1. Catherine Gardner is hosting a contest to help plan a werewolf's fate...and expose the deepest, darkest secrets of circus-folk. You could be a hero, and win a copy of the Malpractice anthology.
2. Nathan Bransford wants you to set up an account at ESPN and pick the winners for some sport that is, apparently, moving into finals. I think it may be basketball. What I did catch, though, is whomever does the best in guessing the brackets (not sure how that works...sports betting is well beyond my grasp) gets a query evaluation from one of Nathan's clients...he doesn't say who (whom? too lazy to check HOW9), but Nathan has some clout, and getting your query eval'd by someone who broke through his gateway may be worth more than a handful of magic beans to all of you novel and novella-makers out there.
**UPDATE**
Almost forgot about Natalie Sin's ongoing Pick the Winner contest...follow the linkie, pick a story, and the next one to get published wins you--yes, YOU SIR!--a prize! Step right up!
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I don't fret over my hitcounts for this site, but I do check my Google stats every once in a while, and I would estimate that 75% of the hits I get go to a post from last year where I had a delirious dream under the influence of cold medicine. So every post shall forthwith contain the words Nyquil and Alcohol and Dangers. Mercedes thinks I should post a picture of myself in bright red lipstick, but I'm saving that as a last resort.
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And, for really no reason whatsoever-- Lenore, the cute little dead girl: