Tuesday, November 30, 2010

New Podcast - Everyday Madness

Ladies and Gentleman! I now present to you... a podcast!

Everyday Madness is a flash fiction and poetry podcast run by the lovely writers at gaiaonline. Part of the gaiaonline forums already? You can find the thread explaining how to participate here. If you just want to take a listen, click on the first link in this block-o-text.

The format and organization of this podcast was inspired by dribblecast, which you should also check out.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Friday Flash #2: A Different Lover

"A Different Lover"

I wouldn't say that my wife and I have grown apart, but I would say that I don't know her anymore.

We met at church when we were both 16. At 17 she noticed that she could no longer read in the car without feeling nauseous. We laughed about getting old.

Now we're both 42 and I've got arthritis and bifocals. My wife has the same contacts prescription as she did five years ago and her hair still hasn't gone grey. At first I thought she must be lucky. Good genes. Active life style.

Today she's been reading in the car. For two hours. Three more hours until we reach Washington DC. It had been her turn to choose our vacation spot and now I wonder...

Friday, November 12, 2010

Flash Friday #1

For your #flashfriday pleasure:

"Before the Birds"
by Michelle Ristuccia

Before the birds, a multitude of butterflies covered the red planet like a mass of ions swarming a copper electrode. Trying to track the path of any one butterfly would have been as impossible as violating the uncertainty principle, yet their collective effects were easily quantified. It was they who brought the first seeds through the near-perfect vacuum of space. It was they who excavated, buried, and hydrated, for there was no other complex organic life present to accomplish the task. No other creatures competed with them or preyed upon them, and so they terraformed efficiently. Their reward was the vibrant, verdant forest of blossoms that was shelter, sustenance, and recreation.

Eventually, the blooms released spores which were carried into the uppermost atmosphere by the fluttering wings of the mating season. There, gravity lost it's hold on the spores and this left a broad spectrum message for the birds. That's how they always find their prey.

Now, the birds feast.

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Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment, positive or negative.

This piece is upcoming at the Pendragon Variety podcast. Visit pendragonvariety.com for this and other pieces by me.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Editing round 1... Go!

I had to stop working on the novel I was writing in order to move house. I also went out of state twice in the span of two months. Therefore... I've lost the momentum to work on that novel at the moment, but that's ok because I have other projects I can work on that don't necessarily require a daily word count.

For instance, editing (and then submitting). I went through my stories on google docs and made a kind of line up for what I want to edit next. I have two short stories that should be nearing their final drafts, so those are first. I also counted at least 4 novellas/novels 30-50k each and one or two flash pieces that I'm still not happy with. I was a little surprised to see how many longer works there are proportionately speaking (long by my standards). There might be a couple more that got left behind when I transitioned to google docs over six months ago, but maybe they're in my email somewhere...

I also received a rejection for a novella I submitted many months ago, so that one can go back out into the world as soon as I find an appropriate publication. It's a kind of mythos fantasy set in a world closely resembling ours. I'll be searching good old duotrope.com for a good publication.

Lastly, I attended a writer's group meeting put together by some friends. I promised to edit one of the short stories by the next meeting in two weeks, which really means I should have in ready in a week to a week and a half. Nothing wrong with a little extra motivation, and a deadline!