Notices

New perk for Critter members — Free ads for your books

Many Critterfolk have asked if they could advertise their books and stories on Critters. I know how important it is to get the word out — and how hard that is — so I decided heck, let's try it as an experiment and see how it goes. Details are here

The State of The Future?

What are your thoughts about the future (as in, "The Future")? Is the future healthy or are people burned out on it? Share your thoughts at http://newnewforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=553

Ebook Pricing Results, and an Experiment

The results are in! I've written up an analysis of the results of that Ebook Pricing Survey I conducted. The analysis is at:

http://www.critters.org/ebookpricing.ht As a result of it I'm also doing an experiment to test out the variable pricing, "Pay As You Like It" idea by posting some ebooks under that model. (Reader pays after reading based on how much they liked it, with suggested prices for liked it / average / disliked it.) You can read about this little experiment here: http://www.critters.org/pricexp.ht Readers often say they'd like to avoid high prices on DRM-locked ebooks, and they'd pay if only they had the opportunity... so I'll be very curious to see if that bears out! I'd also like to hear what people think of the idea and how I've executed it.

Vote for Your Favorites!

http://critters.org/bestpoll

It has polls for your all-time favorite books / short stories / poems / poets / authors, each in genres of mainstream / SF&F / horror / mystery / romance / erotica / thriller / childrens / young adult / nonfiction. (Ok, there's no "nonfiction poetry" category but... :) )

Please give it a try, vote for your favorites, and please spread the word. The more people vote the better the scoring gets. Hope you find it useful!

Wishes for the Future

What do you want the future to hold? World peace? Self-driving cars? Share your dreams of the future, big or small, on the Wishes for the Future forum. What would you love to see? (It's part of my NewNewForum.com site. Meant to be fun, and it's anonymous, so don't be shy!) We're 73% of the way there, thanks!

The Critters Queue

Manuscripts themselves are here.

Queue of manuscripts out or to be sent (dates are estimated,
depending on number of mss. sent out, which depends on number of
members; probabalistically, the end of the queue is usually about
a month away):


     Title                      	Author
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Week of 28-Jul-2010 (Crits due 4-Aug-2010):
 SF  Locked Out                         [mpc] Thomas Beck -#18492
 F   Little Evil                        Carl Alves -#18493
 F   In the Ink, Pearls                 Mary Catelli -#18494
 F   My Confused Dog                    Russell Adams -#18495
 SF  The Dust of Antique Time           Karl Bunker -#18496
 SF  Edge of Time                       David Smullen -#18497
 SF  Row, Row, Row Your Spaceship       [@] Chet Gottfried -#18498
 SF  Legacy Soldier Ch 17               Rob Gilliam -#18499
 SF  Trees                              Charity June -#18500
 H   A Fallen Tree                      Chris Bauer -#18501
 F   Grave Knight                       Ken Wells -#18502
 SF  Light From A Distant Sun           Paul Crawford -#18503
 F   Willowleaf's Quest or a Quick Study in the Managerial Methods of Spirits  Aidan Fritz -#18504
 H   The Horror in Cell 18              Michael Intromasso -#18505
 SF  The Waterhole                      Madison Henderson -#18506
 F   From the Ashes                     Alec Williams - Murray -#18507
 SF  Alien Contact for Idiots, chapter 1  [@] Ed Hoornaert -#18508
 SF  Not in My Bar                      J. C. Rawelth -#18509
 F   The Choice Chapter 1               Sue Wylie -#18510
 SF  Dim Reckonings, Chapters 1-3       Chris DeFillippi -#18511
 SF  Jeremiad                           David Barron -#18512
 SF  Twin Mediums                       Tammy Theriot -#18513
 SF  Faces of a Coin, Chapter 1         Laurie Colson -#18514
 SF  If you could see it coming         Henry McFarland -#18515
 SF  The scent of ajira flowers         Sonja Launspach -#18516
 SF  Medic!                             Adam Perin -#18517
 SF  Artefact Nouveau Screenplay        Gareth D Jones -#18518

