Tag Archives: short fiction

04.06.13
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And My Goal-Tweaking Continues

And so it goes… I can’t write like it’s 2008. Oh, for the good ol’ days of newbie writer zeal. Sigh.

As noted previously, I had to scrap my hoped-for anthology project because I couldn’t make the deadline for “Benedict”. I might still be able to get that anthology done, but I need more time and can’t get that done under the pressure of a deadline. That’ll be Important Life Lesson Number (fill in the blank) for this writer. I can write to length, depending on the complexity of the story’s plot. As far as “Benedict” was concerned, the plot was too complicated, and I need more room for world-building because the setting’s very necessary for the conflict to take place.

The story’s been set aside because it’s not contracted unlike “The Weeping Willow”, which I need to tweak further. But going back to my previous point – since I’ve been going at my own pace since 2008, I’m no longer able to work with a publisher’s deadline, which also means I’m no longer able to answer calls for submissions (not that I’m looking for those). Any deadline I work with will have to be my own, and that date is never set in stone. I found that the more I remind myself of cut-off dates set by my publisher, the more I totally fuck up my story. For “Benedict”, my writing grew harder and harder till the process ground to a halt, and I kept hammering away at it for a week without any luck. Five days before my publisher’s deadline, I had to email her and give her my sob story, and I’m incredibly lucky to have a very understanding publisher who was willing to work with me.

But I know I shouldn’t keep doing this. It’s a pain in the ass for my publisher (I assume), and the last thing I want is to wear out my welcome. I’ve been very happy with JMS Books, and I hope to continue my professional relationship with them for as long as I can.

This year’s been off to a pretty muddy start; we’re already in the second quarter of 2013, and I’m forced to rethink and reshape my goals, considering what my recent experiences have been on the writing front.

I do wish I could write with the zeal of a newbie, but I can’t anymore, and it’s detrimental to force myself to stay on that path.

2011 and 2012 were the peak years of my writing output. I think I produced way more books in those two years (including trunk stories that turned into published short fiction), and at the beginning of 2013, I was hoping to keep that momentum up. Unfortunately things haven’t been working to my advantage on a number of levels, the most important thing being my overall health. I’ve been exhausted since January – low energy levels, difficulty concentrating while writing. I never came down with a case of bad colds / fever / the flu, but the feeling of being worn out persisted, and it’s still there. Maybe the frenzy of the past two years, juggling my day job, cycling, and my increased publishing output, finally took its toll on me.

I also keep saying this, but it’s well worth repeating. I’m not getting any younger. ^^;;;;

Things I was able to pull off before, I no longer can without a lot of effort, and it’s taking me this long to, well, accept that and adjust my thinking accordingly.

While I still agree that the best advertisement I can invest in is new books, I need to slow down and stop buying into what a number of writing experts say regarding pumping out book after book after book (i.e., publish six or more longer works per year such as novellas and novels). I’ve already given up on the dream of quitting my day job and being able to survive on my writing alone – mind you, producing books for a niche market. Given a choice between reputation and sales, I’d love to take reputation and be assured of – excuse the narcissistic prattle – my legacy as a writer of fantasy LGBT YA fiction.

And I don’t have the ability to pump out a bazillion books per year and still manage that. Some writers are gifted enough to accomplish that, but not me. I need to slow down, reverse my pace from what I had in 2011 and 2012. To that end, I’d like to give myself even more time with each book and bring my output down to three short novels a year. If I were to publish novellas, it’ll be about four and no more than that.

I hope to be able to work consistently on improving my writing, but I need to accomplish that at a realistic pace that allows me to work within the time limit I can set for myself. So it looks like the last Masks book will be written this year, but it won’t be out till early 2014.

I’ll admit that there’s some regret here, but at the same time, there’s also a great deal of relief. As long as I’m willing to keep my goals flexible, I’ll be okay, and I can assure myself that I’ll be able to continue writing stories that are dear to me for as long as I’m able.

