As we near the end of the first one-twelfth of this fantabulous fiscal year, I have three things on my mind for you wonderful folks. And I hope you listen with attentive eye.

Image from Pixabay.

1. @gardengnomepubs is happy to announce we have obtained three very generous delegators for a total delegation of 150 SP. Thanks to @cyemela, @felt.buzz, and @manoldonchev, the first Steem-connected publishing house can do more to support its growing base of fans. But we still have a long way to go before reaching the title page of our dreams. More details on delegation and membership in the Speculative Fiction Writers of Steemit (SFWS) Discord community below.
2. Narrative has opened up blogging for current members.
3. Garden Gnome Publications and SFWS are looking for partners. Again, details below.

How To Support Garden Gnome Publications

Garden Gnome Publications is proud to be the first Steem-connected publishing initiative. Where others can say they'd like to publish books, we already have. Look below this post and you'll see four books published under the Garden Gnome Publications umbrella. Three of them are multi-author fiction anthologies and the other is a standalone novella. All four are in the speculative fiction genre.

Garden Gnome Publications was started four years ago and quickly published three fiction anthologies with a very unique flavor. We pride ourselves on publishing stories that other publishers won't touch. We consciously strive to be different, not just better.

The decision to take the publishing initiative onto the Steem blockchain was an easy one. We wanted to accomplish three things:

1. Show our continued support and commitment to Steem and Steemit
2. Provide greater opportunities for the small number of speculative fiction authors already on Steemit and to build a community around them
3. Promote Steemit to speculative fiction writers in the wild

With these three goals in mind, we are looking for active supporters who may not necessarily be writers or authors themselves but want to support those who are. And not just writers in general, but writers within the speculative fiction genre. This is just the kind of initiative I believe such Steemit luminaries as @aggroed, @dobartim, and @neoxian can get behind.

Without further ado, I'd like to outline how interested parties can support this initiative with a delegation.

Writers and Authors

If you are a writer and a fan of speculative fiction, we'd love to have you join our community. This is a necessary first step as you'll be a supporter of those who are actively writing and publishing such work on their Steemit blogs. I've noticed that many writers of such stories don't know they are writing in this genre, so I'll spell out what #speculativefiction actually is:

Speculative Fiction can best be defined as any narrative fiction where the primary component involves an element of speculation.

That's a pretty broad definition. Wikipedia fleshes it out a little more. The largest genres within this category are #sciencefiction, #fantasy, and #horror, however, many authors mix and match these with other elements such as the supernatural, dystopian, apocalyptic, weird, and more. Garden Gnome Publications encourages such mixing and matching and love it when it's done well.

So your first step is to join our community. Once inside, read the rules and introduce yourself. After you've been promoted to minion, you can then show your support with a delegation and receive the following guaranteed benefits:

25 SP Delegation

• Minions - 25% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Speculators - 35% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Fictionistas - 50% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.

50 SP Delegation

• Minions - 35% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Speculators - 50% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Fictionistas - 65% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.

75 SP Delegation

• Minions - 50% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Speculators - 65% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Fictionistas - 75% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.

100 SP Delegation

• Minions - 65% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Speculators - 80% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.
• Fictionistas - 100% upvote once daily until delegation is cancelled.

We are looking for active members. An active member is someone who is not just a link dropper. They support the other authors in the group with upvotes and comments. So, while link rooms are open to all members of the community, members who are not active should not expect these benefits. Our requirement is for members to share 3 links per month and to upvote and comment one other link for each link shared in our rooms. A small price to pay for a huge benefit.

Non-members can also delegate. Non-members who delegate will receive the following benefits:

• 25+ SP delegation - 25% upvote once daily
• 50+ SP delegation - 50% upvote once daily
• 100+ SP delegation - 100% upvote once daily

Writers, readers, and fans of spec-fic, come on out and join us!

Narrative is Allowing Personal Blog Entries

I've mentioned Narrative before. If you haven't heard of it, Narrative is another blockchain-based social media site that is scheduled to enter beta in March. Anyone who has signed up during the alpha phase has an early head start. They are now allowing such members to blog on their personal journals.

There is a catch, however. While you can write blog posts, they will not be published until beta launch. They'll sit in the queue until then. But, if you write them now, they will go live when #Narrative launches in beta and you'll already have a leg up on content creation and potential rewards when new members join. As of right now, I've got one post pending.

The Garden Gnomes Are Looking for Working Partners

Garden Gnome Publications announced in their latest Spec-Fic Parade (the weekly Steemit newsletter for the publishing house), they are looking for active partners. Specifically, positions they'd like to fill include:

• Community evangelist
• Graphic artist
• Blog editor
• Imprint editor

Hit me up on Discord if you're interested.

Coming Soon!

The first #exquisite-corpse of 2019. To get in and to stay up with when, follow @gardengnomepubs. Also, anyone interested in the #farmpunk fiction contests should follow @gardengnomepubs as those contests will likely be managed under that account going forward.

The garden gnomes are committed to making 2019 a banner year. Won't you help us out?

Dividers by @EdibleChthulhu.

Get your weird lit on:

The Biblical Legends Anthology Series

Garden of Eden	Sulfurings	Deluge
At Amazon	At Amazon	At Amazon

Limerents in the Bog

At Amazon

While you're here, check out the backside 5:

• The Evolution of Social Media
• Ups, Downs, and Settlers of Catan
• Google+ and Me: Why I Deleted My Account
• How About a Quickie? (For the Garden Gnomes)
• Surreal Fiction: Customer Service

Review Me, Please

Created by @EdibleCthulhu