Hello and Welcome! This is where I share news about my short stories, my novel, "Sol of the Coliseum", as well as my thoughts on writing and life. I hope you enjoy.
"The blog awards poured forth across the earth smiting all manner of beast and man. They smote creatures that crawl in the dust and creatures that fly in the heavens. Then, for good measure they smitted some fish, because they could and fish are slimy. Finally they converged upon the lowly blog of a writer of questionable hygiene with every intent to smite the living bejesus out of him. But the odd looking writer was crafty and built a fortress forged from stacks upon stacks of rejection letters, holding the smite-happy blog awards at bay. Finally a truce was agreed upon involving banana pudding and peace fell over the land. The writer and the blog awards lived happily ever after.
-The End-
I was super busy last week and didn't get the chance to post much so I'm playing catch up. While I was off taking and grading finals, several generous individuals were kind enough to bestow my humble blog with an award!
I found this over at isleofbooks, a wonderful blog by Shannon Fox. She's always posting poetry, stories, and book reviews and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite places to peruse.
Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops — at all —
And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard —
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —
I’ve heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of Me.
That is truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. In my opinion, hope is the most important thing we as humans have. Here's another one of my favorites.
"Hope is the last lingering light of the human heart. It shines
when every other is put out. Extinguish it, and the gloom of
affliction becomes the very blackness of darkness--cheerless and
impenetrable."
The always lovely and potential dangerous Vero Sicoe has honored me with the Kreativ Blogger Award! I know people hand out these blog rewards like HPV at a frat party, but since this is my first one I'm pretty stoked.
First the rules: 1. Thank & link back to the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the ten questions below.
3. Share ten random facts/thoughts about yourself.
4. Nominate seven worthy blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award.
Now the results:
What's your favorite song?
Impossible question to answer. Instead, I'll give you the three songs I'm listening to the most right now.
People who are more than ready to shove their opinion or belief structure down your throat but throw a hissy fit as soon as the conversation starts to look like any kind of intelligent debate.
And Swedish people.
What do you do when you're upset?
Drink myself into a blind stupor and shoplift? No, I cook or write or work out or kill aliens on my X-Box. Honestly I don't get upset very often and when I do it usually doesn't last long. Oh, and I bitch to my wife. That's a big one.
What kind of racist BS is this? Where does this blog award come from, Idaho? MOVING ON!
What is your biggest fear?
Death
What is your attitude mostly?
I'm that nice fella who helps you move and likes to talk about literature and beer. Then every once in a while I'll say something so off color that you wonder what the hell is wrong with me.
Baked goods. You put a tray of snicker-doodles in front of me, you'd better stand back or you'll lose a hand.
Ten Random Facts
My pinky toes don't touch the ground when I walk. I might be the next step in human evolution.
My mom still calls me Pumpkin' Pie.
I've never watched "Dirty Dancing", "The Breakfast Club", or "The Life Aquatic" and I didn't care for "The Big Lebowski" even though I quote it occasionally.
I've broken three ribs, two arms, one leg, several fingers, and dislocated one kneecap. None of them were mine.
I've got nothing against it but I've never smoked pot.
I'm trying to learn to play the guitar. So far all I've managed to do is make my fingers sore and piss off the dog.
I'm a beer fanatic. I've probably tried somewhere between 300-500 different kinds of beer from all over the world. Some of the longest conversations I've had in the last year have been about beer.
I know I've mentioned this site a few times (probably because I'm so impressed with it) but I want to encourage everyone once again to go check out On Fiction Writing, a wonderful on-line writing community that has improving my quality of life ten fold!
OFW has weekly author interviews, regular features with tips and techniques to improve your writing, book reviews, flash fiction, and my personal favorite, the opportunity for critique from fellow writers. Check out the in the Agora section to post query letters and synopses for critique or head over to the Workshops page to post chapters and short stories and to review what others have submitted. Nothing helps your own writing quite like critiquing others, believe me.
AND, for a limited time (not really) I have a robot-centric sci-fi short story up for review that I would love for anyone and everyone to tear apart.
