Living the Fictional Dream

I managed to power through my writer’s block and finish one of the short stories I was working on. I got it to the anthology that inspired it the day before the final deadline, so yay! Now I just have one more short story to finish for a pending anthology; then, I can wait until the responses roll in.

So, speaking of writer’s block, I stumbled across a link to an article on the subject. The article uses famous authors, such as Ralph Ellison, as examples and discusses if they had writer’s block or if they were procrastinators.

The bit about perfectionism especially hit home. It is hard to get stuff finished when you want it to be so precisely perfect. I get that way with my novels-in-progress all the time. Probably why the revisions drag on and on (that and lack of time). It’s easier to finish a piece of flash or a short story because of the limited word count. Of course, you can always revise, but the shorter length allows you to get to something you’re happy enough with to submit sooner.

And that’s my thought on writing for the day. Now it’s time to head out to dinner and for a movie!

The past few days, I have been suffering from mild writer’s block. I don’t know what it is… Being back in the real world after vacation, perhaps? Back at work again, which can definitely suck away the excess creative energy? The new diet and exercise routine Stephen and I are doing? Or perhaps my muse simply chose this week to take her vacation, as she spent the last couple helping me out so much?

The crazy thing is that I’m not short on ideas. I have two half-finished stories that were inspired by some open anthology calls, and I really like both ideas. It’s just the execution that’s eluding me.

Usually, which I have writer’s block, I either take a break from writing and focus on absorbing other creative works, like books or TV shows, or I power through, writing whatever comes to mind until something sticks. I did the latter over my lunch hour today and made a little progress on one story, but I’m not quite happy with it yet. We’ll see how it goes. Everyone does need time to recharge the creative juices from time to time.

What about the other writer’s out there? What do y’all do when your muse goes on vacation?

The one constant about Stephanie Meyer’s books is that I cannot put them down once I start them. I read the Twilight, Meyer’s young adult series, first, and was totally sucked into the world of Bella, Edward, and Jacob with each new release. Last Wednesday, I found The Host, Meyer’s new adult novel.

The tagline is “science fiction for people who don’t like science fiction,” and that’s a fairly apt description. There are elements of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but the main focus of the novel is the characters and their relationships. There is plenty of romance, of course (What would a Meyer book be without true love?), but friendship and familial relationships are also there, front and center.

Wanderer is a soul — an extra-terrestrial that can only live through a host body. Her kind have taken many planets, and justify their actions by the improvements they leave on the societies — peace, trust, pleasure. But Earth gives the souls more than they bargained for with all its strong emotions and its crazy fifth sense (smell!), and Wanderer — who has lived on nine planets in her lifetimes — personally gets more than she bargained for when her host body’s consciousness, Melanie, refuses to leave. Under Melanie’s influence, Wanderer seeks out her little brother, Jaime, and her true love, Jared, and finds herself amongst a small cell of “rogue” humans, which leads to much more than Wanderer ever anticipated.

The love triangle between Melanie, Jared, and Wanderer is fascinating. It’s not often that a love triangle involves only two bodies. And what’s also interesting is Wanderer’s observations on humanity as a whole, and her struggle to understand the value of love, rage, and individuality versus utopia.

I started this massive tome on Wednesday night and was finished by lunchtime on Friday — it was that engrossing. Meyer’s writing style always affects me that way. Her world is so vivid and compelling that once you enter, leaving is like being ripped away.

I’m not a huge fan of the first person point of view, but in Meyer’s hands, it works. I had worried that the feel would be too similar to the first person narrator in Twilight, but that was not the case at all. Wanderer’s voice was very different than Bella’s, and sets an entirely different tone. there is no mistaking the two. Wanderer has none of Bella’s rampant teenaged insecurities (which was actually a bit of a relief).

I don’t want to say too much more, as I don’t want to spoil the plot. I’ll just say that if you were pondering giving The Host a go, I would definitely recommend picking up a copy. It is well worth the price of admission — even the hardback price!

In a strange quirk of fate, just after I learned of the existance of The Fix (an e-zine that reviews short fiction and discusses writing) in the comments to my last post, I found out that the site published a review of the e-zine that includes my superhero story.

I had one other story (”Mutiny” in Sporty Spec) mentioned in a briefly in a review, but it was nothing to write home about. Lyndon Perry called “Zero to Clean” both “cute and quick” and “super flash fiction.” Reading this review made my day!

The review also had great things to say about my writing group members’ stories, “Auguste” and “Shades of Red.” Congrats Jens and Alex! If you haven’t perused the new issue of A Thousand Faces yet, what are you waiting for?

Last week, Stephen and I went to Breckenridge, Colorado. It’s “mud season” up there right now, which means that it’s too late to ski (though it did snow) and not warm enough yet for the summer activities.

