Stephen L. Thompson's Blog, page 59

Writing Group Prompt for February

Each month, the writing group I belong to sets out a prompt for the next meeting. We then have a month to write a poem or something from that prompt that we read at the next meeting. I also figured these would work nicely as blog posts. The prompt for our February meeting was: "Start with something you have written and rewrite it, cutting the number of words in half. Then start with the original piece and rewrite it to double the number of words. See which version you like best."

I went with s...

Stephen L. Thompson's January 2012 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering January 2012.

My publication news for the past month:

Publication of my story "Enigma" by Books To Go Now.  You can download it from here for $0.99.

Publication of my stories "Worth a Million" and "I Wouldn't be Surprised" on my Ficly account.

* * *

This month I wrote 7,538 words.  In order to reach my goal of 80,000 words this year, I need to write – on average – 6,667 words a month, so I'm well on my way to reaching my goal.

Also, as I...

Check out my short story "Enigma"

I want to take the time to announce that my short story "Enigma" has been published by Books To Go Now and can be downloaded here for Kindle and Nook for only $0.99.

"Enigma" is set in my Human Republic Universe, and consists of two parts.  Part I follows Carlos Molina, a maintenance man at a comet mining facility.  He is sent out to fix a problem with one of the automated miners.  In the process, he discovers a cube embedded in the comet's nucleus.

Part II is set five years later and follows D...

I'm over the hump

On occasion, I've mentioned a novel that I'm working on, None of Them Knew the Color of the Sky.  It will consist of four parts, each told from the point of view of a different character.  Well, almost three years ago I finished Part II.  I was happy that I was halfway done with my novel, but I was a tad wore out, so I set it aside to work on other projects, such as my first story collection, A Man of Few Words.  Since then, I've quit my job to take up writing full time, finished a draft of m...

Cover for "Enigma"

My short story "Enigma" is being published by Books To Go Now.  This is the cover for it.

At first, I wasn't too keen on it, but it has started to grow on me.

I'll let you know once it's up.

Stephen L. Thompson's December 2011 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering December 2011.

My publication news for the past month:

Publication of my story "Revenge" on my Ficly account.

* * *

This month I wrote 6,172 words, giving me a total this year of 56,176.   I met my goal of 50,000 words last month, so all of this was gravy.  Next year, my goal will be to write 80,000.  Without the distraction of a job, I should be able to do it.  In addition, one piece of advice given to new writers is to write every day.  I'm...

First draft of The All-You-Can-Read Buffet

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my new short story collection The All-You-Can-Read Buffet.  The plan is to set it aside for a few weeks, then go through and double check a few things and give it one more polish.  Then in January I'll ask some of my friends to read through it looking for typos and other stuff.  I'll go through all of their comments and give it another polish or two.  Then – hopefully in April – I'll self-publish it on Createspace, where I published my first...

Initial cover design for The All-You-Can-Read Buffet

This is for my next collection, The All-You-Can-Read Buffet.  I have a few ideas to change this, but what do you think?

In case you are wondering, the four books are, clockwise from top left: The Family Mark Twain, Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, War and Peace, and Familiar Quotations.

Stephen L. Thompson's November 2011 Newsletter

Howdy,

Welcome to my electronic newsletter, covering November 2011.

My publication news for the past month:

Publication of my stories "A Mother's Suffering Never Ends" and "Family Rituals" on my Ficly account.

* * *

This month I wrote 8,409 words, giving me a total this year of 50,004. Meaning, I've reached my goal of 50,000 words this year! I had thought about trying to hit 60,000 by the end of the year, but I'm planning on spending December working on revisions. Including, the first draft of m...

50,000 words!

I am unfortunately not talking about the National Novel Writing Month, but instead my writing goal for this year of writing 50,000 words. When I hit 40,000 words back in October, I challenged myself to hit 50,000 by December 1st. Well, as of this afternoon I have written a total of 50,004 words! It's a good feeling.