V
olume Three of Every Day Fiction’s Best of anthologies, which includes yours truly, is available for purchase. You can buy it at a variety of places, listed here.
It is – and I say this completely without exaggeration – the greatest collection of short fiction that has ever been crafted in the history of human history. So you should buy it.
Long-time friends Alex and Alissa are having a little fund-raiser for a short film that Alissa has written. These crazy kids moved to LA years ago, following their dreams, and I have been patiently awaiting that day in hopes of riding their coat-tails to fame and fortune.
I have read the script, an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story, and it is simultaneously beautiful, terrible, and sad. All the things great short fiction needs to be, in whatever medium.
Feel free to chip in here.
My only disappointment with the new Thor movie was that he never said that.
It’s a fun film. As good as they could make a Thor movie without it being a five-hour HBO mini-series. There were whole scenes I watched with a giant grin on my face, because you just never expect to see Thor hovering in mid-air, in the midst of a summoned tornado, twirling his hammer and shooting bolts of lightning at The Destroyer, anywhere but a comic book page. People can say what they will about superhero movies, moments like that are worth Volstagg’s weight in gold.
In Thor’s honor, I dug out this sketch of the lovely Lady Sif I got from Tom Raney a few years ago.
Looking forward to Cap in July.
Mercier’s Flight is still making the rounds, with a fresh rejection just this past week.
Currently reading: Homicide, by David Simon. Fantastic.
Another day’s efforts. A little over 500 words, loosely inspired by the brilliant Jack Kirby and his Kamandi.
I have spoken before of my disdain for the sort of high fantasy that we’ve generally seen over the past decades – stories about kings and princesses and full of politics and the great games that nations play. I understand why that’s usually the stuff of stories. It’s grand and epic. The stories matter. It is the stuff of history. But, much like history books, you end up getting just the stories of the people at the top, not the stories of the people who have to put up with their bullshit. I grow weary of that perspective.
I went to see The Conspirator (not fantasy, but there were people in very fine hats). It is story of normal people having to put up with the bullshit. Different century. Same nonsense of ordinary citizenry offered up on the altar of political convenience. Nothing has changed.
The movie is quite good, by the way.
Anyway, this is a bit of a fantasy story. I thought, why not a police procedural in a world of gods and magic? The first few hundred words of the nearly 1,400 that I wrote.
I will post just a portion of this one. It came out to over 1,300 words and is set in the same world as my recently finished and (so far) thrice submitted historical fantasy story, Mercier’s Flight. Maybe I’ll look for a market for this one, though I don’t have the faintest idea where to start. Anyone know of a good historical fantasy war story market?
I imagine this to be part of my Chuck Chaykin space western universe. Almost 600 words of two-fisted robot-busting action!
A little something. Will it go anywhere? Who knows! Just about 500 words.
Today begins the writing group’s annual Story Every Day event. Should be fun! I’ve got a jump on a story already that I’ve been working on, so some of my SEDs will likely be chunks of that. We’ll be meeting tonight to get started, as a group. I’ll be posting as much as I can here in the process.
In other news, I’ve been watching “Luthor” via Netflix. Sooooo good. If you need a good example of how to write great villains without overshadowing your equally great hero, this is where you want to look.
Edit: SONUVA–link removed because there are some major spoilers there. I just ruined some major plot points for myself. Thanks, BBC!
I utterly failed in my April Fool’s tradition. I had an idea for one, but not in time for me to really execute it properly. Perhaps next year.
In exchange, I offer the beginning of a story I just started. I rather like it. Continue reading