While we were there, Stephen did a lot of bicycling, and while he cycled, I got my laptop out, sat next to the window, and wrote while the mountains looked down on me. One of the best things about being on vacation is the luxury of time to sit and write in the middle of the day, but, even more important, I’ve noticed that being somewhere new, especially somewhere beautiful, gets my muse working overtime.

And this is not the first time I’ve noticed my surroundings affecting my creativity. Sedona, Muir Woods, the beach on South Padre Island… All of those locations either inspired stories, moved me to write, or got characters moving in my head. And we don’t even have to be on vacation. I get some of my best writing done when we visit my parents’ cabin in the “wilds” of central Texas. That cabin and the surrounding tableaux have popped up in at least two short stories, and I always get good writing time in there.

I wonder why this happens. Is it just being out of my usual routine that brings my muse to life? Or is it nature’s majesty that I find so inspiring? Or maybe a combination of both? I don’t know, but I do know that it’s definitely something to take advantage of.

And, speaking of taking advantage, today is my last day off, so I’d better get a little more work done on the story I started while we were in Colorado. The market that I want to send it to has a deadline coming up in just a few days. Yipes!

In addition to my own writing, one of the things I want to talk about here is other stuff that I’m reading. There is no shortage of reading material these days (which is part of the reason that it’s so hard to get started in the writing business, but that’s another blog entry), so I want to share with y’all some of the good things that I’ve found — both online and in print. One of those things is the e-zine All Things Girl, which just released a new issue. This e-zine is written by women for women, and I’ve enjoyed their interviews and fiction every time I’ve stopped by.

If you’re a fan of Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, definitely check out the new issue, which features an interview with Meyer. The interview focuses on her new book, The Host, which I’m dying to get a copy of. It also touches on the Twilight series, as well as some of the behind the scenes writing and publishing stuff.

While you’re there, visit the “Writings” section, too. I particularly enjoyed the story “Cinnamon Red Memories” by Tamara Palmer.

If you’re a writer and want to submit to ATG, they have three more themed issues coming out this year: Spice of Life, Harvest, and Naughty & Nice.

In 2007, I got serious about my writing. I began working on my short fiction and sending it out to various anthologies, magazines, and e-zines. I’d submitted short stories before, during high school and again during college, but those bursts of productivity were short lived. In 2007, I really devoted myself to it. I took a day off on my birthday in February and sent a Christian vampire story to an anthology that wanted gritty, realistic, Christian genre fiction. Sadly, that story got rejected, but I kept after it. The more stories you have out there, the more chances you have to get that elusive “yes.”

At first, all I got was form email rejections. But eventually, I started to get some personal notes that said things like, “This piece doesn’t fit our next issue, but please send us more work in the future.” Though still rejections, notes like that are encouraging to a writer, or at least to me. It’s nice to know that your story was good enough to make an editor stop and take notice.

And then, finally, in July 2007, I got the email I’d been waiting for — my first acceptance! My flash piece, “Mutiny,” would be published in a print anthology called Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic. I was so excited!

The Sporty Spec market was a tough one. Several other members of my writing group submitted stories and were rejected. I wasn’t even planning to submit to it, but then I had this flash of inspiration for a story about a living game — a strategy game, sort of like chess, but one where the player directs their pieces like a general directs his troops. I wrote it in one quick burst, polished it, and then figured that I might as well try Sporty Spec. The worst they could do was say no!

And, to my surprise, editor Karen Romanko said yes!

I can’t point you to a link to “Mutiny,” but I can point you to where you can purchase the anthology — it’s available on Amazon, and here is more info about the anthology at the Raven Electrick site (Ms. Romanko’s e-zine). Finally, this is the link to the Sporty Spec book trailer.

Even if you’re not a sports fan, I think you’ll enjoy this anthology. There are stories about different sports (track, horse racing, baseball), and stories about games, as well as a healthy dose of poetry. I definitely don’t consider myself a sports fan, but I enjoyed reading my contributor’s copy of the anthology.

If you pick up a copy, let me know what you think!

“Remember?” was the third story I had accepted and the second one to be published. Every Day Fiction is a really cool publication that sends a piece of flash fiction to your email inbox every day. “Remember?” was the story of the day for February 22, 2008.

Flash fiction is a complete story told in 1,000 words or less, so they are short and easily read in one sitting, like on your lunch break. From a writing perspective, telling a complete story with character development, character change, plot, etc., in such a limited word count is a big challenge, but it is a fun challenge. A stretch of the writing skills. And my first three acceptances were all flash — and, strangely enough, flash that I wrote randomly on the spur of the moment.

