Guilie Castillo-Oriard's Blog, page 19

#atozchallenge: B is for Bachelors

The singles of the 2014 A Year in Stories project. They're as varied as they're complex. 

Mars. Don't you love that name?Take the three bachelors of Gay Degani's Old Road stories: Gus German, his son Mars, and Ian Shane.

Gus finds solace--from his disillusionment, from the loneliness his long-dead wife left behind--in his dog, Gracie (come back on D day for more on her and the other Dogs of The 2014 Project).

Mars is a mystery; divorced or never married, we don't know yet, but he's as lonely as his dad--and that there is a relationship worth a Tolstoy-sized novel. Same as Ian's relationship with his mother: she rules his life totally, tells him where and how to live, even what to do for a living. (We'll get into those relationships next Monday, for Family First & Foremost).

(Want to know more about Gay's 2014 stories?)

Then there's Claire Worthington, who lost the fire under her ass either somewhere after college or right before it ended (Isa by Rachel Ambrose, January Vol. 1), and has no ambition beyond paying her bills and, sometimes, eating. But then her new roommate introduces her to a guy, and you just know Claire's orderly non-life is about to boil over. Or Nadia, a talented seamstress somewhere in Australia, who not only gets to watch the guy she loves marry someone else, but gets as well to make the wedding dress for that someone else. For free. (Well, actually by Mandy Nicol, February Vol. 2)

Isa, by Rachel Ambrose.
2014 January Vol. 1How about Gill Hoffs' call girl, whose name might or might not be Jennifer, and who brings a unique mix of grittiness, common sense, and wit to the project. In Carpet Muncher (January, Vol. 1), Maybe-Jennifer introduces us to

"Robin, whose wife understands him well enough but doesn't have the figure or temperament to stand beside him at a business do and impress the other suits with Robin's good taste, or the stamina to help him blow off steam with a half-hour blowjob afterwards. Apparently it makes her jaw ache and her cheeks sore, and he has a tendency to get some in her eye. Now I've known him a while, I'm sure his aim was deliberate."

And then there's Adam Zajak, nicknamed Wingy by some wit in a newspaper, who opens his story in the simplest way he can:

"I fly.
That is the blunt truth with which it all begins." 
(Wingy by Andrew Stancek, January Vol. 1.) 

We're tempted to dismiss him as delusional, but the voice is so real, the narrative so persuasive--precisely, perhaps, because it doesn't seek to persuade--that we begin to doubt. And that right there is the key to masterful storytelling: suspension of disbelief.

I wanted to tell you also about Father Edward McKenzie, the transvestite--or transgender, according to his creator--priest. And about Pedersen the pedophile, that creepiest of the 2014 characters. And about Charles and the accident he witnessed and how he ends up in India in March. And about Aaron and the suicide club he starts. And about Morgana Malone, and Stevie, and Max and his beautiful boat, and Luis Villalobos the hotshot tax lawyer that moves to Curaçao and regrets it within three weeks, and Slim Jim, and Anne Donaldson, and The Bird Mahony, and Samford and his clone, and Rachel, and....

This post is already double the length I was aiming for.

Hope you enjoyed meeting these bachelors (and bachelorettes). Come back tomorrow and meet the Couples. Marriages are falling apart all over 2014, love's got its head on the chopping block... But you know what they say. Hope dies last, if it dies at all.

~ * ~
April is the month of blog discovery. Your next favorite blog is waiting somewhere inthe list of A-to-Z-ers!

#atozchallenge: Anthology of an Anthology

This April it's all about the 2014: A Year In Stories project I'm participating in via Pure Slush Books. (You were warned here.)

What is the 2014: A Year In Stories project?


A twelve-volume anthology, a volume per month, throughout 2014. The writers involved were assigned a specific date of the month, and they each write a story every month that takes place on that date. Mine, for example, is the 1st; my stories take place on Jan 1, Feb 1, Mar 1...

