L.D. Colter's Blog, page 13
August 24, 2016
The Lady of the Fountain, With a Twist
I'm happy to have signed a contract for my second sale to Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, this time for a re-telling of the Arthurian romance, The Lady of the Fountain. (Alan Lee has a gorgeous illustration titled The Lady of the Fountain that I wanted to post here, but the vagaries of posting credited artwork without explicit permission confound me - never sure if it's okay or not. If I get clarification or permission I'll add the illustration.)
The Lady of the Fountain is described in the article at BBC Wales - History as "One of the Three Welsh romances associated with the Mabinogion... The hero of the tale, Owain, is based on the historical figure Owain mab Urien." But this is my retelling. In this tale, the story is told from the point of view of the Lady's handmaid, Luned, who, while instrumental in the original, is something more in this version. I've wanted to write a story based on this tale for years, at one time even considering a novel, but the incarnation that came out ended up surprising me.
HFQ is a popular magazine and "The Price of Duty" won't be out until next spring, but I think this story has found its perfect home.
The Lady of the Fountain is described in the article at BBC Wales - History as "One of the Three Welsh romances associated with the Mabinogion... The hero of the tale, Owain, is based on the historical figure Owain mab Urien." But this is my retelling. In this tale, the story is told from the point of view of the Lady's handmaid, Luned, who, while instrumental in the original, is something more in this version. I've wanted to write a story based on this tale for years, at one time even considering a novel, but the incarnation that came out ended up surprising me.
HFQ is a popular magazine and "The Price of Duty" won't be out until next spring, but I think this story has found its perfect home.
August 22, 2016
WorldCon 2016
Had a great time at WorldCon - caught up with old friends, met friends in person for the first time, made new friends, and went to a lot of great readings and presentations!
August 16, 2016
The Unreliable Narrator
Ever since seeing the movie "Memento" I've had a fascination with unreliable narrators. The movie (based on the short story "Memento Mori" by Jonathan Nolan and published in the March 2001 edition of Esquire magazine) is the best executed example of writing an unreliable narrator I've seen. A murder mystery, told in reverse timeline with a protagonist suffering from anterograde amnesia (an inability to form new memories following the event that caused the amnesia).I've played with unreliable narrators in a couple of stories now, and find them fun characters to write. My first was a gothic ghost story ("I Promise") but my 'superhero goes off the rails' story is even more a homage to Memento/ Memento Mori. It went live today over at Every Day Fiction, and you can check it out here.
EVERY DAY FICTION
BITE-SIZED STORIES FOR A BUSY WORLDHOMESUBMIT A STORYTOP STORIESA MAN OF ACTION • BY LIZ COLTERAUGUST 16, 2016EVERY DAY FICTION 4 COMMENTSThe need to hunt my enemies defines my world.
Pacing, I pass the front window. I count twenty police cars and a Special Forces wagon outside. Officers crouch behind their vehicles and barricades, afraid of me, yet I feel no fear of them.
I jab twice at the air to test my strength, right punch, left uppercut. The wind whistles with my speed. The white of my gloved hands blurs, the gold vambraces at my wrists flash in the sunlight. Blood, bright red, stains one glove.
August 9, 2016
Are We There Yet?
The second part of a novel, that pesky bit between the inciting incident and the crisis and resolution, is always the toughest for me (and probably for most writers). I'm 33k into the first draft of A Stranger Path (working title) -- the second in my Gods of Eoroe series of mythology-based weird/dark fantasy (this one from Maya mythology) -- and am battling inertia. I probably have about a 30k struggle ahead of me until it gets better again. Each new novel I keep thinking this part will get easier. Not yet, apparently.
July 18, 2016
The Emotional Milestones of Writing a Novel
I knew I hadn't been keeping up on my blog, but find it hard to believe it's been two months since I last posted. Part of that is because I left one post in a drafts folder back in early May. I had meant to post about achieving active membership in SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) via my short story sales. So, 2 1/2 months late - yay! SWFA achieved! 
Secondly, it's partly due to being in the throes of writing a new novel. (See chart above.) I'm currently hovering around"the internet is so shiny" (hence updating my blog instead of writing) and approaching "restless leg syndrome."Meanwhile, I'm reading a record 7 books at once (2 non-fiction for research for the WIP novel, Jeff VanderMeer's Wonderbook, which I received on request for my birthday, the last book in Tim Powers' Fault Lines trilogy (Earthquake Weather) on Kindle, the 5th in Stephen King's Black Tower series on CD in the car, and 2 additional non-fiction books recommended on the business of writing. I'm also trying to finish up reading from the Hugo voter packet before voting ends this month, and just finished some judging duties for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold contest for 2016.
