Getting the Most Out of the Short Stuff

Fiction Lessons:

Have had a couple short story collections sitting in the to-review pile [while I read a super-long mystery].  I enjoy reading anthologies for the mix of favorite authors and gaining new insights into characters I enjoy reading about.  1)  Unusual Suspects: Stories of Mystery and Fantasy edited by Dana Stabenow -- gave me a double fix of the two genres I read most.  2)  Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois -- offered a potpourri of star-crossed lovers, all beautifully rendered by authors I seek out in the book stores.

One thought struck me as I read the stories:  how easy it was to watch the pieces of plot moving back and forth until the author resolved the problem --  happily or unhappily, as the case might be.  Sharon Shinn's short story, "The House of Seven Spirits" illustrates my point.  [in Unusual Suspects]

A lady, who was in the midst of a divorce, willingly moved into a haunted house since she couldn't see having a ghost hanging around was worse than living with a jerk while they tried to untie the knot.  Only she discovers the house contained seven ghosts, each with a different take on the murder/suicide that's the center of the story.  The clues lead you from one conclusion to another as the facts/interpretations are discovered.  You don't quite see them on the journey, but when the tale ends, you do. 

If you want to study how to develop plot twists, this story is a great primer.  It's short and, once you've read the story, it's easy to see under the magician's bandana.       

Web Promotion & Other Stuff:

Found a group blog about the intricacies of e-publishing from the readers/reviewer's point of view.  MarkG was looking for a e-horror to review without much success.  His adventures are an interesting read.  If nothing else,  his experiences gives writer's a heads-up on what not to do. 

He also made a comment about a beginning writer might have a salable novel if they removed the first three chapters.  I LOLed because I've done the opposite.  I removed the first three chapters and sold them.  The first Half-Elven novel still languishes.

A recent critiquing session spent a lot of time on description.  How much is enough?  Then, Mary Kole, an agent at the with the Andrea Brown Agency, did a blog on writing description.  If you're getting ready to revise, you might take a look to double check on some of the things agents look for.  As for me, I'm glad she sort of agreed with us.  --  No, we didn't cover all the same points but enough of them to cover the basics.

Then, while thinking of revising, you might check out Mac Wheeler's blog.  He gives a great picture that demonstrate the difference between "showing and telling".  It even puts "backstory" in its place.

Progress:

What constitutes "progress"?  I work on my stuff every day, but I'm revising.  I'm starting to get the writing itch, though.  I'm wondering what will pop out when I actually let go.  I've several ideas fermenting in my idea files which keep nagging me while I give Wiggles his "morning lap time".

Another annoying part of writing:  studying the markets.  Just got through I bunch of market round-ups looking for short story publications that are interested in the stuff I write.  What a time slurp.  Finding out who they are, what they pay/etc., on to the AW Water Cooler to check the rep, and try to get an idea of what they prefer.  Fast response times are appreciated.  --  I'm still in the process of doing the same for small fantasy publishers.

Actually, my writing time is getting eaten by my life.  A good friend, without children, went into Hospice care, and I'm one of the legal care monitors.  While that's under control with sadness, I'm feeling guilty about the AZ challange.  I just don't have time to blog every day -- even though I asked at two difference places to be removed from the list.  If anyone knows how to get me off the list so I'm not "blogging under false pretenses", I'd appreciate it.  Hey, Steve ... are you out there?

Trivia:

The fruit trees are budding under the bedroom windows, and the old man was feeling so romatic, he left the first dandelion of Spring on my plate.

Revisiting Old Friends: Silver on the Tree

The Read...

Picked up Susan Cooper's Silver on the Tree of the Dark is Rising series.  All part of my return to writing middle grade, I guess, but her books are intricate enough that adults can enjoy them for their own sakes ... or maybe my brain just works on a more infantile level than most.  

Will, the Drew kids, and Bran go up against the greatest evil threatening to enslave the world ... and win with surprisingly little violence and little help from the "Merlin" incarnations.  Spent about a half hour of looking for examples of where Cooper created tension ... but the passages were too long for me to feel comfortable quoting.  So, I'll cop out and say ... if you want to see how a master puts her characters in harms way without resorting to blood flying all over the place.  Buy the book, a yellow highlighter, and set too.

Hate to say this people, but I think my unconscious mind is telling me to go back and write middle grade.  Which makes me wonder how you or any writer decided what reading level to write at.

Web and Other Good Stuff...

 If I'm ever a success as an author (someone's whose fiction is published by somebody else), you can blame 1st Turning Point.  The good information just keeps pouring from the site.  This time of special note is Jolene James blog:  Free and Low Cost Promotion Websites.  Of course, I bookmarked it. 

And, Stacia Kane writes about Copyrights and stuff at "How Publishing Works".   I read her opinions and general good sense a lot at Absolute Write Water Cooler.  [Thanks to Kevin Hearne for this info.] 

Then, there's the problem that concerns me at the moment.  Is it MG or YA?  Mary Kole of the Andrea Brown Agency give us a good litmus test on her recent kidlit.com blog. 

I don't know how Patti Struble manages to blog so much about while she's NaNo-ing, but she has a great blog about wrapping up your story --  The End of the Line.  Maybe she's ready to chuck it all in and slow the pace?

