Living the Fictional Dream

The December table of contents for Every Day Fiction is out, and it looks to be a great December for fiction. Go check it out.

And, on the day after Christmas, you’ll be able to read my story, “Fortune Cookies.” This is actually the fifth story EDF accepted from me, but the fourth one that will be published. I like the placement, though. I can see how it has a good vibe for approaching the new year.

Also, congrats to Gay and the others that EDF is nominating for the Pushcart Prize. How awesome!

In other news, I did succeed in finishing my NaNo novel in time to be considered a 2008 winner. I have my winner’s icon and everything. Whew! Today was crazy, but I’m glad it’s finished.

Sadly, by the end, I realized that I had too much story and not enough wordage left. Of course, I know I could have gone on beyond 50K if I wanted to — and I’ll have to later — but I had to write nearly 7K today to finish and I just couldn’t fathom an additional 3K or more to finish it up. So… I summarized at the end. Some parts I wrote, but the big battle is currently merely a paragraph. Definitely something to flesh out in the eventual revisions. First, though, I’ve got to put this thing down for a while and write something else. Preferably something shorter!

Flash is looking really good right about now.

Two stories live on the same day! Wowzers…

The September issue of The Houston Literary Review is finally live on their website — it was delayed due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

This issue includes my flash piece, “Eyes in the Rearview Mirror” (click on the link above my picture, and it downloads the story for you as an .rtf — I’m not sure why they chose this style, as it’s a bit counter-intuitive).

This story started life as one of my few and far between literary pieces. People use the terms literary and mainstream somewhat synonymously a lot of the time, but I always think of the difference as mainstream is about subject matter that you find in every day life (i.e., no magic or werewolves or spaceships), but literary, while about the same type of subject matter, has more of a focus on the language and the imagery than on tight plotting. But, that’s just my personal interpretation — I’m sure other people have described it better. In the end, after several rounds of edits, I think it is more mainstream.

This particular flash piece literally woke me up in the middle of the night (about 2 a.m.), and I couldn’t go back to sleep until I wrote it down. I don’t know if it had anything to do with it, but when I fell asleep earlier that evening, my husband had been watching the movie The Runaway Bride.

The story went through several endings, but this one is actually my favorite. The first ending — the one I wrote at 2 a.m. — was not really an ending at all, so I don’t blame the markets that rejected this story when I sent it out that night, while still on that high from a combination of creativity and lack of sleep. That more literary version was all about the images and the ambiance, and it ended right after the “You have time to decide” line.

I like the revisions better — closure is a good thing.

As always, I’d love to know what you think of the story, if you have the time.

Hi, everyone! I hope you all had a nice of a weekend as I did! Plenty of writing time, reading time, and family and friend time. Also a nice evening by the campfire. Why can’t we have five-day weekends every week? Heck, I’d settle for once a month!

When I got back to town and re-connected to the Internet, I found the notice that the new issue of Mirror Dance is online. It includes my story, “Hair’s Breadth,” and, as I discovered when I went over to check out the new issue, it includes a story from my writing group mate, Sandra, as well — “The Cackle of an Old Crone.” This is her first publication, so congratulations, Sandra!!!

Everyone should go read both stories when you get the chance. Mirror Dance is a blog-style e-zine, so you can leave comments there, if you want. And, of course, if you like a story of mine, a comment here to let me know is never amiss.

Now for a little more about the writing of my story (includes some spoilers, if you haven’t already read the story yet).

“Hair’s Breadth” is a disturbing little flash piece about a love spell gone awry. It started life as a writing prompt that used characters from one of my novels, but in that version, it had a much different (and happier) ending. The main character in that version of the story couldn’t endanger his true love like that. This version explores the creepier and darker ramifications of love spells.

My favorite part of this story is Elg, the hag. Something about her really leaps off the page to me. I’ve always wondered what nefarious plans she actually had. Obviously, her signature was heavy on the zombie-fied girl in this story. I don’t think that Elg was actually inhabiting her body, but I do wonder what the hag got out of it. Perhaps she will appear in another story or flash piece someday.

And now, I must go! I have to write 7K and get my NaNo novel validated — all by midnight tonight. That gives me about 10 hours. I’m pretty sure I can do it, but I’d better get started!

I saw the link to this article at Agent Kristen’s blog. Not a good sign if publishing houses are putting a stop on acquisitions. Might not matter if we all finish those NaNo novels, eh?

Here is a link to a PW blog on the subject.

And, while I’m glad that Border’s is not going to be sold (especially that it’s no longer talking about selling itself to B&N), the news that they are pruning their inventory is depressing.

Though, this article reports another publishing company doing so well that it’s giving out bonuses. So, maybe it just depends on who you talk to. Though, I noted the article’s mention of how it’s smarter right now to go with known authors.