“Remember?” was the second piece of flash I was inspired to write instead of writing my 2007 NaNo novel (this was the first one). We were at my parents’ cabin, and I had this glimmer of an idea of a married couple talking about things from their life that hadn’t actually happened, but that they wished had happened — making up memories as they moved along in the conversation. And, thus, “Remember?” was born.

This is my first (and, so far, only) literary fiction that has been published. Usually, I write genre fiction, but I do have a couple of other literary pieces out there making the rounds.

If you’re a writer and you write flash, I highly recommend Every Day Fiction as a market. They only pay $1 per story, but if they accept your story you’ll get a lot of exposure out of the deal. Their concept is unique, and they have a large number of regular readers, both on their site and on their email list and RSS feed. They also have an active writer community/forum, and when your story is published you’ll get thoughtful feedback from other writers.

If you enjoy reading flash, I also recommend EDF. There are scads of stories there for the perusing, so there is enough to keep you reading for a while, and there are genres and topics for every preference. Of course, if you like my story, I’d love to know about it. And if you’re already there and looking for something else to read, check out the stories written by my fellow writing group members: Alex (Crush is one of EDF’s top 25 stories ever and he has a flash mystery, “Aftershocks,” coming out on EDF in May), Stephanie (”Brimstone and Liars” is also one of EDFs top 25), Virginia (”The Hole” is one of my favorites of hers), and Jens (”Socks and Banshees” is cute and fun).

The March 2008 issue of Arcane Twilight includes my short story “The Talon”. This was my first non-flash story to be published. The other notable thing about this story is that it is my first published piece set in Tyden — a fantasy world that I created for one of my novels-in-progress. I actually created Tyden back when I was in high school, so the world has existed in my mind for a long time. It is nice to have a piece of that out in the world.

“The Talon” is set about 200 years before my novel, and it is about a mercenary, Layla, who wishes she were an artist. Sadly, wishing does not make it so. Layla is hired by a mysterious sorcerer on a dangerous mission that draws her into the beginnings of Tyden’s civil war.

This was my first attempt at writing sword and sorcery. My writing group mate, Jens, and I were trying to crack the 2007 Sword & Sorceress market that wanted sword and sorcery stories with strong female protagonists. Sadly, neither of us were accepted there, but all of our attempts, I believe, eventually found homes (not a small feat, as sword and sorcery is not one of the favored subgenres of fantasy these days).

Another element in this story that I liked was the glassblowing. I’d seen glassblowing demonstrations a couple of times, at Scarborough Faire and the like. Right before I wrote “The Talon,” I was on vacation in Arizona and saw a live glassblowing exhibition in the town of Jerome (a really cute, artsy, folksy place). That became the opening scene in “The Talon.”

So, if you have a chance, head over to Arcane Twilight and give it a read. It even has an illustration that they made just for my story.

Or running really fast, as the case may be!

One of these days, I will have a main page up with links to all my stories out there, but I think it’s fitting that each story have its own entry in the blog, as well. And maybe with a little info specifically about it.

“Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less” was the second story I ever had accepted; though, thus far, it is the one I’ve waited the longest to see in print after acceptance. I got word that it would be published by A Thousand Faces in November of 2007 and it went live in the the spring issue in April 2008.

I wrote this story when I was supposed to be writing my 2007 NaNo novel (National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated). Procrastination actually paid off for once — two flash pieces I wrote instead of that ill-fated and never-completed NaNo novel were actually published!

“Zero to Clean” had two inspirations — my husband, Stephen, and Smallville. There was this episode of Smallville where Clark had a party while his parents weren’t home and then went into super-mode to clean it up before they got back. I wondered — if you can clean at super speed, is it still as much work as it is for the rest of us? Or does Clark not mind having to clean alone, since it only takes in 30 seconds?

I started thinking about that again when Stephen was de-cluttering the house one day. He’s not “supersonic,” but he can de-clutter a house, do the dishes, etc., in record time. But I know that cleaning still annoys him, even though he has the uncanny ability to finish three chores while I’m doing one (I still don’t know how he does that!).

Both of those musings came together and “Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less” was born. I will say, though, that the character of Liz is not taken from real life!

Eventually, the story will come down off the online version of A Thousand Faces, but the cool thing about this e-zine is that you can also buy print or .pdf versions from Lulu. So, if you miss it, you still have another chance, even though the ezine (unlike many) does not keep archives.

If you do head over to check out “Zero to Clean,” there are a couple of other stories you should check out while you’re there. The first is “Shades of Red” written by Alex Burns, and the second is “Auguste” written by Jens Rushing. Both are part of my writing group, Writer’s Ink, and masterful tale weavers.

And if you like “Zero to Clean,” definitely leave me a comment and let me know!