March Madness Winner

Well, March Madness has come and gone this year. My personal bracket performed . . . fairly poorly. I picked Gonzaga to win it all, so at least I had half the finals right. But I only had 1/4 of the final four. 4/8 of the elite eight, and 7/16 of the sweet sixteen. Granted, it was a year full of quite a few upsets, so I definitely wasn’t alone, but still, I came in 9th in the challenge, out of 15 teams that entered. (More or less)

I say more or less because this year I did three test entries (that counted as part of the 15). The first was autogenerated by coin flip. ESPN randomly chose winners for each game. That bracket came in dead last, which was expected. The second was done using ESPN’s “expert analysis.” Basically it ran through each of the games and picked who they thought would win according to the data they had on each time. That team came in 5th, which was quite a bit better than I expected, and definitely leaves something to be said for the value in just letting the experts make the picks for you.

The third approach was done by just always picking the better seed to win each game. No upsets. No cinderella stories. And that one . . . came in second. If Gonzaga would have won last night, that third bracket would have won the whole thing. Granted, the reason it did so well is that the two “best” seeds went to the finals, but it’s still a little discouraging to think that all that deliberating on who would win which game, and which upsets I had to watch out for, all paled in comparison with just going for the better team each time.

However, the good news is that a human actually beat the ranking system, and so I’m pleased to announce that Rachel Cundick wins the prize and gets to name a character in THE AXEMAN. Which is handy for me, because I don’t really like coming up with names, and I’ve got a number of unnamed characters at the moment who would love having a moniker.

Thanks to everyone who played, and catch you next year!

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If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

March Madness: Name a Character in My Next Book

I’ve done the March Madness challenge for many years. And I’ve named numerous characters after different people over the years. However, I’m sad to say many of those characters are still trapped in drafts that haven’t seen publication, so it’s no doubt a frustrating experience for their winners.

This year, on the other hand, my current writing project is THE AXEMAN, a book that’s already under contract, with the outline I’m working on having been green lit by my editor. Which means that the odds of this book coming out on time are pretty darn good. In other words, if there’s a year you want to win the contest, this is the year. As I’ve done in the past, I’ll let you name a character in the book. It can’t be something too crazy (this is set in 1918 New Orleans, after all, so it needs to be historically accurate), but I’m sure we can work something out between us. If I can swing it, I’ll do my best to have it be a character who actually gets a role as well.

Last year, losing out on March Madness right when the whole pandemic really took off was a real blow. I was stuck at home, and it felt like everything was in flux. It’s a big relief to have it back this year. I know that might sound silly, but I’m just calling it like I see it. I’m a creature of habit, and I’ve loved March Madness for decades. Its return is another sign that we’re on the road to recovery.

With that out of the way, there’s nothing else to really say except I hope to see you in the challenge! Click here to join the group. It’s name is Bryce’s Ramblings, and the password is vodnik. You have until the games start on Friday to get your entry in. Let me know if you have any questions.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

March Madness Time!

The time has come, friends. To find out what we’re each really worth, in the bigger picture. Who’s better at picking the best* teams?

I’m running the yearly blog challenge, and as usual, the winner gets to have a cameo in my current work in progress. (A steampunk western at the moment, code name SILVERADO.) Who wouldn’t want a cool steampunk character named after them?

And if I win, I’ll still let the runner up have the prize. (How’s that for courtesy?)

So come on over and make your picks, and may the best pick picker win!

Click here to enter.

Group: Bryce’s Ramblings
Password: vodnik

*For values of “best” that don’t include BYU this year. At all.

Mad as a March Hare

The brackets are set. The madness is ready to begin. And that means it’s time for another Tournament Challenge! As always, I’m setting the blog challenge up through ESPN’s site. You go, you make your picks, and then you sit back to see who ends up winning. You’d like to think it takes skill and basketball smarts to win. You’d be mostly wrong.

It’s really mainly for fun.

To enter, click this link and use the password vodnik. (Or just go straight to ESPN and search for the group. It’s called Bryce’s Ramblings.)

This year’s winner will join last year’s runner-up Scooter123000 in the acknowledgements page of MEMORY THIEF 2 (which has a title, but I am not yet allowed to share it.) Your name in print, guaranteed. That’s a pretty good offer, right? Not to mention I’ll note how you are a better person at picking brackets than I am.

You need to enter before Thursday at noon, as I recall. But better to be safe and do it by tomorrow at midnight. I have no control over when they close the entries. He who snoozeth, loozeth. One entry per person, but individuals can enter on behalf of others. Any and all are welcome to play.

Good luck!

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. I’m looking to get to $10/month to justify the amount of time I spend on this blog. I’m at $8/month so far. Read this post for more information. Or click here to go to Patreon and sign up. It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Hail the Conquering Hero

Another March Madness came to an end last night. I had a particularly good run this year, up until the finish. I had successfully picked 3/4 of the Final Four Teams, and I called the final two as well. Until the finish, I was ranked 12,000th out of something like 15 million participants on ESPN’s system.

But I had picked Gonzaga to win it all, mainly on the theory that if they did, then BYU would have been the only team who would have beaten them this year, so this was BYU’s last kind of sort of way to win anything. And in true BYU style, the team blew it at the last possible moment.

I can’t really complain too much, though. I still managed to win half of the groups I entered, and I came in second in the other two. My early game was strong enough to even win over people who had picked UNC to win it all. And yes, I won my blog bracket group.

As promised, I’m still giving the runner up a prize. The Real One (Scooter12300), would you please identify yourself? You’ll be in the acknowledgements page of THE MEMORY THIEF 2, though since I won, I get to note that you came in second to me. 🙂

Overall, it was a good year for the blog challenge. 22 entries total. And I want to particularly congratulate MC, who managed to come in 10th despite only being three years old. She made her own picks, though I did ask her to start if she wanted to have all the higher ranked teams win in the first round. She agreed to that, and then chose each game after that on a case by case basis. Not bad for a girl her age.

In any case, thanks everybody for playing, and tune in next year for another shot! (And if you haven’t seen the movie “Hail the Conquering Hero,” you really should. Just saying.)