Tag: short stories

The Return

It’s 4:30am, Day Two of the Great Jet Lag Escapade, and I’ve just returned from a whirlwind tour of Italy, in which I consumed every edible, drinkable, and cultural experience I could lay my hands on.

The trip was fantastic, offering a glimpse of what the Grand Tour of yore must have been like (you know, if you had a chaperone, gobs of time on your hands, a well-developed sense of superiority, and infinite money). Still, to wander the loggia of Florence, admiring the sinuous bodies of marble sculptures, to climb the towering domes of ostentatiously beautiful cathedrals, and to stroll the shores of rivers like the Tiber and the Arno, turgid with history, was all pretty spectacular.

And the food. And the wine. I partook of it all and I have no regrets (well, maybe a few…eating all that gluten wasn’t exactly without consequences…).

Now I’ve returned to Brooklyn and am eager to get back to work. The last few edits to the novel, and some more work on the query letter, await. I have some ideas for new short stories and plenty of brainstorming work to do for the next novel project. I’m also taking a couple of Coursera classes on astronomy, which are turning out to be very interesting.

A few small items to mention: I have a recipe published in the latest issue of Flash Fiction Online, titled Norwegian Waffles (for weekends, before or after the apocalypse), as an accompaniment to a delightfully creepy story by the wonderful Sunil Patel. Also, upcoming in August, my story The New Arrival will be podcast on Pseudopod – details to follow!

Before I leave you, I thought I’d share a few photos from my journey through Florence, Tuscany, Rome, and Pompeii. Enjoy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Firefly Girl

I’m excited to announce the publication of my latest short story, The Firefly Girl, which appears in Penumbra’s themed issue A Night at the Villa Diodati (Volume 3, Issue 6).

The Firefly Girl is set in Venice and tells the story of two lost souls. It was inspired by a dream I had of an immortal woman trapped in a tower filled with fireflies. It’s a little bit spooky and a little bit romantic. If you’re interested in reading it, you can download the whole issue (packed with good stories!) for $3.99.

Enjoy!

Writer’s Workspace: 5/21

Welcome to this writer’s workspace. Here’s what’s happening liiiiiiiiiiive at Miranda’s desk.

What I’m working on: whew – what aren’t I working on these days? There’s still grading (there ALWAYS seems to be grading), but now that classes are over I have a lot more time. I’ve finished editing the (hopefully last) major revision of ABSENT and sent it along to readers. So, now I’m polishing a few short stories and getting my two other novel projects rolling again. The first of these is, of course, PROJECT AWESOME. I workshopped this at Paradise Lost III last month and got some good feedback from the pro instructors that’s put a fire in my belly to see the project to completion sooner rather than later. I’m also gearing up a new novel project, currently untitled, that I’ll be doing a plot break for at an upcoming writer’s retreat in Colorado. It’s sort of a near-future Earth, post-apocalyptic, Firefly meets Tomb Raider sort of thing. It’s early days on this, so we shall see.

For now, here’s the opening lines from a short I’m working on (about a body-snatching rock star and the necromancer hunting her):

Snippet from the screen: “There’s an electric L.A. sunset smearing the sky like a toxic leak. I watch it through the double-tint of Aviators and smoked glass as my limo slides down the boulevard. On the corner, I spot the Four Horsemen smoking weed and drinking Jim Beam. No one else can see them, not yet. Not quite.”

On the iTunes: I’ve been enamored with the soundtrack to Liberal Arts lately, but you can’t listen to classical music all the time. So, right now, I’ve got Florence and the Machine’s Shake it Out on.

In my mug: my current favorite tea is Harney and Sons Royal English Breakfast. It comes in a big red tin. Get some. It is awesomesauce to the tenth power.

Out the window: the ongoing saga of the Refusal of Spring continues. I can’t speak on this subject, as it is too heartbreaking.

A little procrastination never hurt anyone: I’ve got a couple things to share this morning. Probably you’ve seen some of them, as they are currently making the rounds on FB and such. But they’re too good to pass up.

First, there’s this YouTube video of the “Sad Cat Diaries” – I haven’t laughed this hard in some time. Also, you might enjoy reading this piece on the representation of women in popular culture called “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the “Women, Cattle, and Slaves” Narrative”. It’s funny and true and worth a read.

Then, after you’ve laughed and thought some deep thoughts about the state of the world, pop down to the comments and let me know what’s happening liiiiiiiiive at your desk.

Then go write.

Wednesday Writing Prompt

Another week, another writing prompt.

Take a stab at this:

  • Plot: a rescue romance
  • Character: a golem
  • Setting: a scavenger world
  • Wild card: burnt cookies

Heh!  I’d love to see what you guys come up with for this one !  Have it it 🙂

Tuesday Writing Prompt

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t written anything new in weeks.  Granted, it has been a very crazy couple of weeks around here, but still.  Bad on me!  So, time for a new writing prompt.  I’m going to do this one, and I hope you will too.

