Writing

An infrequent joy

Today I received the galley copy of the Spring 2009  issue of Shimmer, where my short story, “The Bride Price” will be published. Reviewing galleys of published stories is always a joy, one that I don’t get to experience very often. In this case, they did a great job, and I didn’t encounter a single [...]

Story of the Week #24: teh k1ng in y3110W (Part Two)

This is, of course, part two of Teh K1ng in y3110W. The plot thickens. Enjoy!

(more…)

Story of the Week #23: When Death Came to the Fast Food Franchise

Here I am. Cheating again by recycling an old story for my next Story of the Week. This one actually dates back quite a bit, back twenty-two years (holy crap!) to my senior year of high school. At the time we were studying, as I recall, John Updike’s The Centaur. The central theme of the book was “rebellion”, and our AP English instructor gave us each an assignment to create a piece of art that would explore the same thing. He immediately turned to me after giving the assignment and said, “Yes, Richard, you may write a story.”

I think this is a pretty decent little story, even if the themes and what not are cliched and tired. Remember, though, I wrote this in 1986, long before I’d ever even heard of Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman. I was, however, quite familiar with Douglas Adams and with Kurt Vonnegut, and I think that this story has a definite Vonnegut-esque feel to it; or maybe that’s just me and my wishful thinking. And yes, it gets preachy at the end; I had realized by then that I hadn’t actually yet addressed the theme of rebellion, so I had to work it in somehow. So I put in a little speech. It was all I could think of.

Preachy or not, cliched or not, this story got an A+. So take that.

Enjoy! (more…)

Story of the Week #22: The Littlest Christmas Tree

And this is me, being bad. Work got so insane last week, what with me accidentally deleting nearly 100 student assignments from our distance learning website, and struggling mightily to write a script that would find out who was impacted and what files they had lost (the latest backup we had was nearly a week old), and figuring out some tactful ways of saying, “Hey, that final report you uploaded for your winemaking class? Well, guess what…” That, and trying to manage the upgrade to the newest version of our software made it all pretty crazy. Needless to say, I didn’t have any downtime at work to work on my story. And when I wasn’t at work, well, I was just sitting around and cursing the stupid software and my own occasional lapse of competence.

But anyway, I wanted to write a Christmas story, because it’s that time of year. The only title I had in mind was “The Littlest Christmas Tree”, which sounds like a cheerful little story that children might read. However, I’m me, so no such story came out of my head. What came out instead was a heartwarming tale of Yuletide apocalypse. Well, technically, it’s a post-apocalyptic story.

This story is a sequel to my short story “Tumbleweeds”, a story which has, sadly, yet to find a home, but which I’m not ready to release to the world under a Creative Commons license (if you want to read it, drop me a line and I’ll send you a copy). “Tumbleweeds”, my friend Dex tells me, is a story that plants me firmly as the king of carniverous tumbleweed stories. I don’t know, personally; I think that title might still belong to Stephen King or possibly Judy Blume. Still, it’s good to know I’ve had an impact.

Anyway. Enjoy this story. And later this week I’ll post another story, so that I’ll be all caught up.

(more…)

A question for the masses

Assume that you’re writing a Christmas story. What elements should go into that story to make it a truly successful Christmas story in our culture? So far I’ve got:

A Christmas tree
A crippled, possibly even dying, child
A goose

What else should I include?

Story of the Week #21: Trial By Sewer (Sangrilicious III)

This is Part Three of Sangrilicious, my epic tale of Delilah the Vampire. Part One is “Sangrilicious“, and Part Two is “The Prince’s Challenge“. The response to Delilah’s stories have been pretty positive, which surprises me. I don’t like most vampire fiction, after all, and I can’t imagine that any vampire fiction I’d ever write would be any good. On the other hand, Christopher Moore, one of my favorite writers, did write Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck, two very funny novels which also happen to be vampire novels, so maybe I can make a couple of exceptions. I think I can detect some of Moore’s influence in Delilah’s story.

