Darius Jones's Blog: A Writer Begins, page 22

Five Reasons Marlowe Is Better than Shakespeare

I didn’t discover Christopher Marlowe until a couple of years ago. I had heard his name vaguely related to Shakespeare and didn’t think much more of it. I guess I felt another playwright full of “thees” and “thous” wouldn’t be my thing.

But one day, I was in one of my used book store haunts and “Dr. Faustus,” one of his plays, caught my eye. The play begins with a chorus focusing on the Doctor:

And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursed necromancy;
Nothing so sweet as...

The Ghul of Yazd Gets Published

My short story, “The Ghul of Yazd” just got published today in Strangelet’s Journal’s first edition. Click the link to order the print or epub version of the magazine.

So, the Ghul finally made it…And just to whet your appetite, here are the first 100 words of the action in the story.

Bashar, Alisher, Yusuf, and Hasan carried a funeral bier. It was little more than a pallet with handles. A child’s body, wound tightly in a sheet so that its body was not exposed, lay in the center of the bier. T...

Works in Progress—Introducing my New Short Story: Breakpoint

Another works in progress post today. No time to waste, so here’s a quick update on each piece.

Breakpoint
The title of the science fiction story I’ve been working on for some time now is “Breakpoint.”

It’s set later this century after The Great Wars in which Cumulus, a sentient supercomputer, emerges triumphant. Below Cumulus are programmable Bots and below the Bots are Cyborgs: sentient, modified humans. The protagonist is a Cyborg who is tormented by constant nightmares connected to a ritu...

What Inspired My Latest Short Story

What inspires you? What inspires any author, or any artist? Often times, it’s the odd experience or random thought. Here’s one incident from the history of science, involving the young Galileo:

In 1581, when he was studying medicine, he noticed a swinging chandelier, which air currents shifted about to swing in larger and smaller arcs. It seemed, by comparison with his heartbeat, that the chandelier took the same amount of time to swing back and forth, no matter how far it was swinging.

Galileo...

Works in Progress—Stories and Novella

In following with a plan laid out in an earlier post, this week’s post will just be a little update on where my writing is at. Here we go:

The Ghul of Yazd
This story should be published in the next two weeks by Strangelet Journal. I will likely do a separate post here when it goes live. I can’t wait for this horror/undead/suspense thriller to come out. In the meantime, Strangelet has already revealed the cover art (right) and you can pre-order “Issue 0” now on their website.

“B” – a science f...

The Craft: Conflict and Metamorphosis

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a short story not just good, but great. Why do some reach out and grab you and others leave you cold? Well, I think I’ve hit on one of those things that compels you to keep reading: conflict leading to metamorphosis.

I began to suspect this was an important thing when Kenneth Jobe, another writer I follow, said that it was strange that his stories that were accepted both had characters in them that didn’t die.

My story ‘Tale of the Revolution’ i...

Giveaway and Blog Tweaks

So, first, a business item: My Weird West tale, “The Truck Stop” and a historical novella, “The Man Who Ran from God” are both free this weekend (Aug. 16 and 17) on the Kindle. Stop by and check them out. You don’t need a Kindle to get them, just the Kindle app.

Blog Tweaks
Next, I just want to talk about this blog. I’ve been trying my best to update it every week. I haven’t always succeeded and it’s been tough feeding the beast with all my other commitments (job, family, life and fiction writ...

Back to the Writing

All right, getting back at it. Just a short post to let you know I’m still alive, kicking and writing. Here’s what I have on my plate today:

Resubmitting
I have to take a little time today to resubmit my comedy-horror novella, “AFTA.” It hasn’t been rejected once already, but I’m not deterred. It has a number of rejections ahead I’m sure, but, hey, that’s writing.

I hate to take time out to do this, but I know “AFTA” will find a home, I just need to find the right market. Often, this involves wr...

“The Ghul of Yazd” Finds A Home

Finally. My story “The Ghul of Yazd” has been picked up by Strangelet Journal for publication in its first issue due this fall.

I always believed in the “Ghul,” in the story. I knew no matter how many times he got rejected—no matter how many stabs and bludgeons he absorbed, he’d get back up and resubmit himself. And one day, slowly lurching along in his unique way, he’d find a home. After all, ghuls are hard to fricking kill.

So, today, I’m very excited. It’s my second story to be picked up b...

This Blog Reaches 100 Followers–Plus Shoutouts

Ye olde blog here just reached 100 followers. Not bad. And it comes right after passing its 2nd anniversary of the blog.

I was feeling pretty awesome about this when, the other day, I decided to visit my sister-in-law’s blog and found she had about 3 times as many visitors in a comparable time period. And I’m the one who’s supposed to be the writer here. Oh well…

Shoutouts
…Still, it’s quite an accomplishment. I couldn’t be happier knowing that 100 people out there check out my blog on a regul...