William L. Domme's Blog, page 5

Meet the People in Godwin Merritt’s Life

I have not published the book or found an agent yet but I am sitting on some introductions to the people who populate the as yet unpublished novel. I would like you to meet them. They are waiting for you here: Introductions

I’m Back in School at Lit Reactor

Today is day two of lectures and assignments in Short Story Mechanics at Lit Reactor taught by Richard Thomas. I would like to say I wish I’d taken writing courses earlier and often but that implies regret and who has time for that? But, I wish I’d taken writing courses earlier and often(had a few moments for regret and now it can kick rocks).

The class is twenty-five writers strong and sold-out. Now I can see why. The instructor knows his field.  I feel great about being able to get in and can’t wait to see what all the writers produce at the end of the week-long class. It’s intense and fast and well worth it.

While completing today’s assignment a concept and outline for a new collection of short stories erupted in my writing and I can’t wait to get started on that. This is a good way to take my mind off the waiting of the novel querying for The Confluence I’m also in the midst of. Stay busy and you won’t have to stress over the waiting.

So, if you’re a writer, go check out Lit Reactor. Luckily, the first rule of Lit Reactor is not, “You do not talk about Lit Reactor.” It may be the second rule but I didn’t get that far. Just go check it out.

 

Submitting Short Fiction

Fade in.
Interior. Bedroom. 4:45 a.m.

The phone rang and the voice-mail took the message. No work today. “You get to stay home today,” she said.

I couldn’t go back to sleep. The novels and the short stories were front and center in my mind. I didn’t even struggle to get out of bed this time. Some energy unseen pulled me to the chair and I fired up the laptop.

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I opened three short stories to double check their condition. Ready to submit. I opened the novel. Just to remind myself of the possibilities. 

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Two of the short stories are flash fiction and that generally means they’re under 1,000 words. I Googled “Submit Flash Fiction” in search of magazines and journals where flash fiction is published. I read their past issues as much as I could online. This is essential in finding a home for your story. If they don’t publish the type of thing you write, submitting is a waste of everyone’s time; writer and editor. My eyes were burning on three hours of sleep and my back was tight where the muscles pull on the spine down by the belt. The day job is physically strenuous sometimes and little sleep aggravates that. No big deal, just uncomfortable. I read some good stories in the journals I found and would love to link them all here. In the interest of space I’ll just do a couple. The Incubator is out of Northern Ireland and Ireland and has a sharp format and great stories from the issues I read. Find it here: The Incubator. The Dying Goose was another journal that took me by surprise this morning in my hunt for the perfect home for my story. The tale I read in there jolted my eyes from their weary sag and made me a little jealous that I hadn’t written it. That story was titled Man of Merritt and you can read it here: The Dying Goose

Within the hour I submitted my own work to a couple of the magazines I read through, not necessarily the two I mentioned above but, they were worth reading nevertheless. If you’re a reader and you don’t know about these lit journals all over the internet you would be well served to seek them out. They are publishing solid work by working writers who are more than likely working double time to pay the rent and pursue their calling.

I learned something valuable this morning before dawn. I suppose I didn’t learn it this morning but was only reminded of what I already knew. It’s not going to kill me to get up at 4:45 in the morning to put time in pursuing the goal of being what I am. A writer.

 

 

Book Sale 25% Off

There were two short story collections, Eight and The Rejected Works…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hardcovers were $20 and the paperbacks were $10. But, seasons change. If you need a gift for anyone, including yourself, the hardcovers and paperbacks are now…

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, fill up your cart and enjoy the free shipping. From my typewriter to you,

 

AND…

Searching for a Literary Agent in Modern Times

I am working overtime on writing.

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I am putting in the time in the chair writing stories and novels and writing letters, now email, to literary agents in the United States of America. I have been sending queries for seven months with varying degrees of interest. What I’ve learned, I’ve learned through experience. Because I feared the notion of reading up on the subject in How-To books and Here’s-What-I-Know blogs I unwittingly set myself up for that most undesirable of piles that follows the slush pile, the rejection pile.

Don’t do that. Read and study the practice of querying. It will save you time and effort. Citizen, I grew up hard-headed. Another word for that is, obstinate. That is not a compliment. After many rejections and no-reply-at-all’s I took a step back and considered my position. It was time to dig in and learn about the art of the query letter.

After seven months, I feel my query letter is now trim and polished to a strong request. (N.B. the query letter is not a mass produced thing. Each agent should receive a letter personalized to their requirements but you can craft the bulk of the thing so that you don’t stumble along and miss getting the point of your novel across.)

I am continuing to send the now largely preferred email queries but there is also a fun little contest on Twitter that is a lot like gambling in my eyes. You play your hand and wait in the tight vibration of anticipation to see if there is an agent out there who sees your 140 character(that’s letters and spaces, not kings and pawns) message in a bottle and decides they’d like to see more of your work.

I participated in Pitch Wars for the first time in 2014 and really got on the ball utilizing Tweetdeck to automate my allotted two tweets per hour. Those two tweets per hour were crafted with the diligence of my work on the novel itself and included the necessary #pitmad and genre hashtags to draw the attention of participating agents and publishers. Although I didn’t win via this process there were mentors who I selected at the beginning of the process who gave me some of the most useful feedback on my query letter and first ten pages of the novel I have ever received. For that, it was worth it to put in the effort to participate.

