HAPPY DANCE!!

Well folks I always hoped this day would come. If you remember back in January I submitted a piece that elicited some nice comments from an editor. Well, lo and behold I got to chatting about the piece to that editor the other day and guess what?

She accepted it! YAY!!

That's right. Your looking at the newest member of the ranks of published authors! So now I'm getting an even better view of the life of a writer. I've had the struggling, learning the craft phase(that one never ends by the way ;-) ). I'm learning the Editors side of things working at Abandoned Towers. And now I get to play around in the legal-ese side of things with reading contracts and figuring out rights and all that.

Should be fun :-D.

So for those of you who are writing and maybe haven't been published yet, Take heart! If a no account guy, educated in small town Idaho like me can do it, you can too. :-) So write on and submit. I'm gonna go fill that second frame in my office with my first acceptance letter. :-D

IT'S ALIVE!

Hello everybody! :-) Sorry it was such a long break. With moving, divorce, and figuring out finances, life just kind of exploded on me. But now life is in a much more stable place for me and I can get back to writing. Yippee!

I tell you what,nothing makes you appreciate writing more than being unable to write for an extended period. So what has the last few months of insanity taught me about writing? A couple of things.

First off, though I wasn't able to write I was able to read a new series that got my creative juices flowing. Lesson learned, "Writing Time" for me has to be more than putting pen to paper. You have to continually refill that creative bucket with fun activities like reading and playing imaginative games.

Second the point was driven home that writing is like crack to me. I'm addicted. The world isn't as colorful and life just isn't as worthwhile for me if the voices aren't let out to play. :-D

And last but not least. No matter how crumby life seems, even if your world is being turned upside down, whatever doesn't kill you can make you a stronger writer. We thrive on experience don't we? What kind of sick masochistic people are we? :-) The fun kind.

I'm so happy to be back with you all and will be bringing this blog back up to speed asap. See you all around the Stane. ;-)

Spin

I saw this the other day and just had to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy.

Beware the wolf in Publisher's clothing.

Every writer wants to be published. And almost all will be honest and say their dream is to be published by a big New York Publisher.

Don't lie to yourself. If you want to be published by the big boys, then most likely you're gonna have to do a LOT of hard work.

Check out this latest writer beware. I found it Under the Trolls bridge but the original post is here.

Also another bit of downer news. Given some major personal difficulties recently, I'm going to have to reduce how often I can post here. I will try to still post here occasionally but I can't say as to when or how often. I will be back just as soon as I can get my life back into some semblance of order.

Until then you can always check out Under the Troll's Bridge for some good stuff. And since Jean is a friend of mine she'll even let you know when I'm back full-time.

Thanks for your understanding in this. I hope to be back soon.

Good Medicine

With all the glamor and glitz its hard to tell a good bad guy anymore. Vampires are now diamond encrusted lovers, assassins are poor unfortunates who lose their memory, and pirates are silver-tongued confused souls who really are misunderstood. Really.

Now don't get me wrong I love these shows too. But sometimes its just nice to hearken back to the good old days when vampires burnt to ash in the sun, assassins were cold-hearted killers, and pirates were ne'er-do-well scallywags who thought of little more than the next bit of gold and drop of rum.

Enter Geoffery Armitage Ffolkes. Pirate, assassin, and scallywag extraordinaire.

Now granted so far I have only read the first few chapters, but I love this character. He's everything a pirate should be and the writing is a wonderfully smooth throwback to the 17th century.

Check it out and read the first few chapters for free.

Ffolkes' Medicine: The Adventures of Geoffery Armitage Ffolkes begin by B. R. Stateham

The Light in the Tunnel

"Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel / Was just a freight train coming your way"- Metallica

It's amazing how true those words can feel at times. In our lives we have good things happen, aka the light. And we have some pretty nasty bad things happen too. Betcha can't guess what that is. ;-)

So what do we as writers do about it? Do we suddenly abandon our humanity and take on the looks of a deer caught in that headlight? Do we scream and run at the thing in a final act of defiance? Or do we use that light to show us the way our and run like mad for the end of the tunnel?

Personally I'm in the survival group. What about you?

What about your characters?

If your writing is anything like mine then most of your stories put people in positions they never ever wanted to be in. How they react to this lets us know about them. But before our readers can get to know them we need to know them better than we know our own family. How do we do this?

I've tried a number of things. Some have worked really well for me others have failed miserably. For instance I know several writers who will take a ten page questionnaire full of details and fill it out. I can't do that. It bores me to tears. I discover my characters through action. whether I'm writing it out or just imagining it I have to put my characters in situations and watch them react. I'll imagine all sorts of things from their normal morning routine to how they act if they're hanging off a cliff with no one nearby to help.

but no matter how you do it you have to get to know them so they'll be believable. Otherwise the reader may just wish the freight train would catch up to them. :-)

What do you all do? How do you get to know your characters?

That's Not Punny.

Well I have found out why they call what editors read through a slush pile.

Wow.

It's amazing the stuff that comes through. Now a lot of it is actually half way decent. Maybe the author just needs help in one or two areas, or maybe its a good story but just doesn't fit the magazine. But holy crow every once in a while you get one that just makes you scratch your head or want to vomit.

Now I'm learning that as far as writing goes there are rules that aren't rules but fads, there are rules that are rules and can't be broken, and then there are rules that should only be broken if you realize your doing it and doing it WELL.

I read something today that tried to fall into that third category and failed miserably. Take note. Bad puns are not enough to carry a story. Especially if the majority are crass and vulgar with no more reason to be in the story than to say a pun. If it doesn't progress the story toss it out.

So what about you all? Have you ever read anything that was utter slush? Or can you think of something that would be a perfect slush story? If I get a bunch of good replies I'll pick the best and get you a real slushie as a prize. :-)