Posts filed under ‘short stories




Where have I been?

Well, the past couple of days I’ve been finishing up on my latest short story, the one that takes the tale of Cinderella and attempts to explain why there are a zillion of them. Of course, there are many other fairy tales with their tons of variations, but I have always had a soft spot for the cinder-girl. What’s neat is that she can be anything from a prostitute in one tale to a murderess in another, sometimes she is a princess, sometimes she is a servant. I thought I was at the editing stage when I realized that I still had another tale to add in, so I went and re-read a couple of stories, and chose to use “Fair, Brown and Trembling” as my final piece. I think that I am now ready to edit, so, definitely be done by the end of the week.

It’s amazing to me, always, how things develop as you write them. How a character who seems to be a minor throw away has obvious roots in the story that make them invaluable. I’ve also been having a lot of fun with it. I think it says a lot about the nature of our selves, how sometimes the smallest selfish act can be devastating, as well as the nature of magic and the stories themselves.

It’s also scary because I have in mind who I am going to send this to. I think there will always be a part of me that worries that the new thing doesn’t measure up to the things that were published, which is a complete reversal to how I felt just a few months ago, that the old things that I wrote ages ago will never be as good as the things I’ve written now. But, you keep plugging on, keep doing your best, and don’t think about it much more than that. The things in publishing that you worry most about, generally, are the things you can’t actually do anything about.

Hmm. You know, it’s way past my bedtime. Lucky for me, I have the day off tomorrow, for I decided I was in desperate need of a vacation, and am taking one. Yay!

PS: Great thing about having my Google accounts back number 82: Having the cute fox theme back. I love my little Japanese Fox!

Add comment August 9, 2007

“Congratulations,” the email subject line said, “you’re a published author.”

My short stories are up for sale at MobiPocket.

I received an email with my books in them, and when I opened “Rubies”, I got very emotional. In fact, I’m a bit teary now.

I am a fiction author, darlings. Officially.

This would have been the most extraordinary event in a pleasant week. In a hellish week such as this (I dreamed that someone stole my day runner last night, and ripped out the pages where I cribbed my passwords, and on top of it, the day runner was also my check book, and they stole some of the blank checks, and I couldn’t prove to the bank that it was my account, and all my money was gone.) this is…beyond my powers to describe.

Now, I shall show you my covers! Deena Fisher is amazing. I love her art so much.

Click here to see my story at MobiPocket

Click here to see my story at MobiPocket

Add comment July 21, 2007

This is the sort of thing that delights me to no end: Plastic made from potatoes. I’ve used plastics made from cornstarch and did not notice any difference, except both times I thought the quality was measurably better.

I’ve been working on my presentation for the twenty-seventh. I’ve been making screen shots like crazy for the handout, and I intend to make a list of free photo editing software. I know of the Gimp and Seris, but does anyone else know of any? I would especially love to hear of any Apple-flavoured varieties, in case one of the teachers is a Mac user at home. I feel confident. Basically, I’m teaching teachers how to prepare pictures downloaded from the Library of Congress site for printing or use in their own projects. After I show them once, I’ll give them time to try out what I showed them.

I finished North and South It was wonderfully like Pride and Prejudice, Armitage’s cotton mill owner proud of what he’s accomplished, and while he works fiercely to make the place a decent one to work at, he can’t help that there are things he needs to do to keep the mill open. Denby-Ashe’s prejudiced young lady who means well and wants to help the poor is strong and well portrayed.

I am reading Judith Tarr’s Queen of Amazons, a wonderful historical about an Amazon warrior without a soul who finds it seeking out Alexander the Great. It is told from the point of view (mostly, thus far) of Selene, a warrior who has the Site, but does not want to pay the price she saw it demand of her Aunt.

Yes, I said I would read something else, but I started reading it sort of by accident, and it’s not easy to put aside. I did manage to begin a short story. I plan to mix several versions of the Cinderella tale, and tell it from the perspective of the Fairy. My thesis for the tale is wondering why there are so many versions of this tale in particular. Is it just a universality of experience, or something more?