Yep: today is April 1st. A story of mine is happening. Interested? You can read it in the April volume's Amazon sample. You can also read Stephen V. Ramey's review here. (He reviews the day's story every day, and has been doing so since January 1st. A round of applause for Stephen, please!)
2014 April Vol. 4
If you like today's story, think about this:
I'm the ugly duckling among these thirty-one swans. 
To quote Pure Slush (because no one says it better):
"What we're publishing is a series of stories from each writer that arcs across the whole year, involving the same character or set of characters. Twelve days in the lives of [these] people. So every month, as the books are released, readers can dip into these characters' lives. Like a serial."Pure Slush, Background to 2014 Project
Who are the writers involved?

Find all thirty-one, and the dates assigned to them, here.

And the stories?

Seven snippets for your daily extraordinary fiction fix:

Each week I pick my two favorites. Two favorite little darlings. On Monday I first picked the redhead boy who I would guess to be about seven years old [...]
The inner, slimy, workings of a paedophile's mind. (Susan Tepper's Snakes and Snails, January)

2014 January Vol. 1I hear the familiar buzz of voices, inane chatter from my daughter, more coherent speech from my son, my wife's voice with the edge of authority in it, keeping them on task. It sounds foreign to my ears, even after all these years--spending 7 or 8 months a year mostly away from them makes me a stranger in my own life.
Michael Webb's baseball stories aren't about baseball at all. (First Inning, January)

I have lived with this project for three years and the two accents are integral to the book. I can only conclude their non-inclusion is a sign that you do not take me or my work as a writer seriously.
Sally-Anne Macomber explores writerly tantrums in Indignation (January).

"...I'm sure he just, well, he probably hasn't had a minute to himself..." 
I keep my mouth shut, pour out the tea and get the last of her birthday cake out of the fridge.
Mandy Nicol's slice of life and heartbreak. (Thorns, January)

I'd suggest she hire one of those planes that writes fluffy messages in the sky to spell out the word "CUNTS" over their love nest, but she'd kill me for resorting to any form of humour so early on in her heartbreak.
Shane Simmons portrays the love-hatred of friendship in You Can't Choose Your Friends (January).

There will be a high-speed chase scene, profanity, cops, those fuckers, trying to fuck things up, and a broken heart, or at least one sore dick. But this is not that kind of story.
Michelle Elvy takes us on a joyride--literally and otherwise--in Cornfield (January).

Men who say, "I'm paying so much in child support I need to know how fertile you are," even before I buy them a drink.
Matt Potter's quirkiness-personified protagonist, Morgana Malone, complains in Morgana Malone and the Case of the Mysterious Flood (January).

This self-same Matt, by the way, is also the instigator, mastermind, ringleader, peacekeeper, and editor extraordinaire behind this project. Come back on M day for an exclusive backstage pass: Susan Tepper interviews him right here on Quiet Laughter.

~ * ~
Did you enjoy these snippets? I'll keep sharing, one or two a day, from different stories and different authors. (Want more now?) I'll also look behind the scenes, at stories and authors, and dig deeper into the characters. Think of these posts as something like the 2014 project "movie companion" ;)

What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Bachelors! Eligible, creepy, forlorn, desirable, old enough, not young enough.
Boat owners, baseball players, writers with writer's block, businessmen, hit men.
Ex-husbands, fathers, sons. 
You name it, 2014's got it. 
Thanks for the visit, and see you around the A-to-Z blogs!

A-Z: Anthology of an Anthology

This April it's all about the 2014: A Year In Stories project I'm participating in via Pure Slush Books. (You were warned here.)

What is the 2014: A Year In Stories project?


A twelve-volume anthology, a volume per month, throughout 2014. The writers involved were assigned a specific date of the month, and they each write a story every month that takes place on that date. Mine, for example, is the 1st; my stories take place on Jan 1, Feb 1, Mar 1...

