S.M. Pace's Blog, page 13

Short Story Blitz Update #2

1 month into the year, and here’s what’s been going on:

This month

Stories Written:

Stories Revised:

Stories Submitted:

School Year Totals

Stories Written

Stories Revised:

Stories Submitted:

 

Story Snippets

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 New Years Goals and Inspiration  My Summer Writing Sabbatical Begins!  A Writing Exercise  I'm Back and Why I Don't Write HorrorCopyright ©  [Short Story Blitz Update #2], All Right Reserved. 2015.

Short Story Blitz Update #1

I’m two weeks into the school year.  I’ve decided that once or twice a month, I’ll post an update to help myself keep track of what I’ve accomplished during the year.  I’ll tabulate how many stories I’ve written, how many I’ve revised, and how many I’ve submitted, and to where.  I’ll also throw out a few sentences from my favorite stories of the month.

This month

Stories Written: 5

Stories Revised: none so far

Stories Submitted: none so far; will begin working on submissions in October.

School Year Totals

Stories Written:  5

Stories Revised: none so far

Stories Submitted: none so far

 

Story Snippets

She twisted out of his grip, though his fingers tightened and wrenched her arm.  The force of her movement made her stumble, and hit the road on her knees.  She looked up quickly to see a foot coming at her face.  

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 Flash Fiction Wednesday: And They Lived  Flash Wednesday  Sunflowers for Tina  I'm Back and Why I Don't Write Horror  My Summer Writing Sabbatical Begins!Copyright ©  [Short Story Blitz Update #1 ], All Right Reserved. 2015.

IWSG – Renewed Energy

The first of the month has come again.  As you read this, I’m either sitting in my classroom, getting ready for the school year or I’m home, getting some much needed family time.

I’m excited to say, that for the moment, I’m feeling less insecure about my writing.  So far, this week, I’ve written two short stories, beginning to end.  I’ll admit, the endings are a bit shoe horned, but I promised myself I would finish every story the day I started it, even if I had to have aliens show up at the end, and death ray everyone.  That way, I’ll have four complete stories to look at on Friday, and I make a firm decision about which one to focus my revision on.

I’m researching my markets, and doing little write ups on each one describing the sort of writing they accept.  Each story I revise will get a similar write-up, so I can easily match it to a market.  For anyone interested, I’m using my handy dandy StoryTracker App to keep track of my markets, my stories and my submissions.

Here’s my most recent prompt, pulled straight from my magical prompt bags

The last bit says communists and unicorns.  I was able to come up with the latter, but not the former.  But, I still ended up liking the story, and it’s in the lead for which gets a revision this weekend.  Here’s a excerpt.

          The sun beat down on the arid landscape, baking every drop of moisture from the earth.  Halspar stared across the distance, through the wavering air at the city wall just a few miles away. 

          Toward the South, smoke rose in black curls, and the rumble of the approaching war machine drew closer.

Wish me luck this week.  How about you?  Any big writing projects planned?  Or even small ones

Cheers!

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 Insecure Writer's Support Group - Making Time to Write  Cover Reveal & Release Date- The Mother's Chalice  Giveaway Winner!  Indie Life - The Dos of Self-publishing  New Website, New Blog, Same MeCopyright ©  [IWSG - Renewed Energy ], All Right Reserved. 2015.

A Super Hero Story

One more week left for the summer, and my new daily writing and weekly submitting schedule.

First things first, new posting schedule:

First Wednesday of the Month – Insecure Writer’s Support Group post.  If you haven’t signed up, go for it, and one day a month, share your writing insecurities, musings and successes with a mess of other writers.

Third Wednesday of the Month – Writing and Submitting Progress post.  Snippets of stories I’ve written, current submissions I’m waiting on, rejection list :-), and with any luck, accepted list.

My current plan is to write fiction to a random prompt four days out of the week.  Pick one story, and on the weekend, and after baby has gone to bed, revise that story, and write up a query.

I’m giving myself a month long cushion to begin submitting, so I can have time to clean up a couple short stories, and decide which magazines are best to submit to.  My current goal is to submit at least two stories a month, for a total of 18 stories between now and next summer.

