This flash fiction Friday event is both fun and a great writing exercise. A picture prompt, a 100-word story that links dozens of awesome writer bloggers! Thank you, Rochelle Wishoff-Fields!
“No!” Mary’s cry sliced the silence of the cabin like a sharp blade.
The smeared spoon, the lighter on the table, Amy’s body slouched on the chair, the tablet idle on her lap.
Amy’s eyes cracked open. Mary braced herself for the vacant, red look of a daughter gone. It had been five years. No!
Amy stretched like a cat. “Jeez, I guess I snoozed. There was a power cut, so I heated the soup on the gas cooker.” She gave her mother a sheepish smile. “I’m a slob.”
Mary shuddered, as relief exploded in her. “Any soup left?”
__________________________
When I saw this picture, impulsively I zoomed in to discern any actual drug paraphernalia. It just took me there, hence the story.
For more stories and totally different takes on this prompt click on the linky:
Thank you to everyone who has participated so far in Calling All Critiques, whether you were a submitting author or a critiquer or just stopped by the blogs to see what was going on. The second week’s Rafflecopter random giveaway of two eBooks and a $10 Amazon gift certificate ends on Sunday at midnight, so give some feedback on one of the earlier posts and maybe win some prizes:
The first week’s visiting winner who either commented or followed one of the participating bloggers on Twitter is:
Entry #49
Elliot W.
Elliot, you should have received an email yesterday. You have until Thursday to respond with further information for us to send you your prize. If we don’t hear from you by then, a runner-up will be chosen.
Cover Art Random Winner
As a thank you to all the authors who submitted their work to be critiqued, we’ve randomly chosen one lucky winner who has a choice of the following prizes:
An honest review of his or her book (no horror/hardcore erotica) on MM Jaye Writes AND, if it’s speculative or dark fiction, Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews, with corresponding Amazon and Goodreads reviews.
This week’s winner is:
Entrant #9
Bob Cradock
Bob, look for an email in your inbox later today. You have until Friday to respond as to which of the three prizes you want. If we don’t hear from you by then, a runner-up will be chosen. Once you choose your prize, we will provide you and the blogger with each other’s contact information to coordinate timing.
Next Week: Query Letter or Book Blurb Critique
Starting Saturday, June 7, 2014, at 6 a.m. Eastern and ending Monday, June 9, 2014, at 8 p.m. Eastern, submit your query letter or book blurb to Critiques@Saboviec.com. Cut and paste the following template into your email and fill it in.
The name you want to be known by: Your website (optional):
Title: Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):
Entry:
We’re not imposing a word limit for this critique; however, you already know that too long isn’t going to get you an agent or interest in your novel, right?
This week’s deadline: Monday, June 9, 2014, at 8 p.m.
Your entry will be assigned a number in the order in which it is received. Our cutoff is 30 entries. Entries 1-6 will be posted on our blogs Monday morning, entries 7-12 will be posted on our blogs Tuesday morning, etc.
Your email will be kept confidential. What you submit is what will be posted, so double- and triple-check your spelling and grammar. (We may correct crazy formatting errors as a result of email quirks, but still, make sure it’s clean before you press send.) You may resubmit an entry, but it goes to the end of the queue: if you submit it past the 30-entry cutoff, you’ll have lost your spot.
All 30 accepted entrants will be entered into the prize drawing, and the winner will be chosen by their assigned number through Random.org.
As always, if you don’t want both positive and negative feedback, please don’t enter. This event is for us to help one another grow as authors and maybe to make some friends in the process.
Some fine print: Entries that don’t include the above information will be discarded. At our sole discretion, we may also discard other posts for reasons such as offensive/distasteful material. Erotica may be confined only to certain blogs, and we may put an adult content warning on it.
If You Enter, Please …
Critique other entrants. The sky’s the limit on how many other entries you critique, but we ask that you at least provide feedback to two other participants.
