Mendala, a short story (about 2200 words)

    I am a chronocourier. I find, procure, and deliver rare items for customers, but not by looking through antique shops or digging where X marks the spot on a map. I travel through time. Of course it isn't that simple. The first time mankind succeeded in time travel, we discovered that not only was it possible to travel from one time to another in the past or future, but that we could also jump from one timeline to another. In fact, it proved to be nearly impossible to do one without doing the other.

Progress?

 Ten thousand words into a new novella.  Probably a novella.  I probably won't keep going on it until it's novel length, based how far along I am on my plot outline.

It's interesting.  Getting back into longer pieces takes a lot more focus.  The first few thousand words of a new story flow enthusiastically, but after that, it takes a little more drive.

The new piece is a new adventure of the three main characters from my first novella, The Hyacinth Rescue.  It's still available on Smashwords and I think on Amazon too, and it still has my crappy hand-drawn cover.  Smashwords is the better deal, because you can pay whatever you want for it (even $0).

The thing about these is that I have a reasonably detailed world built behind them but I don't want to just write worldbuilding exposition, so I had to find a way to sneak some in.  So, in this new story, I've got a new character who has a few things to say about the world and its history.

My goal is to finish the novella in the next few weeks, hopefully in early December.

Edit: Missed Contact is available now!

Diffusion of Effect in Storytelling

 

A friend and I made a video a while back where we discussed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. In addition to a great deal of criticism, which it deserves, we talked a bit about transmitting emotion through storytelling, brought on by the very different effects on the audience of two events in the movies. We contrasted the closeness and individual relatability of the reaction of Alan Grant to seeing his first dinosaur with the diffuse, amorphous reaction of a large crowd in the first Jurassic World movie.

For Sale As-Is, Clean Title (flash fiction)

 

“Hey, nice to meet you. Thanks for coming out. Yep, it's a vintage 1969 Camaro, though not a whole lot on it is original, as you can see... but it's not tricked out, either. Well, it does make it a lot more reliable this way. Yeah, the paint is fairly new. Thanks, we... uh... I thought it was a nice color, not something you see every day. The dark blue is nice, but the metallic highlights and the white stripe really make it pop, especially on a sunny day.

Too Quiet, a short story

 

My favorite way to spend an evening is with a good book, in my plush easy chair, by the French windows at the front of my house. The windows overlook my front yard, which has some bushes, a lush lawn, and a beautiful oak tree. I love to sit down, turn on my soft, warm reading lamp, and recline with a good story. Tonight was no different. My wife Sheila and I had gotten the kids, Tim and Emily, to sleep, and Sheila had turned in early. She had had an unusually long day at work and I had shooed her off to bed while I took care of the dinner dishes.

Getting (Back?) into the Swing

 Of course, it's been nine years or so since my little burst of writing at the lowest point of grad school, and that means I'm fairly well out of practice.  So I'm trying to aim for about one short story (3000 words or less) per week while I start working on another novella.

So far, I've done fairly well.  In a little over two weeks of actual working time, I've completed a short story of about 1700 words and another of about 1300 words.  Both will be posted here in the coming days.

As for the novella, I'm about 3400 words in and pushing forward!

I've discovered that actually remembering to put things up is actually more difficult than I thought it would be.