Yep: today is April 1st. A story of mine is happening. Interested? You can read it in the April volume's Amazon sample. You can also read Stephen V. Ramey's review here. (He reviews the day's story every day, and has been doing so since January 1st. A round of applause for Stephen, please!)
2014 April Vol. 4
If you like today's story, think about this:
I'm the ugly duckling among these thirty-one swans. 
To quote Pure Slush (because no one says it better):
"What we're publishing is a series of stories from each writer that arcs across the whole year, involving the same character or set of characters. Twelve days in the lives of [these] people. So every month, as the books are released, readers can dip into these characters' lives. Like a serial."Pure Slush, Background to 2014 Project
Who are the writers involved?

Find all thirty-one, and the dates assigned to them, here.

And the stories?

Seven snippets for your daily extraordinary fiction fix:

Each week I pick my two favorites. Two favorite little darlings. On Monday I first picked the redhead boy who I would guess to be about seven years old [...]
The inner, slimy, workings of a paedophile's mind. (Susan Tepper's Snakes and Snails, January)

2014 January Vol. 1I hear the familiar buzz of voices, inane chatter from my daughter, more coherent speech from my son, my wife's voice with the edge of authority in it, keeping them on task. It sounds foreign to my ears, even after all these years--spending 7 or 8 months a year mostly away from them makes me a stranger in my own life.
Michael Webb's baseball stories aren't about baseball at all. (First Inning, January)

I have lived with this project for three years and the two accents are integral to the book. I can only conclude their non-inclusion is a sign that you do not take me or my work as a writer seriously.
Sally-Anne Macomber explores writerly tantrums in Indignation (January).

"...I'm sure he just, well, he probably hasn't had a minute to himself..." 
I keep my mouth shut, pour out the tea and get the last of her birthday cake out of the fridge.
Mandy Nicol's slice of life and heartbreak. (Thorns, January)

I'd suggest she hire one of those planes that writes fluffy messages in the sky to spell out the word "CUNTS" over their love nest, but she'd kill me for resorting to any form of humour so early on in her heartbreak.
Shane Simmons portrays the love-hatred of friendship in You Can't Choose Your Friends (January).

There will be a high-speed chase scene, profanity, cops, those fuckers, trying to fuck things up, and a broken heart, or at least one sore dick. But this is not that kind of story.
Michelle Elvy takes us on a joyride--literally and otherwise--in Cornfield (January).

Men who say, "I'm paying so much in child support I need to know how fertile you are," even before I buy them a drink.
Matt Potter's quirkiness-personified protagonist, Morgana Malone, complains in Morgana Malone and the Case of the Mysterious Flood (January).

This self-same Matt, by the way, is also the instigator, mastermind, ringleader, peacekeeper, and editor extraordinaire behind this project. Come back on M day for an exclusive backstage pass: Susan Tepper interviews him right here on Quiet Laughter.

~ * ~
Did you enjoy these snippets? I'll keep sharing, one or two a day, from different stories and different authors. (Want more now?) I'll also look behind the scenes, at stories and authors, and dig deeper into the characters. Think of these posts as something like the 2014 project "movie companion" ;)

What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Bachelors! Eligible, creepy, forlorn, desirable, old enough, not young enough.
Boat owners, baseball players, writers with writer's block, businessmen, hit men.
Ex-husbands, fathers, sons. 
You name it, 2014's got it. 
Thanks for the visit, and see you around the A-to-Z blogs!

#NoBystanders -- Would you? Will you?

I found this brilliant video on Upworthy. Maybe you've already seen it. Maybe it's old news. But it's worth sharing, and saving on the blog.


So. Are you a bystander? I know I am--but I won't be anymore. You?

#MyWritingProcess -- You've Been Tagged!

The wonderful Shane Simmons has tagged me in the #MyWritingProcess hop... Which involves, as you might have so perceptively guessed, talking about this thing I do: write.