Also, when you receive feedback on your entry, be gracious if you decide to respond. We would highly suggest not responding except for perhaps a “thank you,” but you’re going to do what you’re going to do, aren’t you? Don’t be defensive or explanatory; these critiques are for you to improve your writing. Take what you want and leave the rest behind.
And If You Critique, Please …
Be nice. Be constructive. Be specific. Be polite.
Mean-spirited or spam posts will be deleted. General “I love everything about it and I think you’re the next J.K. Rowling, ZOMG!” obviously-written-about-your-best-friend comments won’t be deleted, but that’s tacky. Don’t be tacky.
Join us for more fun next week!
While you wait, check out all the participating blogs and bloggers:
If you comment with your critique, please feel free to enter this week’s Rafflecopter giveaway. One lucky person will win a $10 Amazon gift card, an eCopy of It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy by Quanie Miller, and an eCopy of Guarding Angel by S. L. Saboviec.
Michael Haley is the author of “Lost on the Edge of Forever,” a spiritual romance of the Fantastique published by Curiosity Quills, released on February 2, 2014. But possibly more importantly, the little dude-to-be mentioned on the book’s author page is now officially a little dude-been-born, and baby & family are healthy and wonderful.
I connected with Michael through Goodreads, after he sent me a kind message about my 5 ways new writers chase away potential readers post. I was intrigued by his language use (which goes to show that we should all polish our language even when commenting on a post) and headed over to his site where I read his novel’s amazing excerpt. My next move was to invite him for a WIP Q&A and asked for the excerpt to be posted on my MM Jaye’s friends write blog. Michael gracefully accepted, so you can read the exciting opening of “Lost on the Edge of Forever” here.
Michael, first of all congratulations on the triumphant arrival of the new member of the family! How are you adjusting so far?
Thank you! Life feels like near-constant fatigue, yet it’s fatigue that makes me feel amazing and ecstatic! Adjusting ourselves back into our normal routines has been a little bit of challenge, but every day it gets a little bit easier. Between a wonderful baby, two working parents, a book that won’t market itself, and new material that is screaming to be written, it’s a lot of work!
Before we talk about your work process, why don’t you tell us a few things about yourself?
I studied both Psychology and English at Iowa State University, although my studies often got pushed aside to study film art and narrative style regardless of what actual classes I was taking. That meant I watched a lot of movies when I should have been studying, but how important is Psychiatric Assessment techniques when there are decades of Jean-Luc Godard films to watch? Although I’ve always been interested in telling stories, it’s through film that I discovered the important of authorial voice in storytelling, and after college I began to hover around expressing that voice through literary rather than cinematic means. As my mind thinks in cinematic terms, my task is to translate what I see as a fully shot, edited, and scored film into a book. And most importantly, have the book read like a literary text as opposed to a junior novelization of 21 Jump Street.
Exercise in lean writing: give us a synopsis of “Lost on the Edge of Forever” in under 200 words.
Leila, an ambitious and brilliant student, is murdered during her final semester at college, yet discovers she’s been reborn as a spirit resigned to haunt the school of her death. Alejandro, a listless and depressed freshman, arrives on campus eager to reinvent himself after eighteen years of awkwardness, as well as a devastating family tragedy, shake his sense of worth and faith to their cores.
These lonely souls meet under the auspice of moonlit rain, and soon find themselves irrevocably, passionately attracted to each other. Leila begins to feel her spiritual body physically reawaken, and Alejandro discovers a kindred spirit who understands him like no one else. Intoxicated with each other, the impossible lovers dream of holding onto their own private miracle forever.
Yet how can Alejandro explain to skeptical friends and family his soul-mate is dead? Why does Leila get the nagging suspicion their romance might contain the secret of her existence? An unexpected act of evil ignites these unavoidable questions, revealing in its afterglow the true purpose of their star-crossed romance. Will love allow them to accept a profound destiny that surpasses time and perhaps even God, or is their love destined to die loud and young? (199 words)
Are you happy with the pace of your work? Do you aim at a specific word count each day?
