Writing Lessons From Making an Ass Out of U and Me

I had an interesting thought/revelation this morning. At least, I thought it was interesting but since I don't pay attention to my own Writing Lessons, I've probably covered it before. I wrote a story where I had a lot of emotional attachment to the characters but very little of that came across on the page. I actually thought I had improved upon the first version but it was still lacking. I realized that I was expecting the reader to fill in a lot of background details out of their own imagination. This is something I do all the time when reading. If I'm proved wrong later on, no problem, I just adjust and carry on. In a sense, I'm re-writing the story as I go. Therefore, in my own writing, I just ASSUME that everyone does that. So why do I need to provide more than the barest details when readers will fill in the rest? Well, because not everyone reads like I do.

[This post took way too long to write primarily because I kept encouraging Son Number Three to set up his Teletubbies and club them with a stuffed animal while I provided the sound track. Again, again!]

Book Signing at Powell's

Myself and three other authors from The Return of the Sword will be at Powell's Books in Beaverton, Oregon, on July 1st at 7pm to sign copies and otherwise take part in an 'author event.' The three co-conspirators are Micheal Ehart, Allen Lloyd, and Nathan Meyer. (Who conveniently have written three of the best stories in the book.) If any of you happen to be in the Portland area on that day I would love to meet you and make you buy the book. I'll even sign it with little hearts and flowers. (Hearts getting stabbed and flowers getting trampled, that is.)

Here's the tricky thing, though, once I get over the geek factor of being at a book signing. My signature sucks. I mean it really sucks. Years and years of signing things in the Marine Corps and for work have turned it into nothing more than a sloppy J followed by a slightly curved line. There's no attempt to even try a last name any more. I've also spent years initialing things and that illiterate mark no longer looks like a J or a D. It's a sad thing... but I've got to practice my own signature.

New Story, New World, New Characters

This weekend I ended up with a lot of spare time on my hands. It was put to good use. Remember a while back I mentioned that I'd quickly written a flash fiction piece? Well, I knew it didn't work as a complete story but the character that emerged from it kept rolling around in my head so I tried to come up with a satisfactory ending. A few typed and deleted and retyped paragraphs later I had the glimmer of something bigger. 2000 words went by and I had a story with some action, some witty dialog, and several bodies bursting into red steam after getting themselves tossed into pits of molten bronze. Good clean family fun.

It was an interesting development because I usually take my time to think through possibilities and evaluate and discard plot lines until something really takes hold. This time I just kind of went with whatever came up next and ended up with something that I think works pretty well. While I suppose over the last month or two I've been subconsciously running through potential story points, nothing was really firm until I started typing yesterday morning.

Now I just have to come up with a title.

The Fix on Raven Kill

Here's a nice review from The Fix for all the stories within The Return of the Sword. "The Battle of Raven Kill" gets a good paragraph.

Title Decision

I think I've come up with the final solution for the titles of These Roman Stories. (Thanks need to go out to Keanan Brand, who reminded me of things I already knew.) The three extant stories will be called:

Sunset at the End of Empire
Storm Clouds at the End of Empire
Fire and Blood at the End of Empire

'Fire and Blood' now has a thousand word opening scene that I rolled out this morning. It is set in Rome a few years after the second story and it contains angry mobs, angry priests, and angry Praetorian Guards. That, my friends, is the quickest way I know to get both fire and blood.

The Spark for Raven Kill

This is the Skykomish River in Index, WA, from the deck of a cabin that my friends and I go to every now and again. Two years ago it was the inspiration for a cold, lonely river that one man had to guard with his life.

Advancement on Every Front Except a Title

That Second Roman Story Set Entirely In Greece has been molded into second draft form and is starting to look like a finished piece; or rather, a finished piece with no title. I've incorporated some most excellent advice and broadened the Meaning of the Story in a way that continues my examination of the end of an Empire. Still haven't heard anything back from Serpentarius about the first Roman story and now something is wrong with their website. I'm hoping everything works out OK, and by that I mean I hope I get an answer soon because if it's a rejection then the reading period for Paradox magazine is opening up in May.

On the third Roman story, I've got the basic scene list done and tonight I struck upon a couple of great ideas regarding plot and secondary characters. If done correctly, it could even lead to a fourth story. It seems that every time I start looking a few years down the line in Late Roman Imperial history I find another juicy fact that can form the basis of a plot.

The Begotten by Lisa T. Bergen

It's time for another CSFF tour. This month we have The Begotten by Lisa T. Bergen. It's a Christian speculative historical fiction piece that pits good versus evil amidst the Spanish Inquisition. Here's a quote from the book's website:

"In his two years as a knight of the Church, they had burned at the stake a score of sinners. As each died, Gianni de Capezzana could not determine whether any were any less saint than he. This one was different."

Great stuff. As a matter of fact, based on the excerpt where Gianni has his first encounter with the Sorcerer, I went to amazon.com and bought a copy. You should too.

Son Number Two: Budding Website Designer

The internet has a peculiar way of shrinking the distance between thought and action. Hence, Son Number Two's Latest Web Page Based on His Current Interest.

Return of the Sword Promotion Day

There's a lot of buzz over at the BraggingRites Yahoo! Group about Return of the Sword today. A while back there were some Top Ten Lists compiled for a blog tour and I thought I'd throw in my own list just for the heck of it.

