Hi, everyone. For the moment, I’ve moved my blogging over to Tumblr. Why don’t ya go check it out? I explain the move there, in my first post, so if you’re wondering why, just look it up in my archives.
I hope to see you all there.
Flash Fiction Friday: “The Terror Within (Introduction)”
My latest 250-word entry for Flash Fiction Friday is “The Terror Within”—or, rather, the beginning of a story by that name. I was inspired by this week’s challenge to write a full-on short story, but to keep the entry within the word limit, I only wrote the introduction. Will I finish it? I don’t know. I’d love some feedback, and if it’s positive, I might just go ahead and write the rest.
For the record, the three wildcard words provided this week at the Supplicium Post Mortem blog were “restraint”, “tidal”, and “koozie”, and I managed to use them all—though I took great liberty with the word “koozie”, which, according to Wikipedia, is actually “a fabric or foam device that is designed to keep a beverage can or bottle cold.”
As always, I hope you enjoy.
Flash Fiction Friday: “Et Ego in Arcadia Vixi”
After a bit of a hiatus, I’m trying to get back in the swing of things, so here’s a new Flash Fiction Friday entry. I managed to use all three wildcards (carpeting, umbrella, et ego in arcadia vixi) but I went over the 250-word limit by about 50 words. Oh well. Sometimes the story can’t be contained in such a small space. Even 300 words seem too few for this story, but I’ll let you all be the judge of that. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy.
Flash Fiction Friday: “Strange Bedfellows”
I had a hard time with this one. I threw out idea after idea—one I had already written but just couldn’t get down to 250 words. I managed exactly 250 with this one (according to Microsoft Word), but I only found a way to include two of the wildcards: “turquoise” and “swan”; my own wildcard suggestion, “hagiography”, just wouldn’t fit in. Oh well. It’s a story. I hope you enjoy it.
Revolution 2.0: A Brief Manifesto
When you spend as much time as I do on Twitter—the very embodiment of the social Internet experience, or Web 2.0—you start to see complaints about people who share too much personal information. Some people know they’re sharing too much and even hashtag #TMI. But what is too much? And why do people complain? Well, some people are attention whores, and they share what most people would keep private in the hopes of evoking a response and getting people to talk to them; they’re needy, quite likely even co-dependent. In this post, I’m going to do what I always do: ignore them. I want to talk about something deeper.
It seems to me that people wear their avatars as masks. They feel that they don’t really know the people they’re talking with, that those people are simply personae, also wearing masks, and so they feel comfortable sharing information online that they wouldn’t in “real life”. Well, welcome to the 21st Century, people. This complex network of machinery we call the Internet is, like it or not, the way we communicate these days. It’s a barrier that breaks down barriers, and it’s changing the way we interact. It’s been around for over a decade and a half, and we still haven’t adapted to it. We’re still playing by the old rules. It’s time to toss the rules out the window.
Midweek Missed Connection: “A Chance for the Future”
This week’s Midweek Missed Connection setting, as posted by Casey Morgan, was “the waiting room”. I didn’t want to use a medical setting, which is of course the first thing that came to mind, so I thought for a while and eventually came up with the idea of using the waiting room at a bus or train station. Just before sitting down to write, though, I had the further idea of tweaking the setting slightly, changing it from a mundane waiting room to something a little more out-of-this-world: a spaceport. So, here’s my idea of a Craigslist Missed Connections ad from the year 2117. I hope you enjoy.
Flash Fiction Friday: “A Dream Given Form”
My latest entry for Flash Fiction Friday is a piece of speculative fiction called “A Dream Given Form.” The wildcard words this week were “aspen”, “footrest”, and “itemized bill”. I managed to use them all, and I managed to come in just under the 250-word limit. I hope you enjoy.
Review: Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine (Aug/Sept Issue)
F&SF Aug/Sept 2009
As a writer, it’s always a good idea to keep up on what kind of material readers and editors are in the market for. I make it a point to try to stay up on the latest information in the world of speculative fiction publishing, and to an extent this includes reading the various magazines that print such stories. One of my favorite magazines out there is the prestigious Fantasy & Science Fiction, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. In conjunction with this anniversary, the magazine recently ran a blogging promotion. They sent out free copies of the August/September issue to bloggers with the expectation that the bloggers would review the issue on their sites. I jumped at the chance to sign up. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably remember me complaining that I misplaced the issue and therefore was unable to blog about it as soon as I was supposed to, which was waaaaayyy back in June. Well, I’ve found the magazine; I’ve read it cover to cover; and now—just as many readers are receiving their copies in the mail—I’m reviewing it, with apologies to all who expected it sooner.
Midweek Missed Connections: “Aphrodite at the Beach”
Here’s the second of my Midweek Missed Connections entries. This week’s suggested setting, provided by Casey Morgan, was “At Sea.” I altered it just a bit for my own story, setting it at the seashore. I hope you enjoy.
Flash Fiction Friday: “Holiday Encounter”
I had fun with my Flash Fiction Friday entry for this week. It took quite a few hours to hone it, which including cutting more than fifty words from the first draft. The final product comes in a 249 words and manages to use all three of the wildcards: “scar”, “safety pin”, and “scull”. For those who aren’t familiar with Australian slang: In that country, the word “scull” is used as a verb meaning “to drink the entire contents of something without stopping”. I hope you enjoy this week’s tale. Please note that it contains mild sexual content.
