Maggie Stiefvater is an urban fantasy novelist who is sponsoring a contest to promote her new novel, Shiver. Contest details are on Maggie Stiefvater’s blog.Shiver will be released this summer on August 1.

(Congratulations, Maggie! I know you’re excited!)

Here’s the official blurb about the new book:

“For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf–her wolf–is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human–or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.”

You can pre-order Shiver now through Amazon.

To learn more about Maggie’s current contest see Crazy People! There are better ways to get ARCs. She’s offering ARC copies of Shiver and Lament (another novel she wrote,) and critiques.

Sounds good! I’m posting this in the hope my friend Kai Strand can win the contest! Go Kai!

Here’s another flash fiction story I wrote during one of my recent practice writing sessions:

by Linda Jo Martin

Daisy ran across the road into the park, glad to get away from the city streets. There she found quiet tranquility in the center of a frantic city, the place where she’d been born, where she was raised, where she has had always lived.

She made her way to the baseball field. It was empty, deserted, peaceful. She let herself in through the rusty metal gate and walked to the dugout where she could sit in the shade and enjoy a few minutes by herself. Ah, the scent of freedom - a brilliant orbed, blue skied, grass under the feet kind of expansive freedom that comes from a lifetime penned in by huge buildings and asphalt byways.

Daisy mellowed into the joy of aloneness, and relaxed for the first time that day. Between the stress of her job at the grocery store and her crazy, distressing relationship with Arden, she rarely found time for herself, but that was to change, she’d decided. She reached into her pocket where she’d hidden her treasure - a bus ticket to a small town in Idaho - a place she’d never been to where Arden would never think to look for her.

She smiled slightly, and looked out at the ball field as two children came in through a gate on the other side of the field. They had a big red ball with them, and started tossing it back and forth. She watched them wishing she’d had an easy relationship with Arden where both of them had equal rights and an opportunity to toss things back and forth, where neither felt downtrodden or afraid to speak. But that wasn’t the way it was. Her practical side forced her to shrug off the useless thoughts. By midnight she’d be gone along with her savings account, enough for her to live on until she found another job. It was time. It was freedom from Arden and from the dusty city and the tiring job, and it was way too late for remorse.

I’ve decided to add a flash fiction section to this website. I write a lot of flash fiction during my daily practice writing sessions, and can’t see that I’ll ever have any opportunity to sell it unless I add it to a chapbook someday. In the meantime, I’ll post some of my little stories (500 words or less) here at Perspectives on Writing. Here’s one I wrote a few days ago. The prompt was to “write about something white”.

From the White Light
by Linda Martin
February 26, 2008

Out of the white light, a cloudy, shimmery effulgence, an angelic figure stepped forth. He was clothed in a silky, flowing gown trimmed in shining gold, but there were no wings, so Cassandra wondered if he was a real angel, or only a saint. The man smiled gently, and she shivered, not knowing what would or could happen next.

“You called me forth,” the man said. His voice sounded like peeling, chiming, harmonizing bells going off in her head. “I am here for you, Cassandra.”

“I don’t know what to do.” She felt no fear.

“You don’t need to know. Let me lead you. I know the way.” He took her hand and gently guided her forward, then into the air. They flew together through blue sky looking down at a peaceful green earth. Everything seemed brighter than she’d ever seen it before. Bright, like great joy lit everything from within.

“I just wanted to see,” Cassandra said.

“And now you are seeing.”

“When can I see more?”

“When you know what you want to see.” The man paused in mid flight, still holding her hand, guiding her to a stop in the air beside him. “Your vision is complete, and now you go back to whence you came.”

Cassandra wanted to cry out, “NO! Let me stay!” Decorum prevented it. Instead she felt herself drifting back into consciousness, back to her bedroom where she sat cross-legged before a candle’s golden, flickering flame.