You know the drill.  Use the prompt.  Write it in one day.  Don’t agonize.

  • Plot: Rebirth
  • Setting A carnival
  • Character: a suicide bomber’s ghost
  • Wild card element: a lucky sock

Oh, boy.  *cracks knuckles*

Get to work!

Writing Prompt Wednesday

If you’re like me, the midweek slump has just kicked in.  You’re regretting all the things you didn’t accomplish in the first part of the week or eying up what’s coming with a weary glance.  Or you’re just feeling uninspired and sure this week is twice as long as the one that came before.  So, as a little kick in the pants, here’s an assignment to help you break the slump and re-energize.

1 short story. 1 day. Plus a prompt to get you going.

The Prompt (drawn at random from my own story elements generator):

  • Plot element:  a wrong turn
  • Character:  a children’s party magician
  • Setting:  a hot air balloon
  • Wildcard:  a photographic memory

The assignment:  using as many of these elements as possible (all is best!), in whatever way you like, sit down and write a short story.  Write it today, start to finish.  Don’t obsess over it, or revise, or stress about it.  Just write it.

It’ll be awesome.  Or not.  But either way you’ll have written something new that you didn’t plan on.  And that’s always a good thing.

Oh, and let me know how it turns out!

Writer’s Workspace: 7/19

Welcome to this writer’s workspace.  Here’s what’s happening liiiiiiiiiiiiiive at Miranda’s desk:

What I’m working on:  This week I intended to take time off from my novel projects and write a short story every day.  What’s actually ended up happening is far cooler.  I’ve written a story a day (3 down, 2 to go) AND I’ve continued work on my novel projects in the afternoon.  It’s been crazy productive (though, just writing that phrase has probably jinxed it).  Anyway, here’s a little excerpt from the short story I’m working on this morning:

…A snippet from the screen:  “I met Lenora in the desert, on my way from nowhere to nowhere.  She lived among the sage bushes, in a ruined settler’s cabin, under a sea of stars.  People in town said she was mad, an oddity.  They eyeballed me when they said it, glancing at my graffiti-covered van as if I were an oddity too.  I was curious, so I went to see her.  I found out they were wrong.  Lenora wasn’t mad, she was dead.”

On the iTunes:  All Along the Watchtower, cover by The Bandits

In my mug: Yorkshire Gold, baby.  Seering the sleep out of your brain since 1886.

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/?ui=2&ik=9e4adc5084&view=att&th=1389f97ad421ae0c&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=d45bc3808a033b9e_0.1&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P8VIlAPcHFKXrogtX_FxaC5&sadet=1342708032275&sads=7DpjZcwh9iMYH1N8l8j5u-b3CI0&sadssc=1

Keeping me company: No one! Ramses has abandoned me (and his beloved Tower of Terror) to snooze in the laundry basket atop (you guessed it) a pile of clean laundry.  Thanks, buddy!  I’m happy to redo that wash.  Really.

Out the window: Apocalypse. Flood. Hellfire. It’s like a 100 degrees, 120 percent humidity, and stormy.  If I weren’t heading to Kansas this weekend I’d think Brooklyn’s sporting the worst summer on record.  But, I suspect a week in the Burning Plains will change my view on this.

A little procrastination never hurt anyone: …especially on a Thursday.  Here’s a really cool image from Jay Lake’s Moment of Zen series.  Reminds me of an Andrew Wyeth painting.   For anyone who hasn’t read about the GR Bullies stuff, here’s a good post on it from Rachel Aaron’s blog.  This one I found via some links from my friend Ferret, and it struck me as so helpful I thought I’d better share it with you all as well:  a post from Inkpunks about outlining.  Be sure to follow the embedded links to Alexandra Sokoloff’s story elements checklist.

And with that…go forth and be productive!

A story a day, plus a prompt

I’ve always struggled with short stories.  I have a hard time coming up with ideas and a hard time executing them.  But, it’s nice to have short stories in your stable of horses, especially when you work mostly on novels.  The payoff on a novel can sometimes seem so distant it’s as if it’s in another galaxy.  It helps alleviate the endlessness if you have some shorter term projects to work on and send out.  Plus, it’s good writing practice.

So, I have resolved to take a brief break from my novel projects and write a short story every day this week.  That’s a complete rough draft, with a beginning, middle, and end, completed each day, Monday through Friday.

Since the biggest challenge will be coming up with 5 ideas, I’ve given myself a little help by creating my very own story idea generator.  This is a low-tech generator (not one of those fancy online ones), and it’s filled with things I think would be good story elements.  I came up with 5 lists, one each for plots, characters, settings, mood or tone, and a wildcard list.  I printed them out, cut them up (told you it was low-tech), and put them in envelopes.  Then I drew one from each envelope and…boom, 5 elements to work into a story.