And, finally, an article about how publishing companies are doing away with agent lunches.

It kind of makes me wonder… if book publishing (which has been the end-all, be-all for a while, or so it seems) is falling off, will short fiction make a come-back? Especially in online venues that are free to access?

Though, you know, no matter what happens with the recession and the publishing industry, I’ll still be writing stories. Even if the only people I share them with are family and friends, I’ll still be writing, because the characters have stories that need to be told. It gets to be part of your blood, and that’s something that never goes away.

On that note, happy Thanksgiving everyone. My husband and I are heading off to the cabin for the weekend (the land of no Internet), so probably no posting from me until Sunday, at least. Have to devote the rest of this week to the 20K remaining on my NaNo novel.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

I found this blog entry by Enchantment Inc. author Shanna Swendson very interesting. It’s all about how readers have the opportunity to get their favorite mid-list novels noticed — more so than, say, a struggling TV show. I’d never really thought about it this way before, so I thought I’d share it with all of you kind folks.

In other news, I finally broke 30K on my NaNo novel (did I already mention that here? I forget). Anyway, the month is ticking away quickly now, and I have 20K to write in about 5 days, but… you know… it’s vacation. I think I can do it!

We’ll be spending Thanksgiving at my parents’ cabin (a.k.a., the land of no Internet), so my only distractions will actually be seeing the family and going to dinner at my aunt’s house and such. There should be plenty of time for writing.

In case I don’t get a chance to post again before we leave, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving! (And if you’re not in the U.S., I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.)

My short story, “The Sorcerer’s Wife,” is live at Residential Aliens today. Go check it out! (If you don’t like spoilers, you should definitely go read it before you read the rest of this entry!)

I’m very partial to this story. It started out life as a flash piece (under 1,000 words), but it didn’t have enough meat on its bones. I revised it several times, fleshing it out to its current length of just over 1K. I think the rejections of the flash version were spot on, because this version is much more developed, especially in terms of setting.

Viola has become one of my favorite short story characters from my own stories. When I began writing TSW, she was the evil temptress, nothing more, an obstacle to be overcome in Brand and Amira’s life. But when she strolled into his bedroom and onto the page of this story, she totally took on a life of her own. She became motivated by things other than generic evil and meddling, and she had this incredible presence.

I actually wrote a couple of stories from Viola’s point of view during my writing groups’ Story Every Day contest last summer. When NaNo is over, I might try to get one or both of those into something publishable, because I’m interested in learning more about other aspects of Viola’s life and the Game. Though, part of me doesn’t want to delve into the Game too much… that might take all of the mystery out of it.

If you read TSW, I’d love to know what you think. Leave me a comment and let me know if you have the chance!

My poem, “Inspiration,” is the poem of the day over at Every Day Poets. 

I wrote this poem back in grad school, so it’s nice to finally get it out there in the world.  I’m typically too prose bound to write good poetry. When I try to tell a story in a poem, the language becomes too plain. When I wrote this poem, and a couple of others around the same period, I was experimenting with language over meaning/plot and portraying an image with lush, deep words.

So, if you have a chance, go over there, give it a read, and comment and/or vote on it while you’re there. Or let me know by a comment here if you enjoy it.

Check out K.C. Ball’s story of the day over at EDF today. It’s called “Oh, Woman of Little Virtue.” It’s an enjoyable read with a twist I didn’t see coming.

Writing group mate Jens has today’s story of the day over at Every Day Fiction. You should check it out! It’s a nice little adventure with a quirk of humor in less than 1,000 words. How could you go wrong?

And, if that’s not enough for you, there is also a dragon!

I have two write-ins today — only three more write-in double-headers before Thanksgiving — and I’m going to kick this novel back into high gear. I have one short scene to write in the current chapter, and then I will start the next chapter in the next exciting phase of plot and move on from there. I have a plan, dagnabbit!

I was scrolling through my submission list the other day, and I realized how few stories I have out right now. I’ve received responses on quite a few in the last couple of months, both acceptances and rejections, but I haven’t been getting new ones out there. Too much NaNo and NaNo prep, I suppose, taking me away from the short fiction.

That will have to be my short-term December goal — write some short fiction and send it out! It will be perfect while I let my novel breathe for a few weeks. Then I can be refreshed and get back to revising it (assuming that I actually finish — that the 20Ks don’t chew up the novel and spit it out a mangled mess!).

I know everyone says that short fiction isn’t where it’s at, and it’s true that you can’t make a living from it. But I still like writing short fiction, dang it. And I think it has it’s uses. I know every time I have a story up on EDF or certain other markets that post links, my blog readership spikes. That’s gotta count for something. Plus, I mean… it’s having something published. I don’t care what or where, that is always awesome!