03.27.13
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How to Cope with WIP Pwnage

Been up to my ears with stuff happening at the same time: print proofs for Gold in the Clouds (in progress as I type this) as well as absolute, utter pwnage by, of all things, a short story. Or make that a hoped-for short story that’s now no longer a short story but a 25K-word novella.

Ladies and gentlemen, I got drop-kicked and body-slammed by a short story, with “Benedict” finally getting me in a headlock.

WIP: I’m not a novelette! I will NOT be a novelette! Say it!
Me: Uncle! Uncle! Uncle! UNCLE!

Lots of email exchanges with my ever-so-patient-and-understanding publisher, who agreed to rearrange my release schedule for this new project as well as whittle down the number of stories from five to four because – well – 25K words. I’ll be taking back “The Weeping Willow” and will be expanding on the story some more, which in the end will be a good thing considering how much material I took out in order for it to fit my target length. But “Benedict” is a stubborn little prat, and at this point I’ve given up the battle and will allow it to go where it insists on going, and judging from the revised outline I have for it, it’ll go all the way to around 25K words.

So it looks like my plans to experiment with novella-length fiction next year just enjoyed a teeny-weenie head start. All the same, it’s incredibly rattling getting my carefully planned schedule turned on its head. I’m a Virgo, and I can’t help it. Even more so when I find myself in a headlock with a short WIP.

The mini-dialogue above actually comes in two versions: that one and this…

WIP: I’m not a novelette! I will NOT be a novelette! Say it!
Me: Bite me! I’m digging up videos of disco songs I grew up with!

Which, of course, I did. Because sometimes the only antidote to WIP pwnage is David Naughton’s “Makin’ It”.

I was in fourth grade, baby! And one of my older sisters was hopelessly in love with David Naughton when he starred in American Werewolf in London. Hell, I don’t even know why I’m sharing that tidbit with you, but there it is.

03.17.13
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Five-Dollar Book Sale and Sundry Items

Head’s up! Queerteen Press is having a five-dollar print book sale at their site, and The Winter Garden and Other Stories is one of the select titles offered up for that nifty wee price.

No, really, look: Click me! Click me! Click me! BOOYAH!

To emphasize, I said “select titles”. Not all print books are up for sale, and it’s only for a very limited time, i.e., when extra copies run out. So I can’t tell you when it’ll be over, but if my publisher’s out of print copies of a given title, that book will be taken off the listing.

As for the sundry stuff…

Just finished edits for Gold in the Clouds, and I’ll be posting the book page here soon. It’s set to be released on April 14 (e-book), with the print book being made available at the end of April.

“The Weeping Willow,” the first of five fairy tale novelettes I’m releasing through Queerteen Press, has been cleaned up, submitted, and contracted, and watch this space for updates on release dates. It was a pretty good experience for me, being able to write to length, and I’ll post a separate blog entry on how things went.

The next story will be “Benedict,” which I’ve already started way before but will most likely scratch. The plot’s taken a sharp turn down another direction entirely, and I want to start from scratch with that. All in all, there’ll be five stories, which I hope to release eventually as another short story anthology (tentatively titled The Book of Lost Princes).

And that’s the update on writing for now. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone!

03.08.13
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Oscar Wilde and Public Spaces Don’t Mix

I made the mistake of reading my old, battered copy of Oscar Wilde’s Complete Short Fiction while enjoying a quick bite to eat on my way to work yesterday. Dear lord, and there I was, all smug and confident about my ability to harden myself against the manipulations of Victorian writers, but what happened?

First story, in the final scenes: almost burst into tears on the spot (thank you very much, “The Happy Prince”) and only managed to suppress everything so that the general public was subjected to nothing more than an epic lip-wobbling from me.

The next story after that? “The Nightingale and the Rose”. And the one after that? “The Selfish Giant”. And somewhere down the line is “The Birthday of the Infanta”. Oh, hell. My heart seized up once I got to work from all that desperate bottling up. And quoth the raven, “Nevermore (you dork)!”

Zoiks, I say!

