Living the Fictional Dream

Once again, my writing group is challenging itself to write a story every day for two weeks in the month of June. Last year, I got several good stories out of the SED contest, some of which were published. I wrote a lot of dreck, as well, but that always happens with a challenge of this sort. You have to write through the dreck to get to the good stuff. Any any amount of good stories makes the goal worth attempting!

Hopefully, this will be the challenge that I need to help my writing motiviation. I’m not sure I’ll have the same stamina for it that I had last year (I won the 2008 SED contest), but I’m looking forward to trying.

If you don’t see as much of me around here from 6/10 to 6/24, you’ll know that I’m (hopefully) slaving away on my daily story!

Good luck to all the Writer’s Ink members as they dive into this contest tomorrow. I hope we all get lots of good stories out of it!

In other news, if you’re looking for a fun story to read to pass the time, check out “Seaside Sideshow” by writing group mate Stephanie. It’s a unique take on the selkie myth. I tried my hand at a selkie story last year, but I think that hers is better! It’s up at Bewildering Stories.

And, if you’re looking for something to read that’s more informative but less fun (strictly speaking) check out writing group mate Jens’s blog article, “Korean Suicide Culture.” I don’t have any formulated thoughts to share on this yet, but reading about it really made me think.

I didn’t end up actually writing at my writing group’s write-in last night (hmm… how many times can I get a form of the word “write” into one sentence?). But, I’m pleased with the way I spent my two hours.

I dug back into my pool of rejected stories and found new markets to target them to. My writing group makes goals for writing-related tasks that we will hold each other accountable for accomplishing between meetings. My goal for the next meeting was to submit a story. I did one better last night and submitted two. Go me!

Lack of writing (be that because of work, the baby, or just a stellar lack of motivation) is one reason that my publications have tapered off so since January. But, the other reason is that I have not kept on top of my rejections. The best thing to do is get a rejection and send the story right back out again (or, if needed, revise and then submit again, depending of the story). It’s important to keep stories in circulation!

Add these two stories to the two that I submitted at the end of May, and now I have four stories making the rounds again. It’s definitely progress! Perhaps the end of the year will hold a few more publications for me than the beginning has. If one of the four were accepted, I would call it a win.

And, in the meantime, no matter what happens with those four stories, I do have two upcoming publications to look forward to. I will have a story (”The Last Ball at Concord House”) in the first issue of 10Flash later this summer, and one of the later issues of A Thousand Faces this year will feature a superhero short story that I wrote last year (”Dinner for Three” — a story that can loosely be termed a sequel to “Bridge Club”).

Oh, and speaking of superhero fiction, the new issue of A Thousand Faces is available, and it features an amusing flash piece from writing group mate, Jens. It is even set in Fort Worth! Give it a look when you have some time.

Happy writing and submitting, every one!

Sorry for disappearing on you guys for a week. I caught this horrible crud last week and it laid me low for a long time. I’m only just now finally feeling sort of normal and getting back into the swing of work, and I’m still suffering from the lingering cough and runny nose. It really sucks being sick when you’re pregnant — you’re not allowed any of the good meds!

But, enough about that boring stuff. Let’s talk about writing.

When I logged into my email account after having been down for so long, I was rewarded with one acceptance and one rejection. It was nice that they balanced each other out!

A very strange story (about superheroes and vomit, of all things) was rejected. I wasn’t surprised. There were some really stomach churning descriptions in there (yes… I wrote it under the influence of first trimester morning sickness!). Now I have to look at it again (if I can find the stomach for it) and see if there is something revisable in that mess. I liked it at the time, but now… I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s because I’m now past all that nausea?

On the happier side of things, I wrote a little ghost story flash called “The Last Ball at Concord House,” and it will be published in the inaugural issue of 10Flash. I’m excited about that — it’s really neat to be part of a brand new ‘zine. And congrats to K.C. for all the work she’s been putting into it! I think it’s going to be a really fun publication!

And, speaking of K.C., if you’re interested in writing flash, you should read this post over on her blog. I enjoyed it a lot.

Finally, this is a little late, but my writing group mate Alex had a story published on Every Day Fiction earlier this week. It’s called, “The Squeeze.” It’s very short, and the ending will make you laugh.

This week has been a really good one for my writing group! Two publications already, and now a third. Go, Writer’s Ink!

Virginia had a piece of microfiction published at Six Sentences. It’s called “Reality Bites.”

Writing anything in a mere six sentences sounds crazy hard to me — how do you get a complete story in something that small? But she did it, and there is an ending twist and everything.

Makes me want to try my hand at a six-sentence story. After all, I used to feel the same astonished way about flash, and now writing a story in 1,000 words is totally doable for me.

Congrats again, VA!

Judy, one of my writing group mates, is on a roll with her poetry. Her second poem, “After All,” appeared in Every Day Poets last weekend. Click here to read it, comment on it, and vote on it.

The folks over at Every Day Fiction and Every Day Poets have started a writing blog specifically devoted to flash fiction. If the quality of the blog is anything like the quality of fiction and poetry these publications offer us on a daily basis, the blog should be a must read.

Today’s entry was written by my writing group mate Alex, and discusses the effect of exposition and world building on flash fiction stories.

Here’s the link so you can go check it out:

… my writing group mate, Judy, has published her first poem, “The Dumb Doctor.” It is the poem of the day today at Every Day Poets. I helped her crit this one, and I think it is a really powerful piece. The emotion in it is really impactful — especially to me as a woman, but I think it would be to anyone.

If you have time, pop over and give it a read.

Every Day Fiction has released its table of contents for February, and it looks to be a very good line-up this month. I’m excited to read a lot of these stories, including ones writting by K.C., Kevin, and Gay!

And you’ll also be able to read my story, “Honor Bound,” on the 15th. What fun! It should be an interesting follow-up to Valentine’s Day. Stephen and I will actually be driving home from Sedona that weekend, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to post the link to the story, but I will do it as soon as I have regained Internet access.

I’m a little late on the rec, but if you haven’t read it yet, you should check out my writing group mate Jens’s piece on Everyday Weirdness. It’s called “The Difficulties of Writing a Novel (In a Zeppelin Fortress).”

The Best of Every Day Fiction anthology is now available for ordering. This anthology includes 100 pieces of flash fiction — EDF’s best from Sept. 2007 to August 2008. Jens, Alex, Stephanie, and myself from Writer’s Ink are included, as are other great authors like Gay, Kevin, K.C., and more.

Alex is setting up a reading/signing for the EDF authors in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. If you’re an author in this area and want to join us, comment and let me know. If you’re in this area and want to come up to the event, I’ll post all the details when they are settled. It looks like it will be a Saturday in January — after the holidays but before Jens heads back to S. Korea in early February.