I aim for the Stephan King quota of 2,000 words a day, but life almost always gets in the way of accomplishing that. I would kill for the ability to consistently put out a first draft every three months – only once was I able to achieve the feet by sheer fluke. I tend to overthink nearly everything, which often prevents me from just writing the text and trusting it to be good enough to make it to the next draft.
Plotter, pantser or both?
Plotter. I’m obsessed with narrative structure and cannot read or view anything without thinking about the skeletal structure underneath the work, which means I’m obsessed beyond all reason with the framework of my own. This might seem paradoxical considering I write almost exclusively character based fiction, but in my experience, most of the character’s growth/voice will naturally emerge from the book if everything else is done right—conflict, pacing, setting, etc. I don’t entirely exclude giving voice specific attention, but it’s never my first concern as I’m much more interested in getting the “gears” of the book right. If you were to criticize the personalities of my characters, I’d probably just shrug and say, “That’s who they are.” But if you were to criticize scenes for being boring, having pacing issues, or other stylistic stuff, then you’d probably see all of your suggestions taken into account on the next revision.
What’s your worst enemy in getting that first draft finished?
Generating new material is always much more difficult for me than editing/rewriting previous material, and lack of progress is often an emotional determent for me. So the trick to getting the first draft done is to write something new every day, if only to keep a momentum going as losing momentum has prevented some dear-to-my-heart plots from ever turning into fully realized stories.
Have you ever experienced lack of inspiration or drive to write? If so, how do you motivate yourself?
I wish I could say the act of writing is a transcendent experience I couldn’t live without, but that’d be a lie. Nearly every day, I have grand aspirations to write amazing work, only to lose these aspirations the moment I sit to write. The only way to combat this is to either procrastinate until I can’t stand it anymore, or write with my teeth clenched until the anxiety to write goes away, which will happen eventually but never quick enough. As Roger Ebert never tired of saying, “The muse visits during the act of creation, not before.” The finished product is what makes the process worth it, but the process of writing a first draft I could do without.
Could we take a look at your workspace? Is there a particular place you find inspiring?
Lake Michigan
My workspace freely oscillates among a messy desk, an unmade bed, and the fourth floor of the Illinois State University library. None of these are particularly inspiring or remotely interesting to look at, but there is a place I often take mental trips to. The month my father passed away was an extraordinarily stressful time in my life, yet a trip to Chicago afterwards provided me with a chance to gaze deeply into the horizon of Lake Michigan; seemingly vast and yet with the land of Michigan relatively and comfortingly close. The view was calming in that meditative way one can’t put words to, and when writing, I find that thinking about the lake & the horizon is enough to clear the garbage cluttering my mind and get things moving again.
That’s a very tranquil vista indeed. Now your photo is “pinned” on my Featured Writers’ Workspace Board on Pinterest. Apart from Word and Google, do you use any other writing or research tools and apps?
A thesaurus to avoid redundant words, but that’s really my only other writing tool. My research often involves reading either fictional novels in the genre appropriate to the scene in question (for stylistic choices) or memoirs written from people with comparable points of view to the fictional characters, and the rest is…well, made up. If a technical detail pops up I will fact check it, but it’s often more pleasing just to avoid the detail and write something more interesting than reality anyway!
How do you intend to celebrate writing “The End” on your draft?
Usually by going out to eat somewhere, or treating myself to buying a book or some other enticing piece of media. I don’t often write “The End” on my books; not because I’m opposed to the concept that stories must be concluded, but because the two words look aesthetically unappealing to me. Aesthetics and presentation matter just as much as content, and I distrust any writer who says that only their words matter. Words of course matter a great deal, but in the world we live in, everything else does too and I think it’s detrimental to success to pretend otherwise.
Which book publishing processes are you going to outsource and which are you confident enough to undertake yourself?
As the novel is not self-published, most of the production was covered by my publisher Curiosity Quills, including editing, cover design, etc. However, the house allowed me a terrific amount of creative input on the cover as well as editing, and despite the text having gone through numerous revisions big and small since signing the contract, I can proudly say every word of the text is my vision, a luxury that other authors unfortunately can’t claim with other publishing houses. However that also means if the novel stinks, I have no one to blame but me!
