Henry the Hero Published

My short piece of flash fiction, Henry the Hero, is online in the July issue of Golden Visions. This is a pretty old story that I wrote over a year ago. It is humorous fantasy. For my beta readers who might check it out, you will notice some changes. The editor took out a few of the slightly off color humor, instead of a PG-13 rating I think it would be PG now.

The story is a better read now, it just isn't quite as funny. But if you get the chance check out Henry and his "long damn walk for no good reason" or what's that other thing its called... oh yeah, a quest. Read it Here!

It's been awhile

I know I haven't blogged in awhile. I've been really busy with work and Pill Hill Press. I have also been busy with cover design, there are two more small presses that are having me design covers for them. That makes a total of five plus a few one time projects that are keeping me pretty busy.

So I haven't written a thing in weeks. But the summer reading program is ending soon. And today is the first day of summer, which means that the days will start getting shorter. This is awesome news for someone who is allergic to sunlight. I have to wear a jacket whenever I go outside, and its been in the low 90s. This is not fun.

I have not been totally idle in my break from writing. I have a whole word doc full of ideas, I just need to get time to write them. I am still waiting to hear back on three different novel submissions and ten or so short stories. I started subing everything to pro markets first and then working my way down, but it seems like the pro markets like to take thier time when responding. I have two stories I wrote in January that still have not gotten a response.

Well, that's about it. I didn't have much to say, just wanted to let everyone know I am still here.

The Great Swampy Middle

So I am thinking about putting Godswar to the side and starting on another project. I only started thinking about this after my Ladies of Trade Town short story. It was 5,700 words, and it took me 8 days to finish. This is a normal pace for me when I am into a story. I have been writing Godswar for 180 days which would mean that I should be at around 120,000 words, I am still stuck around 40,000.

So it obvious I am not that into this project. On the other hand I know that when I am writing a novel I get bogged down at around 40,000 words. I have heard this called the Great Swampy Middle, and I am stuck in it with my tires spinning.

So the question I need to ask is should I force myself to complete the project or should I just move on to another one?

Ladies of Trade Town

I just finished my first draft of my Ladies of Trade Town submission. As I have mentioned before I try to use short fiction to experiment with different styles and techniques.

For this one I tried to fly totally by the seat of my pants. It is set in a post apocalyptic world where genetic manipulation is common so I wanted the story to feel raw and organic.

I don't use outlines but I usually have a pretty good idea of the plot of the next 1000 or so words I am writing. And when I finish writing what I have plotted out, I take a break and decide what I want to have happen next. For this story I didn't let myself do that. I barely knew what was going to happen in the next sentence.

The result, well let’s just say it was a bad idea. There are so many plot holes and inconsistencies that I am not sure the six days until submissions close will be enough time to edit the story. But it was worth a shot, and I learned something that I should not do. I like the ideas I came up with and I like the characters so I think I might be able to salvage it, but I also think the 5000 word + story is going to be around 4000 words when I am done.

Another Acceptance

My zombie story, A New Day, has been accepted by House of Horror. I was pretty excited about this acceptance. The story is almost a year old and has only been submited to two anthologies, one of which went out of business after holding the story for 200 days. The story has gotten two major edits and is nothing like the original.

This has reaffirmed my belief that every story can find a home. The summer reading program has started and the kick off party was a huge failure. Last year was the worst they ever had with only seventy kids showing up. This year we had twenty. It was a little depressing. I did everything to advertise that former children's librarians had. Including, articles in the newspaper, an apperance on the radio, vists to schools, a post on the local web news site, flyers and posters.

I think there was just too much going on on the day we picked to have the party. My boss seems to think I did not advertise it well enough, but I don't know what else I could have done.

So we are trying to "relaunch" the program with a whole new slew of advertising for the June 1st children's concert. I am also in the midst of plaining a "Prepare for the Eclipse" party for the teens. I am going to try to get licenseing to show Twilight, and New Moon a few days before Eclipse comes to the local theater.

So I think I am going to be really busy at work again. I did get another chapter in Godswar written, and I am almost done with my first short story in my novel about a place rather than characters. My working title for it is the Infinity Well. But I should proably google it to make sure it hasn't been used. It sounds like something from a comic book.

A Friday

I had the day off of work today, because I have to work tomorrow, on Saturday. Tomorrow is the Summer Reading Program Kick-off party. This my first year as children's librarian so I am not really sure how it will go. Stuff I do know: there will be around a hundred children and thier parents, we have free food, I had to come up with some games, I am scheduled for a 9 hour day with no breaks, I am responsible for the party so if anything goes wrong it will be my fault.

So while I enjoyed having a Friday off I spent wondering what tomorrow would bring. I did get some stuff done. I got the Kinberra Down cover finished, I worked on two covers for other presses, and I have been prepareing something special. I don't want to ruin the news or announce anything before it is final but there could be some big news from Pill Hill Press in the near future.

I haven't got much writing done, but I have been thinking about the newest project I am working on. It is the story of a place rather than people, it is told through a collection of shorts. It starts with nomadic cavemen and I am planning on following the place through time all the way to space travlers. As I skip through time I will write three or four chapters about each character and then move on.

For example in chapter one there a young "caveman" who is the one of the last members of his tribe, in chapter two he is much older and the king of his people. Chapter three will focus mostly on his teenage son. Then I will skip a few hundred years down the road.

I am doing this to practise starting and ending a story. I only have a few chapters to get people to care about the characters and setting, before I drasticly change it. When I mention in chapter five or six how the caveman from chapter one died I want people to care about it. It should be interesting, and I am hoping good.

Absent Willow Review

Just a quick note before I go to bed. My story, Higher Learning has just been published in the Absent Willow Review. You can check it out here if you are interested.

The story is about a group of humans in the near future who are trying to fight off the aliens that have conquered earth. So as far as genre goes I would have to put this one firmly in the Sci-fi category.