Finally completed a WWI story. Called Sons of Flanders, coming in at 7000 words. It's a murder mystery/historical drama that takes place in the trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the 3rd Battle of Ypres. A few books were real instrumental in my research, including primary sources Some Desperate Glory by Edwin Campion Vaughan, The Winding Road Unfolds by T.S. Hope, and Somme Harvest by Giles E.M. Eyre, as well as Leon Wolff's much lauded secondary account In Flanders Fields. Another useful book for research on Langemarck, an ancillary battle of 3rd Ypres, was VCs of The First World War: Passchendaele by Stephen Snelling. World War One continues to fascinate me, and with only three survivors of the conflict remaining, it is perilously close to falling out of living memory.
The next WWI story I would like to write will take place at Gallipoli, and feature Albert Jacka as a secondary character. The only problem is, Jacka is an Australian national hero, comparable with Audie Murphy here in the states, so I'd have to represent him historically as well as faithfully. I'll only write the story, if I know I can do it justice.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
The Soulless City
New story finished: The Soulless City. 4500 words.
Hard to write. I hope I did it justice, as the idea was one of my favorites.
Hard to write. I hope I did it justice, as the idea was one of my favorites.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
New Story Sale
Electric Smiles to Every Day Fiction.
A big thank you to Elissa Vann Struth and Camille Gooderham Campbell for their kind words.
It's a flash fiction piece about a companion-droid. Not an original concept, but I think the story worked really well and I loved the ending. I'll post the link when it becomes available.
A big thank you to Elissa Vann Struth and Camille Gooderham Campbell for their kind words.
It's a flash fiction piece about a companion-droid. Not an original concept, but I think the story worked really well and I loved the ending. I'll post the link when it becomes available.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I Said COFFEE!
Sorry about the title to this post. If you don't know what movie it's from, then you are beyond my help :)
I decided to go ahead and finish Shakespeare Innate. Came in at 2100 words.
Finished writing Adsville, as well. 4500 words. Probably my favorite story yet.
I decided to go ahead and finish Shakespeare Innate. Came in at 2100 words.
Finished writing Adsville, as well. 4500 words. Probably my favorite story yet.
Monday, March 15, 2010
New Stories
I've actually decided to put the last four stories I mentioned on the back-burner. I'm writing two different ones. That's the way writing works for me. If I don't feel it, I can't write it.
Adsville-San Francisco is reimagined as dystopian metropolis.
A Sad Day for the Moonmen-hard to describe. Post-apocalyptic works about as well as anything, though. Hopefully it turns out as good as I imagine it in my head. Not always the case.
I've fully committed to scrapping Reinventing the Wheel, maybe I'll post it here. I liked the idea, but it didn't really flow as a compelling story. You have a limited amount of time in a short story to grab a readers' attention, and this one just didn't have what it takes.
Zombie Preserve I'm definitely going to write, just working out the logistics. Going to be a humor piece, for the most part.
Adsville-San Francisco is reimagined as dystopian metropolis.
A Sad Day for the Moonmen-hard to describe. Post-apocalyptic works about as well as anything, though. Hopefully it turns out as good as I imagine it in my head. Not always the case.
I've fully committed to scrapping Reinventing the Wheel, maybe I'll post it here. I liked the idea, but it didn't really flow as a compelling story. You have a limited amount of time in a short story to grab a readers' attention, and this one just didn't have what it takes.
Zombie Preserve I'm definitely going to write, just working out the logistics. Going to be a humor piece, for the most part.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Space & Time
My story The Distillation of Albert Penny will be appearing in Space & Time Magazine. Many thanks to Mr. Houarner and Ms. Silverman for this great news! I posted earlier about this story, it took a long time to write, but was well worth it! This is the first Sci-Fi story I've sold. First of many, hopefully.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Lorelei Signal
Real pleased to announce that my story "Immutable" will be appearing in the July issue of The Lorelei Signal as well as the August print issue Mystic Signals. Thanks to Carol Hightshoe, the editor of both. I'm real proud of this one, as the magazine seeks stories that present women outside of familiar fantasy tropes. If you're a writer, you should definitely support this endeavour and send her your best work!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
WIP's
Currently trying to work through four stories:
Zombie Preserve--really a played out genre, but I love zombies.
Lies in the Sagebrush--futuristic planet destroyers.
Reinventing the Wheel--eugenics program goes haywire. Imagine that!
Shakespeare Innate--dystopian future view. How original. But the title's pretty cool.
I think I'm gonna have to can the third one on the list, as it's just too strange. Four sci-fi stories in the works.
Zombie Preserve--really a played out genre, but I love zombies.
Lies in the Sagebrush--futuristic planet destroyers.
Reinventing the Wheel--eugenics program goes haywire. Imagine that!
Shakespeare Innate--dystopian future view. How original. But the title's pretty cool.
I think I'm gonna have to can the third one on the list, as it's just too strange. Four sci-fi stories in the works.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Ideas of March
Couple new stories.
The King's Golden Soldiers-8100 word fantasy story. Finally finished, formatted and sent out for rejection.
Mr. Lean's Price-modern fantasy/horror--4400 words.
Couple others are percolating in the ol' brain. I think I'll be working on finishing the three Sci/Fi stories I started. I'm going to try to finish them this month. Then I got another fantasy story in the pipe.
Sometimes I wonder if its worth writing all these short stories. I've heard different opinions about them. Some people say they're a good way to break into publishing, but others think the opposite. I enjoy writing, so I guess that's all that matters, but my ultimate goal is to write novels. I already wrote one, and keep planning to start another.
The King's Golden Soldiers-8100 word fantasy story. Finally finished, formatted and sent out for rejection.
Mr. Lean's Price-modern fantasy/horror--4400 words.
Couple others are percolating in the ol' brain. I think I'll be working on finishing the three Sci/Fi stories I started. I'm going to try to finish them this month. Then I got another fantasy story in the pipe.
Sometimes I wonder if its worth writing all these short stories. I've heard different opinions about them. Some people say they're a good way to break into publishing, but others think the opposite. I enjoy writing, so I guess that's all that matters, but my ultimate goal is to write novels. I already wrote one, and keep planning to start another.
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