So, what could be better, once you get an end on your manuscript, than selling it ... hopefully for money.  Okay, I've contracts on the mind since I spent over an hour at Office Depot trying to get a fax through to Britain with my Spectra contract.  I'm in good company.  The Writer Beware Blog has a good post on understanding what your contract means, written by Victoria Strauss.  While it focuses on packaging, it still has lots of good advice.  I liked the title:  Notes from the Underbelly of Publishing.  If that isn't a warning, I don't know what is.

Progress...

Maybe selling "Taking Vengeance" wasn't such a fluke, after all.  Just made another sale to Spectra Magazine, a British science fiction e-magazine.  I even have a printout of the contract at my right elbow, sitting on top of the dictionary.  The piece may be called "Night for the Gargoyles" and was the short story beginnings of my novel length manuscript started in 2008, "There Be Demons".  

Does that mean a change in my decision to give up on short stories?  I doubt it ... because I just much more comfortable in writing longer lengths.  

Don't know if it counts as progress, but this blog has had over 2000 readers/reads since It started in August 2009.  Has it really been that long?  I never thought I could keep this up for more than a couple months.  Guess I really do have a big mouth.

Trivia ...

Got a floor show while eating dinner the other day.  A fox trotted down the street, took a piss in a neighbor's yard, and trotted away, his white-tipped tail swishing.  Glad he refrained from our yard.  We get enough lingering dogs as it is.

Adventurous Fluff

The Read ...

The book the family lending library gave me provided lots of adventurous fluff to enjoy -- the second volume of R. L. LaFevers Theodosia series, Theodosia and the staff of Osiris.  Think of all the mummies in London, public and private, coming to life and running around after the staff of the Eqyptian god, Osiris, in the dead of night.  All this is complicated by the police inspector who tries to solve the mystery -- without a clue that magic is happening under his nose.

At the beginning of the book, Theodosia is presented with a major problem for an eleven-year- old girl.   Her veddy proper grandmother insists she have a governess so she can become a proper lady, ie. stop mouthing off to the adults in her life  --  In spite of her being smarter than 80% of them.  Of course, all the governesses are despicable and complicate her life, limiting her ability to solve the mystery of the over-active mummies and neutralize the secret societies pursuing her.  [Yes, that was plural.]

LaFevers' plot rolls downhill gathering speed.  The main villain is the Serpents of Chaos come back for another round of trying to best Theodosia, of course.  As the plot twists, possible villains turn into friends.  Friends turn into villains, and possible villains are just red herrings.  As I said, a delightful bunch of fluff.  I wish all the books I read entertained me so much.

I'll close with the pitch:  "Once again, Theodosia takes on secret societies, evil curses, and dark magic too sinister to imagine!"
 

Web Stuff ...

Dark Urban fantasy writer, Justine Musk  blogged on the elements of scenes that make them building blocks of your novel.   There's lots more info in the blog, but I thought this quote should be read by every writer.

"A scene is the basic building block of your novel. A scene is like a novel in miniature. It has its own tiny plot. It starts out in one place, builds tension, reaches climax, and then ends up in a different place."

Looking for critiquers?  Or, just maybe a litmus test to tell you where you need to revise your current WIP?  Isolated without a good writer support community?  Well, Operation Awesome recently posed a blog on identifying the garbage in your writing.  The blog gives some places where you can get some knowledgeable fresh eyes to make some comments about your writing.

Then, there's all that conflicting query writing advice.  Nathan Bransford has a great blog on what to do with it.  [No, not that.] One of the founts of information I picked up from his blog is how fast the publishing industry changes.  I think all the agents who blog are acting like yeast in the setting of preferred styles.  Then, there's that thing called "voice".  Does that mean:  to thy own self be true?"

All sorts of good stuff seems to popping up in the blogs.  Guess the end of summer rejuvenates the brain cells.  If you're fussing about querying like me, you will be interested in agent Mary Kole's blog about how she evaluates manuscripts at Kidlit.  She's also doing a Webinair, but it costs.

Progress ...

The revision of Voices is coming along.  I keep finding holes I need to fill and infodumps I need to dramatize, and all sorts of stuff to delete.  Haven't gone after the nags -- "to-be-forms", "lys", "ings", passive verbs, etc yet.  [Ain't revising fun!]

Haven't done much with querying ... for any of my manuscripts.  [You do know I hate marketing?]  I do need to send out a couple status queries.  Which comment means I have to go back to websites to see if  "no answer" = rejection.

Did send my Hattenel Half-Elven story to Untreed Reads because Smashwords was much too complicated for me to figure out how to format.  Now I don't have to think about the story for three months ... or more.  Don't have to worry about cover art either.  If I'm lucky, they'll accept and do the formatting for me.

Trivia ...

We were going to take a day trip to Estes Park, Colorado yesterday, but the smoke clouding the hogback some three miles from our house changed our minds.  You may have heard of the Boulder, Colorado mountain subdivisions threaten by fire.  We're about 50-75 miles away, north and east.  Hopefully, the winds die down, and weather pumps some moisture into our air.  Everyone needs more rain than fell yesterday.