C.K. Combs's Blog, page 7

WiP

I was considering the various stories I’ve started and not finished. Novel length, short stories, and everything in between. I sat down and listed all my works-in-progress… I came up with a list of 11 (not counting everything I’ve ever not finished, just the projects that I still believe have value).

My Best Friend the Serial Killerthe Sandbox story about the alien/demon in the form of a 4 year old childKeeping Sarah Alive (past nanowrimo project)Bucket and Philan erotic story featuring...

What I want to write

I’ve been thinking about what kind of stories I want to write.

I read a lot – sci fi, fantasy, nonfiction, political, contemporary fiction, essays. Sometimes all this material is like meat tossed to the carnivore – my curiosity endlessly hungry for more and chasing down every interesting lead presented.

It’s all fuel for my internal fire, presenting me with ideas about stories and styles and approaches and themes.  And still, I’m pondering the central question – what kind of stories do I want...

Homework: In the Sandbox

I’m still working my way through Neil Gaiman’s MasterClass, having taken some breaks along the way. Today I followed instructions in Chapter 6 about taking a story in unexpected ways. The prompt I used was “child raking in a sandbox next to his nanny”. The initial result of my free writing session is below:

Merton’s nanny, who was just called Nanny because his parents never used her given name, was reading a tabloid and making her way through a boston creme donut.  It was one of the half doz...

Spring Reads

This is what I’ve been reading this spring. Most are audio books, which have the additional level of vocal performance to add to the experience of the story woven by the writer.

Trail of Lightening (The Sixth World, #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse. This the kind of story that starts out fast and quickly accelerates. You hang on as best you can through the twists and turns and by the time you reach the last page, you’re panting for breath and eager for the next installment. The story features a bad-...

Clive Steps Outside

I’ve begun a writing project that I intend to use while taking writing classes. It’s a piece I can experiment on, something without a lot riding on it (unlike the Novel In Progress or other work). I got the idea from one of the lectures from Neil Gaiman on MasterClass. He was talking about how you could learn a lot about writing and about your own voice as a writer by mimicking others. A similar idea is is sometimes employed by beginning painters. I quickly had an idea modeled on a Gaiman fav...

Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity

This book, more than 5 years in the making, is finally getting out into the world. Around 30 contributors share their personal experiences and journeys in discovering what gender means to them, in defying gender norms and finding a place for themselves outside the gender binary. Contributors have their copies and it will be available to the general public on April 9th, through all the usual places, as well as the publisher, Columbia University Press.

When I opened the package and pulled out...

What I’ve been doing lately – February 2019

Update on THE Anthology Definitely the most exciting thing that happened during the last week of February was Micah posting a picture holding the anthology I’ve been waiting for for 5 years:  Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity. I have been watching my mailbox like a hawk for my copy to arrive…. this is way better than Christmas!

 

QueerPop Interview

I was interviewed by Nathan of QueerPop a couple of weeks ago. We teamed up to talk about some negative shit that trans masc and nonbina...

What I’ve been doing lately

All the usual things have been keeping me busy lately – work, volunteer work, relationships, parenting.. and also some creative and fun things as well.

Just today, with the help of my youngest, I finished a stunning and colorful puzzle featuring two sea turtles. I love sea turtles so much that I had some tattooed on my arm. I did most of the puzzle on my own, getting delightful solo time while listening to the audio version of Ready Player One, performed by Wil Wheaton. When we finished the p...

Jumping into MasterClass

or, Giving Myself the Gift of Learning

MasterClass advert from Facebook

I’d seen the ads many times. The confident face of some master artisan staring out at me, promising to teach me their secrets of the trade. “Explore online classes from the best in the world”. There was Steve Martin teaching comedy and James Patterson teaching novel writing, and I could learn writing for television from Shonda Rhimes. And on and on… culinary arts, entertainment, TV, design, fashion, politics, oh my. Some...

Start a Resolution

Idea for a resolution, if you do those:

If you’ve been a person who often has a platform and is comfortable telling your story, consciously make space for people who don’t have a platform and are nervous/anxious/afraid to tell their story.

There’s a lot of power in stories. Grant some of that power to those who haven’t had it.

I posted that to Facebook and someone asked questions about how to follow through on such a resolution. These are my responses:

 How? By being open and excepting (sic)...