Stephen L. Thompson's Blog, page 7

Short story – “It’s Harder than it Looks”

I just published The Uncapped Pen, a collection of fifty short stories dealing with writing in someway.  Most were previously published – onmy website or blog – but the rest are brand new stories.  This previously published story was in my “IfI need it pile,” but in the end I didn’t need it.  So I’m just posting it here as a bonus.“It’s Harder than itLooks”As Renee juggled theschedule to

Short story – “The Honeymoon’s Over”

I just published The Uncapped Pen, a collection of fifty short stories dealing with writing in someway.  Most were previously published – onmy website or blog – but the rest are brand new stories.  This previously published story was in my “IfI need it pile,” but in the end I didn’t need it.  So I’m just posting it here as a bonus.“The Honeymoon’s Over”“What do you think you’redoing?”

The Uncapped Pen, at last!

 Over a decade ago,I had the idea of putting together a collection of stories dealing with writing:authors arguing with their muse, or struggling with having too many ideas, ortoo few, or whatever.  But for reasons, Iset it aside, until a few years ago when I figured I’d finish it.  Well, it took longer than expected, and justas I was about to put the final polish on, there was a writer’s

Writing Newsletter Third Quarter 2023

In my last newsletter, Iexplained how I was going to polish up my collection of stories about writing, TheUncapped Pen, to have it ready for when the writer’s strike ended.  Well, I polished it up, and figured all I’dneed would be a final read through. Well, when the strike ended I was trying to do six other things, andsince the strike had gone on for so long, after a final read through

Fourth of July Sale and voter registration drive

I think for every Fourthof July since I published Political Pies – my collection of shortstories of a political nature – I’ve had a free sale for it.  On one hand, it’s hard to make money if yougive your books away for free, but on the other hand the point of PoliticalPies is to get people to start thinking about politics in the hope we couldstart working on some of the problems we face to

Writing Newsletter Second Quarter 2023

 In my last newsletter, Iwrote that I hoped to have my next collection, The Uncapped Pen, outsometime in May.  Well, polishing it upis taking longer than I had hoped.  Inthe beginning of May, I set June 1st as my goal to finish it.  And the next day the Writers Guild of Americawent on strike.  I am not a member of theWGA, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to release a collection of

Random Writing Tips – Chill on the weird words

 I know, you don’t want theepic heroes in your fantasy story just drinking mead and eating roast boar.  You want to show the reader that this isn’tjust people at a Renaissance Faire, so they drink regilum, the drink of thegods, while eating roasted glarthen.  Ofcourse, the servants bring the roast glarthen out on a large silver platter,that they set on the table before the heroes who have

Free story idea ��� A Star Wars Story

I have a lot of ideas forstories.�� Like, if I wrote a novel���sworth of them every month, I���d still most likely die before getting throughthem all.�� I will admit that some of theideas probably suck, but I think there are some that a good writer could makesomething of them.�� I���ll just never get achance to.�� So, I give them to the world.�� If you can make something of these, go rightahead.�� And

Free story idea – A Star Wars Story

I have a lot of ideas forstories.  Like, if I wrote a novel’sworth of them every month, I’d still most likely die before getting throughthem all.  I will admit that some of theideas probably suck, but I think there are some that a good writer could makesomething of them.  I’ll just never get achance to.  So, I give them to the world.  If you can make something of these, go rightahead.  And

Writing Newsletter First Quarter 2023

 In the first three monthsof 2023, I posted the stories “Going in a New Direction,” “Which is Worse?” “A Rising Tide,” and “We Might be in Trouble.” I also reposted the stories “You Can Do Better” and “Puppy Wuppy.” These were posted on my blogs, or othersites.  But in an attempt to get morevisits to my website, I started posting a Monthly Story there.  These were “Resolved,” “Long Shot,” and