So, the last question is, where will my prompts come from.  That’s my favorite part.

My typical mindset when I go cold into a story, is to have a well but minimally defined character, a conflict and a setting.  With that in mind, I created a list: 100 characters, 100 conflicts and 100 settings, and cut them out on scraps of paper.  Each went into three separate baggies.  Each day, I pull one from each baggie, to myself a sentence prompt.  I’m committed to sticking with that prompt 100%.  No wrinkling my nose, no twisting ideas toward something I’m more familiar and comfortable with.  I purposefully wrote the slips with items that I knew would pull me out of my writing comfort zone.

With out further ado, here’s my first prompt:

I’ve never written super heroes before!  I can’t wait to see how this turns out.

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 Indie Life - The Dos of Self-publishing  Giveaway Winner!  I'm Celebrating My Wings  What's Up Wednesday - Celebrate Words  Indie Life and Self-Publishing: Wouldn't you Rather be Writing?Copyright ©  [A Super Hero Story], All Right Reserved. 2015.

A New Outlook and a School Year Plan

The summer is almost over, and my big question for myself is did I accomplish anything.

Well …

I published Shadow and Wings on Barnes and Nobles, and Smashwords
I made at least some headway with The Mother’s Chalice
I had a wonderful, relaxing summer with my baby boy, knowing that I had a steady paycheck and a job

It’s taken me a bit of time to realize that that’s not a bad list.  And to realize that my writing does not have to stop over the summer.

My thought at the beginning of the summer was that this was my time to do sustained work on a longer piece of writing, get a revision done and get it published.  Breastfeeding, and therefore needing to stick close to home and numerous distractions, caused a much bigger roadblock than I imagined.  As well, rather than simply focus on getting my story done, I dumped a whole lot more stuff on my plate each day.

So, the summer was not as productive as I had hoped, but my hopes were pretty unrealistic.  Of course, I had no trouble drowning myself with realism by reminding myself time and again that I could not do any writing over the school year.  Which left me getting more depressed as the summer went on.

Until my husband asked me, “Why not?”  To paraphrase, he pointed out that if all I wanted to do was write, I could certainly find 20 minutes a day for that.  My doubts flooded in at first.  Twenty minutes a day is too short to make decent headway in a novel revision. I would be stopping at awkward places all the time, and getting frustrated.  And what about working on the website and my mailing list?  What about getting all those short stories published on kdp?

I took a deep breath, realizing I was thinking in circles.  I asked myself, at the most basic level, what did I need to be doing to keep fresh with my writing and maintain my website.  The answer was two things:

Write everyday
Blog at least once a month

No guaranteed commitment of time, although I knew that between my husband and parents, I could definitely have at least 20 minutes most days a week.  Bimonthly blog posts would fit in there easily, or once a month if need be, but enough that visitors to the blog wouldn’t think I had abandoned it.

But what could I do with all that writing, especially since I’d already decided it would have to be just free-writing, no larger projects; I didn’t have the brain space for those.  Then an idea hit me that was the definition of killing two birds with one stone.  Writing and at least making an effort to get my name out there.

Submit my short stories to online magazines.  Something I hadn’t attempted for a long time.

Worst case scenario, I would end up with a whole bunch of rejected short stories that I could still revise, clean up and publish on my site, or through kdp.  Best case, I might actually sell something.  Either way, I’m getting much needed practice.

I no longer feel defeated as the summer comes to an end.  I can still write, still keep up the site, and I can still have fun.  Two more weeks of summer left, and I plan to make the most of it, and stop stressing.

 

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 Indie Life and Self-Publishing: Wouldn't you Rather be Writing?  Why Do We Love Zombies?  Nanowrimo and Writing Inspiration  IWSG - Writing Guilt  Readers Meet WritersCopyright ©  [A New Outlook and a School Year Plan], All Right Reserved. 2015.

IWSG – Time and Writing

 

Late again

For all you insecure writers out there, join IWSG and share you insecurities with fellow writers.

