I am now posting over on my livejournal. It's much easier for me that way.
In the past ten days or thereabouts I have:
- Sent A SHADE OF YELLOW to Clarkesworld Magazine.
- Sent EMPIRES AND GLASS to the Writers of the Future Contest. I think it's a better story than STATUES,
so hopefully it'll net a better result. What's scary is that by
the time I hear back from them, I will have finished university.
o.O
- For a little while now I've had the vague idea of writing a story
about Samhain/Halloween, where the holiday is a character, but hadn't
quite figured out how to tell it. Naturally, it was when I went
to Starbucks with the intention of getting some uni work done that the
story finally slapped me in the face and demanded to be written.
That was about a week ago. I've since polished it up and sent it
away to Fantasy Magazine. It's only a little story, just over
1,000 words, and is called CHICA, LET ME TELL YOU A STORY.
Yeah, that title could probably be better, but when you read it and
then read the story it does make sense. I think. Also I
couldn't think of anything better.
What particularly interested me, when I was skimming through wikipedia for a history of the holiday, was the idea of Samhain/Halloween as a door for nasty dead/fey creatures to step through, and that became a core part of the story and the character. Trying to write about a person who is also a door was... interesting, but I think it worked. And I am definitely returning to this characters-as-doors thing in the future.
- I found out about 10 days ago that the deadline for Shimmer
magazine's pirate-themed issue had been extended from January 31st to
Februrary 28th. As I hadn't had time by the end of January to
write a story for it, I was rather happy at this news -- and last night
finished the short story for it, ROSEILDA'S TALE.
I'm hoping to submit it by the end of the week, or thereabouts.
It fits into the same world as two of my other short stories, A SHADE OF YELLOW and A FAY OF STEAM. I have a vague idea that I'll collect them all into a novella-length thing at some point.
- The novella-without-a-proper-name, "beth", is coming along in the
background. I haven't written much for it in a few days; the next
part needs a little more time to germinate in my head, I think.
At any rate, it's currently over 10,000 words, and there's potentially
a lot more to go. Once I've figured out the Bone Queen's tale,
that is; the rest of the story will hinge on that.
While basking in the glow of my own writing-productivity makes me feel good, it doesn't really do
much for those source-analyses that need to be done for Thursday's
class. Must stop procrastinating one of these days. (as if)
During a discussion in my Alexander the Great class last Thursday (which is composed of both History and Classics students, of which I am one of the former), one of the history students held up his copies of Arrian and Plutarch and whined, "These things read like novels!"
To which our lovely teacher replied, "Yeah, welcome to ancient history."
Careful it doesn't hit your arse on the way out, idiot no-fun modern-historian.
*hugs ancient history*
I've just finished reading Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams by Catherynne M Valente. This little novel is about a hermit-woman called Ayako who lives in the shadow of a five-layered pagoda on the side of a mountain, and dreams up other selves and existences.
Yes, this is one of Valente's "weird ones", in the best possible way that a story can be weird. As usual her poetic prose is richly sensual, thick with wonderful images, and the ideas she weaves into the story are just as wonderful -- Oedipus and the sphinx's riddles; quantum physics (which, yes, I can wrap my head around); the fall of Troy and of her village at the same time; a Babylonian creation myth that becomes her own story of creation/reshaping. And more, of course.
I want to know what could have been spun from the lumpy black silk... perhaps I already know.
I shan't share the true beauty of this novel, the line near the end that brought a smile of sadness and happiness to my face -- that lesson is there, waiting, for the interested to learn, and I shan't spoil it. Suffice to say that this is a beautiful, moving tale, one that shall stay with me for a very long time, and I highly recommend it to any reader who (a) was intrigued by my review (obviously; I aim to intrigue), and (b) wants something very different to what they'll find on a high street bookshelf.
Minor point of interest: The book
comes in two cover-colours -- red or blue -- with a small variation in
the texts of each. Mine was actually the blue one, but the
amazon-vox connection only gave me the red one.
My short story THE BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION is now available to read on Crimson Highway webzine.
~ Clickity! ~
It's an odd little story, and very different to anything else I've written. There's a small part of me that wishes something else had been my first published story, something far more typical of what I write, but then the rest of me says, Hell, you gotta start somewhere, and far better to be picky about where you end up. So. I shall be working on where I end up.
In the meantime, check out my first ever published story. It's interesting, I think.
