Howard

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23860

International Pipe Smoking Dat at 23860Aside from the fact that it is International Pipe Smoking Day, is  is also Visit the Hopewell Post Office Day at 23860. In the box of goodies I carried up to the window, were prizes to Epic Giveaway winners and copies of Urban Mermaid en route to reviewers across this great land of ours and offshore as well. The books shipped to places outwith the US included:

  • Australia (2)
  • Canada (1)
  • India (1)

 

Meanwhile, US packages went to:

  • Virginia – Richmond, to be precise.
  • New Jersey
  • Maine
  • Oregon
  • California
  • Florida

What is more, I get to do it all over again, next Saturday.

Being an author – famous or not – isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Now that this business is done for this week, I need to turn my attention to choosing the winners in Week 3 of the Urban Mermaid Epic Giveaway and posting the announcement for Week 4.

Time to put the kettle on.

Epic Give-away: Week # 3

Urban Mermaid give-away
It’s the start of the third week of our epic Urban Mermaid give-away and once again, we have three winners:

  • Roxanne Leaviitt
  • Sharon Austin
  • Anne Martin

We’ve made a wee change to the give-away rules. Now, if you’ve entered once, you’re good for the rest of the give-away marathon. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t be eligible for the major swag if you’ve won a book already. All book winners will will be eligible when we get around to handing out the Urban Mermaid tea mugs, polo shirts, and ball caps. At that point, we will ask that everyone submit a new entry. Why? Because not everyone may be interested in vying for a tea mug, etc. The book give-aways will continue until we run out of books.

Whether you’ve already entered or this is the first time you’ve paid us a visit, we hope that you’ll take the time to browse the Colony Island website. We’ve put a lot of hard work into adding content to our site and will continue as the weeks and months go by. It would be a shame if you didn’t peruse the list of FAQs or read Madison Bauer’s advice column.

 

The Give-away Ground Rules

The whole thing is very simple. I’ll be giving away one item per week. At the end of that week, the winner(s) will be selected and a new give-away will begin. The winner will have seven days to claim their prize. Other than the congratulatory message, I will send only 1 “nag-mail” during the week.

If the winner has not informed me of his or her mailing address – or even acknowledged the congratulatory message – after seven days, the prize will be awarded to another participant chosen at random from that week’s entries.

All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail address in the contact form at the bottom of the page. Pretty darn simple, right? If you don’t win this week’s prize, you’ll still be eligible to win in the coming weeks..

I only ask two things of the winners:

  1. Please allow other folks to have a go at winning and not enter a second give-away. When we get around to giving away the major swag, all winners will be eligible for the tea mugs and logo-wear. You will, however need to submit a new entry,
  2. If you are fortunate enough to win a print or digital copy of Urban Mermaid, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com. It does not have to be deathless prose, though we well not say no to those kind of reviews. Just say that you – hopefully – liked the story and give Urban Mermaid the appropriate one to five-star rating.

Now that I’ve covered the ground rules, let’s get down to business.

This week, I’m offering another autographed copy of Urban Mermaid to be delivered to your front door or Post Office box. If you’re trying to save a few trees by keeping your collection of print books to a minimum, I’ll be happy to substitute a digital (Kindle) copy.

OK, that’s enough blether from me.  The only thing left to say is “Ready. Steady. Go!!!” Good luck, everyone.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Be sure to see our slideshow of mer-themed Valentines as well as Ask Madison from the Colony Chronicle.

Epic Give-away: Week # 2

Urban Mermaid give-awayWe have a Winner! Actually, we have three winners!

I was inventorying the items for the epic give-away and discovered I had a few more books on hand than I originally thought. So, since it’s my party, I decided to kick things off with three winners instead of just one.

And those winners are . . .

  • Tord Ronn of Charlottesville, VA
  • Jen Gurien of  Woongarrah, New South Wales, Austrailia
  • Kristen Finlay of  (We’ll add her location as soon as she responds to the congratulatory e-mail)

For those of you who didn’t win, you’re eligible to enter the Week # 2 give-away. It only takes a minute so keep trying!

 

The Give-away Ground Rules

The whole thing is very simple. I’ll be giving away one item per week. At the end of that week, the winner will be selected and a new give-away will begin. The winner will have seven days to claim their prize. Other than the congratulatory message, I will send only 1 “nag-mail” during the week.

If the winner has not informed me of his or her mailing address – or even acknowledged the congratulatory message – after seven days, the prize will be awarded to another participant chosen at random from that week’s entries.

All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail address in the contact form at the bottom of the page. Pretty darn simple, right? If you don’t win this week’s prize, you can always have a go at the one for next week.

