Category: News from the Publisher

Maintenance update

Featured Trisha Lynn

15 March 2024: After many, many years, two apartment/house moves, and the duration of a Master’s degree, I am slowly bringing this blog out of hibernation, and have turned this website into my personal blog. In addition to the necessary back-end updates and upgrades, I have already done the following:

  • Completely redesigned the site using a new WordPress theme
  • Selected certain posts to be “guest contributor” posts and compensated the authors
  • Removed all original content that doesn’t belong to me and reverted ownership of the content they provided back to the authors/contributors

Over the next few months, I’ll be making even more changes and making the odd post here and there; older posts may not be available to view immediately. If you are a former contributor and/or you have questions, please use the Contact form to reach out to me.

Road to the Hugo Awards: Presenting The Geeking Out About… Platform

Trisha Lynn8 Comments

Geeking Out About Spout © Geeking Out About
Geeking Out About Spout © Geeking Out About

As I’ve mentioned before, I became a sci-fi fan when I was in college. However, even though I was interested in writing sci-fi (and the one short story I’ve had published had been written during this time) I didn’t really get into the world of being a sci-fi writer until I learned who author John Scalzi was, thanks to Wil Wheaton. His writing about what it’s like to be a sci-fi author drew me into wanting to learn more about the fandom and the genre, to the point of where I now actively follow several prominent authors on Twitter and know the names of several more.

(I also “stuck my oar in” like almost everyone else did during the whole SFWA Bulletin #200 thing and was issued a DMCA takedown request as a result, but that’s almost ancient history now.)

When word first broke on how a vocal and reactionary segment of the sci-fi/fantasy fandom managed to rally its supporters over the years into jamming works they liked into the nominations list for the Hugo Awards, culminating in a near-total overrun in 2015, I was amused at how it began, appalled and how it progressed, and ultimately impressed at what they managed to pull off.

Which makes me think that if a group of terrible people can push forwards works they think epitomize the best in science fiction and fantasy, why can’t someone like me who is not completely terrible do the same thing?

Here then are the planks of the first-ever “Geeking Out About…” platform for the 2016 Hugo Awards season: Continue reading “Road to the Hugo Awards: Presenting The Geeking Out About… Platform” →

Geeks Helping Geeks: Help this man find a job!

Trisha Lynn1 Comment

(c) Sequential Tart

ETA: All is mostly well! Update at the end.

On a night when an old white guy and a younger white guy are debating over which of their respective political ideals purport to help create more jobs in the U.S., it’s very easy to be caught up in their rhetoric and ignore the reality that faces the people who have found themselves out of work and desperately trying to keep things going another day.

An example that hits very close to home for me is that of Kevin Lillard, one of the first to document North American cosplay enthusiasts and anime conventions at his now-defunct website “A Fan’s View.” His website was most active in the late 1990s and early 2000s where he would criss-cross the United States to take photographs of cosplayers, panelists, events, and many more of the activities that surround an average anime convention.

However, after a round of layoffs at the Indianapolis Star where he had been a reporter for over 18 years, Lillard became homeless, and was forced to live out of his car. This Facebook message, written in the middle of the day on October 12 details how poor his situation currently is: Continue reading “Geeks Helping Geeks: Help this man find a job!” →

Final hours for GeekingOutAbout.com birthday contest!

Trisha Lynn5 Comments

Hemingway would be very disappointed if you didn't enter this contest

As a reminder, you have just 12 more hours left to enter the first annual GeekingOutAbout.com birthday contest! The deadline is midnight Eastern time tonight, and once again, here are the entry instructions and rules:

1. Write an original short story of exactly 50 words in length. Yes, “original” means no fan-fiction. You can enter as many times as you like, but each entry should be in a separate email, and only one of your entries can count as a winner.
2. Send the story in the body of an email to geekingoutabout@gmail.com, with the words “50 Word Story Contest” in the subject of the email. If you want to give your short story a title, you can also do that in the subject line of the email.
3. Tim Sevenhuysen, co-editor Jill Pullara and myself will be picking three winners, all of whom will receive an eBook bundle containing all of the electronic versions of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One . One Grand Prize Winner will receive the above and a $25 dollar USD gift certificate to the online retailer of your choice.

Once the contest is over, we will be evaluating all the entries and the winner should hopefully be announced by no later than June 7, with the winning entries posted here in the blog.

Good luck, and may the best short, short story writer win!

Reminder: Write a short story, win a fabulous prize!

