Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read! In the ready to read department, the third and final part of Out to Pasture is up on my blog. I also setup a special story page for it where you can read the whole thing without the inconvenience of moving between blog posts.
The past week has been all about finishing my entry for the April writers challenge on Reddit I talked about last WIP-it Wednesday. The challenge was to write a story of two thousand words or less inspired by this image by Christopher Balaskas (click image for full-size):
I finished a clean first draft of my story entry late Sunday night. Monday I received feedback from a daring duo of alpha-readers and spent the evening revising and editing. I was up far too late, but come the early AM of Tuesday the piece felt ready. I submitted the story yesterday after spending the day in an exhausted haze, but after a good night’s rest I’m getting back to normal today.
Reader feedback on the story was super-positive. Positive to the point that it has inspired one of the readers to write her own story based off of it! It was an awesome feeling to have someone like my work so much that they were inspired to pen a sequel of sorts in the same story universe. Sharing her rough notes with me last night I grinned ear to ear at what she had come up with… I hope others find Adraxis Alas Asmon as entertaining!
I’m not expecting my piece to win the contest, however. Although my entry is true to the heart of the challenge, it is nearly twice the word count limit for the challenge at 3,979 words. By all rights, it shouldn’t win because I didn’t follow the rules.
I did consider a lot of options to try and get the tale to a “legal” length, but I wasn’t happy with any of the abridged drafts…. Nor did I ultimately like the idea of submitting an excerpt from the whole story as my “official” entry. I guess that on a personal level, the story I wrote was the story the challenge inspired in my heart. To share less than the whole, less than what I wanted others to read, just felt wrong. So I followed my gut and submitted the whole thing, winning be dammed. There isn’t a tangible prize at stake, nor will the presence of my story hurt the chances of the other entrants, so why not? I don’t see it as a failure… In my opinion I’ve won because I wrote a cool story.
I’ll be posting the story on Aethereal Engines within a few weeks after it gets a few more beta reads and feedback. I don’t want to give away too much yet, but the story starts with a pulp writer of a bygone era facing the fiends of writer’s block and deadlines…
Looking at the cracks in the yellowed ceiling, Howard hardened his eyes and pulled himself straight in the wooden office chair. He glared at the silent keys before him. Pushing his horn-rimmed glasses back up the bridge of his nose, he fed a new sheet of paper into the typewriter chewing his lip in thought.
Howard scrutinized the cover illustration Ed had provided for the upcoming issue of Perilous Fantasy Fiction for the hundredth time. Ian’s villain Caldan loomed large in the foreground, looking like Fu-Manchu in a white monks robe. It was an appearance that didn’t match the cult-leader’s depiction in Shadows of the Old Gods at all. A naked curvy blond was splashed hanging bound and screaming above a flaming pit in the middle of the illustration. Strategic wisps of smoke covered just enough of her tantalizing form to pass the censor and yet sell the issue on the stands. Finally, there was the monster from the pit threatening the voluptuous woman’s feet. Howard assumed it was the artists take on the “unmentionable, unimagined obscenity” that was Ian’s vague description of the old gods. To the bespectacled writer however, the monster looked suspiciously like a lamprey eating a squid which was itself simultaneously eating a snake.
The whole thing was terribly lurid, but Ed had already cut the check for the art. With no budget to pay for another commission, this was what they had to work around. Howard looked away from the garish print and rolled up his shirt sleeves. After cracking his knuckles he gently placed his fingers on the typewriter keys, and sat there. Sat there looking at a blank page.
…And yes, the part inspired by the illustration is in the same story, trust me! ;-)
Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some fiction, take care!
Aethereal Engineer 