The 10 Lists That Didn’t Make It Into the Return of the Sword Promotion ‘Lists of 10 Things’

1. 10 Ways to Know You’re 10 Seconds From Getting Your Head Chopped Off
2. 10 Tender Places That Hurt the Most When Pierced by Daggers
3. Rorshach’s 10 Favorite Blood Spatter Tests
4. The 10 Best One Liners to Say to a Freshly Created Corpse (Wait, I think that one did make it.)
5. 10 Goofy Ways to Arrange Entrails
6. 9 Great Sword and Sorcery Novels
7. 10 Bad Things to Hide in Grok the Barbarian’s Bedroll
8. The 10 Most Influential Ancient Methodologies and Their Impact on Post-Neo-Modern-Classicalism Synergistic Writing Optimization
9. Beer to Blood: 10 Techniques for Instigating Mass Chaos Among Tavern Patrons
10. How to Fillet an Orc in 10 Easy Steps

Rhode Island Residents Can Win Free Sex

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Just Doing Their Part

My kids are outside right now contributing to the downfall of American civilization. They have set up a stand in the front yard with a sign advertising 'Suicide Drinks' for 25 cents. They have concocted a horrid brew out of water, slugs, glue, and dirt and have labeled it for its likely result upon quaffing.

There must be a bad influence in their lives somewhere. If only I could find it...

RotS Reviews VII

The classic tale presented at the end of Return of the Sword is "Red Hands" by Harold Lamb. It's a good story but it demonstrates some of the problems of old classics. First, the word choices and phraseology are unfamiliar and I found myself just skimming over some sentences and trying to pick up the meaning in context, which was not always easy to do. Second, old books, stories, movies, etc. tend to meander for a while before starting in on the action. This one is no different. The guts of the story is a battle against river pirates. The two characters who meet for the first time and join the fight go through three or four pages of introduction that were interesting enough to read but in my opinion unnecessary. Third, old stories were usually the first to do such and such, which is why they became classics, but by the time we get around to reading them they may seem old hat. The plot twists have been played out in other stories and the characters have been portrayed several times before. That doesn't make "Red Hands" a bad story, it just means that it's now a classic; it has value as a story that was king of it's day but... a new day has dawned.

RotS Reviews VI

An Uneasy Truce in Ulam-Bator- This is an amazing story because it is plainly evident that the authors had great fun writing it. The introduction explains that Allen B. Llyod and William Clunie began this collaborative writing process over some Chinese food at a favorite restaurant and it shows. It’s a very well written story that contains a series of fortunate and not so fortunate events. I can envision them sitting across the table from each other saying, “Then this happens.” “No, wait, then this happens!” “Yeah, yeah, that’s good.” The result is a couple of characters that make the best out of whatever situation they find themselves in. A clever plot coupled with a wry sense of humor which is believable and not campy. An excellent read.

The Mask Oath- Steve Goble has crafted an impressive story about duty, honor, and the things that really matter. This is a powerful tale about the son of a wizard hunting down the demons that his father released. I’m not talking about metaphorical demons like alcoholism or child abuse, I’m talking about real friggin’ demons. You can’t stick the head of anger management issues on a spike outside the city gates can you? Of course not! God bless sword & sorcery. Flying blood, flying body parts! Terrific story.

Valley of Bones- We end the new stories in this anthology with a military tale from Bruce Durham. As a United States Marine I know what it’s like to stand with your comrades and face an onslaught of undead beasts and pagan magicks. Well, that might be stretching the truth just a bit but I know the mind of a military man. The interactions between the soldiers are spot on. The sergeant character is perfectly done. (Really, so much can be revealed in a man by the way he says, “Steady, boys.”) The hero is a typical soldier, doing his job. As always, that job includes acts of unimaginable heroism when the opportunity presents itself. In the span of a few moments you can go from grumbling about the pay and the food to saving the civilized world. All in a days work.

The last story in the book is a classic by Harold Lamb that has likely been reviewed before. So there you have it. That's the anthology. It's awesome. Go buy it.

Battle Reviewed

Holy smokes! This is an excellent review by Richard Marcus of Blogcritics Magazine. I got all giddy inside while reading it. What an amazing few days this has been! I'm great, I suck, I'm great again. Tomorrow I'll likely suck again. Yea!!!

BTW, still nothing from Rhode Island. What do I have to do, fly out there and log in myself?

RotS Reviews V

Claimed by Birthright- A great story, cleverly written. It takes on the age old question of who would win a duel between a sorcerer and a barbarian. What may first strike you as an incredibly contrived scenario of an arena duel featuring Barbarian King Brom versus, in the red corner, Mage Lord Kahzvax instead turns out to be well told tale. The chief string puller in the story has maneuvered his puppets into place and while he is a bit of a cardboard character, the other two are real enough and the fight is believable enough to make the clever ending all the more satisfying. You’ll like this one a lot.

The Hand That Holds the Crown- This one is outstanding. I loved every sentence, every word. It is now on the top of the list as the best of the book. A classic tale of two half brothers dueling for the crown. The fight scene between them is one of the best yet. All the brutality and cunning savagery of desperate single combat is played out by the author, Nathan Meyer. The writing is solid, the settings are vivid, and the characters are clearly drawn. I knew it was good from paragraph one but the last two pages really cinched it up for me. Outstanding in every way.

The Dawn Tree- A well told, powerful story that reads like mythic fable. Perhaps a little out of place in a sword and sorcery anthology but it is good enough to hold its own and the two main characters have some outstanding scenes with each other. Our intrepid hero, Dermanassian the desert elf, takes up the quest of replanting the Dawn Tree by escorting the tree’s guardian to a suitable location. There’s one problem though; the four Elementals have joined forces in order to destroy the Tree before it is planted. This leads to a battle royale at the end but of course everything winds up happy happy. Or does it?