What am I working on?
The 2014: A Year In Stories project, of course. And I'm behind. I delivered the August installment a couple of weeks ago--the same installment that was due at the end of January. I'm still working on the September story, which was due at the end of February. October will be due exactly a week from today, and I haven't even started (obviously, since I haven't finished September--you see how this becomes a domino thing?).


I love this project. More on that during April, but for now let me just say it's an honor to be included.

I also have a novel in its thirty-something-th draft that needs--well, complete rewriting, I think. Should've done that last year, the rewriting, but instead--because I'm lazy--I thought I could just add and tweak and take out. I did; I cut it from 110K+ to 55K, then added another 50K (a different 50K).

Yeah. It's a mess. Which is why it needs complete rewriting. I mean from scratch. The weird thing is I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Writers. Strange, strange people.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Uhm. I don't think I'm the right person to answer that question--at least not if you want an objective, hubris-free answer (or insecurity-free, because hubris is just that, isn't it? Insecurity with a Napoleon complex?). Plus I don't write genre fiction. And that there is a genre, too, isn't it?

Image credit: this websiteMaybe it's easier if I tell you how I'd like to write. What I strive for in my writing. No dragons, no vamps or werewolves, cute or sparkly or not; no fairies or wizards, but plenty of magic--but it's the magic of life, of moments; the magic of small things, of people that touch each other and, like dough meeting heated oil, change each other and there's no turning back. It's the magic of everyday life--the magic we so seldom take seriously.

I try to stay away from adjectives and adverbs. I like to write in deep POV. I love unique characters, characters with quirks and flaws, characters with obsessions and insecurities, characters that think they've got it all figured out when in truth they've no idea what they're really seeking--and I love it when that thing, what they really need, hits them in the face.

Why do I write what I do?
Because the interactions between people fascinate me. Because I've been changed--bettered, spoiled, but above all forged--by the people in my life, whether it's been a momentary brush or a lifetime friendship. Because life is made of moments, and it frustrates me no-end that we can't seem to remember that: we keep focusing on the future, or the past, or both. But what about the present? What about the now?

How does my writing process work?
I'm a pantster that's been flirting, on and off, with the plotter Dark Side. The first drafts of my novels have all (except one) been written for NaNoWriMo with very little outlining (read none), but for the 2014: A Year In Stories project I did outline the whole thing before delivering the first story to the editor. Because there would be no turning back once the stories were accepted. Knowing how much rewriting and revising my first drafts require, I knew that somewhere around the June or July story--or worse, around November or December--I'd think of a brilliant plot twist that would require proper foreshadowing in March or April to work... And it would be too late. So I did outline the whole story arc. Which doesn't mean I've stuck to that outline, but--well. I tried.

My first drafts are crappy: verbose, soaked in adj/adv arterial spray. Dialogue is probably the part I rewrite the most; in the middle of the night I'll wake up because I just thought of a brilliant comeback to something a character said. Dialogue, for me, is what takes a story from good to great.

Image credit: this websiteI sit. I write. I don't believe in the hoo-doo of routines: I don't have a Writing Robe or an Inspiration Mug or a Muse-Friendly Desk. I don't believe in writer's block, either. Park your butt on the chair and write, dammit. It doesn't have to be Homer, it doesn't even have to be good. But--like Maya Angelou says, if you mean business, eventually the Muse will give in and show up. Talent to me is loving something so much that you can't bear not doing it--and that makes you willing to put in the thousands and thousands of hours of work it takes to get good at it.


~ * ~
There you have it: My Writing Process. Definitely more Process than Progress :D Thanks for tagging me, Shane; this was a lot of fun to do.

I'm tagging three excellent writer friends to share their writing process next Monday: Silvia Villalobos, Emilio Calderón, and Mira Desai (who's just announced a wonderful publishing milestone--hop over to her blog and say congratulations!).
If you enjoyed this and want to jump on to the #MyWritingProcess tag, please! Yes! Do so! Next Monday (or whichever Monday works for you), answer these four questions on your blog and tag another two writers to post the following Monday. Leave a comment below letting me know when your post will be up so I can visit and tweet and FB and G+ and, you know, share it everywhere. Us writers must stick together ;)

The Mighty #A2ZReveal!

