A couple of weekends ago we had a yard sale. My Mom hauled her stuff to our house to join in the fun. In clearing out some of her stuff, she came across a book called The Short Story and Its Writer edited by Ann Charters and published by St. Martin’s Press and asked if …
[tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ow.ly] I’m in the process of wrapping up the second of two short stories that I’ve written in between drafts of Shadow of the Black City. With each short story I write, my awareness of things grows and my writing improves. Things blurred in the murk of my peripheral awareness are coming …
Writing Short Fiction with an Eye on Long Fiction Read More »
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBmqfM74sIY] And it’s slow, so slow the idea, The coming around of a sensible word. It hovers and shakes like a hummingbird wing At the end of a long hot year. Kelly Joe Phelps – Tight to the Jar Mr. Phelps very well captures the essence of writing in the bridge from Tight to the Jar. …
This week I reached two writing milestones: I submitted my first fantasy short story, The River Lords, for publication and I began revising the first draft of my first novel, Shadow of the Black City. Each of these milestones represents something different. The River Lords represents completing a project and putting it out there and, …
Earlier today, I posted another snippet from The River Lords, a short story I’ve been working on for several weeks. The metamorphosis of this story has been fascinating–and educational. About a week ago I thought I had a draft I was ready to submit for publication, but something nagged at me. I wasn’t all that …
I’ve been trimming The River Lords yet again, beginning the story still closer to the end. I’m liking what I’m seeing. Back on the boat, I coaxed dried grass and twigs to fire in a bronze pan that had survived the Yan Gorge. I spitted the rabbits and placed them over the flames, turning them …
Mr. Bransford’s contest and all the entries can be seen here. Here’s my entry: I rode from the ruins of Wat Rahm on a collection of flotsam amid the swift waters of the flooded Yan River. The corpses of my brothers and sisters, the Jao Naam, bobbed and swirled past with a languor not of …
I finished a second revision (rewrite is more accurate) of The River Lords last night. I’m pleased with the effort. I went from 10k+ to under half that at 4848 words. I’ll give it the once over to cut a little more fat and tighten up story elements. After that, I’ll begin to submit it. …
The sampan dipped into a glassy trough and then climbed the shining face of the next wave. As it teetered on the peak, I lunged to the right side of the bow. My weight felt insignificant against the waterlogged boat, but it had the desired effect. The sampan pivoted and began to fall down the …
In my short story The River Lords, I’ve undertaken to give it an admittedly pan-Asian feel. I’m sure my approach would horrify those who know well various ethnographic and geographic details of countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and so forth, but the asianesque setting was in my head as I began conceptualizing, …