Category Archives: Fiction

Meme Post #1: The Lucky 7

So from Rabia Gale:

1. Go to page 77 of your current manuscript/work-in-progress (or page 7 if you don’t have 77).
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

I'm sure you all know my current novel-length WIP is Summerlight, no matter how recalcitrant and shifty mess that work is turning out to be. :grumbles at book: :book grumbles back:

So it's not 77 pages yet. Here's on page 7.

They seem to be rather divided about that.

You always were the one who believed in fairies.

Love always,
John

Miles stopped reading. "The letter is dated from just over nine months ago, about three weeks after I heard from him last." The crinkles about his eyes were back, but this time he was frowning, as if in pain.

Rob considered the timing. His mind immediately began to calculate the potential dangers and some of the strange things they could be expected to take seriously.

"Do you really think we'll see dragons?" Josh asked, aiming his question at Miles, the more credulous of the men.

Now for my seven writers:

Tag in_the_blue, pygmymuse, lithiumlaughter, arliddian...

Let's stick to four.

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What a Girl Wants

So I finally understand what folks say about knowing what the character wants. I've got plenty of characters that never really bother to share that with me and it doesn't bother me writing their stories that they didn't. But when you've got some flash fic that doesn't really want to get fleshed out, there comes a point when you need to know what's going to make it flesh out anyway. Salvation came from my biggest troublemaker of all: Hayley Lamar.

She knows what she wants.

This is a girl that's a troublemaker, has lousy citizenship and academic grades, and has some serious social interaction issues. She doesn't care what a single person thinks about her and she skated into Kailin on a scholarship because she had aptitude. Much desired aptitude. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it, and that's just a little bit scary.

Hayley surprised me quite a bit from the time I've started writing her because, frankly, she's adapted. She started out as a fanfic character in a fandom world, but when I plugged the stories into the Alliance universe instead, I hit a bit of a shock as the characters started changing on me. Now, I've had a character warp on me and become a flavor that could only exist within the premise they appear in, but I've never had a character simply change into someone else altogether. Hayley's doing that and it's awesome to behold.

As I see her starting to take over a story (starting by taking over Jack's favorite haven and turning it into her own personal platform into the most exclusive program in the school), I felt a light little tapping on my shoulder and turned around to find a former bubbly, over-the-top personality now christened Jena Kee wanting to politely inform me that I had her wrong. She's precise, very precise; ridiculously polite with her elders and superiors, but doesn't take an ounce of guff from anyone else. She's an explosive weapons expert and notices everything. Got it?

I kind of stare at my characters and wonder to myself: how in the world did I create such pushy people?

"I'm not at all pushy," Jena protests politely. "I just want my story."

Yeah. That.

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Help Wanted: Will Write for Summary!

So as it so happens, I am apparently lousy at writing summaries (though the person who pointed this out to me, did so kindly). I am requesting a trade: free fiction (the story to be summarized and a new short written to order) in exchange for a summary. I would reserve the right to request one revision if necessary.

The requested fiction can be fandom or original on any topic or to any prompt you wish, but within my general forté. No slash, graphic sex, graphic violence, or swearing.

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Stats Post: Fiction Worlds and Names Beginning with K

The Peninsula

• "Crossing the Barrier" is on submission. I haven't heard back about the art yet, so everything's still pending.

Summerlight, "Prelude to Dance," just got an edit and an update. On the PDF. I've decided when making major updates that unless I think the original needs serious help, I won't be editing the blog posts, simply because it's harder and there are more of them. In short, I moved the second part to the front to simplify.

I have not posted a new update on Summerlight yet because it's a structural book and I just saw the big picture last week, which means I've been spending this week sketching out the ending and some key points throughout. I do hope to settle back soon into a chronological groove with the writing, but I won't be posting anything until the next part is written and betaed.

• I have a few other shorts on the back burner and a couple of I'm-not-sure-how-longs. I'm not focusing on drafting them at this time. I figure the novel is quite suffiicient to keep me.

 

The Mirror

So this universe has given me its overall arc a whole lot better than any other storyworld to date. It has a pretty complex history and power system, with the powers themselves being rooted in another dimension and with a rather different set of possiblities being accepted and/or used at different times in history.

What makes this storyworld so particularly interesting to me is that it's the first time where I have a clearly fantasy premise rooted in an intensely "Christian" worldview. By "Christian," I mean that this is a rather secular empire that uses the Bible and its carefully manufactured interpretation thereof to control a worldwide populace, as well as several outlying space colonies.

• Several shorts are in progress, though I'm not completely happy with any of them yet, thus the slow work. Getting the voice right is tricky. We have "Eye of the Mirror," "The Silver," and Sacred Mirror, all of which are tentative titles.

 

Breath

• I'm certainly learning quite a bit about worldbuilding with this one. This is a world that did not arrive fully formed and refused to shape itself. Nope. It's making me do all the heavy lifting (which is kind of fun, if I'm being honest). I'm developing a Series Bible for it and counting this as writing time because I will be putting in a PDF format and keeping it for personal use.

• I have four stories completely drafted, on paper or on the computer: "Baker of Souls," "A Pretty Word," "Lost Heart," and "The Great Cat and His Soul." I'm planning on rewriting the first three with my updated worldbuilding information and better character building on the first and the third. The fourth will be heading over to my beta once it's typed.

• I have a fistful of stories I want to write in this universe: about the Fell, a girl who brought the destruction of the Old King's regime; about Shinet, the soulless, and her reluctant comrade, Covall; about the immortal empress; about the Mavren, the Collector and former enforcer; about the old doctor out in the hills with the water estate. We'll see.

 

The Alliance

This is a world from a long time ago and a different pen name, but an unplaceable drabble has inspired me to continue it. The drabble was "City of Glass," and the next piece will be entitled the same. It's a short series of drabbles set in the Alliance universe and can now be downloaded in PDF.

 

Unrelated Side Note

Apparently, I have an inordinate love for names beginning with the letter K.

 

Writing anything new? Any new world sparking your interest?

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Story Planning and Finishing

Have a few stories out on submission and a boatload in the oven. A new storyworld presented itself with some seriously finishable shorts attached, so it behooved me to consider it. I did and I hired it. In the process, I'm learning how to put together a coherent series bible for a world whose premise did not make itself immediately obvious. I'm utilizing mostly articles from Juliette Wade and my own natural worldbuilding process to flesh it out.

Then today, I read this: "A Look Back At The Book and The Rewriting Issue" by Camille LaGuire. I have been mulling over whether I wanted to rewrite "Crossing the Barrier" for a while now. My first rejection on the story was a personal one and stated that while interesting, it didn't make the editor want to reread it. I thought about that. I dug into the ideas behind the story and the stakes involved and realized that with a lot of work, I could make this story awesome. But I chose not to.

The story is what it is. It's meant to be a small window into Casal's life when she first gains hunter status that is hers and not her parents'. It's interesting; it introduces the world; it doesn't explain the intensity of how important that hunter title is to Casal or what it means to be a hunter. I would have to explain the latter in order to explain the former and some things are simply outside of the scope of a short story without adding a lot of explanation or ancillary material. So for reasons very similar to what Camille talks about, I chose to let it go and let the story be what it is, a hopefully entertaining read that is understandable within its world, if not a deep analysis of the meaning of that world.

If the story comes back again from where I've submitted it, I'll self-publish it. The illustration isn't done yet, and I figured while I was waiting, I might as well keep it circulating, but I'm ready to let this one go and find its own legs. It will never be my best short story in the world. But it isn't meant to be.

Anything new in your world, writing or otherwise? Hope you have a wonderful new year.

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