In the previous post of the day I made mention of the fact that Vincent Zandri and I are going to be doing something along with a class of graduate students from West Virginia University. It seems that the class has been following our blogs and Zandri’s success in class and one of the students called in to my blogtalk show yesterday, Thursday, as Mr. Zandri was my guest. The young woman is a Facebook friend of mine and follower of our blogs, Katherine LaHart. She put the suggestion to us that we, Mr.Zandri and I, should collaborate on a story and put it up for sale. Of course, I could not stop laughing, but then as the interview went on, some other ideas came to my mind. What if we did just a digital short story, we do it from two different perspectives, slapped it together, and then we have everybody in the class and the professor as guests on The G-ZONE, I can handle up to 50 callers at a time, and we read the story on the air, create an audio file of it, (like we do for the Improvised Digital short Stories we do), and then discuss, his writing, what blogging is about and social networking. Pretty cool,huh? Well I spoke to my buddies at Trestle Press and we are going to go one step further here: we have offered to put together an anthology of the classes’ short stories as it a creative writing class. More things may come to mind, but right now that is what we are rolling with. The working title we have for our soon to be digital short story,” The Gang that Couldn’t Kindle Straight”. The working description of the plotline is that I am taking my wife, Mrs. Gelati , back to my homeland, Trenton, N.J. for a night on the town. Part of that night is to include seeing Vincent Zandri, drummer extraordinaire, with his band the Blisterz performing their new album at a night club in Chambersburg, or to us Italian folk and natives of the area, The ‘Burg’. Mayhem may ensue, but certainly some frivolity.

*** Also please note at the conclusion of this post I have added my post from yesterday, The Delicious Dozen of Digital short Stories first quarter 2011 for my Goodreads friends. Alright ,’nuff said. On to today’s post, what do we have in the virtual pages: 

“Twists, turns, undercover cops, female mafia Dons and also female hit people (we need to be politically sensitive don’t we), are all here for you to try to figure out in this tangled and intense web of lies and deception that leads to death and betrayal. The next installment in The Smoking Gun Sisterhood series is a scorcher and one you do not want to miss. 

  Call me Thad Brown.  My real name is classified, to protect the guilty –I mean the innocent!

After being born at an early age, I made it through the K-12 educational system (though I didn’t like it).  From there, I went on to pick up a graduate degree or two, travel a bit in the U.S. and other countries, and become a writer, among other occupations (all of them legal –cross my heart!).  For the background of this book, though, one of the most important things about me is that I’ve been a lifelong admirer of strong, brave heroines who face life without flinching, and especially of kick butt heroines: ladies who can swing a sword, handle a gun, or throw a punch; who can go toe-to-toe with a villain, look him (or her) right in the eye, and dish out justice.  Growing up, I was a big fan of the ladies of Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers (and before that of the comic-book adventures of Supergirl); and over the years I discovered other heroines in this mold, onscreen and in print.  It’s my great privilege to be married to the world’s most beautiful and sexy woman, who leaps tall buildings with a single bound, catches bullets with her teeth, outruns speeding locomotives, and takes down a bad guy or two every day.  (All right, she doesn’t really do any of that stuff –but in my estimation, she could!)  Some of her qualities went into each one of the heroines of the stories in the SGS collection, if it’s only her good heart and fighting spirit; in its way, the book is my homage to her, and to all the real-life heroines out there, noticed or unnoticed.  So stand tall, girls; us guys salute you!”

I have come to thoroughly enjoy the writing style of Thad Brown. I was proud and very happy to include him near the top of the Digital Short list as he is an excellent writer. The stories are not the usual size for a digital short; many of them are far more than 10,000 words. There are plenty of twists and turns in this one, as the characters are strong, fully developed and intense. It is a joy for me to make the covers for this series as they are incredible reads and a bargain at the $.99 price tag. The women are nice, the cop in this one was a definite good guy, and the plotline was pretty amazing, and a bit twisted. The entire series is one great read after another. In total there will be ten installments of this series as it is planned. This is number four and there is yet to be a dud. If you haven’t had a read on any of them as yet, start with anyone of them; they are all excellent and do not need to be read in order as they all stand by themselves. When was the last time you spent less than a dollar on something and smiled so much? That is what you get with this series. Give this installment a try or one of the others, they will not disappoint you.

Gelati’s Scoop/The G-ZONE Delicious Dozen of Digital short Stories First Quarter of 2011

I just love digital short stories! They break up the week for me in such a fun way, definitely little bursts of energy that just make me smile as I read them in all kinds of fun ways: smartphone, laptop, Kindle, home computer, fish bowl. Okay just checking if you were reading or breezing by. Here is my Delicious Dozen of Digital short Stories, almost all are available for the measly price of $.99; you cannot go wrong! Now, drum roll please, or perhaps some AC/DC, maybe Thunderstruck would be apropos.

1.B.R. Stateham- Call Me Smitty-This is a must read, awesome series, great Hard Boiled stuff!!!!!!!

2. Big Daddy Abel The Open Mic Series - Humor that makes people laugh out loud. There is a reason this was in the Kindle top 20, great series, Do Not Miss This.

3. Thad Brown- The Smoking Gun Sisterhood Series-I really don’t care which of the four you read; they are all different and unique, but great in their quality throughout.

4.Bri Clark- Caffe Seduzione- I have a hard time saying the name, but the story read very well.

5.Barry Eisler- the Lost Coast- Seriously raw stuff, my Kindle was on fire when I finished.

6.Improvised Digital short Story “Hunter”- 4 authors, 4 different genres, one power packed story. What is not to like. We do it again this Saturday April 9th,Girls vs. The Guys, 8 authors, 2 stories, 3 little words. Fun, you bet.

7. C.Q. Scafidi- The Commissary- Geopolitical  conspiracy anyone? Yeah the Time Courier’s author is back at it in a new series and it rocks.

8.Laurie Bowler- Across The City series- GOT Vampires? There is plenty of action, blood and lust in this series for anyone. Good stuff!  

9. Jeffrey Martin Jr.- The House of Misery- This one is a firecracker and winner in the Trestle Press submission contest. Horror all the way.

10. Tom Sumner- All I Wanted Was A Haircut! – Very good series of humorist anecdotes. Just say he is the Sublime One and call it day, you can chill to this stuff and smile.

11.Wayne C. Rogers- The Encounter- This one is curve ball that is haunting, very bloody, but then again so is the cover.

12.Skylyr Symkyns- The Nexus Chronicles- Very nice YA stuff. I have enjoyed both chapters in the series.

Here you go different digital short series and the best part is they almost all come at a very simple price $.99. For twenty bucks you could fill your ereader with some serious stuff, what are waiting for, download now!

What are you reading today? Have you checked out our new blogtalk radio show The G-ZONE? Check us out and become our friend on Shelfari, The Novel Spot &Twitter. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Amazon Banner on our blog?  Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day.   http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com