I’ve ended up having to do a bit of retconning here, by the way. In Part One, I stated that Delilah had killed her sire prior to setting out on the road to Roosterville. I’ve changed that, so now her sire is actually still alive. It gives Delilah something to focus on.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Story of the Week #20: The X of Doom (Take 2)

I think this is what Jennifer had in mind when she initially suggested the title, “The X of Doom”. This story is not at all autobiographical.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Ha ha ha grr brains Merry Christmas!

My little story “Night of the Frozen Elf” is up at Tales of the Zombie War, a site that is, naturally, one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Story of the Week #19: Thanksgiving with my Family

This is me, cheating, and hoping that I don’t therefore violate the integrity that I, as a storyteller, have developed with you, the half dozen or so loyal followers that I have garnered over the years. If you feel like mocking, stoning, or otherwise berating and vilifying me in public, well, I thoroughly understand.

At any rate, this story is actually an old one which I’ve revised a touch for this project. I didn’t want to cheat, I promise, but what with us leaving early this week for Thanksgiving without guaranteed reliable Internet access and NaNoWriMo having already consumed my soul and not enough stories in reserve, I’ve had no choice. I first wrote this story a few years ago, but I haven’t shared it around for quite awhile. In years past it was well received. Particularly by members of my own family… which, I suppose, should probably give me second thoughts about spending the holidays with them.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Story of the Week #18: Terrible Tales for Tiny Trolls - Creepy Beauty

Yet another Terrible Tale for Tiny Trolls. Enjoy!

November’s stories are all going to be very short. After all, it’s National Novel Writing Month, which I participate in each year.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Story of the Week #17: Little Fluffy Wiggletoes and the Big Revenge

This week’s story is a sequel to a story I wrote a few years ago, “Little Fluffy Wiggletoes“, which proved to be one of my most popular stories, for some reason. I’ve been asked for a sequel for some time, so here it is.

I’ve got a whole cycle of stories for Little Fluffy Wiggletoes in mind. He’s got quite the adventure ahead of him.

November’s stories are all going to be very short. After all, it’s National Novel Writing Month, which I participate in each year.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Story of the Week #16: Terrible Tales for Tiny Trolls - Moldylocks

Not much to say about this one. It’s another of the Terrible Tales for Tiny Trolls, which is turning into an ongoing series; I have a couple more in mind, and when I get around to cleaning up some of the language and removing some of the more adult components, I think these might actually work as children’s stories.

November’s stories are all going to be very short. After all, it’s National Novel Writing Month, which I participate in each year.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Story of the Week #15: The Prince’s Challenge (Sangrilicious II)

This is me, drinking the Kool-Aid, and continuing with my vampire story. “The Prince’s Challenge” is Part Two of “Sangrilicious”, which was Story of the Week #5 (on a side note, I’m rather impressed that I’ve been doing this for fifteen weeks now; that’s probably some sort of milestone).

My feelings about vampire fiction haven’t changed. I still don’t like the vast majority of it. And I’m therefore surprised that I’m finding myself drawn to Delilah’s adventures as she, a newly embraced vampire fully schooled in the traditions and culture of her species, enters and tries to take over a town which is full of what you could basically call redneck vampires. I suspect that there will be two more stories about Delilah in the next few weeks. I already know what the title of each story will be, but I’m not going to tell you what they are ahead of time.

Enjoy!

(more…)

Today’s Writing Whine

Another day, another rejection. It looks like my goal of making my first professional sale this year isn’t going to happen.
I currently have three active submissions at three professional markets. I need to come up with two more. Hm.
Current Mood:  sad

Story of the Week #14: Emissaries

This is one of those stories that I read after writing and go, “Huh? What was I thinking?” Seriously, I know this story is about something, but I’m not entirely sure what. I invite your speculations.

Fair warning: I know that some of my regular readers are disturbed by some of the more visceral imagery that can show up in my stories from time to time. Bear that in mind should you choose to proceed…

(more…)