I only ask two things of the winners:

  1. Please allow other folks to have a go at winning and not enter a second give-away. When we get around to giving away the major swag, I may make an occasional exception.
  2. If you are fortunate enough to win a print or digital copy of Urban Mermaid, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com. It does not have to be deathless prose, though we well not say no tho those kind of reviews. Just say that you – hopefully – liked the story and give Urban Mermaid the appropriate one to five-star rating.

Now that I’ve covered the ground rules, let’s get down to business.

This week, I’m offering another autographed copy of Urban Mermaid to be delivered to your front door or Post Office box. If you’re trying to save a few trees by keeping your collection of print books to a minimum, I’ll be happy to substitute a digital (Kindle) copy.

OK, that’s enough blether from me.  The only thing left to say is “Ready. Steady. Go!!!” Good luck, everyone.

 

Let the Give-aways begin!

Birthday give-awayIt is after 1:52 AM, EST, on  January 30th 2016, so let’s give away some goodies!

The whole thing is very simple. I’ll be giving away one item per week. At the end of that week, the winner will be selected and a new give-away will begin. The winner will have seven days to claim their prize. Other than the congratulatory message, I will send only 1 “nag-mail” during the week.

If the winner has not informed me of his or her mailing address – or even acknowledged the congratulatory message – after seven days, the prize will be awarded to another participant chosen at random from that week’s entries.

All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail address in the contact form at the bottom of the page. Pretty darn simple, right? If you don’t win this week’s prize, you can always have a go at the one for next week.

I only ask two things of the winners:

  1. Please allow other folks to have a go at winning and not enter a second give-away. When we get around to giving away the major swag, I may make an occasional exception.
  2. If you are fortunate enough to win a print or digital copy of Urban Mermaid, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com. It does not have to be deathless prose, though we well not say no tho those kind of reviews. Just say that you – hopefully – liked the story and give Urban Mermaid the appropriate one to five-star rating.

Now that I’ve covered the ground rules, let’s get down to business.

Urban Mermaid give-awayThis week, I’m offering an autographed copy of Urban Mermaid to be delivered to your front door or Post Office box. If you’re trying to save a few trees by keeping your collection of print books to a minimum, I’ll be happy to substitute a digital (Kindle) copy.

OK, that’s enough blether from me.  The only thing left to say is “Ready. Steady. Go!!!” Good luck, everyone.

 

Urban Mermaid Book Trailer

The World Premier of the Urban Mermaid Book Trailer

January 30th, 2016

Those of you with older eyes may want to watch this in full-screen mode.

This trailer was created by Ilsie Om of The Woodsy Fawn

Copyright 2016 by Howard Parsons

Urban Mermaid Book Trailer

My heartfelt thanks go to the (very) Talented artist,  Ilsie Om, Shelly & Caitland Moore of Gazebo Gardens Publishing authors Emm Cole & S.K. Munt, and most of all my wife, Judi Parsons, who believed in me even when I, myself, did not.

I hope that you will enjoy this wonderful trailer and will like it so much that you’ll want to read the book. It is available in both paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon.com. There are links in the right-hand column to make your shopping experience easy.

It’s My Party

Keep Calm & Celebrate My BirthdayYes, it’s the author’s birthday and just like Bilbo Baggins, he’s going to be the one to hand out the gifts. (Sorry. Magic Ring trick not included.) I’m using the occasion of my ⊗⊗th birthday to kick off a two month-long Urban Mermaid give-away. There’s nothing to buy, no jingles to write, and no box-tops to send in.[1] All you’ll have to do is submit your name and e-mail address and you’re in the running for one of the birthday gifts.

You can enter as many times as you like but be warned that the prize selection software provided by Parsonage Data Services will ensure that there is only one entry for each person when it comes time to choose a winner. Once the winner for the weekly give-away has been selected and announced, they will have seven days to claim their prize. Otherwise, the prize will be awarded to another entrant.

So, what sort of swag will be handed out? The prize list includes:

  • Autographed copies of Urban Mermaid
  • Urban Mermaid tea/coffee mugs
  • Embroidered Urban Mermaid ball caps
  • Embroidered Urban Mermaid polo shirts

I’ve also got Urban Mermaid bookmarks as consolation prizes for selected runners-up.

It all kicks off on January 30th, 2016. Simply book mark this page and there will be a link to the current give-away.

Here’s the link to the 4th give-away!

There you have it! Tell your friends! Tell your pets! Tell your mother-in-law! But be sure to stop by on Saturday, January 30th and join in the fun.

 Watch the Urban Mermaid Book Trailer!

Birthday cupcake


 

[1] Those of a certain age will remember that once upon a time, this is what you had to do in order to enter a contest.