The whole day job thing really frustrates me.  I didn’t get nearly as much done this summer as I had hoped, and the start of the school year is creeping closer and closer.  Teaching, and online courses on top of taking care of a household and a baby simply demand too much of my time for me to be able to write.

I went into self-publishing as an experiment.  I had no notions of making even pocket change, let alone a career out of it.  But something changed.  Maybe because I liked it so much.  Maybe because all the success stories gave me hope.  I want writing to be my career.  I want it so bad it hurts.  I have all these ideas that I want to write about, but I can’t.

Because everyone around me is happy to support my writing as a hobby.  My husband and my parents are happy to take baby off my hands for fifteen minutes every now and then, so I can get my writing bug taken care of.  But I still feel guilty every time I do this.

That only makes it worse.  When I write a little, I just want to write more.  It never feels like enough.  It feels like a joke.  I can’t write, edit and publish stories with just fifteen minutes here and there.  I can’t maintain a website and blog, and market my work with a now and then writing schedule.

I might have to let it sleep for now, and that hurts.  I’ve thought about trying to write short stories to submit for publication.  That would free things up.  But it hurts to think of my website and this blog, which I’m paying for, languishing into nothingness for nine months out of the year.

Well, this is the most insecure I’ve felt about my writing in a long time.  So, I’ve certainly joined the right group.

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 Wings of the Butterfly is Flying Free  Wings of the Butterfly Blog Tour  Closer and Closer to Wings  IWSG - Writing and Real Life  Insecure Writer's Support Group - Making Time to WriteCopyright ©  [IWSG - Time and Writing], All Right Reserved. 2015.

Go Set a Watchman – Thoughts (and Spoilers)

I read Go Set A Watchman, so allow me to present the most controversial opinion I have ever, and likely will ever, express on this blog.

First off, it hasn’t ruined To Kill A Mockingbird for me, anymore than a terrible movie adaptation would ruin a book that I love.  My mind doesn’t work that way.  I can be disappointed, certainly.  The adaptation to Blood and Chocolate sucked, but I still love the novel.  The novel remains unharmed, because I don’t think of the movie as an extension.  It’s something else entirely; it’s own entity.  Another universe, even.

That’s how I view Go Set A Watchman.  It’s not a sequel.  It was never meant to be one.  It was a first draft, and any writer knows that a first draft can bare absolutely no resemblance to the final product.  So, I enjoyed it as a study of Harper Lee’s process.  It was fascinating to see who these characters were when they first emerged, and how the story evolved.  I will not sit here and critique, because I am not a critic.  I tried my hand and reviewing, and realized I’m no good at it.

So, here’s how I feel.  Not a critique, but simply my opinion on what’s going on with Watchman and how it fits within the Mockingbird universe.

It’s a rough draft.  Nothing more.

I’ve read that people are crying over the fact that Atticus Finch has devolved, sunk into racism and bigotry in his old age.  No he didn’t.  That was the Atticus Finch that came first.  Through Harper Lee, he evolved into the character that so many people love, and idolize, a good, moral, wise man.  Perhaps he might have aged into the man presented in Watchman, but we’ll never know, because that’s not what happened.

Watchman is a darker, even uglier book.  That’s what happens with first drafts.  When you first write, sometimes you have to bleed out some off kilter tone.  You aren’t sure yet what story you want to tell, or how you want to tell it.  You have let your characters spout a few monologues, so you can learn more about them, and decide whether they are the right characters for your story.

I think that’s what Harper Lee was doing.  Here’s where I really skirt controversy.  If Harper Lee had a real say in this (yeah, I said it) I don’t think she would have wanted to publish Watchman as is and call it a sequel to Mockingbird.

Harper Lee knew what good writing was.  She understood that for Watchman to be a true sequel to Mockingbird, she could not have simply killed off or dismissed characters as important as Jem, Dill and Calpurnia.  Or turned the Robinson trial into a barely mentioned footnote.  But even fixing these errors in consistency would not have turned this novel into a sequel.  I’m not sure there was a sequel here.  If Harper Lee had ever entertained the idea of continuing the story of Scout Finch, I believe it would have been a entirely different story.  Because again, this was the first draft of Mockingbird.  Not a first draft of Watchman.  Not a planned sequel to Mockingbird.

