Tag Archives: Short Stories

This story has an interesting history in its planning. I used both a generated prompt and a challenge issued by my father-in-law in “Clue” style. His challenge was: “Nancy” and “Nanites” in “the conference room”. Two years later, I made it work. The title Imminence is only temporary. This story needs a major rewrite. It’s science fiction because of the nanites and their role, and I rarely write SF anymore. Mostly I don’t write science fiction because I love fantasy more, and I’m afraid of writing Star Trek / Star Wars stories. I did like writing SF this time though, it was a pleasant change.

This story was the tenth in my challenge, and I’ve met my goal. This is also the most short stories I’ve ever written in a calendar year (yes I keep track, that shouldn’t surprise you). So it’s a double goal.

All I need now is to get these edited and out the door.

The Dragon’s Bard is complete, though it needs a lot of work in the rewrite. Bard means music, and song means poetry. I’m not really good at poetry, but the story called for it and I had to deliver. I enjoyed writing it, but I’m a little afraid of the edit.

Treischan Strength, written over lunch today, came from a prompt for the monthly challenge. I had an immediate image of a story, and pitched it out right away as cliche. Then I had another idea, and that too was cliche, so it was a goner. Then I decided on something I’ve never done before: I wrote from the point of view of a creature that was not humanoid in any sense.

Opening:

Spring arrived and wakened the Treischans; limbs stiff from more than a winter slumber plagued Shasss and fear rippled from his aching roots, up his cracked trunk, to the weak limbs he could barely hold overhead. His leaves had not returned, none of the Treischans would leaf this early in the season, but Shasss knew his would come last, if at all. It was time to talk to his sons.

Kalila’s Veil is more of an urban fantasy whereas most of my fantasy is epic, along the lines of Mercedes Lackey or Raymon Feist. This one wanted to be different. Partially because of the prompt I worked from, partially because this prompt was from my 2005 Story-A-Day challenge. I wasn’t able to write the story I wanted then, and even now I haven’t been able to write the story I had originally envisioned. It changed. And why shouldn’t it — I’ve changed quite a bit since 2005.

I’ve changed so much I can’t even look at the novel I stopped midway through because of my pregnancy. It was too dark, I couldn’t have my child feel the things I needed to feel in order to write Shadow of Blood. I hope to get back to it one day, but I need to remove some of the graphic scenes, they just aren’t in me anymore.

My writing has defintely stepped up these past few weeks. I’ve joined a critique group on www.fmwriters.com and managed my first critique tonight. I started with Chapters 25 and 26 of a novel. What a strange place to start. I read chapters summaries of the previous chapters, so I was prepared storywise. I’m starting slow with the group right now. I tend to overcommit, a repeated problem in my life (just ask me about senior year in high school). Pacing is key. I don’t want to ruin it, as this group seems to be going at a decently reasonable pace, and their writing/critiquing level is above mine enough that I can learn from them but not so far ahead that I can’t help them in return. We’ll see how that goes, but I feel fairly positive about working with them.

Today’s short story, Knights of the Scarlet Rose, broke my record for the most short stories I’ve ever written in a month. I’ve come a long way, and am having much more fun now that I’m not struggling with the form. This one is different because I’ve never written about knights before, and I rarely if ever write about dragons, though it isn’t the typical dragon hunt you’ve read before…

The Crossing is today’s short story, written from the point of view of a boatman who uses magic to steal from his passengers. I wanted to convey some humor in this one, but I’m going to have to wait for some feedback on that. Humor is not my strongpoint in writing. Regardless, this one’s a keeper.

It also seems to me, the more stories I write, the more I like what I’ve written. I think I’ve grown, I think my skills are improved, and I think I need to get moving and edit my shorts!

Blurb from The Crossing

Everdeep Lake was chilled by a grey mist this morning, a mist that was bad for business. A dock hidden by mist lost customers; a boat enveloped by mist would be invisible to waiting passengers and even discourage them to take the day long hike to the bridge south of the dock. Mist was bad, definitely bad, but when Beltair rowed the rectangular boat up to his dock, he smiled at what the mist had obscured from him.