• Writing Resources

    The Underachieving Story

    Currently I’m struggling through editing/rebuilding a story I wrote the first draft of back in January. I’m really procrastinating (hence this blog post). It just has never had the ‘magic’ I thought the original concept would deliver. Anyways, I went through some old notes on other stories as a way to avoid the dread edit and realized something. Last year, spring, I wrote three stories back to back. Of the three I thought one was great, one was good and one was okay. The great story still has yet to find a home. The good story was recently sold. And the ‘okay’ story? Well, I never really felt it achieved…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Read this week…

    Finished reading Writers of the Future Volume XX this week. Stories that stood out for me more than others: Kinship by Jason Stoddard. A very interesting story with a future-human investigating whether a tribe of creatures qualify as human. The main character is torn about how humans have already changed and how much more some of them are willing to change. The race they investigate is no less interesting, displaying a remarkable adaptation. A thinking story, but one with feeling characters. Very much enjoyed it. In Memory by Eric James Stone. Really enjoyed this story, it did not go where I had expected it to… I first read it actually…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Read This Week

    This week I finished reading Volume XXI of the Writer’s of the Future series of anthologies. Stories that particularly interested me were: “Betrayer of Trees” by Eric James Stone. A stone worker with a troubled past is called to work on a new palace back near where he grew up. We learn early that he betrayed his people, but the exact details are revealed slowly. A strong central character and interesting world really elevated this story for me, and I enjoyed it. “Deadglass” by Lon Prater. A religious father who’s duty is to capture sinner’s souls so that the ‘devil’ cannot use them faces a dilemma that makes him question…

  • Review,  Writing Resources

    Read this week – various stories

    Finished reading Writers of the Future XXII. Many good stories in this one, a few that stood out for me: Broken Stones by Judith Tabron. The main character’s faith is challenged when she disagrees with how the aliens are being treated on a world that her people have colonized for generations. I thought the world well invented and the dilemma of the main character authentic. Games on the Children’s Ward by Michail Velichansky. Creepy story about children dying in a hospital and the games they play to survive in the dismal, lonely place where too often one of them is wheeled away, dead. This story will be stuck in my…

  • Writing Resources

    4th Quarter Winners for WOTF Announced

    The fourth quarter writer winners for the Writers of the Future contest have been announced: 1st Place – Laurie Tom from Torrance, California 2nd Place – Scott W. Baker from Monterey, Tennessee 3rd Place – Lael Salaets from Oakridge, Oregon A hearty congratulations go out to the winners and it will be great to meet them this summer at the Writers of the Future awards week this summer. For those who didn’t place this time, I can only point you to Brad Torgersen’s blog where he summarizes quite aptly how significant it is to be a finalist and what it means in regards to the caliber of the writer’s work.

  • Writing Resources

    October has been a good month for the stories

    Just a few days before finding out that my Writer’s of the Future submission had qualified as a finalist, I received acceptances to two anthologies. Both anthologies will be available in 2010. When I’m allowed I’ll post details about the markets and stories (one is a fantasy story set in the same universe as The Tale of Lady Spite and From the Sea, the other is sci-fi and is in fact the first story of my ‘Wanderer‘ sc-fi future universe which terminates with The End of the Road, published by Not One of Us ). Just had to share the good news. And today I received an acceptance for another…