So, that’s my opinion.  Treat the book as what it is.  A first draft, a collection of notes and character studies.  No more a part of the Mockingbird universe than the early draft scenes of the Harry Potter books that J. K. Rowling sometimes releases on her website.  Or, if I may take a flight of fancy, a discarded early manuscript by Stephen King, in which Carrie, after surviving the horrific events of her high school prom, goes on to college, gets therapy and explores the ramifications of what she did and how she feels about getting away with it.

Cheers,

 

 

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 Readers Meet Writers  Flash Fiction Wednesday: And They Lived  Second Short Story and Another Question  A Short Break  Insecurity at it's Finest: Flew Too Close to the SunCopyright ©  [Go Set a Watchman - Thoughts (and Spoilers)], All Right Reserved. 2015.

Cover Reveal & Release Date- The Mother’s Chalice

I have a new novella coming out!

The Mother’s Chalice will be released soon, and I’m beyond excited today to reveal the cover art, designed by the amazingly talented Christa Holland at Paper and Sage.

In all it’s glory;

Taivust, A young priest, defies the rule of his temple  to journey into the land of his people’s greatest enemies.  There he finds reality very different from the stories he was raised on, and he begins to question what he has always believed.  Before he can decide what his future will be, he must answer to his past, and a dangerous enemy waiting in the shadows.  

The Mother’s Chalice will hit the cyber shelves on July 29th via Smashwords, following up later on Amazon and B&N.

If you’re interested in more content, sign up at Woven Threads, my mailing list.  You’ll receive fun goodies like free fiction, world building tidbits and other news about the Threads of Magic world.  Hope to see there.  

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 Second Short Story and Another Question  Readers Meet Writers  Nanowrimo and Writing Inspiration  Write With Me - May 22Copyright ©  [Cover Reveal & Release Date- The Mother's Chalice ], All Right Reserved. 2015.

IWSG – Writing Guilt

 

The first Wednesday is here, and that means time for Insecure Writers to share their stories.  Go here to sign up for the Insecure Writers Support Group.

When I was a kid, and people would ask me why I wanted to be a teacher (my life goal from the age of 8) I would always say, “so I can have summers off.”

That wasn’t the only reason why, although to my beach and pool loving younger self, it was an awesome perk.  I did always love the idea of being in front of a classroom, imparting knowledge about some fascinating subject to eager and engaged students.

As I grew older, my genuine passion for teaching blossomed, and perks like school holidays, including summer vacation, faded into the background.  It also helped that “I want summers off” became a much less appropriate answer once I got out of high school to the question “what made you want to be a teacher?”

It’s also inaccurate.  The last five years have been a struggle to find a permanent teaching position, and summers off were a luxury we could not afford.  I took on summer jobs to make ends meet.

So, I’m super excited because this will be my first summer off.  When I tell people that they always assume it’s because I’ll be spending the summer with baby.  Yes, I have a brand new baby, 5 months last week.  I love him to pieces, and leaving him every morning tears me to shreds.

But I’m not taking this summer off.  I will still be leaving him with my Mom four days a week, so that I can write.  When I landed this teaching job, my husband and I agreed that this summer would be my time to write, because there would be no time for it while I was working and taking care of the baby.

I feel guilty about it, and I haven’t admitted it to everyone.  A friend commented not too long ago, that of course I would be staying home with baby every day.  I didn’t correct her.  I agreed and smiled.

I know baby will be fine.  My mom and husband insist that this is better, because the transition back to school in September won’t be so difficult.  I still feel guilty, and I wonder if I always will.

Writing and self-publishing is still just a hobby.  It’s still a luxury that takes time away from other more important things: My family, my job, my household.  During those snatches of writing time, I always feel at least some guilt.  What more important thing needs my attention?  What am I neglecting right now?

