Sorry that all of the pieces I’ve been posting are crazy scattershot. No particular order, beginning and ending abruptly with no context. A lot of the stuff I’m pulling from 
Lodestar is going to be like this unfortunately. Scout’s honor, I’m going to be posting some fresh, longer pieces in a few weeks when my creative life calms down.
Feel free to judge the scenes a la carte and drop a comment, and let me know what you think!
Just sent Another Story off into the void to be read [and JUDGED] by total strangers.
I came across this cool new Science Fiction/Fantasy journal, Unstuck — I liked a lot of the excerpts they put up, and their very first issue is coming out in December — all very exciting. Plus they’re based in Austin, which is renowned as the Almost-Athens of the Midwest. Then I poked my clicker-self into their submission section.
Taking submissions. This week.
I’ve been tiptoeing into the realm of writing, and part of that is getting published, and PART OF THAT IS REJECTION.
Delicious cinnamon-scented rejection.
So, I slapped Another Story into a submittable form, and clicked that terrifying button.
Submit.
I keep visualizing some sort of Norse warrior holding a spear to my throat, and making me kneel and polish his shoes. All while he looks through my story, rolling his eyes and coughing with disgust.
Norse disgust. Which is 40% worse than normal disgust. RAGNAROK-level DISGUST.
The disgust that Odin would have for a mortal who bought him a monocle for his birthday.
In short: Nervous.
Okay, the piece that I’m putting up this week isn’t really a short story at all. It’s from a much, MUCH longer piece of collaborative fiction that some friends and I have been working on for just over a year.
Across Golden Skies is basically the Season Finale capstone of a large section of the story — not the climax, but the gentle denouement. Mainly for the reader to have glimpses into the machinations of the villains. So, don’t expect typical structure — probably best to view these as a series of scenes.
So my questions for you, kind reader, is do these work at all for you? Divorced of any context or knowledge about these characters do you find these intensely boring?
And, there’s the last chunk of Another Story. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, or at least it hasn’t caused your eyeballs to spontaneously implode.
I’ve collected the entire story into one tidy page, accessible from the Short Stories dropdown menu up top. Thanks to the kind comments, and one sharp-eyed editor I’ve corrected some tense issue – making the tale a bit more palatable. I’ve been a writer a long time, even working a brief stint as an English teacher — so I always welcome constructive criticism. I’m a big boy, I can take it. I crave feedback.
Tomorrow, I’ve queued up a bit of micro-fiction, The Parable of the Stone Viper. I actually entered that one into a contest on Lulu.com, and it’s available as a free epub if that’s your fancy.
The next few weeks are very hectic for me, so I have a large amount of old material queued up. Most of it is scenes from a much longer piece, just so I don’t wear you out – and push you into TLDR-land. Let me know if you see a scene or a character you like, and I’ll try to oblige you with some more targeted content.
What’s keeping me so busy? SECRET PROJECT.
[It is totally secret.]
Hey! People are reading my stuff – this is awesome, and more than a little terrifying.
Thanks for taking the time to look around! [WINCE.]
I’m new to WordPress, and that little bar graph that hovers at the top of the page showing you how many people have looked at your site is like a dark god that I fear and worship. Be appeased, oh Towers of Disdain! Grow forever taller, and do not fall into the Bowels of Ennui.
Yeah! Feeling good, up to 39 pages on That Thing. I have a deep-seated terror of referring to it by a more proper name.
Shout out to everyone doing NaNoWriMo — I’m not on board myself, but consider me on the sidelines waving a fanciful pennant in your general direction. I’m directing a production of Jesus Christ Superstar right now, and I’m not even going to try to juggle two projects that require that level of creative intensity and commitment at the same time.
Plus, I was already at 30 pages at the beginning of November, and that just felt like cheatin’.
Interesting…I actually haven’t read this story myself in a while. I remember how determined I was not to refer to the creatures in this story as skeletons, zombies, revenants, undead — all the normal names for such things . Which they clearly are.
I remember the special glow when I came up with the term once-men. I almost wrenched my arm out of its socket patting myself on the back — just a warm little glow of writerly cocksurety.
Gah! So weird and vulnerable feeling just putting my writing out here, under my real name and identity. Of course, no one’s noticed yet — but still! STILL.
I’m a total WordPress neophyte [WORD BOMB], so if you think I’m doing something incorrectly out of ignorance or stupidity, you’re probably correct. Don’t be shy about dropping me a comment, so I can fix it.
And cry.
Well — here we go.
I’m writing.
[GASP.]
Bit by bit, day by day – I’m writing.
But I can’t exist in a vacuum — I’m just not that good at delayed gratification. I need an audience.
Cue you, internet stranger.
First I’m going to post a short story I wrote in chunks for the next few days, then I’ll collate it all down into a page for you to read the whole thing. [You know, if you hate scrolling.]
Then..I’ll post some more stuff I wrote. Rinse, repeat.
Comments and criticism are welcome — especially on this first piece. I wrote it about a year ago and haven’t revised it suitably to let anyone read it.
So, be kind – and don’t tell Mrs. Stephens.
[Mrs. Stephens was my 10th grade English Teacher.]
spell-sword.com 