So go to OFW, get involved in the writing community, and critique my story!
The amazing and wonderful Authoress over at Miss Snark's First Victim is hosting a "Drop the Needle" action scene critique today and yours truly is Entry #2.
Go check it out!
I am stoked to have gotten in (the 25 open slots filled up in less than 1 minute) but also HORRIFIED to see TWO MISTAKES in the first two sentences.
WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!?
I have no defense. I read the entry at least a dozen times before submitting it. I could blame the fact that in order to enter I sneaked out of my Plant Systematics lab and sat in the hallway with my laptop (true story) but that's just not gonna cut it. I got nothing.
For the record
The first line should not have a comma.
The second sentence should read, "Most of the mob gave him a wide berth until two men stepped into his path,
clearly singling him out for trouble."
Anyway, try to forgive my...whatever is wrong with me...and head over to MSFV to check out the action scenes!
Happy Friday everyone. We're on spring break here at OSU and it's rained all week. Fortunately, the wife and I are headed out to the coast for the weekend. It'll be rainy there too but an least we'll be able to see the ocean.
I wanted to give a couple shout outs to wrap up the week. The first is a post from the great writing blog The Prosers discussing what it takes to write a believable female character and the difference between writing a strong character and a character that is strong.
My second shout out needs no introduction. If you don't know (and love) his edgy writing blog Terrible Minds then you just aren't paying attention. I've posted before about how female dominated the writing blogosphere is. I don't know if there's a direct correlation or not but the writing blogs I keep track of (because I love them) sometimes get a little sticky-sweet. Everyone's so darn supportive all the time. Chuck's blog is a good break from the sweetness.
ALTHOUGH...I have to admit I'm a little ticked at Mr. Wendig. That's not true. I don't know why I lied to you just then. I'm actually a bit ticked at myself for not coming up with such an awesome story idea as a vampire waking from his undead slumber to find himself in the middle of the zombie apocalypse! Too cool! I haven't read Chuck's new novel Double-Dead but as soon as I get some free time (aka, when I graduate) it's first on my list!
Kate Larkindale at the wonderful writing blog Fiction and Film posted a great sounding writing challenge that I have to jump on and you should too. Here's what to do: 1. Go to page 77 of your current MS.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating.
4. Tag 7 authors.
5. Let them know.
Here are my 7 from my fantasy manuscript "Sol of a Gladiator". Please let me know what you think!
The young woman standing before him certainly appeared to be in better shape than his last spoil. Sol, on the other hand, was a good deal sorer this time around, a fact that worried him. He was barely through the Emperor’s birthday week and he had the whole of the Winter Festival to look forward to. Things seemed to get a little harder every season. He tried to remind himself that he wasn’t that old but at the same time he couldn't forget how quickly the stadium could age a person.
The woman was small; short with a petite frame. She was slim but not the skeletal-skinny the ladies in the luxury boxes worked for and the slaves in the tunnels couldn’t avoid. She had generous hips and relatively long legs for her short stature. Long curly chestnut colored hair hung down over her face as she stood with her arms crossed, head down. Even in the dim light Sol could see the bruises on her thighs and arms. He could also see the goose bumps.
He stood up, slowly so as not to startle her. Taking the blanket from his bed he handed it to her.
“Here, it’s cold down here. You’re not exactly bundled up.”
She took the blanket without lifting her head and quickly wrapped it around her, covering the sheer outfit she had been provided.
Sitting on the edge of the bed Sol spoke gently, “I’m not going to hurt you.” He wasn’t sure she could even understand him. “I won’t even touch you without permission. My name is Sol. What’s yours?”
“You won’t touch me?” She was trembling, “You’ll keep away?” It was obvious she didn’t believe him.
1. Thank & link back to the person who nominated you.
OFW has weekly author interviews, regular features with tips and techniques to improve your writing, book reviews, flash fiction, and my personal favorite, the opportunity for critique from fellow writers. Check out the in the Agora section to post query letters and synopses for critique or head over to the Workshops page to post chapters and short stories and to review what others have submitted. Nothing helps your own writing quite like critiquing others, believe me. 