This is me. The caution in your tale, the one with the thousand guises. Right now my disguise is nothingness, as I follow a man, a farmer, I think, leading his donkey down the dusty path into town. The donkey is well fed, but the distance is long, yet the man had made no move to ride it, or the cart it is pulling.

Kindness, then. It is confirmed when he reaches up and scratches the donkey between it’s long, dark grey ears, and says, “Not far, now. We will rest in a few minutes.” He is heavy, and soaked with sweat, so I am not sure if he was comforting himself or the animal.

So what is your vice? That is what I ask, always, as I study the people I meet. Are you vain? Are you greedy? Do you let your resentments fester? Do you lust after what is not yours? His was not readily apparent, after all, if he abused his animal I could just switch his and the donkey’s souls and call it a day. Or just trade their heads. I’d done it before, and was bored by the thought.

And, if you like ships go here and type sailing ships” in the search box for lots o sailing ship squee!

Add comment June 7, 2007

This is the sort of thing that delights me to no end: Plastic made from potatoes. I’ve used plastics made from cornstarch and did not notice any difference, except both times I thought the quality was measurably better.

I’ve been working on my presentation for the twenty-seventh. I’ve been making screen shots like crazy for the handout, and I intend to make a list of free photo editing software. I know of the Gimp and Seris, but does anyone else know of any? I would especially love to hear of any Apple-flavoured varieties, in case one of the teachers is a Mac user at home. I feel confident. Basically, I’m teaching teachers how to prepare pictures downloaded from the Library of Congress site for printing or use in their own projects. After I show them once, I’ll give them time to try out what I showed them.

I finished North and South It was wonderfully like Pride and Prejudice, Armitage’s cotton mill owner proud of what he’s accomplished, and while he works fiercely to make the place a decent one to work at, he can’t help that there are things he needs to do to keep the mill open. Denby-Ashe’s prejudiced young lady who means well and wants to help the poor is strong and well portrayed.

I am reading Judith Tarr’s Queen of Amazons, a wonderful historical about an Amazon warrior without a soul who finds it seeking out Alexander the Great. It is told from the point of view (mostly, thus far) of Selene, a warrior who has the Site, but does not want to pay the price she saw it demand of her Aunt.

Yes, I said I would read something else, but I started reading it sort of by accident, and it’s not easy to put aside. I did manage to begin a short story. I plan to mix several versions of the Cinderella tale, and tell it from the perspective of the Fairy. My thesis for the tale is wondering why there are so many versions of this tale in particular. Is it just a universality of experience, or something more?

This is me. The caution in your tale, the one with the thousand guises. Right now my disguise is nothingness, as I follow a man, a farmer, I think, leading his donkey down the dusty path into town. The donkey is well fed, but the distance is long, yet the man had made no move to ride it, or the cart it is pulling.

Kindness, then. It is confirmed when he reaches up and scratches the donkey between it’s long, dark grey ears, and says, “Not far, now. We will rest in a few minutes.” He is heavy, and soaked with sweat, so I am not sure if he was comforting himself or the animal.

So what is your vice? That is what I ask, always, as I study the people I meet. Are you vain? Are you greedy? Do you let your resentments fester? Do you lust after what is not yours? His was not readily apparent, after all, if he abused his animal I could just switch his and the donkey’s souls and call it a day. Or just trade their heads. I’d done it before, and was bored by the thought.

And, if you like ships go here and type sailing ships” in the search box for lots o sailing ship squee!

Add comment June 7, 2007

books and posies

You never know how much you rely on your printer until it stops working.

Ah, well.

More good news!

Finally, “A Necklace of Rubies” will see print as well as “Every Word I speak.” The lady who is publishing them seems really excited about them…she called my writing almost hypnotic. :)

I am unbeleivably excited. It’s wonderful to feel as if I’m moving forward, really moving forward. It looks as if they will be published under their own cover as an ebook, then, possibly, be published in an anthology with other stories, whether mine or other people’s it’s not yet determined.