Your blog is Michael Haley (writer). Do you follow a specific branding pattern with your posts or is it a free writing platform?
At the moment it is a free writing platform in the process of becoming; i.e. I need to update it more. The vision for the blog is for readers to find literary, cinematic, and/or other artistic observations, critiques, tips and suggestions, or whatever else is currently obsessing me. My brain is a random place, so who knows what one will find?
Do you have any marketing tips or favorite promotional sites you’d like to share?
Read nearly everything you can about marketing and promotion—especially this blog, which has a wealth of nuggets, insights, and other wonderful tips and tricks via guest posts such as Nat Russo as well as your own writings on the topic. I don’t feel I can add anything new to the topic that either you or a guest writer haven’t covered, and I’m still attempting not to make most of the mistakes that are so easily made by beginners and dreamers alike.
Thanks a bunch for the positive vote! Is spiritual/paranormal romance the genre you will brand yourself with or do you see yourself branching out in the future?
Although I will brand genres on my books for marketing purposes, I never approach any story as a work of a specific genre or another. The pipeline of work I want to produce includes a political/sci-fi epic, a road novel that combines fairy tales with Jack Kerouac, a literary horror experiment in the vein of Pale Fire, and who knows, maybe even a teenage sex comedy if I can get an original angle on it. The only thing I’m interested in is telling a compelling story, to which genre is an afterthought.
That’s a really diverse scope you’re looking into! Would you like to share with us links where we can find you and your work?
Vampire aficionados (not necessarily of the sparkly kind) this one is for you! Brought to you by the fabulous Wendy Ewurum of Fabulosity Reads, this collection of early works casts a new light (or shadow) over how it all started…
Book Synopsis
Long before Dracula, vampires stalked the literary scene.
These early literary vampires are sometimes terrifying, at times melodramatic, and occasionally ridiculous, but they are always out for blood—and their vampiric descendants continue to fascinate and captivate us.
Beyond the Count is a collection of vampire stories, plays, and poems from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This collection gives students, scholars, and vampire aficionados the opportunity to examine works often long out of print and to contextualize the development of vampire legend beyond that most famous of literary Counts.
About the Editor
Margo Bond Collins holds a Ph.D. in eighteenth-century British literature and is a professor of English, and is also the author of a number of novels, including Taming the Country Star, Legally Undead, Waking Up Dead, and Fairy, Texas. After a decade of moving all around the country (Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta are a few of the places she’s lived), she has settled in her native Texas. Margo lives near Fort Worth with her husband, her daughter, and several very spoiled cats, and she spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains. You can learn more about her writing at http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Starting now, Calling All Critiques is accepting entries for your cover art.
How to Enter
Submit your entry to Critiques@Saboviec.com. Cut and paste the following template into your email and fill it in.
Your name/pseudonym: Your website (optional):
Title: Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):
Attach your cover art to the email in a standard format (.jpg, .gif, .png preferred). Make sure it’s big enough to be legible when viewed at full-size on a standard web browser.
This week, we will keep accepting entries through Monday or Tuesday, depending on interest. If you get them in before 8 p.m. EDT and spots are open, you will go into the next day’s round.
More Details
Questions? Check out some of the earlier blog posts or leave a comment below:
I’ve decided to reblog this amazing blogging infographic posted on Red Website Design Blog, as my blogging experience attests to its validity. When I posted my top post “5 Ways New Writers Chase Away Potential Readers” which garnered over 70 comments and almost 1,000 views in just a couple of days, I thought the blog would sort of be on auto-pilot in terms of getting a steady flow of new followers, as long as I didn’t neglect it altogether. But no, that didn’t happen. Apparently, blogging once a fortnight, or even once a week leads to semi-stagnation.
