C.K. Combs's Blog, page 4

Brace yourselves: NaNoWriMo is coming

Here we are again in mid October with another NaNoWriMo rushing toward us. Last November, I started my Haunted Amusement Park story. I’ve been working on it since then and the story has gotten stronger, the characters and their motivations have gotten deeper and my sense of confidence about how it will be as a completed novel has stayed high. Much credit goes to my writing group, the Page Turners, who have helped me improve with each draft.

We’ve decided as a group to embrace NaNoWriMo this ...

Update: My Short Story in Creative Colloquy Volume 8

To view the recorded livestream of the reading/preview of the CC Vol 8 anthology. (this is a link to a Facebook page).

Remember the story about the little kid playing in the sandbox? Well, I created a full short story based on that and submitted it to Creative Colloquy for their anthology Volume 8 and it’s been accepted! Woot!

It has been several years since I submitted anything for publishing. I haven’t considered spending much time on short story submissions because I’ve wanted to spend ti...

My Short Story in Creative Colloquy Volume 8

Remember the story about the little kid playing in the sandbox? Well, I created a full short story based on that and submitted it to Creative Colloquy for their anthology Volume 8 and it’s been accepted! Woot!

It has been several years since I submitted anything for publishing. I haven’t considered spending much time on short story submissions because I’ve wanted to spend time on my novel. Before that, life was getting in the way.

I will be reading from the short story this Sunday, Oct 10, dur...

Pushing Out the Words When the World is Burning

The world has not stopped going to shit. People have not stopped being mean to other people. Life has not magically become simpler and more manageable.

And still, I need to write.

I have projects, I have deadlines, I have goals and a vision of the future. There are days when my belief in that vision carries me through the shitstorm of the day and sits me down with my keyboard or notebook to spin out the brain stuff that I weave into stories. And there are days when believing in a success...

Feel the Alien Sounds

What if there was an alien language that humans felt in their bodies more than in their ear drums? And what if those feelings and interpretations were uncomfortable to humans?

That’s what I’m playing with in my newest short story. This is one I’ve shared part of before, the one with the murderous toddler. I read a couple of pages for Creative Colloquy last month and I love the reactions it got. And that’s why I’m working to complete it as a 3000 word short story for CC’s latest anthology.

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Write What You Notice – a Creative Colloquy Workshop

Tonight, I attended another of the excellent writer’s workshops put on by Creative Colloquy. The topic was to emphasize the role of observation in our work as writers. Tiffany Aldrich MacBain led us through examples and exercises. We used a guide she’d given us in collecting information based on observation and then spun a scene from it.

Here’s the scene I wrote:

There was a black mark, a blob really, on my neighbor’s otherwise pristinely green lawn. I squinted morning eyes at it, not sur...

Waking up in the Country

Groggy eyes open, shut again in a denial of the presence of daylight. Roll over, snuggle my sweetheart, fall back to sleep. Slowly coming to consciousness again. Sound of the ceiling fan and the birdsong coming from outside through the small opening in the window.

We’re at about 2500 feet above sea level, with a view of the small town of Chewelah down at 1,670 feet. It’s already over 70 degrees outside before 8 am. We take our showers even though we’re going to do some outside work this morn...

On Beginnings and Endings

This morning I’m thinking about beginnings and endings. I am fascinated and envious about brilliant, compelling beginning paragraphs. The start to a story is a welcome mat, an open door revealing an entire world for the reader to explore. Drawing them into that world is the job of the beginning paragraphs.

Thinking about beginnings led me to look at the first lines of the last three books I read.

“The library at Osthorne Academy for Young Mages was silent except for the whisper of books ...

The Doldrums

I was probing my mental status this morning and trying to find a word to describe how I’ve been feeling for the last week and it came to me – doldrums. I’m in the doldrums. My mental ship has been becalmed. The thing about your ship being ‘becalmed’ is that it is not calming.

Doldrum – a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or depression. A spell of listlessness or despondency. A state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump. A dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits.

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Results of a Creative Colloquy Workshop

Creative Colloquy has adapted well to the covid-19 shut-in lifestyle so many of us have found ourselves in this past year. They’ve hosted online readings, workshops and other gatherings. I’ve been participating in everyone I can schedule myself for, which is 100% more than I had been attending when the events were hosted at brick-and-mortar locations in Tacoma. Last night, the event was a workshop led by the new Tacoma Poet-Laureate Lydia K. Valentine. She led us through a series of activiti...