Progress Report

During a power outage, I decided it was the perfect time to start figuring out my two newest short stories. Which is really cool, by the way, because I don't think I've ever had two simultaneous stories in the forge before. The trick will be to keep them distinct from one another. And I'm not sure if I will bounce back and forth between the two, or if one will overwhelm my brain more than the other. In either case, I hashed out a few new ideas and did some character development. No more words on them yet. But it's coming. The real story here is how well "Broken Gold" turned out. "Broken Gold" is a trial run for (potentially) my next novel about a treasure hunter whisked into a world-ending conspiracy. Its prequel, "Broken Gold," has significantly lower stakes and takes place on Cuba. After cracking the story and pounding out almost 3,000 words the other weekend, I let the story stew a little. I also asked myself "What's the point o...

The other day, I decided to force my writing juices to the surface. I hammered out a page of a story I'm calling "Next Breath" and the first page of another story called "Finder" (working title). Both stories have hidden plots--just the idea is there. Even the characters aren't fully formed yet. But it seemed to have worked. I sat down to work out some of the details on those one-pagers and got smacked with an epiphany about "Broken Gold." I had to excise 700 words to resume in a different direction and it took an additional character introduction, but I figured it out! I crushed a further 2,800 words to cap it off. It will need some work, but the ending is in place. It even turned out better than I thought it would. Now, are the juices still flowing? Can I drop back into one of those one-pagers and knock out some more words? I did the one-pager treatment on "Thieves of Chikara" and got a really good story out of the technique. Maybe this...

I noticed another open call pop up the other day, so sent out "Paradise Burned" again. Sim sub...sim sub...sim sub. Will I run out of magazines to send it to? Only time will tell. A lot of time, actually, since the earliest I can expect a response from any of these mags is September. I'm building quite the universe in my head for my next short story. So much so that I'm wondering if it should instead be my next novel. With the brain brake I had with "Broken Gold," I'm considering doing another sci-fi novel for #3, namely, this new story. Many authors have used a short story as a launching pad for an expanded novel. Maybe I should start with a self-contained short and either use it as a prologue or inflate its parts into something expansive? I've also posted a new novel review for an old Stephen King book over on Goodreads , and on my website .

To be honest, I held off on a new post in hopes I would have some more great news--namely, another publication. Alas, got the big ol' middle finger again, so had to resend "Paradise Burned" out to another couple mags. The new short story, "Broken Gold" (it's called now), started out great but I've now hit a snag. I know how it ends, only I don't know how to make that believable. Not that it's absurd, it just needs all the ingredients to be delicious. Every time I dip my finger in, it feels like it's missing something. I will figure it out. I won't just wait for it to work itself out in my head like I used to do, though. I will need to start my next short story. My next short story should be a beauty! I've got a great sci-fi idea that will require a good deal of research before I get started. My intention is to start chipping away at that tomorrow.