And, today the people who put on Pitch Wars are running #PitMad which is a shortened version of the Wars. That link goes to the site with the rules for making the best of your “query tweets” during the single day events.

If you have a finished novel and are having a hard time finding professional representation then #PitMad may be a fun way for you to continue the quest. Good Luck and comment back if you do get some bites through the Pitch Madness.

New Chapter in Iron Jaws Motorcycle Club Released

Chapter 2 is available now!

More good news? It will be free to download on October 9th and October 10th 2014. Yes, the odyssey continues when Scales’ is pursued by rival factions of the Iron Jaws MC which suffered a schism upon his expulsion from the group. Further on down the road, an ancient mystic finds himself in the company of an unknown visitor. Click the cover below to access Chapter 2 and the horrors that lay within.

 

Chapter 2 was originally published on October 4, 2014.

Chapter 3 will be released on November 4, 2014.

Chapter 1 is available here:

 

Kick Ass Biker Novel

Get your motor running with this new novel, Iron Jaws Motorcycle Club. Yes, I am releasing it in installments and yes, if you would prefer to see the twisted tale of Scales vs. his old gang, IJMC, travel in a different direction you can leave feedback by shooting an email or tweeting.  If I don’t hear anything from the readers, Scales and IJMC will continue their calamitous odyssey wherever it may lead.

Get your copy of the first installment here:

Thank you for reading.  And please leave a review for good or ill on Amazon if you have time.  Reviews help readers who come after to make an informed purchase.  Thanks again.

Just Sit Down and Write, There.

If you’re reading this you may want to know a thing or two about writing and while I’d love to write that I know everything and am prepared to show you the way that is simply not reality.  Or anywhere near reality.

I had an issue with showing up earlier this year.  I lost the plot.  I stared out the window a few times wondering what the hell happened.  There I was, standing at the window one morning, “What the hell happened,” I said into a lukewarm mug of instant coffee.  I was seriously considering not writing anymore.  I’d done what I can, I thought.  There I was, standing at the window one morning, “I’ve done what I can,” I said into a lukewarm mug of instant despair.

And that went on and on as you can imagine.

I took up golf.  Because I’m an adult.  And because, “Heroin is so passe.” Thank you, Dandy Warhols-one of many great lines in their music.  But I took up golf with the intent of completely replacing the need to write another damn word.

And then on the #10 tee box of a most disastrous round of gowf I found myself visualizing the curve of my Olympia and ring of its bell line after line.  The ensuing tee shot flew off the tee head and rose in a fine, straight arc dropping somewhere beyond the horizon of that rolling fairway.

I resolved then, on the stroll to my second shot, that I would reinvigorate my efforts to writing.  I have a novel to finish revising.  I have at least thirty short stories that need to be completed and revised.  I have four novels outlined and sketched that I intend to write.  Oh, but becoming a professional golfer is a tantalizing delusion.

As for getting back into the mindset to be in the seat everyday no matter what, that’s an easy fix.  Sit down and write.

And as I finish the newest short story and prepare to send it out to literary magazines, print or otherwise, I am reminded of the ease that writers today get to languish in.  I can be on Twitter for twenty minutes and come away with a list of journals and magazines to send my work out to and I have to assume that the writers working before the internet age would just shake their heads and wonder why they had it so rough.  And then again, those old typewriters don’t have access to every distraction under the sun.

Now then, school is soon back in session and with it the university lit mags open their doors to increase the number of venues where one could seek to get their writing published.  One useful site I’d share with writers looking for an index of sorts is The Review Review.  You can filter your search for what type of publication you are looking for as well as read through reviews of other literary magazines.  Disclaimer:  I do not work for them and receive no compensation from them.  I just found their site to be extremely useful.

Oh, shit.  Look at the time.  I’ve got to get some writing done.

 

 

A New Review for You to Peruse

Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, there is a place on the internet where people can gather and discuss and share their noble affliction with the like-minded, the converted, the choir that needs no preaching to yet bounds for joy when the word is spoken.  That corner of the vast web of the world’s information is Goodreads.  That is a place where readers and writers can go to brag and boast, tag and toast.

In this short post I am only popping in to let you know that a new review of Eight (short stories) has been written by a woman using Goodreads.  I invite you to read her concise thoughts on the book of short stories I released a few years ago.  She says, “Domme’s character development is complex, as are his topics — alcoholism, terminal illness, the paranormal.”  

Read this and other reviews here:  Goodreads 

Live Looks

Good day!

I’m currently working on a new feature to atypeofwriter.com and when it is live I do believe it will be a nice addition to the site. A little window to see behind the curtain. If the bookstore and the finished stories are the gleaming front window on the street level then this new portal will be the basement window in the alley where the curious can peek in and see how a story is born onto the page. Screencasting with live writing exercises recorded as they happen. No edits. No interference. No pretending. Just the ugly first draft in all its flawed glory.

This is a test run for a new feature I would like to add to atypeofwriter.com under its own menu tab.  “Monday Morning” will be a live recording of the composition of a rough draft of a piece of flash fiction.  And for those who are not sure, Flash Fiction is just a short story that generally falls under 1,000 words in total.  Personally, I prefer to keep my flash fiction to around 500 words and use it as a general warm up exercise for getting on with the writing of longer stories or a novel.

Flash fiction can storm the page with surprising characters and plots and settings and I would like to share the process. Some days the writing is slow.  Some days the writing flies.  These live recordings will show how long it takes between the lines to get the words onto the page.

So, without further delay, just press play!