I’ve been trying to get more inspired by rereading Wilde’s tales, but damn the man for rubbing my nose into the kind of heartstring-tugging that Victorians were so good at (like I said, “manipulative”). I really wish that 18th century satirists wrote their own brand of fairy tales because I’d eat them up. Scouring my library, I only have a book of French fairy tales from the 18th century, and those were written by bored aristocratic women and were meant to be shared in glittering, froufrou salons. Nah. Not today (though I read that book a long time ago and enjoyed it).

But the possibilities make me pretty damned giddy. Can you imagine Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, or Tobias Smollett putting out satirical fairy tales? Be still, my heart. I imagine them to be so catty and vicious in their snark.

Anyway, I’ve already begun working on my first novelette, which is called “The Weeping Willow”. My steps forward are very, very, very tentative with a good deal of nail-biting and hand-wringing in the bargain. Unlike novels, I’m severely restricted because of the target word count (to state the obvious), and I’m constantly tweaking with the text as needed before moving on to the next chapter in order to make sure that only the important stuff is there and that there are only enough descriptions to help each scene and no more.

I’m roughly midway through the first story, and I’d like to think that I’ll be a lot more confident after this and will be taking on the following ones with a lot less hesitation. But, boy, it’s a far, far cry from what I’m used to with novel-writing, which is like cavorting non-stop in a flowering meadow (sans the hay fever) until I reach the end and then surprising myself with the final word count.

One thing I’m taking away from Wilde’s short stories is that I prefer his brand of fairy tales (along with Hans Christian Andersen’s) to the Grimm brothers’. Mind you, that’s almost like comparing apples and oranges since Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected traditional folk stories, while Andersen and Wilde wrote their own, and they were also artists of the 19th century (versus folk stories that date way back). But I love the emotional complexity of Wilde and Andersen’s tales despite their brevity and, in Andersen’s case, whimsical simplicity (as I interpret his stories).

Those are the kinds of fairy tales I’d love to see more of today, with a vivid Old World setting while exploring contemporary issues (preferably LGBT fiction). I desperately want to read them and just lose myself the writers’ worlds and find inspiration in them. Wistful sigh.

And as a final note (since we’re talking about fairy tales): for you romantics out there, Joseph Atkins put together a site / blog on LGBT relationships. ♥

03.04.13
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From Vivaldi to Anaya

Firstly, today’s Antonio Vivaldi’s birthday, and I’ve been listening to his works in hopes of getting some inspiration from them. Yep, I’ve got a pile of cheap classical CDs, and I love ‘em. Thanks, Best Buy, for that awesome section you had once upon a time – seriously, ninety-nine cents for a classical CD? This little peasant girl was thrilled speechless.

I’m trying to gear myself up for what’s next on my plate, which is a series of short fantasy stories (original folktales), and I’ll admit I’m a bit freaked. I hope I’m able to write to length again like I used to. Egad, those days feel like a lifetime away. Since I plan for them to be about three times longer than the average short story I published last year, I’ll have a lot more wiggle room with the narrative structure, and people won’t have to pay a cent more since they’ll all fall within the same word count range that the previous stories were written in.

And if that last sentence was in any way grammatically iffy, I blame another soul-crushing shift at my day job. That plus Mercury in retrograde.

Anyway, maybe indulging in Vivaldi’s stuff will help (did I mention how cheap my classical CDs are? They’re cheap!). I usually listen to classical music to get myself going with fantasy fiction, especially since the stories tend to be historical fantasy.

And moving on from there, I never knew that a film was made on Rudolfo Anaya’s novel! I want to see it!

Actually, I wonder if it’s best to reread the book first since it’s been almost twenty years since I first picked it up. My memory of the story runs more along emotional lines than actual plot. I remember telling myself that this was the strangest coming-of-age story I’ve ever read and at the same time marveling at the imagery.

I’m really not doing the book any justice by admitting to remembering only one aspect of my reading experience, but the effect on me was strong enough, even after all these years, to draw out a pretty positive response when I stumbled across the trailer.