Writing Wednesday – Short and Long
It’s Wednesday again, which means I’m here being publicly accountable for my writerly output. But first I wanted to talk about short fiction and novels (or novellas) that share the same world or characters, and ask you (as an author or a reader) which ones you’ve written (or read) and enjoyed.
Y’all know my first love is short fiction. And I’m pretty sure I’ve said a few dozen times that the characters in my next novel, Triad Blood, were born from four short stories in four different Bold Strokes Books anthologies. I love visiting the same settings or characters with linked short fiction and I wonder how often it happens across the writing formats – from short to long. I’m always reading short fiction (hence the ‘Sunday Shorts’ feature here, and that year where I read a short story a day) and I also do love novels and novellas, and I wondered how much “cross-pollination” there was out there.
So – permission to humblebrag granted: tell me. Pop in a comment (with links, even) to your short stories (or the anthology that holds ’em) and the novels or novellas they tie in with. I’d like to know. Especially if you’re writing LGBT stuff or working with POC characters or YA.
Hit me with it.
The Novel:
Holiday weekend and some “must leave the house” chores meant I didn’t quite get as far ahead this last week as I wanted, but I did some serious revising. This is actually a good sign. I’m still missing about 20% of my initial word count goal (though I think I’m going to come in a bit short at the moment, which is okay) and should patch in those holes, but it got to the point where I needed to have more polished scenes leading up to those holes and so I’m finding myself revisiting and revising quite a bit before I tackle new parts of the novel.
Why is this good? Because it feels very end-game. It might suck from a point of view of word-counts and grand totals, but the whole of the book is really feeling like just that: a whole.
That, or I’m totally deluded and should drink some apple cider and cry a lot.
Short Stuff:
I have not submitted anything for May yet, though I have a flash short fiction piece I’m almost happy with. Shouldn’t be an issue this month.
Open Calls I know about:
Ink Stained Succubus – quite a few different calls, including M/f, F/m, M/M, and lots of different genre calls; earliest deadline is June 1st, 2015.
Queers Destroy Fantasy – from Lightspeed Magazine; deadline June 1st, 2015.
The Biggest Lover – Big-Boned Men’s Erotica for Chubs and Chasers; first draft June 1st, 2015; deadline July 1st, 2015.
Defying Doomsday – apocalypse-survival fiction with a focus on disabled characters; deadline July 1st, 2015.
Unconventional Love – Short romantic fiction that revolves around attending a convention; deadline August 31st, 2015.
Bi Guys – Firsthand Fiction for Bisexual Men and their Admirers; synopsis September 1st, 2015; deadline October 1st, 2015.
Covalent Bonds – Geeks in Love; deadline December 15th, 2015.
Other places to always check include the Lambda Literary Calls of Submission page.
Heard of any good calls lately? Pop ’em in the comments, too.