Later, when things are less hectic (yeah, right) I hope to post more, hope to have some exciting news to post about publishing -- though for starters, Daily Science Fiction recently accepted a story (release date TBD) -- and may even attempt a newsletter for anyone interested. Feel free to subscribe anytime though, and I'll make extra effort to keep you in the loop!
May 20, 2016
Late to the party
These days I'm usually late to the party on movies as I wait for them to come to premium channel TV or online rental, so yeah, I only just saw Deadpool. OMG - they had me at the opening credits! 
May 12, 2016
Exploring Meow Wolf
My husband and I were in Santa Fe for the weekend recently. Shortly before leaving, I read a post on Neil Gaiman's blog that he and his wife had spent time there recently also. He had this to say:
"We went to Meow Wolf, which is a former bowling alley in Santa Fe, which contains a house in California in which an event has caused ructions in space and time that lead into other dimensions. It's a mad and glorious mashup of art, story, and Disneyland, and if you are in the SouthWest of America, you should go."
So we did.
George R R Martin (who lives in Santa Fe) helped finance the project. About 100 or more artists worked on it. The advice we got walking in - "Check out the refrigerator." So we did. We passed through an nearly ordinary living room to mostly ordinary kitchen and opened the fridge to find a portal to another dimension. In we went.
Neil could have added Murder Mystery Theater to his mashup description, as one component of the adventure is that the family living in the house has disappeared and you can look for clues as you traipse the various dimensions, but that barely touches the surface.
In short, I also recommend it.
Meow Wolf
"We went to Meow Wolf, which is a former bowling alley in Santa Fe, which contains a house in California in which an event has caused ructions in space and time that lead into other dimensions. It's a mad and glorious mashup of art, story, and Disneyland, and if you are in the SouthWest of America, you should go."
So we did.
George R R Martin (who lives in Santa Fe) helped finance the project. About 100 or more artists worked on it. The advice we got walking in - "Check out the refrigerator." So we did. We passed through an nearly ordinary living room to mostly ordinary kitchen and opened the fridge to find a portal to another dimension. In we went.
Neil could have added Murder Mystery Theater to his mashup description, as one component of the adventure is that the family living in the house has disappeared and you can look for clues as you traipse the various dimensions, but that barely touches the surface.
In short, I also recommend it.
Meow Wolf
April 23, 2016
April 18, 2016
A New Procrastination
For the first time I can remember, I've written two short stories from scratch in one week. The first I went looking for, to fulfill my resolution to write one new short story a month this year. (Most months. I get a pass if I make exceptional headway on the new novel instead.) Got a 3k story written in a couple of days and sent out to beta readers.One day later I woke from a dream about a large party in a very odd house. A metaphor presented nicely, and bam, I had another story idea. 1300 words later that day I had another completed story (short, yes, but I'd been aiming for flash fiction).
I have to wonder if this is my brain's new tactic to avoid the harder task of writing the latest novel. If so, I vastly prefer this procrastination to all my others.
April 8, 2016
"Softly Into the Morning" is available for a free listen at Pseudopod
One of my rare science fiction stories "Softly Into the Morning" is live today over at Pseudopod as part of their month of Weird Science Horror. It's an original story (as in not a reprint) and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to work with the great staff at Pseudopod once again. Many thanks to Shawn, and especially Alex, who helped get the right finishing touches on this and to Divya on her debut as this week's host.
I suggest tuning in for the whole month. Last week had flash fiction by Theodore Cogswell, Roger Zelazny and Joe L. Hensley. I'm not allowed to spill the beans on the rest of the month but I know I'll be listening. And it's all free.
http://pseudopod.org/2016/04/08/pseudopod-485-softly-into-the-morning/
I suggest tuning in for the whole month. Last week had flash fiction by Theodore Cogswell, Roger Zelazny and Joe L. Hensley. I'm not allowed to spill the beans on the rest of the month but I know I'll be listening. And it's all free.
http://pseudopod.org/2016/04/08/pseudopod-485-softly-into-the-morning/
