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Showing posts from March 10, 2013

First Pages: Corporate Loyalty

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Corporate Loyalty is an short pseudo-science adventure a la the 1950’s. Its science is unlikely; its people and their motivations are not. When a leading ‘bug’ researcher is returned to normal size early, he discovers the science which alters his size has a flaw. Can his best friend help him out of the trouble he’s in? Corporate Loyalty is one of the short stories that will be incorporated into An Anthology of Pseudo-Science . It is currently available as a stand-alone short story, and can be found at Smashwords and Kindle . It will shortly be available from Kobo, Nook and iTunes . Fir st Page:  I had been placed in a different section to the others, but it made no difference; I was here to study, and the data I required could not be found anywhere else. My research was in its final stages and soon I would be free. I allowed my mind to dwell on my impending success for a fraction of a second, before returning my attention to the task that lay before me. The nes

Chuck Wendig Challenge Response: Should the Mum Divert the Drill?

The Theory behind the Challenge   Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction challenge on the Terribleminds blog, this week was to write a short story, in 1,000 words or less, in response to, and including, a prompt created by this random sentence generator . My random sentence was: Should the mum divert the drill? I received the sentence on the morning of the 11 th of March, 2013, and completed a rough hand-written draft of the story at around midnight, just before I went to bed, after spending the day mulling it over, in fits and starts. I made very few changes when I typed it up on the 12 th . I admit to being a little consternated as to where the story was in this sentence, but then I broke the sentence down. A ‘mum’ could be a mother, while ‘mum’ also had the meaning of ‘silence’, as in to ‘keep mum’. If you really stretched it, ‘mum’ could also be considered a diminutive of the term for mimes, or actors in silent plays, known as ‘mummers’. I decided that all these terms could

Chuck Wendig Challenge: Random Sentence

This Week's Challenge So, my random sentence for this challenge is: Should the mum divert the drill? And now I have 1,000 words to play with, and a deadline of 15 March 2013. The Why behind the Challenge So, why, when time is so short, am I back to undertaking these challenges again? Because I miss them; Because I can; Because they're fun; Because they challenge me to try something different; Because, when I was going through the work published last year, the pieces created for the Wendig challenges were amongst the better pieces produced; Because I get to see how others tackle the problem and learn from them; Because I get to hang, even if it's only virtually, with a bunch of other writers;  Because, with a little time management and prioritization, they're achievable within the timeframe set; And because the challenges make me write, and complete, something every week. Seriously, as a tool for actively working to develop your craft, these challeng

Goals, Tiers and Wishlists – My how things change

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The Theory When I wrote my goals for the year, I tried to make it so I could cover each genre I wrote in, at least in passing. Because I write in so many genres and under so many pen names, I realized I had to plan my time carefully. In doing that, I also realized it was not physically possible for me to have four releases a year in each genre for each pen name… at least, not while holding down a full-time job. So, I came up with a set of tiered goals and wishlists. Tier 1 is the minimum of what I think I can do. At the end of the first week, it seemed to be holding. At the end of two months, not so much; I’m way ahead of schedule, but I’m not producing new words <sigh>. Tier 2 was what I hope to achieve in good conditions. Tiers 3-4 were my dream tiers, the projects that I really wanted to do, but couldn’t work on, due to time constraints. So, every week, I planned to advance Tier 1 by a revised chapter or 1,000 words a day, Tier 2 was the same progression, if I could