So, no Free Fiction Friday yesterday, but I give you: Short Story Saturday.
Head on over to Long and Short Reviews for one of my retellings of Rapunzel: The Way Home.
While you’re visiting, be sure to check out the other Saturday stories. Read a few reviews or enter a giveaway–they have a lot going on over there.
This week, I played around with ideas and structure for The Trouble with Necromancers (which may or may not remain as the title).
I do not want to revise (once again!) only to realize that I’m no closer to the true story.
Therefore, I’m questioning everything.
And I do mean everything. Lots of what if and do I need that and what happens when …
I hope this is it. If it isn’t? Well, then there’s a good chance this book and series weren’t meant to be. Or maybe that I need to let it compost for much, much longer than I have.
But I hope not. Let’s see what this new week brings.
Wish me luck.
Hit a bit of a bump in the road–or plot as the case may be–with The Trouble with Necromancers. It seems that I have some … trouble.
So, this week, I looked at a new structure for the novel, and yes, that may take some (major) rewriting/re-drafting.
But I’m hoping this time I finally have what I need to tell this story.
However, I did manage to write a short story this week, one that was a lot of fun.
And that’s about it. It was a quiet, contemplative week, writing-wise.
So I found out this week that my flash fiction retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier won second place in the Women on Writing Winter 2019 Flash Fiction contest.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier was always one of those fairytales I wanted to retell … with a happy ending. Steadfast is a contemporary retelling with a gender flip (she’s the soldier, he’s the dancer). Even better, it has an unapologetic happy ending.
You can click on through to the contest page to read it, along with the other two terrific stories that placed first and third. If you’re in the mood, you can keep going and read the top ten.
Something short, something speculative: it’s all here. Fantasy, horror, science fiction. Pick a genre and have some fun.
But hurry, this giveaway only lasts until May 15th.
One of the things I’m doing this year is expanding my audio catalog and reach.
My first two audio books are now available nearly everywhere (not just on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes). In fact, you can listen for free if your library uses Overdrive.
If you like this story, you can also read the other two in the collection for free (except on Amazon, because they’re stubborn).
Or to listen, click-through on the SoundCloud link for a list of audio vendors.
Do yourself another favor this week. Go read this story. The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections by Tina Connolly is a fabulous novelette.
You can read online for free, or if you want to curl up with it (like I did), you can buy it for 99 cents.
I’m making some progress on the revision of The Trouble with Necromancers. So much so that I’m actually writing this ahead of time so I can get more hours in on Sunday morning. (Writing first, then the internet: a strategy that seems to work. Although really, this shouldn’t be a surprise.)
In this week’s fun thing, I was featured as part of Pulp Literature’s Year of Authors. They’re celebrating their five-year anniversary, and I’m thrilled that I’ve had two stories published with them during that time. To celebrate, they’re also running sales on their magazine and books. So head on over for some deals.
This week, I also finished up the formatting for the Coffee and Ghosts series bundle, which I’m calling The Complete Coffee and Ghosts. You know, for those who need all their ghosts (and coffee) in one place. The ebook is already up for pre-order and the paperback is making its way into various stores as well.
That’s it for this week. Have a lovely Sunday filled with reading and writing.
This week, I’m offering up a retelling of Puss in Boots. A Most Marvelous Pair of Boots was first published in Issue #1 of Timeless Tales Magazine.
It starts something like this:
It was during the wedding feast, when the air was heavy with roast goose and red wine, that Mirabella realized they’d all been duped by a cat.
Her new husband, the Marquis of Carabas, was sitting to her right, his teeth tearing goose flesh, grease coating his lips. She shuddered and pushed away thoughts of the marriage bed. Her father, the king, was well into his cups and tore at his food as if to mimic his new son-in-law. He slapped the marquis on the back and praised heaven that—at long last—Mirabella had found herself a husband.
At long last, indeed.
Read the rest here. If you enjoy fairy tale retellings, be sure to check out the other stories at Timeless Tales.
If you enjoyed this little tale of mine, you might like my other retellings, collected in Straying from the Path.
Just a Matter of Time was first published in Sucker Literary Magazine, Vol. III, April 2014.
Sadie Lin: High school junior Sadie is desperate–to maintain her GPA, to score high on the SATs, for her dad to return from Afghanistan. Time seems to crawl and slip through her fingers all at once. She thinks it’s all in her head.
It’s not.
Gordon Bakersfield: Gordon–Sadie’s ninth-grade epic crush–has plenty of time and knows where to get more. He knows someone has been stealing Sadie’s time. And while he’s not sure how to make it stop, he’s hoping to try. But can Sadie trust him?
Only time will tell.
Today’s offering is too long for the blog. Click the link or the book cover to download it from your favorite retailer.
Writing Wrongs 