Tag: short story

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the creative spark

I am a creative person. I’m pretty sure anyone who has read much of my blog realizes that. I’ve been thinking lately about that creative drive and how it affects my entire life. I see my life in creative turns…whether it’s cooking a meal or caring for my garden, writing, painting, crochet…it is a huge part of who I am.

I can not go long without craving creativity. I’m currently feeling drawn back to old loves, things I’m not necessarily good at, but love doing: wood working and painting.

At the same time, I have three crochet projects that I’m in the middle of, a trilogy of novels I’m working on, and a short story anthology to edit. I work in a profession that feeds my creative needs as well. If only I had more hours in the day!

I need to spend some of today in the garden, as I have some plants to get into the dirt, and I need to thin out my succulents and transplant a few to new homes. If I am very lucky, I’ll find a little time to make something pretty with yarn or paint or clay.

First up though, is the words. Today I need to finish polishing up a short story and start edits on the stories submitted for the anthology.

I hope today sparks some creativity for you too, Readers! Make something wonderful!

Photo by Cristian Escobar on Unsplash

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the beauty in brevity

There is something I love about the freedom in a short story. There is no obligation to begin at the beginning, in fact it is sometimes more fun to jump in somewhere in the middle.

Short stories ask more skill of us authors, in some ways, than a full length novel. There is the challenge of brevity, which is a thing I often struggle with. If you have five thousand words to tell the tale, each of those words becomes important. Your characters need to be able to convey not just story, but personality and point of view quickly, but without making your reader feel rushed.

Often when I’m working on a short story, I throw words on the page to start, far more words than necessary and often imprecisely used. Then I use my first edit pass to tighten up the language, replace the imprecise with something more fitting. I boil down descriptions to the best words. I render ten words down to three or four.

All the while, I’m whittling away at not just the word count, but at the story itself, distilling it down to a more perfect form. Think of it as a block of stone. We know that there is a work of art inside of it, but we have to work to chip away the parts that obscure it.

There are a bunch of short stories on my hard drive in some state of doneness, some begun for a specific project, others just to get the words out of my head. Maybe I’ll consider an anthology of these works at some point, but for now, I am off to finish polishing and buffing one for this year’s Sirens anthology.

Happy Saturday, Readers! I hope the coffee is good, the sun is shining and your day is filled with kindness.

Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash

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quoth the raven, nevermore

Are you as bored as I am, Readers?  You are probably tired of blog posts about the virus and how we’re coping.  I get that.  So, here’s a video I did yesterday with me all dressed up and reading some Edgar Allan Poe to start us off.

In other news, I’m trying to get my juices flowing to start working on The Blood Witch again.  Yesterday I tried printing it out to make notes and what-not the old fashioned way, but I ran out of paper, and since it isn’t strictly necessary, I guess I’m back to doing this on the computer.

I got some great feedback from my beta readers, and hope that their notes will help me take this thing to the next level.  I really love this story and these characters.  I can’t wait until I can share them with all of you.

I’m going to plug my YouTube Channel and my Author’s Page on Facebook here.  All of my live readings will be done on the Facebook page, so give it a like to stay up to date and to get notified when I go live.  The YouTube channel will host the recordings of those readings after the live reading is done.

All of this reading of poetry has also kickstarted my poetic muse, and I’ve been scribbling away.  Maybe I’ll come out the other side of this with a whole new book of poetry for you!

Stay safe, Readers!  And Happy April.  Let’s hope it isn’t as long as March was.

Cover Photo by Kasturi Roy on Unsplash

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words, words and more words

I’ve written a lot of words this week, though almost none of them have been on any of my current writing projects.  No, I’ve written exercises for job interviews and I’ve written thank you emails.  I’ve written instructions for Pride training sessions and I’ve written a lot of emails to do with Pride or job hunting.

I’m hoping today I get to focus a little on one of the novels currently in progress, or maybe the short story I started last week.  I have lots of ideas for fleshing out characters that are currently sort of cardboard cut outs waiting to be dressed in backstory.  The book I’m furthest along with needs some work on the culture and religions of the world, and some dressing up in the descriptions of people, places and things.

The short story I started is tentatively titled “The Accidental Assassin” and begins with a young woman killing a man who attacked her.  Ultimately it’s the story of a woman refusing to be a victim and embracing what she is good at, even if that puts her on the outer fringes of society.

So I’m dedicating this weekend to words.  All the words.  Words all over the place.

Hopefully before the weekend is over I’ll have actually accomplished making some of them good.

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Today is the submissions deadline for the short story anthology that I am editing for the Sirens Conference, a benefit anthology that will help defray the costs of running a conference like this one.

This year we opened up submissions to include poetry and flash fiction, as well as the short stories we’ve always accepted.  The writers of this community are amazing and I genuinely LOVE getting to read the collection, let alone having a hand in helping bring it to fruition.

Of course, that means that today’s writing time is devoted to editing instead, but I have a couple hours blocked out of tomorrow to write, though whether I end up tweaking my short story for the anthology or working on one of the novels in progress is anyone’s guess.

