A Splash Of Orange is submitted.
It took me pretty much a full 2 days and nights of editing 3000 words but I really, really like it.
I don't want to see it again for a long time but I really, really like it :)
It has been sent to an excellent old-school Sci-Fi magazine called Ray Gun Revival. Fingers crossed.
Next, finish up the Chester ghost story.
I also have an idea based on a ridiculous thing I said once about building a town especially for midgets. We'll see where that goes....
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
And Home Again...
OK, A Splash Of Orange is done, it's now 'in the drawer' for a bit before I go back and edit it heavily. Oh, these plastic toys pretty much represent how I picture the cosmonauts in these stories, very old school, retro-heavy futuristic chic.
Fishbowl helmets, clunky boots and comic book lazer guns.
Looking through some open markets now and seeing who would be best to send a surreal, psychological sci-fi to, with the intent of there being more in the future.
Yesterday I banged out a new story in a new setting. I think it's going to be titled On Royal Land but I'm not convinced. I have a new character, a just-teenage schoolboy living in one of England's most haunted little towns. I think he'll show up again, and live through the ghost stories I grew up surrounded by and hearing. Autobiographical mythology, yes, but the character himself is based on various friends and family, not on myself.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
A Splash Of Orange/Waiting
The worst thing about having actually submitted something is trying to forget about it, get on with new stuff. Publishers will display their deadlines when requesting stuff, and most of the time it's quite a way down the line. Months. So, send something off, let it go, move on.
Not as easy as it sounds, I'm still checking twice a day to see if a decision has been made. Of course, it hasn't.
Yesterday I added a new element to the 'in progress' pile. I've always had these strange little tales rattling around my head set in a sci-fi setting. Think minimal tech-talk sci-fi, very 50's/60's feeling, old-school rocketships and form-fitted spacesuits in bright colours with go-faster stripes. Ray guns, not plasma rifles.
Anyway, I started the first story in this set, A Splash Of Orange, it all revolves around colonizing Venus. I like it, and it's a hell of a lot of fun to write out. There won't be huge fleets of starships or massive battles with aliens, these are personal little tales that just happen to be set in this particular scenario. Obviously I intend for there to be some kind of Venusian life form, but they won't be six-eyed lizard people or massive bugs. They'll be like us, only different. Simpler yet more advanced. And they'll really, really mess with the orange spacesuit wearing Earthlings trying to move onto their turf. Rocket by rocket. Cosmonaut by cosmonaut.
Not as easy as it sounds, I'm still checking twice a day to see if a decision has been made. Of course, it hasn't.
Yesterday I added a new element to the 'in progress' pile. I've always had these strange little tales rattling around my head set in a sci-fi setting. Think minimal tech-talk sci-fi, very 50's/60's feeling, old-school rocketships and form-fitted spacesuits in bright colours with go-faster stripes. Ray guns, not plasma rifles.
Anyway, I started the first story in this set, A Splash Of Orange, it all revolves around colonizing Venus. I like it, and it's a hell of a lot of fun to write out. There won't be huge fleets of starships or massive battles with aliens, these are personal little tales that just happen to be set in this particular scenario. Obviously I intend for there to be some kind of Venusian life form, but they won't be six-eyed lizard people or massive bugs. They'll be like us, only different. Simpler yet more advanced. And they'll really, really mess with the orange spacesuit wearing Earthlings trying to move onto their turf. Rocket by rocket. Cosmonaut by cosmonaut.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Press Start
After years and years of talking about it (mainly to myself) I've decided to start taking my writing seriously and attempt to get my work out there. So many pieces in progress, fragmented foundations of possibly wonderful stories, laying around getting dusty - no more. Plus, I am brimming over with ideas at the moment and need to start making these imagined people and places breathe and grow. Sometimes die and fall, too. This is a statement of intent to myself, mainly.
Most of the things I love writing down seem to crawl from the dark side of my imagination, so I'm going to look around and try to find smaller, less well known publishing companies with similar mindsets to share with you. Hopefully point you in the way of some damn good storytelling.
Today I actually crossed the line of (hopefully) no return and submitted 2 pieces I have been working on and finally finished.
Serenadin - an Appalachian ghost story set at Christmas time. Subbed to Woodland Press who are working on an anthology called Appalachian Holiday Hauntings. I'm really happy with this, it's intended for a PG book aimed at public school systems and I tried to keep it as classic and timeless as possible. Even to the point where, during editing, I removed a character's GPS system and gave him a raggedy map instead. My only doffed cap to modern marvels is a stainless steel coffee maker.
Sign Language - this is a rush of adrenaline one-shot one-kill piece of flash fiction, subbed to a Zombie ff anthology named The Quick And The Undead published by Library Of The Living Dead Press. Fun, and hopefully different enough to make the grade in a genre that has been beaten to within an inch of it's life, again.
I'm also in progress on a longer zombie story called The Undead Preservation Society and a short tale from the Hanging Rock canon (more on that later) called, for now, Trinkets And Charms
Most of the things I love writing down seem to crawl from the dark side of my imagination, so I'm going to look around and try to find smaller, less well known publishing companies with similar mindsets to share with you. Hopefully point you in the way of some damn good storytelling.
Today I actually crossed the line of (hopefully) no return and submitted 2 pieces I have been working on and finally finished.
Serenadin - an Appalachian ghost story set at Christmas time. Subbed to Woodland Press who are working on an anthology called Appalachian Holiday Hauntings. I'm really happy with this, it's intended for a PG book aimed at public school systems and I tried to keep it as classic and timeless as possible. Even to the point where, during editing, I removed a character's GPS system and gave him a raggedy map instead. My only doffed cap to modern marvels is a stainless steel coffee maker.
Sign Language - this is a rush of adrenaline one-shot one-kill piece of flash fiction, subbed to a Zombie ff anthology named The Quick And The Undead published by Library Of The Living Dead Press. Fun, and hopefully different enough to make the grade in a genre that has been beaten to within an inch of it's life, again.
I'm also in progress on a longer zombie story called The Undead Preservation Society and a short tale from the Hanging Rock canon (more on that later) called, for now, Trinkets And Charms
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