Living the Fictional Dream

If you’re looking for a little shot of humor to brighten your day, check out writing group mate Stephanie’s story, “There’s Always Time for Cupcakes,” at Stories that Lift.

Have a delicious weekend, all!

… head on over to Every Day Fiction, where two of my writing group mates have stories up.

The first story came out last weekend, and it’s a fun zombie romp writting by Stephanie. Even if you don’t like normal zombie stories, I bet you’ll like this one — it takes an unexpected point of view. It’s called “An Undead Day at the Spa.”

Second, Stephanie’s 2007 story from EDF, “Brimestone and Liars,” has been turned into an EDF podcast, so listen here.

Finally, Jens’s story “Socks and Banshees,” which was published on EDF in 2008, makes a reappearance as a podcast, as well.

Enjoy!

I just saw the full list of stories chosen for Every Day Fiction Two (the new anthology) over at EDF’s forums. Looks like an awesome line-up. In addition to the stories from writing group mates Alex, Jens, and Stephanie, there are a lot of other favorites: K.C., Gay, Kevin, Sylvia, and more… I can’t wait to get a copy.

I was trying to figure out the reasoning behind the story order in the antho. I guess it is chronological? Since I have more than one this year, I was able to note that mine are in chronological order (and, thus, fairly evenly spread throughout the volume), so I guess that is the overall method? I could figure it out if I looked up the publication dates of other people’s stories, I suppose, but I’m not that anal (nor do I have that much free time).

While we’re all waiting for the EDF anthology to be released, I was pleased to discover that Alex has today’s EDF story of the day. It’s called “With the Band,” it’s a fun piece of rock-n-roll science fiction. Go read it!

And now, I’m off to get as much work done as possible before lunch and my first official NaNo write-in! Maybe I will finally get that freaking zombie story revised that the group critted for me while I was on maternity leave!

I’ve recently been reading the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain. I purchased the first book, Green Rider, several years ago, and I remember, at the time, being completely hooked by the novel and devouring it. I was seduced by the cover art, which I found particularly good on this novel as cover art is not ususally a compelling motive for me to buy a book, but I loved the story, too.

Karrigan, the main character, comes across one of the king’s messangers in the forrest (a green rider) who is dying, and he makes her swear to deliver the message in his stead. Then adventures ensued in a well-thought-out fantasy universe full of magic, magical creatures, stoic good guys, and creepily evil villains.

It was much later that I discovered there was a sequel to the novel, and longer still before I was able to start reading the sequel (First Rider’s Call). I picked up FRC last month and realized it had been so long since I read the original novel that I should read it again before picking up FRC.

My second read of GR was a lot different than my first. I still really like Karrigan. She’s plucky and fiesty and she takes initiative — some of my favorite traits in a heroine. I also still liked the story.

However, I have gotten pickier over the years about the types of writing I enjoy. Little foiables and quirks in the writing do a lot more to throw me out of the story than they used to. It can be a little annoying, actually, because I remember really enjoying GR the first time around, and this time… well, if I hadn’t already purchased the sequel, I don’t think I would have finished it.

One of Britain’s writing quirks that bugs me is a tendency to over narrate. We’ll be going along through Karrigan’s point of view, and then suddenly she will start thinking of something totally random. Like she’s walking to the palace to see the thing and then her mind wanders off for half a page about a garden or some other big of scenery. Or, sometimes, it’s acutally important information, like how the government works or why the riders came into existance, but it’s still off topic from what the character was doing when they randomly started thinking about this. The information doesn’t flow with the pace of the narrative. It feels like the author wanted to get this information out there for the reader, so she shoe-horned it in.

I know I’ve been guilty of that in my own writing from time to time. When you know your world so intimately, you want the reader to know it that way, as well. You get carried away with the behind-the-scenes workings and want to get everything in there that you’ve put thought into during the world creation.

Part of being a good writer, I think, is realizing when you’ve gone too far and edit yourself down. The workings of the government are only important if they impact the plot. Why tell us about a budget meeting of the council if it has no bearing on the bad guy or the war at hand? It might be interesting (might), but it doesn’t move the plot along.

And, if the information is necessary to the plot, you still have to find the right time to bring it in. Narration is good, but maybe it would be better to just talk about it instead of having the POV character think about it. It can feel odd for a character to randomly start thinking about a bit of information, but a skilled writer can insert a bit of narration into the mix without the cumbersome “she thought,” etc., and keep the flow moving. Or, if the character has to actually think about it, then make her have to act on it in some way, as well.

If you enjoy fantasy, I would still recommend the Green Rider series. It’s not bad, and parts of it are quite good. But it wouldn’t be at the very top of my recommendation list.

I received word over the weekend that I’ve had four flash pieces accepted for the 2009 Every Day Fiction anthology. I had one story (“Remember?”) accepted into last year’s anthology, which was exciting enough, but to have four accepted is amazing!