Do you feel guilty about writing?  How do you deal with it?     

If you’re interested in more content, sign up at Woven Threads, my mailing list.  You’ll receive fun goodies like free fiction, world building tidbits and other news about the Threads of Magic world.  Hope to see there.  

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 Second Short Story and Another Question  IWSG - Writing and Real Life  Why Do We Love Zombies?  Insecure Writer Support Group - Summer Writing Sabbatical  First Short Story and a QuestionCopyright ©  [IWSG - Writing Guilt], All Right Reserved. 2015.

Flash Wednesday

I wrote this story a long time ago, when I experimenting a lot with the more twisted aspects of fairy tales.  Hope you enjoy. 

“Mirror, mirror on the floor, who is the fairest in all the world?”  Rose studied her image in the polished cherry wood.  Her tangled dark hair brushed her reflection’s pointed chin.

Anka stretched out on the floor beside her sister.  “My lady queen is fair to see, but Snow White is fairer by far than thee.”  She giggled and reached out her red stained hand to pinch Rose’s cheek.

Rose laughed and came to her feet, sliding in blood gone cold and sticky.  Her heel bumped something soft, as the familiar words of her favorite story flowed like water from her lips.  “Old woman, why do you come to this place?”

Anka rose in a fluid motion, like a sylph.  The thin cloth of her red-drenched nightgown ripped, and a knife clattered to the floor.  “To sell my wares, dear child.”  Her bare, white feet slipped across the wood, skirting the dark puddle of blood.  “First with a corset to crush your ribs.”

“Then with a comb to drug me,” Rose whispered, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.  The room smelled of ginger soap and copper pennies.

Anka twirled, arms circling above her head, stained hangs fluttering like startled doves.  She danced to the cold fireplace and stepped onto the brick hearth.

The mantle held a bowl of delicate glass fruit, hand blown and beautifully detailed.  Anka’s small hand lifted a red and white apple and she turned and held it out to Rose.  “And then with an apple, to choke you, and hold you ’til you die.”

Rose cupped the apple in her hands, marveling at its coolness.  Mama and Daddy never allowed her to touch the decorations before, though she’d longed to.  Rubbing the apple against her chin, she clicked her teeth on the curved glass.  Consumed by the fantasy, she feigned a cough and dropped the apple.

It shattered on the hearth, hollow as an empty grave.  Rose sprawled across the floor, head turned at just the right angle to see Mama’s face.  “Beyond the seven hills, beneath the snow white falls,” she said with a sigh.  “Here lies the fairest of them all.”

Mama’s cloudy eyes started back at her.  Rose reached out a finger to touch her, to feel her white skin.  It was cold.

A prickly feeling came over Rose’s stomach, and she sat up and rolled onto her knees.  ”Anka,” she said.  “What happened to Snow White?  You promised if I let you out, you would tell me the end.”

Anka smiled.  “Only true love’s first kiss could save her.  The Prince came and kissed her, and she woke up.”

Rose’s eyes skipped past Mama to Daddy beside her.  Her lay on his back, eyes closed, red leaking from his mouth.

“Anka.”  Rose’s voice trembled.  “If they’re both asleep, how can Daddy wake Mama up?”

“You’re so silly.”  Anka clapped, eyes sparkling with delight.  “They’re part of a different story.”  She spread her arms wide, eyes looking to the ceiling.  “They’ll sleep for a hundred years, just like Sleeping Beauty.  And we can be together.”

Kneeling next to Rose, Anka pulled her into a tight hug.  “Aren’t you happy you unlocked my door?  Now we can do whatever we want.”

Rose shivered with eagerness, sparing a last glance at Mama and Daddy.  As long as they were only sleeping, everything would be fine.  “You’ll tell me how all the stories end?”

Anka nodded.  “Happily ever after,” she said as she reached for the knife.

 

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 A Writing Exercise  The Insecure Writers Support Group  Sunflowers for Tina  Rifters by M Pax  Readers Meet WritersCopyright ©  [Flash Wednesday], All Right Reserved. 2015.