Week of 4-Aug-2010 (Crits due 11-Aug-2010):
 SF  The Long Trip                      [@] Ken Liu
 F   Knights of magi                    Chris Pike
 SF  Dickson's Misconceptions           Olaleye Jeremiah
 F   The Giant's Last Meal (A Fable)    J.P. Hooper
 H   Hunger                             Emily Teng
 SF  Solace for Sanity                  Vaughn Cowart
 F   Lili Chapter 1 and 2               Danni-Louise Fender
 SF  The Virtual Resort, version2, Ch 1-2  Rene L. Saucedo
 SF  Eye of the Beholder                Graham Debenham
 F   The Jongurian Mission, Chapter 0   Greg Strandberg
 F   Ring of Trust                      Dionisios Efkarpidis
 SF  Coherence, Chapters 1-4            Carter Bowles
 F   I'm Not The Chosen One             Sarah Gibbel
 H   Witches are Tricky; Ask the Villagers  Christopher White
 F   Darkphire Prologue Part 1          Mario Rodgers
 SF  Tokyo Haze                         Michael Banker
 F   Antumbra, chapters 0-5             Ashleigh Rutherford
 SF  The Wolf With the Silver Blue Hands  Eric Ellert
 SF  The Restless Desires of the Living and the Dead  Victor Eremita
 SF  Guan                               Alan Cooper
 SF  A World Without Cats               Brad Baughman
 F   The Pick-Up                        Justin R. Lawfer
 SF  Better Than a C+ Education         Michael i Roberts
 H   Forever Man Chapters 1 - 3         Brian W. Matthews
 H   Childhood Fear                     Allison Sands
 F   The Oracle's Revenge               Greg Fields
 SF  One Woman Army - part 1            M. I. Burton
 F   The Sailor and the Apple King, chapter 1  Janet Haigh
 F   Blizzard Season                    Jonathan David Lim
 SF  The Forever Friends                Tim Jordan
 F   Downlander, Chapter 2              Emma Madden

Week of 11-Aug-2010 (Crits due 18-Aug-2010):
 F   Clockwork Jack                     John Battenfeld
 SF  The Waking of Sleeping Beauty      Sarina Dorie
 F   The Taking of Margham Quint        David Ferrington
 F   In the Still of the Night          Jim Cue
 SF  Plenus Luna                        Ryan K. Howington
 F   The Two of Wands: Dominion         Nerine Dorman
 F   Green Island Chapter 12            Anne Nicholson
 H   A Girl Named Stephanie             Lawrence Vernon
 F   The Retriever--Chapter 12B         A.K.Karam
 SF  The Extravagant Vagabonds, Chapters 11-14  A.M. Cole
 SF  The Gift - Chapter Three           Brian Fischer-Giffin
 F   The Tale                           Michael Bondies
 F   Bronze Raiders: A tale of Ancient Troy Part 5  Dan Bracewell
 SF  Buzz                               Steve Everett
 F   Demon Master RunningStream         Annette
 SF  Lingham 22                         M.R. Zuchniak
 F   Monsters                           Scott Malabarba
 F   Relic of Knowledge, Chapters 2-3   Terry C. Simpson
 SF  Xenophobia, Prologue - Chapter 1   Chelsea
 SF  Mongolian Barbecue                 Carl Frederick
 SF  Chana                              Ieva Melgalve
 SF  Bodyguard                          L Young
 F   Last Rites                         David Haws
 F   The Great and Cacklin' Glakin      Jason Hauser
 H   I Am Berith                        Rob Jacobsen
 SF  Mr. Walters                        Evan Witt
 SF  The First Grave                    John Dowden
 SF  The Omega Protocol Part I          Jonden Chickeness
 F   The Secret of Time                 Joel Dunham
 SF  The Delicate Master Ogilvie        Tim Rohr

