote and eventually BUY a copy of the book. As an aside, if you hate it, I'll buy it back from you. How's that?

Well, that's it for now. I know it's a little sketchy, but I'm too tired to make sense. Please read the official rules at Dimestore, register, and wait for updates HERE if you are willing to help a sistuh out. You know I appreciate it and I'll be sure to make something worth buying! :)

Thanks!
Ginny