What's April going to be all about here on Quiet Laughter?
I agonized over that. I had my Curaçao theme from last year all prepped and ready to go; I even had posts written already, photos collected. But...
This is 2014. It's a year like no other.
There's a project out there, one that's been called (by Mike Joyce, editor-in-chief of Literary Orphans) "the most ambitious, intense, and MASSIVE project going on in the digital writing community this year," and it's happening--literally happening, as we cyber-talk--right this very minute.
Thirty-one writers. Thirty-one mini-novels. A chapter a month. A story a day, every day. The whole year.
365 stories, a volume every month, all collected and edited by the Great & Powerful Oz Matt Potter (well, he is Aussie).
True, I speak of

Pure Slush's
2014: A Year In Stories

From the 2014 page of Pure Slush's website:

"What we’re publishing is a series of stories from each writer that arcs across the whole year, involving the same character or set of characters. Twelve days in the life of that person or people. So every month, as the books are released, readers can dip into these characters’ lives. Like a serial."

Curious about the project?
You've never met characters like these. A man that flies. A woman that wants her husband murdered. A pedophile stalking little boys. A transvestite priest. A recovering alcoholic on the verge of a cross-country journey of perdition. A baseball player trying to reconnect to a family that barely knows him. A group of kids on a joyride that goes bad. A big-shot tax lawyer in the Caribbean. A prostitute--excuse me, call girl--and her clients, in uncomfortable detail. A selfish friend. Several, actually. Heros, and antiheros (join that discussion on H day, April 9th). Endings and beginnings. Nagging wives. Couples that wax nostalgic about bachelor days. Bachelors who hate bachelorhood (to the extreme of joining a dating reality show).
And so much more.
Who are they is the easy question: they're unique, and they're remarkable. How they got that way... well. That's a harder one.
Maybe at the end of April, after talking with their creators, after exploring and comparing their stories and their origins... Maybe then we'll have an answer. Or not. Either way, if you're into fiction, you're in for a treat. This is fiction at its vanguard, mold-cracking best.
(Like Matt Potter says:) See you at the end!

Flash Fiction Friday (late, as usual)

Not really a raft, no, but--come on. Use your imagination.There was only water, and then, a small raft.

It began as a speck in the persimmon fanfare of sunset, barely distinguishable from the dips of waves. She watches without watching, without realizing she's watching, until the speck no longer fades. Becomes more than play of shadow in a world too golden to be real. More than a figment of starvation, dehydration. She blinks. It's still there.

Even a day ago she might have stood. Not to wave like the madwoman she's become, not to attempt to signal; there's nothing to signal with, anyway. No, she might have stood just to get a better view. With her head down on the sand--cold because it's under the palms, which feels good during the day but has begun to be uncomfortable now that the sun is leaving--the horizon is marred by the rocks on the shore. With her head down on the sand the crash of the waves and their unbearable, unstoppable rhythm obscure everything. Even the hunger. Even the certainty of her death.

She's too weak to stand now, to want to stand. She's been too weak for many things for days.

And what would be the point? Whatever it is out there in the water won't get close enough to see her, even if she stood. Nothing does.

But the raft keeps coming. She can't see it after a while because of the rocks, but she hears--yes, even above the waves--the other, also unstoppable, rhythm of oars. It's not the sight of the raft but this, the sound of its oars, that she closes her eyes to at the end.

Read (and join!) the other Skullduggery & Madness flashes here. Outstanding contributions every week.

Carnaval in Curaçao

Carnaval in Curaçao has two parades: the Grand March on Sunday
afternoon, and the Farewell March on Tuesday, Mardi Gras,
which starts around 8 pm.Carnaval in Curaçao is a serious thing.