My weekly WIP: Where, How and Then What interview column, featuring authors presenting their workspace and work process, generates traffic especially on Mondays through #MondayBlogs, but, still, I’ve noticed that more regular posting is needed to add to those followers and media sharing numbers. My recent involvement in the Friday Fictioneers weekly event which asks of the blogger to create 100-word short stories based on a picture prompt seems to have done the trick of adding engagement on top of new followers. That’s all very recent, however, so I’ll come back with more info on that.
What’s your experience? Study the infographic and, please let me know if you have anything to add. (Clicking on the picture will take you to the actual article.)
Thank you to everyone who has participated in our first week of Calling All Critiques, whether you were a submitting author or a critiquer or just stopped by the blogs to see what was going on. The Rafflecopter random giveaway of two eBooks and a $10 Amazon gift certificate ends on Sunday at midnight, so give some feedback on one of the earlier posts and maybe win some prizes:
As a thank you to all the authors who submitted their work to be critiqued, we’ve randomly chosen one lucky winner who has a choice of the following prizes:
An honest review of his or her book (no horror/hardcore erotica) on MM Jaye Writes AND, if it’s speculative or dark fiction, Magic & Mayhem Book Reviews, with corresponding Amazon and Goodreads reviews.
This week’s winner is:
Entrant #5
Toya Barnette
Toya, look for an email in your inbox later today. You have until Sunday to respond as to which of the three prizes you want. If we don’t hear from you by then, a runner-up will be chosen. Once you choose your prize, we will provide you and the blogger with each other’s contact information to coordinate timing.
Next Week: Cover Art Critique
Starting Saturday, May 31, 2014 at 6 a.m., submit your cover art to Critiques@Saboviec.com. Cut and paste the following template into your email and fill it in.
The name you want to be known by: Your website (optional):
Title: Genre (include audience, such as YA/Adult, and category):
Attach your cover art to the email in a standard format (.jpg, .gif, .png preferred). Make sure it’s big enough to be legible when viewed at full size on a standard web browser.
Updated info for this week: Your entry will be assigned a number in the order in which it is received. Our cutoff is now 30 entries. Entries 1-6 will be posted on our blogs Monday morning, entries 7-12 will be posted on our blogs Tuesday morning, etc. This week, we will keep accepting entries through Monday or Tuesday, depending on interest. If you get them in before 8 p.m. EDT and spots are open, you will go into the next day’s round.
And all the rest is the same: Your email will be kept confidential. What you submit is what will be posted, so double- and triple-check your spelling and grammar. (We may correct crazy formatting errors as a result of email quirks, but still, make sure it’s clean before you press send.) You may resubmit an entry, but it goes to the end of the queue: if you submit it past the 30-entry cutoff, you’ll have lost your spot.
All 30 accepted entrants will be entered into the prize drawing, and the winner will be chosen by their assigned number through Random.org.
As always, if you don’t want both positive and negative feedback, please don’t enter. This event is for us to help one another grow as authors and maybe to make some friends in the process.
Some fine print: Entries that don’t include the above information will be discarded. At our sole discretion, we may also discard other posts for reasons such as offensive/distasteful material. Erotica may be confined only to certain blogs, and we may put an adult content warning on it.
If You Enter, Please …
Critique other entrants. The sky’s the limit on how many other entries you critique, but we ask that you at least provide feedback to two other participants.
Also, when you receive feedback on your entry, be gracious if you decide to respond. We would highly suggest not responding except for perhaps a “thank you,” but you’re going to do what you’re going to do, aren’t you? Don’t be defensive or explanatory; these critiques are for you to improve your writing. Take what you want and leave the rest behind.
And If You Critique, Please …
Be nice. Be constructive. Be specific. Be polite.
Mean-spirited or spam posts will be deleted.
Join us for more fun next week!
While you wait, check out all the participating blogs and bloggers:
What an awesome idea! A picture prompt, a 100-word story every Friday that links dozens of writer bloggers! Thank you, Rochelle Wishoff-Fields!
Here’s my second attempt entitled “Owned”.
