“The Message Between the Words” by Grayson Bray Morris, published in Waylines.
I recently stumbled across a new online speculative fiction magazine: Waylines.
They seem to be associated with Clarkesworld (note the link on the bottom of the main page), but I”m not sure about their relationship.
Anyway, I found one of the Waylines stories particularly well done:
The Message Between the Words by Grayson Bray Morris.
To me, this is what science fiction should be. Continue reading
They walk home … in desparation … by gullevek, on Flickr
I started the following story a few weeks ago when I was in the middle of one of my depressed moods. I got half way through it and didn’t know how to finish it, so I left it.
Recently, I worked out an ending, and last night I finally found time to finish it. I hope you enjoy it. Feedback and constructive criticism welcome.
(1176 words)
“When did you give up?”
“I’m not sure. It wasn’t a single point in time. It happened gradually. Over
several years, I guess.”
“Tell me about it.” Continue reading
Let’s Write a Short Story! by Joe Bunting
Joe Bunting, of the well-known writing blog The Write Practice, recently published the e-book Let’s Write a Short Story!. I agreed to review an advance review copy (and my apologies, Joe, for being so late with the review; life conspired to keep me from writing it until now, let alone finishing my short story WIP).
The purpose of this book is to help writers to write short stories and get them published. It’s a short book, only 153 pages in the PDF I received. But it’s packed full of useful information to get beginning writers on the fast track to short story publication.
The book begins with a reality check: some statistics on the low acceptance rates of submissions to major American literary magazines. But it goes on to give eight good reasons we should write short stories anyway.
Next, short stories are defined by giving four main attributes they generally share, and three things they are not. This is followed by some discussion of how to get published by literary magazines. Continue reading
I’m on my way out of town until Friday. I’m hoping to be able to check in here from time to time, but I can’t guarantee it. If anyone makes a comment and is waiting for it to be moderated, or for a response, please be patient.
Well, my try at writing for 30 minutes first thing in the morning, before reading email and news, didn’t work out well. For one thing, I’m worried there might be an important email that needs a response. It just wreaks havoc with my OCD tendencies. Also, I’m often still tired from being up before I would naturally awake, so I don’t feel creative. I did manage to do a 15 minute practice on The Write Practice, but that was actually over lunch time. Which brings me to…
I’m going to try a new schedule: read my email, news, cartoons and blog posts in the morning as I have been, but make sure I skip less important things and get through it all before I start work. Then I’ll have my lunch hour free to write. I think this will work much better, but we’ll see.
I just wanted to mention one other thing: David Farland posted this checklist he says he used for his writing. This is one of the most comprehensive lists I’ve seen for the things that could go wrong with your story. I highly recommend it.
That’s all for now, back next week.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The following is a very short story (460 words) that I wrote for the first prompt of the book The Write Practice: 14 Prompts by Joe Bunting (available for the Kindle from Amazon, or on Joe’s blog The Write Practice as a PDF file. All feedback is welcome (and while I enjoy compliments as much as the next guy, constructive feedback would be more helpful 8^).
It’s late. I’m exhausted. Shoulders are aching. No sound but the hum of the engine and the tires. My wife’s asleep beside me, the kids in back. Twelve hours on the road. I’ve got to find a hotel before I fall asleep at the wheel. But I want a name I know. This place scares me, even up here on the interstate, above the building roofs. Industrial, dirty, urban decay. Like a scene from some dark movie. Continue reading