If you've been to the big Mardi Gras celebrations--Rio, Veracruz, New Orleans--the Curaçao version will be, sadly, disappointing. But to locals, Carnaval (no, not Carnival) is the event of the year. More important than Christmas, or even the newly minted Dia di Korsow (Curaçao Day) that celebrates Curaçao becoming a country within the Kingdom of The Netherlands (instead of part of the defunct Netherlands Antilles).

The only holiday that might give Carnaval a run for its money is New Year's. And that would be a close run.

Which is why Carnaval Monday shouldn't surprise me.

Uh-huh. Today is a holiday here.
Everything is closed, just like New Year's Day. No, no parade today--the time off is to recover from yesterday's, and to be fresh for tomorrow's. Which ends at midnight, with the burning of Rei (King) Momo.

Wouldn't it make more sense, I asked ten years ago in my naiveté, to have off the day after the Farewell Parade (the one tomorrow, the late one)?

No, I was told. But the reasons never made enough sense to stick.

Fascinating, these traditions. But I stopped going to Carnaval years ago. I prefer to enjoy the quiet. It's not often that streets are so deserted, neighbors so unobtrusive (ahem, because they're not there). Yep... I'm all good here.

What's the lowdown on Mardi Gras where you live? Is that something you look forward to? Have you ever walked in a carnival parade?

It's March 1st! Which can mean only one thing...

2014 March Vol. 3
A Pure Slush ProjectMy March story in the 2014 A Year In Stories project is happening. What is Luis Villalobos up to today? On January 1st it was his "walk of shame (well, drive of shame)" (from fellow project writer Stephen V. Ramey's review of The Miracle of Small Things) the morning after sleeping with his boss. February 1 threw the reader into the obscure (and not so clean) world of international finance (read Stephen's review of The Chablis & Sushi Miracle).

And March 1? Back to forbidden-sex grief? More hidden-financial-assets trouble (and lingo)?

Nope.

You can keep guessing, or you can take a hop over to the Amazon preview and read the story.

If you like it, think about this: the other stories in the series are each better than the next. And the other writers... I'm in overwhelmingly outstanding company.

After reading you might want to drop in on Stephen's review--yes, it's already up!--and vote on what you think is going to happen next month.

If you like short stories, please consider buying the book (available in print & .epub via Lulu.com, too) -- you're in for a year-long treat.

Either way, do take that hop over to Amazon to read the preview and my story. Would love to hear what you think, either here or in Stephen's blog.

Happy March 1st!

#AZchat -- the First-Ever #atozchallenge Twitter Chat!

Exciting times, people. History is being made. The First-Ever #atozchallenge Twitter Chat goes live on Friday Feb. 28!

Tune in with hashtag #AZchat at 6 pm EST (issues with timezones? this tool will help) and join the A-to-Z fun. Ask questions, connect with other A-to-Z-ers, share tips & tricks (or your latest blog post), spread the love--and have a blast.

Record-breaking sign-ups are expected for the A-to-Z Challenge this year. Get in on the fun early, build your network, get help and help others. The A-to-Z isn't about April. It's about this: a sense of community that spans the blogosphere--and, as of this Friday, Twitter too.

This is an informal event, A-to-Z-ers getting together to talk shop--which we all love to do and are, in fact, already doing at the slightest chance. But, time permitting, some of the A-to-Z co-hosts will be joining, including Damyanti (@damyantig).

The chat will be hosted by the awesome ladies of #TeamDamyanti (which you should totally follow because they're not just wonderful co-minions, but outstanding people in their own right):

Anna Tan (@natzers), Csenge Zalka (@TarkabarkaHolgy)Jemima Pett (@jemima_pett)Viola Fury (@ViolaFury)Samantha Redstreake Geary (@WriterlySamIAm), Vidya Sury (@vidyasury)& myself (@Guilie73) 
Come make history with us. See you at the #AZchat!

P.S. -- never taken part in a Twitter chat? Here's everything you need to know.