MCM's Blog, page 42
May 21, 2010
1,000 Stories
Hi there. I'm insane.
I have a crazy goal for the summer: I want to write 1,000 short stories. That's right, one thousand.
Here's the thing: I don't write things in a vacuum. I like to interact with my readers. I like to take a name or an idea or a phrase or something and turn it into a unique piece of writing. So that means I need 1,000 seeds. And that's where YOU come in! YOU get to give me my seeds!
How do I play?
I'll do one story per person. All you need to do is send me an email. In ...
Yaktastic
The second guard crumpled his coffee cup and got out of his chair, leaving Manny alone in the small room at the side of the security area. Over the intercom, a party of seven was paged to the boarding gate before they missed their flight.
He drummed his fingers on the table, then reached over to take his passport. He paused, set it back down, and then checked the door. No one around. He picked it up, flipped through the pages, looking for something that might—
"Mr Desoto, yes?" said a man i...
May 12, 2010
Concessions
When his legs cramped, all he could do was shift them to the side, hope to feel the blood rush through, a brief warm sensation, his feet coming back to life. Half an hour later he'd repeat the process in the other direction, bound inside his tiny invisible box, out of sight from the world, alive for thirty minutes more.
He checked his watch compulsively, kept count of the hours with his fingers, up one hand, down the other. He hadn't missed one, hadn't slept the whole time. Thirty-five...
May 11, 2010
hiroshima iv
Dustin was trying to write with his right hand while his left picked up his grande dark cherry non-fat soy latte from the table. It was a tricky feat. His pen slipped the line, and when he moved to recover, he spilled the cup over the table. He snatched the notebook away in time, but the coffee dripped onto his knee, burning and making him yelp.
"Here you go," said a woman at the table next to him, handing over a napkin.
"Thanks," he smiled. He stopped the flow and righted the cup, pushing...
May 10, 2010
Tori's Row, Act Two
Today marks the start of Act 2 of Tori's Row, the ghost story by Nancy Brauer and myself. Things for Tori are going from bad to worse, now that her boyfriend Brian has been ruthlessly attacked and left for dead. You can hop over to the books site and catch up, and stay tuned for new chapters every Monday and Friday (enhanced schedule! woo!). Tori's Row has been a blast to write, and I hope you enjoy the emotional gutting Tori is going through. There are some scenes in this new set of...
The Collector
Dougley was the picture of madness. He'd dumped out his drawers, flipped up the mattress, and was running his fingers along the tops of door frames, muttering to himself the whole way.
It was at roughly this moment that Effie came in, knocking the stool out from under him. His head hit the floor with a crack.
"Oh dear," said Effie, scrambling to help Dougley up. "Oh dear oh dear, are you hurt?"
Dougley put a hand to his head while his eyes settled themselves in his skull. He was ashen...
May 5, 2010
The Most Mainstream Movie Ever
A few weeks ago MCM and I chatted about what makes a movie mainstream. That conversation evolved into a proposal for the most mainstream plot to hit celluloid, or digital video, or whatever. Ooh, IMAX! 3D!
Waitaminnit. I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, please enjoy our brilliant movie concept. We're working on getting the talent attached to the imaginary script now. 
Golf pro Tiger Forest (The Rock) is a confirmed bachelor. He's surprised when he falls for pro...
April 26, 2010
Thoughts on Blast Radius
It was an eventful weekend, and an exhausting one, but the end result is that The New Real: Blast Radius is complete! 47,000 words in 57 hours, with only a few hours of sleeping between days. I think everyone enjoyed it (even if they are cranky about the twist ending), so I will call it a success.
But even a success has some things to learn, and rather than just internalize it all, I thought I would discuss them here.
Over-thinking outlines is a bad idea. Writing an outline is very important ...
April 23, 2010
Livewriting is, well, live!
At this very moment MCM is tip-tapping away on his computer writing The New Real: Blast Radius. His goal: write a novel–in this case a sci-fi/comedy–in three days. Why? Because he can, and has a screw or four loose.
A new chapter is posted every hour, with a few exceptions to allow for sleeping and eating. You can affect the story by answering MadLib-style questions, too. All is explained here. The insanity continues until 6 p.m. PDT Sunday, so please join us!
April 20, 2010
Why I Like A Story Before Bed
We're doing press releases for big announcements now, but I wanted to write a little something extra about A Story Before Bed, because it's not just a great business opportunity for us, it's also really, truly, fundamentally cool.
My kids have lived pretty much their entire lives away from their grandparents on both sides. It's one of the features of the modern world, where mobility isn't just possible, it's almost expected. My younger daughter hasn't seen her aunt in over five years, to...