Week of 18-Aug-2010 (Crits due 25-Aug-2010):
 H   The First Day of the Last of My Life  Greg Burch
 F   The Morning House                  Dennis Sun
 H   Mother's Night                     Paul M. Frazier
 SF  Earthchange - revised opening      Susan Jelly
 H   Wishes and Curses                  Ed Kratz
 F   I Like your Lamp                   Amy Green
 SF  Bless Your Heart                   Susan Boye-Lynn
 SF  Tribal Flyer Jibril                Michael Andre-Driussi
 F   The Sorcerer Within                Will Rice
 F   The Prince's Guardian, Chapter 1   Erin Sullivan
 F   Lady Silver: Warlock Chronicles, Book One, Ch. 1-2  Bobbie Felder
 F   The Book of Jack                   Karl Sundsvold
 SF  Zaftan Entrepreneurs               Hank Quense
 F   Hybrid                             Kurt
 F   The Basket                         Laura Eschbaugh
 SF  The Frontier World of Luna         Chong Shang Shan
 SF  The Tooth Fairy                    Kevin M White
 H   Big Bad                            Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
 SF  Lost Gods, 19-20 with brief synopsis  David Anthony
 SF  The Weatherman                     Eileen Rhoadarmer
 F   Exit 163 - Satan's Gas Station     Sarah Appleyard
 F   The Threat of Tyranny              Sean Guzman
 F   Making Arrangements                Carrie Cuinn
 SF  Legends - the Beginning, Prologue/Chapter 1/Outline  Mohamed Moshrif
 H   Book of Shadows, Chapters Twenty-Six and Twenty-Seven  A. R. Braun
 SF  Inkwater                           Josh English
 H   Beads of Darkness, Chapters 1-2    Robert A. Robles
 F   The Neck                           P.E. Zimmerman
 SF  Deep Within Lay Humanity           Alex J. Kane
 F   Journey to Calinth                 Michael Vella
 F   Morning Star, Chapters 1-4         Jason Rush
 SF  Pygmalitron                        Tom Greene
 F   Lovemachinist                      Ben Godby
 F   Church Mouse                       Stephanie Pace
 SF  Farshift - Chronicles of a Wayward World, Chapters 1-3  Mike Carambat
======================================================================
      (Note, if the last week above looks abnormally large, it probably
      needs me to add a new week, a task I do manually when I get around
      to it.  Future critique dates are approximate and subject to change.)

[@] - Pro [SFWA/HWA] author
[*] - Extra week(s) for holidays/aburt-out-of-town.
[mpc] - Most Product Critter Award winner
[!] - Special non-Wednesday dates because Critter Captain will be out of town

Waiting to enter Queue (Will enter at end of queue on "[date]"):