Picture prompt – Copyright: Jennifer Pendergast
Owned
I sit on my favorite bench facing the archway. Two young men pass by, engrossed in conversation. One turns and gives me a genuine smile. I smile back. Freshmen for sure. Seniors reserve a different look for me.
An old sedan pulls up. A man steps out.
“Whatcha doin’ slackin’?”
I stand up and tug at my too short skirt to hide the marks. “Five minutes, Bob!”
“I give you five minutes when the jitters come tonight. See how five minutes feel then!” He climbs back into the car and drives away.
With one last look beyond the archway, I trudge back to my dark corner.
___________________
For more stories on this prompt, click on the linky:
Here’s another entry by a brave writer who would appreciate constructive feedback. Please read and comment appropriately. If you do, don’t forget to enter our Rafflecopter giveaway. One lucky person will win a $10 Amazon gift card, an eCopy of It Ain’t Easy Being Jazzy by Quanie Miller, and an eCopy of Guarding Angel by S. L. Saboviec.
Please note that the excerpt contains strong language.
Entry #16
Name: S. L. Saboviec Website: http://www.saboviec.com Title: The Exorcist’s Assistant Genre: Adult Dark Urban Fantasy
Scarlet was in her office, going over a project status report, when the skin on the back of her neck prickled.
IT was back.
For one stomach-clenching, head-twisting, freezing-sweat moment, she was no longer an almost-fifty vice president of technology in a large bank, she was an eight-year-old girl, huddled under the covers and shivering. Despite the glare of the overhead lights and the twilight glow coming through her window, midnight darkness blasted her skin with a chilly breeze.
“Aw, hell, no.” The words had no effect. She threw her pen across the office. It bounced against the closed door and landed in her trash can. Well, that did a lot of good.
She stood and peered out the small frosted window along the door frame and saw what she expected: Nothing. No human eyes checking if she was still at work at six o’clock in the evening. No janitorial staff passing by and whistling a tune. She turned and stared out her twenty-second floor window, but the tinted glass prevented UV rays and prying eyes from seeing
her.
Scarlet bent down and pulled her pen from the waste basket. She threw it on her desk, ignoring the shivers that told her the creature that had menaced her as a child was back. Sleepless nights and crab-like terror crawling through her belly had been her constant companions for years.
“This is unacceptable,” she said in her best boardroom voice. “What do you want?”
Something moved behind her, and she whirled. The motivational poster on her wall was askance. She marched across the room and straightened it. “That’s it? You want to make a commentary on my art choices?”
She opened the door and stalked down the hall to the vending machine.
It followed her, of course. What else would it do? Just as it had stood over her bed, a black, formless shape that disappeared with the morning, she would never be able to see it in the light of day. But it was there.
Why was it back? The goddamned thing had done nothing more than stir stomach-clenching dread in her as a child, the same dread that was hovering around her, that she was now keeping at bay with sheer rage. For years, Scarlet hadn’t slept well. She’d anchored herself in her schoolwork and withdrawn into a shell, losing childhood friends. Yet it had done nothing but keep her awake and terrified.
Who did it think it was, anyway?
Fucking… thing.
Scarlet plunked money into the machine and pulled out a candy bar. And now it was forcing her to sugar and carbs. Didn’t that just figure. But she needed the calories to think of what to do. When was the last time she’d eaten? She’d been in meetings over lunch, and she may have forgotten to consume anything except coffee for breakfast.
Scarlet shoveled the candy bar into her mouth faster than was socially acceptable. If it was going to be rude, she was certainly not going to be polite either.
_______________________________
There’s more to critique!
After leaving your comments, you can head over to one or more of these blogs to see some more great entries:
Thank you to everyone who has participated so far in Calling All Critiques, whether you were a submitting author or a critiquer or just stopped by the blogs to see what was going on. The second week’s Rafflecopter random giveaway of two eBooks and a $10 Amazon gift certificate ends on Sunday at midnight, so give some feedback on one of the earlier posts and maybe win some prizes:
Beyond the Mind Maze 