Not to toot my own horn, but I felt that the odds were pretty good that “The Care and Feeding of Your Sleeping Knight” would get in. It was on the top 10 stories of all time list for several months running.

“A Million Faces” seemed to have a good shot, as well. It was on the top 10 stories of all time list for a while, as well — though not nearly as long as tCaFoYSK. Personally, I think aMF is the best story I’ve ever had appear on EDF, so I was really rooting for this one and am thrilled it got into the anthology.

The other two stories to be selected surprised me — “Fortune Cookies” and “Frigid.”

“Fortune Cookies” is a fun little short — a little humor and a little surreal. I didn’t realize it was a favorite, and was surprised to look back at it today and see it had such a high star rating.

With “Frigid,” I’d actually thought it was published after the anthology deadline, but I looked back and it just squeaked into the running by being published at the end of August. That poor story actually had a bad start out at EDF due to technical issues in which every other paragraph was missing when it was originally posted. The EDF crew fixed it right after I emailed them about it, and it’s fine now. I hadn’t realized until I went back to look at it today that it actually recovered more than I’d thought on the star rating. It’s not ranked as high as the others mentioned above, but it had barely been holding at 3 stars when it first went live. I’m glad it got in, though, because I’m partial to my superhero universe. This is the first story set in that ‘verse to be published somewhere other than the wonderful A Thousand Faces.

All in all, I am surprised and excited by this multiple acceptance, and I cannot wait until the new anthology is available. Last year, I gave several copies as Christmas gifts. I wonder if the new one will be out in time for that. If so, that is several gifts taken care of already. If not, then I’ll save the copies for next year’s birthday gifts instead.

I can’t wait to find out who else I know has stories in the anthology. I’ve heard that Alex had a story accepted, but quite a few of my writing group mates, blog friends, and even a college friend had at least one story published over there this year. There were so many good stories, I don’t know how Camille and Jordan can narrow it down! If you’ve had a story accepted, comment and let me know!

Oh, and in case you’re interested, in addition to the five stories linked above, I have had two other stories published over at EDF in the past year – “A Castle in the Clouds” and “Honor Bound.” If you’ve never read them, check them out.

Head on over to Every Day Fiction today and read my writing group mate Stephanie’s latest story, “Leopold’s Monocle.” You can vote on it and leave a comment while you’re there.

This is a humorous bit of flash written in Stephanie’s breezy, well-phrased style. You’ll definitely enjoy it!

Yesterday, while Stephen and I were driving home from Sedona, my flash piece, “Honor Bound,” was the story of the day at Every Day Fiction. Go on over and check it out. Voting and/or commenting is always appreciated!

I wrote this story as part of my writing group’s prompts contest last year. Jens submitted a prompt to the group challenging us to write an action scene, but it couldn’t be only an action scene — he challenged us to do it with emotional heft and weight, as well. I think it was my favorite prompt of that month’s contest.

It’s a challenge to write fantasy in the flash format. You can never give quite as much detail as you want to the world and the background. But, in a way, that can be fun, as well. It’s a challenge to give just enough details to clue your readers into what’s going on, but leaving enough wiggle room that they can fill in the blanks themselves, with what they bring to the reading.

So, if you read “Honor Bound,” I’d love to know what you think. Leave me a comment and let me know.

The SED contest still continues. I think it is sucking all the other writing thoughts from my mind, as nothing has come to mind to blog about. I enjoyed yesterday’s story, though. A woman fighting a tree that became a tentacled monster. Much fun, and inspired by a real tree that I saw in the park while Stephen and I were riding our bikes earlier this week. I have not seen the real tree break out into tentacles yet, but it looks shifty!

Anyway, I thought I would take this lack of creativity and use it to highlight some other people’s creativity. So, the following are links that I’ve found whilst meandering through the interwebs.

The Teen Fiction Cafe is a blog run by a rotating cast of Y/A authors. They have weekly themes and their posts tend to be quite awesome. There are give-aways sometimes, as well.

Pub Rants is my absolute favorite agent blog out there. Agent Kristen always has interesting things to say about the industry, and I like that she always does her ranting the polite way. My favorite posts are when she talks about queries, the slush pile, and what’s hot in the industry right now.

Lit Agent X is also a great agent blog. I love it when Rachel lists the trends in the queries she receives. However, the only downside is that she doesn’t have a regular update schedule. The archives are worth perusing, though!

If you enjoy urban fantasy, try Fangs, Fur, & Fey. Lots of publishing urban fantasy writers (including Melissa Marr of Wicked Lovely, which is an awesome book you should definitely read) post here. I always discover some interesting tidbit that I didn’t know about before.

And that is it for the blog installment of my links posts. Happy clicking! There should be enough there to read to keep you occupied for quite a while! And if any of y’all have any links you want to share with me (especially good author, agent, or writing blogs, but anything, really), feel free to share!