Sydney Avey's Blog, page 21
September 23, 2013
365 Short Stories (Artful)—Week Thirty-Eight
Artful writing employs creative skill in clever, crafty or cunning ways. There is an art to arranging words in a paragraph and paragraphs on a page so they appeal at once to the eye and the ear.
“Several Garlic Tales,” by Donald Barthelme, Object Lessons: The Paris Review presents The Art of the Short Story
Ten story snippets, like encased garlic cloves bound together with distinctive language, sketch the character of Paul as he trips around the world. Texture and flavor trump story, yet meanin...
September 18, 2013
How Faith Works
Figuring out how faith works confounds the practical mind. It’s not a question of learning how to turn faith on (Five Ways to Get God’s Blessing), but a Proverbs 20:12 process involving hearing ears and seeing eyes, observation and recognition. Will you notice what God puts in front of you today and recognize its worth?
Faith stands like an angel beside us, beaming light on something good for us to see, amplifying a word we need to hear. I experienced this a few weeks ago at our local used boo...
September 16, 2013
365 Short Stories (Y.A.)—Week Thirty-Seven
Sis and I are going to do One Teen Story Boot Camp later this month, so I decided to explore the Y.A. (Young Adult) category to prepare. Free Y.A. stories are hard to come by. What characterizes Y.A.? A teenage protagonist. Who writes Y.A.? Established writers and budding teenage novelists. Who reads Y.A.? The target audience is young people, 12-18, but well written Y.A. transcends age and is enjoyed by all.
© Photoeuphoria | Dreamstime Stock Photos
“Giovanni’s Farewell,” by Claudia Gray, Enthr...
September 12, 2013
Green Screening
© Androseglover | Dreamstime Stock Photos
On a classic movie channel this week, co-host and incomparably beautiful actress Madeleine Stowegave her response to a screening of Splendor in the Grass. She commented that back in the day, people and landscape were inexorably woven together.
As we watched Natalie Wood thrash around in the madness of puberty Hubs said to me, “What is the matter with her?” How quickly we forget.
In the last scene, all that angst is absorbed by the larger landscape: hunky...
September 9, 2013
365 Short Stories (writing lesson)—Week Thirty-Six
Indie bookstore, Ashland, OR
A brief writing lesson prefaces each story in The Paris Review’s collection of twenty contemporary short stories chosen from their archives by masters of the genre. Here are some selections from “Object Lessons, The Art of The Short Story.”
“Ten Stories from Flaubert,” by Lydia Davis
Davis fashions snatches of material from Flaubert’s correspondence to a friend and lover into small stories she artfully arranges to tell a bigger story.
Writers, do you have a box of let...
September 3, 2013
HopeSprings Books: the value of a small press
Lynellen Perry, Publisher, HopeSprings Books
My publisherHopeSprings Books is growing and adding new authors every month. I interviewed Lynellen Perry to get her views on the value of working with a small press.
You have a PhD in Computer Science! How did you get into publishing Christian fiction?
I formed Chalfont House Publishing in June, 2000, as a platform for publishing non-fiction ministry and Bible study materials that were developed by my mother and myself. A few years later, we added ou...
August 31, 2013
365 Short Stories (Bon Mot)—Week Thirty-Five
© Juxa | Dreamstime
I love a bon mot, a witty saying or a good turn of phrase. I’m on the lookout for them in this week’s stories.
“Drawn Onward,” by Matt Madden, One Story Issue Number 182
The title and the story are both palindromes, meant to be read forward and backward. Told in graphic story form, star-crossed lovers pass like trains in and out of each others’ lives. This is my first experience with this form. My first take; our kids’ brains really are wired differently. Think about putting...
August 26, 2013
365 Short Stories (Flash)—Week Thirty-Four
The Rim Fire
Photo by Velo Steve
I intended to focus on flash fiction this week, but the Rim Fire forced us from our home for a few days. Now our community is reassembling and praying for our neighbors to the east of us, and Yosemite National Park to the north.
Groveland, CA
Photo by Velo Steve
Smoke bellowed over and around us, touching core emotions of fear and wonder. Man continues to battle nature with a full arsenal of courage and technology, but this fire bullies a dry forest that stands mut...
August 25, 2013
All Fired Up
Combine the fastest growing wildfire on record with unrelenting media coverage and the high drama of warfare and you are all fired up for adrenalin rush.Pine Mountain Lake shot up from a little hideout in the Sierra foothills to become the number one focus of national attention within the space of a few days.
What I learned
People seem to be of two minds. Those who evacuated under the voluntary advisory might be called wise or wimps. Those who stayed might be called courageous or...
August 21, 2013
The Face of Fire
Smoke from the fire burning in the canyon behind Pine Mountain Lake Airport. Do you see faces?
We all see faces in clouds, anthropomorphic bits of friendly, gleeful or maniacal puffery. This week my community is staring into the face of fire. The specter of the Rim Fire that burns in the river canyon to the east of our homes is big, aggressive, uncontained and grim.
Our prayers rise through the smoke; God seems to have adjusted the winds to urge the fire largely away from homes. Blessedly, ther...