For today, I plan to edit for a few hours, then I head out to the salon to re-greenify my hair, which is looking a little bit sad right now, before coming home to tackle laundry and housework.

The glamorous life of a writer, I tell ya!  Living the dream over here.

Hope your Saturday is glorious, Readers! I’m off to pour another cup of coffee before I open the first story.

Want more from me? Visit me!

Weight Loss: https://aweightyjourneysite.wordpress.com/
Current Events: https://myweightinwords.wordpress.com/
Poetry: https://weightywordspoetry.wordpress.com/
Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/nataliejcase

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (be warned I post a lot pictures of my cats).

 

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writing time

It’s early on a Saturday morning and I am up, showered and dressed (for some value of dressed anyway).  There is coffee sending up steam and the aroma of goodness on the desk next to me, most of my house is clean and I have a weekend stretched out in front of me.

Today I am going back to the short story I recently finished, having received feedback from my beta reader.  I have a much firmer idea of what happens before the story than I did when I began, and the characters are much more real to me than they were 5000 words ago, so it’s time to readdress and rewrite.

That’s the task for this weekend, to get that story up on its feet, so to speak, so that I can focus on editorial duties as we start to approach the deadline for submission.  I have to admit, I love playing editor for projects like this one.  I get to read a diverse set of stories, from a diverse set of female writers about a diverse group of characters.

I am also expecting my mother at some point today, she’s driving out to spend some time with me and we plan on hitting up the local nursery, and possibly some other fun places.

If you want to read more of my blog ramblings, I have two other blogs that I am actively attempting to maintain, one of them is chronicling my weight loss journey post-surgery, the other is mostly my take on current events, being fat in a world that rewards skinny, as well as philosophical ramblings on politics and religion, as seen from a point of view outside the mainstream. There is poetry blog too, if you’re into that sort of thing.  I also have a Patreon, if you’re interested in seeing some content from me before others, some exclusive content, etc.

You can find these here:

Weight Loss: https://aweightyjourneysite.wordpress.com/
Current Events: https://myweightinwords.wordpress.com/
Poetry: https://weightywordspoetry.wordpress.com/
Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/nataliejcase

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (be warned I post a lot pictures of my cats).

I should get to that whole writing thing.  Happy Saturday, Readers!  May it be filled with fun, silliness and a whole lot of love!

 

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#amwriting Saturday

I am working on a short story this morning, a foray into the world of horror.  The story itself has been floating around in my head for years, and I figured it was time to bring it into being.

It’s another rainy Saturday here in California, and I’m still down with the cold that attacked me last week.   I’m feeling better, but as usual, the cough lingers and is slowly stripping me of my voice.

It’s hard to believe it’s March, and with the coming of March comes the time of year where my time is increasingly filled up with Pride duties.  Add in an anthology to edit and other fun and my days become filled with stuff to do.

At least it keeps me out of trouble, more or less.  Plus the day job has a lot going on this month too.  When it rains it pours.

That’s all I’ve got this morning, though Readers.  Time to get some coffee going and some words flowing.

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#amwriting

It’s another Saturday, so of course that means it’s time to write.  Which is good, because I have three different stories percolating in my head.  Of course there is Where Shadows Fall, but there is a new short story idea that I’m just starting on, and the new novel tentatively called The Gift of Blood.  Not sure which will get my writing hours today.

I have to go out later today to pick up a few things and transfer some money, but aside from that my weekend is going to be spent right here at home.  I have a guest coming in from England on Wednesday, and I need to make sure the house is up to snuff.

Yule is just around the corner, with Christmas hot on its heels, and even with vacation on the horizon, it feels very hectic.  I hope you all are closing in on done with your shopping and wrapping and all the prep that comes with the holiday seasons.

I’m off to refill my coffee cup and get to making words appear.  Happy Saturday, Readers!

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ready to share some broken dreams?

Today is the day, everyone!  The very first, multi-author anthology for Creativia publishing is LIVE.

Dragons, magic, fairies, angels, vampires, knights, a gollum, a vengeful child’s toy, a depressed cashier, a bridge made of stars, and a donkey… What do they all have in common? An appearance in this anthology.

This collection of short stories is as diverse as the Creativia authors who wrote them. Travel to Victorian London, an otherworldly slave market, a faraway planet, a quaint English town and other wondrous places in the pages of Once Upon a Broken Dream.

I am so very happy that this is finally ready for all of you.  We have a diverse group of stories, and I hope they serve to introduce you to a few new authors along the way.

I plan on asking each of the authors to do a short interview and I will be featuring each one here in the next week or two.

So for $.99 you can get your copy of Once Upon a Broken Dream for your Kindle!

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*so excited*

It won’t be long now before this anthology is on it’s way to Amazon for all of you to snap up and enjoy!

We’re just finishing up the final little things and then we’ll be off and running.  There are twelve stories for you to enjoy.  But for right now, I have the cover to share with you, isn’t it gorgeous!?

Once-Upon-A-Broken-Dream-Main-File

I think it’s gorgeous!

Stay tuned for purchase links!