Another Short Story

As promised, I have republished my short story, Emptiness, here on ColonyIsland.com. This story first saw light as an entry in a fan-fiction contest sponsored by S.K. Munt, author of The Fairytail Saga, and was published at the end of Stained Glass, the concluding novel in the series. As there are ample remarks on the same page as Emptiness, I will say no more in this post.

A possible short story in the offing.

The Turning Tides. A possible jumping off point for another short storyI have in mind, another writing exercise dealing with Derrolyn Anderson’s Marina’s Tales series. This short story would use several of the characters in her series and would be set sometime after the end of The Turning Tides, the final novel in her series. The seaside town of Aptos, was the locale for her series and makes a Cameo appearance in Urban Mermaid. It would be the main locale for the, as yet, unnamed short story.

Now before anyone starts unfounded rumours or points fingers in my general direction, I would like to state that I loved Derrolyn Anderson’s series, Marina’s Tales. It was her story to tell and she did a fine job of telling it. I have absolutely no issue with the way it was told or the way the series ended and I am not planning to do this as a way of correcting some perceived oversight on her part.

Instead, my idea is for a “what if” post script to her story. A bit of speculative fiction, if you will. Whether it ever sees the light of day is another matter. This is meant to be a writing exercise to get me back in the groove for  Sirena, the sequel to Urban Mermaid. I am merely going to borrow her characters and locales  as a set situation for cobbling this short story.

In may respects, this sort of thing is more difficult than writing something from scratch. At least there, you get to create the characters and warp them to your purposes. By using another novel as a jumping off point, you are stuck with the characters pretty much as they are and there is only so much wiggle room.

I also do not plan to emulate her writing style. That is hers and hers alone. I’m just borrowing some of her characters.

My aim is to get back to writing full time – or a much as a full time job will allow – and I do not plan to spend very much time debating whether to publish the short story or not. If I do decide to publish the story- with profuse apologies to Derrolyn Anderson, of course – it will most likely be here on ColonyIsland.com.

Emptiness may be found as a menu item under the  Writing Urban Mermaid tab on Colony Island.com. You can also cut to the chase by going to https://colonyisland.com/emptyness/. I hope that you’ll enjoy the story.

A perfect day for reading

A perfect day to read.

A snowy day on Oakwood Avenue.

It’s cold and snowy in the mid-Atlantic states today. Just the perfect opportunity to snuggle up with a hot cuppa tea and the digital edition of Urban Mermaid!

Get it now at Amazon.com!

Mermaids vs. Sirens – Know the difference

Mermaids or Sirens?Q: What’s the difference between mermaids and sirens? I thought they were one in the same?

A: Somewhere along the literary and mythological road, mermaids and sirens got confused into one creature: a half-woman, half-fish creature known for her beautiful singing voice. Originally, it was only the mermaid that was a half-human, half-fish creature, and a singing voice wasn’t mentioned in early myths. Sirens were the singers, and they were actually half-woman, half-bird creatures.

For a more detailed explanation, please see the article The Difference Between Mermaids and Sirens. (This is a link to an external page and will open a new browser tab.)

As you can see, the idea of mermaids has come a long way over the centuries.

Mermaids, Sirens, and The World of Colony Island

In developing the concept of mermaids – and mermen – for Urban Mermaid, I kept some ideas, dispensed with others, and overall, made them more user-friendly. 

For example, I kept the idea of beautiful singing voices and expanded the franchise to include mermen. This will be explored in greater detail by the sequel to Urban Mermaid, Sirena. (This is the current working title.)

The idea of luring sailors to their doom with sweet singing was a non-starter. While the idea of luring men – sailors or otherwise – to their death is a popular notion amongst misandrists[1]Urban Mermaid is not that kind of story. While Penelope does become totally frustrated with Peter at one point in the plot and contemplates doing away with him, an unknown inner voice scolds her for even thinking of such a thing.

As for Pausanias, in the second century, describing mermen as having scales covering their entire bodies, gills, a fish-like mouth, and a scaly tail like a dolphin’s, we can only assume that this specimen was an early prototype on which Poseidon refused to sign off. As the reader will discover in the prologue, the sea god had definite ideas as to how his mortal children should appear.

The merfolk of Colony Island will be examined in greater detail by a forthcoming FAQ.

For a humorous look at how sirens operate nowadays, take a look at the Siren School slideshow. 

Disclaimer

The preceding discourse concerns is how the author envisions the merfolk of Colony Island would appear and behave. His opinions and prejudices are just that; opinions and prejudices. They are not intended to defame or belittle the vision of any reader, writer, or illustrator. Sadly, there are no merfolk around to prove or disprove our ideas and speculation.


[1] By definition, a misandrist is a person – usually female – who hates men. This is the opposite of  a misogynist, a person – usually male, but not always – who hates women. By and large, most – if not all – radical feminists are at their core, misandrists.

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