 F   The Three of Wands â€" Virtue      Nerine Dorman [18-Aug-2010]
 F   The Four of Wands: Completion      Nerine Dorman [?]
 F   Five of Wands: Strife              Nerine Dorman [?]
 F   Six of Wands: Victory              Nerine Dorman [?]
 F   The Dead of Night                  Nerine Dorman [?]
 F   A Pearl for Anel                   Nerine Dorman [?]
 H   The Lucky Ones                     Leonard Dawson [?]
 H   Snakecharmer                       Nerine Dorman [?]
 F   A Covenant With Darkness           Nerine Dorman [?]
 F   Green Island Chapter 13            Anne Nicholson [18-Aug-2010]
 F   Green Island Chapter 14            Anne Nicholson [?]
 H   In the Forest of the Mountain Wolf (2nd Revision)  Lawrence Vernon [18-Aug-2010]
 F   Green Island Chapter 15            Anne Nicholson [?]
 F   Green Island Chapter 16            Anne Nicholson [?]
 H   A Piggish Nightmare                Lawrence Vernon [?]
 H   At Three Past Midnight (3rd Revision)  Lawrence Vernon [?]
 F   Serpent's Heart                    Donald Jacob Uitvlugt [25-Aug-2010]
 SF  To Sail the Winds of Song          Donald Jacob Uitvlugt [?]
 H   Over the Threshold                 Donald Jacob Uitvlugt [?]
 SF  The Extravagant Vagabonds, Chapters 15-18  A.M. Cole [18-Aug-2010]
 H   On A Foggy Day (2nd Revision)      Lawrence Vernon [?]
 H   Patrick's Halloween Party          Lawrence Vernon [?]
 F   The Hour of the Rat                Donald Jacob Uitvlugt [?]
 F   Green Island, Chapters 17,18       Anne Nicholson [?]
 F   Green Island, Chapter 19           Anne Nicholson [?]
 F   Green Island Chapter 20            Anne Nicholson [?]
 F   Green Island Chapter 21            Anne Nicholson [?]
 H   The Gift - Chapter 4               Brian Fischer-Giffin [18-Aug-2010]
 H   The Gift - Chapter 5               Brian Fischer-Giffin [?]
 H   The Zeva Project                   Lawrence Vernon [?]
 SF  In The Frying Pan                  Steve Everett [18-Aug-2010]
 H   The Vampire at the Dealership [?]
 SF  The Orphan                         Steve Everett [?]
 H   Oil Slicks                         Lawrence Vernon [?]
 F   Witch, Prologue and Chapters 1&2   Diana Lai [?]
 SF  The Video                          Michael Bondies [18-Aug-2010]
 SF  Legacy Soldier Ch 18               Rob Gilliam [4-Aug-2010]
 SF  Legacy Soldier Ch 19               Rob Gilliam [?]
 H   Untitled Short Story               M. R. Zuchniak [18-Aug-2010]
 H   Outside, the Quiet Darkness Brooded  Brian Fischer-Giffin [?]
 SF  Knights Of Magi Betrayl            chris pike [11-Aug-2010]
 H   The Spyglass                       Rob Jacobsen [18-Aug-2010]
 SF  The One I Remember                 Russell Adams [4-Aug-2010]
 H   Shadows (2nd Revision)             Lawrence Vernon [?]
 F   Things Might Turn Out OK After All  David Ferrington [18-Aug-2010]
 H   The Take                           Christopher White [11-Aug-2010]
 F   The Retriever--Chapter 1           A.K. Karam [18-Aug-2010]
				-+-

Held until participation ratio improves (then out that week):

 SF  A Girl Named Charlotte             Logan Evans [29-Jun-2010]
 H   Never Bitten                       Chris Narbone [29-Jun-2010]
 SF  An Elbow to Break                  Rob Queen [29-Jun-2010]
 F   The Spirited Adventures of Abby Pink Tales  Rachelle Kaufman [29-Jun-2010]
 SF  Old Photographs                    Donnalise Caruana [29-Jun-2010]
 SF  Walk in the Shadows Chapters 1&2   Vanessa Knipe [29-Jun-2010]
 SF  The Girl's Story                   Roxanne P. Johnson [21-Jul-2010]
 F   Bloodstone                         Kyle Griswold [28-Jul-2010]
 F   Sandman                            Bryan Thomas Schmidt [28-Jul-2010]
 SF  The End of the 8 Planets           Andrew McLennan-Murray [28-Jul-2010]
 F   Bridge Over the River Why          James McLendon [28-Jul-2010]
 SF  Legends - the Beginning            Mohamed Moshrif [28-Jul-2010]
 SF  Truthspeaker                       Andrew Rula [28-Jul-2010]
 F   The Woods of Wistman's Grove       Tyson Young [28-Jul-2010]
 SF  Earth's Last Cry                   Michael Rosado [28-Jul-2010]
 F   The Manda, Chapters 1-5            Sian Chapman [28-Jul-2010]
 SF  She Could Be You                   Shara Shatley [28-Jul-2010]
                                :::


>> Note 1:  Held manuscripts are removed after four weeks on hold and
>> must be resubmitted.

>> Note 2:  It is the *author's* responsibility to notify Aburt when
>> they have brought up their critique count and want their ms. sent out.




[Click here to see the queue including archival data from 1995.]