Trisha Lynn

"Overcoming Writer's Block" (c) Stefan Mueller

Just a friendly reminder to let you know that there are only six more days remaining to enter the first annual GeekingOutAbout.com birthday contest! The deadline is May 31 by midnight Eastern time, and once again, here are the entry instructions and rules:

1. Write an original short story of exactly 50 words in length. Yes, “original” means no fan-fiction. You can enter as many times as you like, but each entry should be in a separate email, and only one of your entries can count as a winner.
2. Send the story in the body of an email to geekingoutabout@gmail.com, with the words “50 Word Story Contest” in the subject of the email. If you want to give your short story a title, you can also do that in the subject line of the email.
3. Tim Sevenhuysen, co-editor Jill Pullara and myself will be picking three winners, all of whom will receive an eBook bundle containing all of the electronic versions of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One . One Grand Prize Winner will receive the above and a $25 dollar USD gift certificate to the online retailer of your choice.

Once the contest is over, we will be evaluating all the entries and the winner should hopefully be announced by no later than June 7, with the winning entries posted here in the blog.

And if you’re curious as to what a fifty-word story looks like, here two of my recent favorites of those posted by Sevenhuysen at his site: Continue reading “Reminder: Write a short story, win a fabulous prize!” →

Geeking Out About.com’s first birthday comes with presents for readers and writers

Trisha Lynn3 Comments

My first love has always been reading and the written word, so I was pleased to receive this guest post from Tim Sevenhuysen about microfiction. And after I finished formatting it for the website, I thought, “What better way would there be to celebrate GeekingOutAbout.com’s first anniversary (which was May 1), but with a creative writing contest?”

With gracious sponsoring from Sevenhuysen, we’re pleased and proud to announce the first-annual Geeking Out About.com birthday contest, and here’s how to enter:

1. Write an original short story of exactly 50 words in length. Yes, “original” means no fan-fiction. You can enter as many times as you like, but each entry should be in a separate email, and only one of your entries can count as a winner.
2. Send the story in the body of an email to geekingoutabout@gmail.com, with the words “50 Word Story Contest” in the subject of the email. If you want to give your short story a title, you can also do that in the subject line of the email.
3. Tim Sevenhuysen, co-editor Jill Pullara and myself will be picking three winners, all of whom will receive an eBook bundle containing all of the electronic versions of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One. One Grand Prize Winner will receive the above and a $25 dollar USD gift certificate to the online retailer of your choice.
4. All entries must be received by midnight EST on May 31 in order to be eligible for a prize.

If you have any questions about the contest, reply to this post and we’ll answer them as best as we can.

Good luck, and good writing!

COMING SOON: “Geekly Speaking About…” goes live!

Trisha Lynn

Due to my ongoing microphone problems, U.K. TV expert Kara Dennison and I are testing something new out tonight, courtesy of TalkShoe.com. Tonight, starting at/around 9:45 pm Eastern Standard Time (GMT – 5:00), we’ll be launching the “Geekly Speaking About…” live podcast series with our viewing and discussion of the second episode of “Top Gear U.S.A.” on the History Channel.

We’d love for you to join us, and to do so, all you have to do is sign up for an account, and after you’ve logged in and right around 9:45 pm Eastern tonight, click on the “Join In” button to hear the call and participate in the text chat room. The best part is that once we’ve finished recording the show and our afterthoughts, the show website will be automatically updated with a file you can download to listen to if you were unable to join us tonight.

If all goes well, we’ll be doing more live podcasts on a regular basis, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Fun and fabulous prizes in store at the end of June

Trisha Lynn2 Comments

In the interest of being responsible reviewers, there are some times in which we here at Geeking Out About.com will read, watch, or experience something that’s outside of our comfort zone in order to provide the most coverage. For example, in preparation for her “First Night Flicks” review of Twilight: Eclipse, lead movie reviewer Lyssa has decided to watch both Twilight and New Moon back to back in one day.

Being the loving, and caring editors we are—and just because we’re into the idea of doing some MST3K-style commentary on two potentially horrible movies—co-editor Jillian and I decided that she shouldn’t have to do this alone. So, we’re going to join her for the first two parts of this epic saga of a human-vampire love that was never meant to be.

“But what is this thing about fabulous prizes?  I want fabulous prizes!” Well, we’re glad you asked… Continue reading “Fun and fabulous prizes in store at the end of June” →

What is Geeking Out About…?

Trisha Lynn

We’ve all done it at one point in our lives.

You know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s that feeling you get when you see, hear, or read about something cool, turn to your friends and say, “Did you see that?!”

Or it’s that feeling you get the instant you step into your favorite convention or log onto your favorite online game or go to a meetup and know that you are amongst people who not only understand the things that excite you, they grok them.

It’s what the Internet was built upon, this idea of sharing links and information and then talking about it. And thanks to people like Bill Gates, George Lucas, and Steve Jobs, the idea of not just being a geek but “geeking out” in general isn’t something to be sneered at anymore, but embraced and reveled in.

Along with some of my friends and colleagues across the globe, we hope to showcase what’s interesting, new, and exciting about the world in the fields of the arts, science, fashion, pop culture and more—with a geeky flavor.

Hope you enjoy the ride at GeekingOutAbout.com, and thanks for reading!