Monday’s included a chance meeting, a toll collector, the fjords, and a murder.  The mood?  Adventurous.  I drew the elements Sunday night so I could sleep on this hodgepodge of nonsense.  By morning, I had my idea.  The result?  A 2,600 word story about Irv Bockleman, a 68 year old man who dreams of traveling to the Norwegian fjords but works instead as an intergalactic toll collector…until he has an unexpected encounter with a murderess on the run that changes his life forever.  Not sure it’s the greatest story of all time, but it was fun to write.

Today’s elements are: stolen goods returned improved, a bearded lady, an English garden, and a transformation.  The mood? Dreamy, but not a dream.  Hmmm…

I’m having such fun with this so far that I thought I’d used my “story elements generator” to provide the occasional story prompt for YOU here on the blog.

Soooo….here is your first prompt.  I challenge you to turn it into an awesome story.

  • Plot: Events on the last day of a war
  • Character: a shop girl
  • Setting: future earth
  • Wildcard: saltwater taffy (?!)
  • Mood: magical

If you come up with something, please say a little about it in the comments, if you like.  Also, if you think the idea of story prompts is a good one, please let me know and I’ll keep them coming.

Now, off to write!

Writer’s Workspace: 4/20

Good morning!  Welcome to this writer’s workspace.  Here’s what’s happening liiiiiiiiiiiiiive at Miranda’s desk:

What I’m working on:  Today is short story day.  I’ve got two drafts nearly ready to venture out into the big, wide world.  “Reversal of Fortune” tells the tale of a poker game playing out across the landscape of post-apocalyptic NYC.  “Ark in a Sea of Stars” recounts the adventures of a revolutionary group who steal the next generation of babies and flee to the stars.  This morning I’ll massage them both with bath oils and braid their hair.  They’ll be so lovely and fragrant no one will possibly be able to refuse them.  Alternatively, they’ll turn out to be those weird kids no one wants to sit next to on the bus.

Snippet from the screen: [From Ark in a Sea of Stars] “Alton pulled into the parking lot, their little biodiesel trailing French-fry smell among the ubiquitous hybrid SUV’s.  Brenda felt a swell of excitement.  She’d been dating Alton three months now, but only last week had he finally told her about his radical group.  Brenda had imagined their meetings taking place in a dark basement somewhere, unfiltered cigarette smoke drifting among their whispered plans like stardust.  Instead, the first meeting she’d attended was in a Starbucks.”

In my mug: Irish breakfast tea, or the dregs thereof.

Keeping me company: Mr. Ramses is falling down on his job of overseeing my progress.  He seems far more interested in snoozing on the sofa, begging for friskies, and generally making an adorable nuisance of himself.  Shameless, isn’t he?

Out the window: Rain and thunder, hail, wrath of the gods.

A little procrastination never hurt anyone: Here’s Juliette Wade from TalkToYoUniverse on how and when to begin a story, Julia Rios breaks down Hop in terms of race and class over on livejournal, and some silly from Wired Magazine on Skynet’s impending self-awareness.

That’s all from here, folks!  What are you working on today?

The long and the short of it

Most writers seem to consider themselves either short story writers or novelists.  Before I knew anything about writing, I always thought the only real difference was length (or, as Elizabeth Bear likes to say: novels are works of fiction, longer than short stories, and flawed).

When people ask me why I write short stories when I seem to prefer (and be more comfortable with) novel-length fiction, I usually say I think writing short stories is good practice for writing novels.  But how true is this?  Short stories require a tight plot and coherent structure, and they need good character development and character arcs.  Developing these skills will improve your writing, regardless of length.  Plus, since it takes much less time to complete a short story, you can practice writing complete works more often than if you were writing only novels (in which you could invest a year before realizing their fundamental flaws).

Despite some overlap, however, short stories and novels make fundamentally different demands on the author, especially with respect to world-building and pacing.  In a short story you have neither the time nor need to create a complete world (though generating the illusion of reality still remains important).  The pacing, too, is totally different.  Even though both short stories and novels need beginnings, middles, and ends, the way you structure and build towards each will be very different.  Finally, with novels you not only have a broader, deeper canvas to work on, but you must fill it with sub-plots and a larger cast of characters.

So, does writing short stories really help you prepare for writing novels, or are the two forms of fiction too different to be truly comparable?

Even if the answer is no, there are still good reasons for novelists to write short stories.  For one thing, many critique groups are less inclined to workshop novels.  If you write short stories, you can remain active in your crit groups and garner valuable feedback from (and interaction with) your peers.  Another advantage I’ve found is that having short stories out to market keeps you feeling engaged while you toil away on novels.  Novels take a lot longer to come to fruition, and its easy to feel as if you’re not making progress.  Completing the occasional short story and submitting it to markets gives me (personally) a feeling of short term accomplishment.  This might seem like a poor reason to take time away from your novel, unless you consider the very real impact your emotional state can have on your writing.  If you’re feeling productive and upbeat, it’s going to be a lot easier to keep that novel draft moving forward.

I know others feel differently, though.  So, tell me, do you consider yourself a novel writer or a short story writer?  Do you write exclusively one length of fiction, or do you do both?  Do you see the necessary skills sets as complementary or divergent?