With Blue Moon coming out in October, it’s my year to prove that I am an actual author, not a secretary with a hobby.

By the way, tonight is a blue moon. Happy blue moon, everyone!

I’ve been reading the 6th Harry Potter book. After I’m done with it, I plan on getting out my copy of Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things, which i’ve had since December and not yet read. Neil Gaiman tends to put me in the short story writing mood, and I’d like to write some more. Read some fairy tales, get some inspiration.

So, I have time to talk about last night, where i stayed out quite late going to Gabriel Brothers (If you ever wondered where unwanted clothes went when the store gave up trying to sell them, the answer is Gabe’s. It’s a rather large store that gets in all the torn, miss-sewn, unwanted clothes from major manufacturers. A lot of it isn’t damaged at all…the little black dress I’m wearing right now, for instance…but it’s hard to wade through the huge amounts of damaged/way too small clothes without spending a lot of time. And one does get heart broken, when the huge rack of very lady like blue roses on white vitangy dresses are all 10’s.) and to Lowe’s and Wal Mart and Ollie’s (another discount outlet where the unwanted things end up.)

I bought a lot of spearmint, peppermint, lavender and rosemary. Barely managed to keep myself from buying a rosebush called “Veteran’s Honor”, which sports these huge, deep red blossoms, barely managed from buying a peace rose…because i do not have rose luck. I love roses. Deeply. I stand there in the middle of the flats of roses, looking at the yellows and pinks and lavenders and get wistful. If i had my way i would have a huge garden of them.

The problem is that I like roses, but they don’t like me. And I own more books on the subject than one would really consider possible to have found.

Ah, well. There are other things. The Iris are doing well and I intend to add more this fall. I bought more spearmint and peppermint to add to the peppermint I have, and lavender and rosemary. I have this small triangle of a space, where I am growing various herbs, mostly sage and mint, things that i think will come back. So far i’ve been useless at harvesting the crop…i tend not to, because it’s so pretty on the plant. *rolls eyes* but I want to try this year. Also, the Dalia’s and the gladiolas seem to be doing well right now.

I also found some awesome books. I found a copy of John Gallagher’s Geisha: A Unique World of Tradition, Elegance and Art. It’s a really wonderful book because it has these sections of layered plastic pages. You look, and you see the maiko, dressed in her garb, then you turn the page, and you see her standing there without the outer robe, then you turn the page and she’s in her under dress, all the way until she’s standing there with only her underwear and no makeup. It’s really quite neat. Ollie’s in amazing, because I find a lot of really nifty books there.

Nonfiction is it’s own country, for me, because…as a woman who has gone to ton and tons of library book sales, used book stores, etc., I can tell you that the same nonfiction titles turn up a lot less often than the same fiction. So, it’s easy to find a copy of the latest Stuart Woods, but not so easy to find good nonfiction books. For me, for nonfiction, I am a lot less willing to make a leap of faith for nonfiction, I really like to see the book first.

I do make that leap, of course…I love good nonfiction books, and I can get them online a lot easier.

Oh. Lunch is over. Alrighty, then. :)

Add comment May 31, 2007

Good news!

Hello!

I am happy to tell you that Drollerie Press is going to publish one of my short stories!

I’ve written short stories since college. I’ve received…at first, flat out rejections that slowly became “I loved your story, we just can’t publish it.” hand scrawled on rejection slips.

I decided that short story magazines are impossible to get in to, so decided to try my hand at anthologies, and now, finally…success! She’s even interested in more stories, she was really filled with wonderful words about my story. Which is fabulous…but part of me now worries about the others disappointing her!

And that is the lesson for you. Keep trying, and keep trying everything. You will probably fail more than you succeed, but you have to have those failures to get success.

To celebrate, help me pick my next Ren Faire costume, which I will sew over the summer?

Add comment May 27, 2007

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