Writing Adventures » Fiction

Flash Friday: China Doll

Hydy — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:46:35 +0000

The china doll lay on the sidewalk, a crack running from the right eye to the left corner of its jaw. The flickering fire danced shadow and light across its eyes. The once-white dress now covered in soot and blood – red and black, a funereal cloak.

The sirens blared around the corner. Men jumped off the big, red truck. Hoses uncoiled, water surging, boots tromping. The fire raged inconsolably, fed by stacks of books and gallons of gasoline.

They did not see her lying there in the dark. They shouted and ran and shook their heads, trying to tame the flame. The crunch of their boots rose above the roar for a moment, shattering the porcelain. Only a brief pause to notice its passing, but the little girl in the bushes screamed once and was gone.

Long Time Gone

Hydy — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:16:02 +0000

I have not been active on the blog for some months. Life is complicated and my focus has turned in other directions. Click Here for more details on that. In the writing world, I’ve had a few more rejections and made a submission today. The Old Ones was rejected by The Pedestal Magazine on April 29th, 2010. The Albino was rejected by Realms of Fantasy on June 1st, 2010. May 9th, 1999 did not win the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest this quarter. I submitted Dead Eyes to Daily Bites of Flesh on August 21st, 2010. There are a couple other anthologies I am considering as well, but my focus is more towards nonfiction writing right now, and my career path, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

A Dozen Stories

Hydy — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:56:34 +0000

Back in June, I said I wanted to have ten stories in rotation by the end of August. It took me longer than I estimated, but now, on the 4th of October, I have twelve stories out to market. I am incredibly excited by this and hope to keep this number growing. Though I would not mind a few acceptances trimming the number down either.

Blogs, Writing and Books

Hydy — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:28:08 +0000

So I’m on my third book about creating a successful blog now. I’ve got lots of little bookmarks in the first two. I’ve learned a lot and I’m still learning. I don’t know where it’s going to take me, but I have a better picture now of what I’m looking at. I have a lot of planning to do.

I did the 30 minutes of fiction a day for about three weeks until I realized that, while not entirely pointless, it was getting me nowhere. I was writing, sure, but I wasn’t creating or communicating. If I’m going to write every day, it ought to be something meaningful at the least, and towards a goal at the best. It felt more like I was doing it because I “should” and not because it was what I Wanted to do.

This poem by Bukowski is taped by my desk and it keeps coming to mind.

Yesterday, I found the first three books of the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster at Half Price Books, they were only $1.48 a piece, so I own them once again! This makes me very happy. I don’t remember how many there are, or what happened to my previous copies, but it was a great find for me.

Had to send an extra copy of my Grant submission package because I somehow only sent three instead of four, but that’s taken care of now. Found a few more places to possibly submit work. Now to create more work.

More Work

Hydy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:58:27 +0000

Finished reading my first blogging book, made some more invisible changes and a couple visible ones. Readers can now register here and leave comments, but can also still comment just by giving name and email address. I tried to order my navigation links, but that’s apparently not working quite right yet. I tried to take out the search box from my header, to no avail, couldn’t find the right piece of code.

I have been writing 30 minutes of fiction every day this month, and have only missed one day. Sent my manuscripts off to the OAC this morning. Having thoughts of many conventions next year while looking at writing panels at Dragon Con coming up next month. There is so much I want to do, I must make the time to do it. Blogging ideas bouncing madly around my head. Some day I will figure out how to create interesting titles.

Narrative done and ideas flowing

Hydy — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:05:05 +0000

I just finished composing my narrative for the OAC Individual Excellence Award application. A few days later than I had hoped, but it is done and I believe it is strong. Now to compile my materials and submit the application. I’ll be giving the narrative one last look over before I attach it to my online application. I’m very excited to set this in motion.

On August 1st, I started writing my 30 Minutes of Fiction using the Moleskine journal Gale sent me for my birthday. I’ve been writing on my lunch breaks at work, having my food on my first break to give me the full 30 minutes to write.

I am also plotting more ideas about the new site I was thinking of the other night. My blogging books have arrived to give me ideas. I am considering also including weekly sets of links to things like genre specific markets, publishers, resources, contests, references. It also came to mind, as part of a possible affiliate program, to have a page for books I’ve read, write reviews and have links to where people can buy them.

Idea

Hydy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:55:05 +0000

Last night, after I’d decided to go to sleep, I got an idea. A blog ring of sorts. So far three connected blogs with a new post every day. One would be called 30 Minutes, where I’d write fiction for 30 minutes a day and just post whatever it was, a scene, a character, a flash, whatever. One would be writing prompts, a sentence or two, and idea, a collection of objects. And the third would be a visual writing prompt, a photo. I had a vague idea of having a fourth blog attached to, to write about writing, editing and publishing, but I’m not sure I’d have daily content for something like that.