Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free story!
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
I’ve just started roughing out a new story, “A New Board is Elected at Villa Encantada”. I’ve written several Villa Encantada stories now, including “Eagle-Haunted Lake Sammammish,” “Events at Villa Encantada,” and “The Threadbare Magician.” In this one I’m trying for dark and funny, and thinking it will end at 4-6k words.
A few weeks beforehand, the notices would begin to appear, first as shy and scarce as first daffodils, then later in desperate profusion, splashed among all the other flyers proclaiming one candidate or another. Then the secondary wave, responses to the veiled accusations or outright confrontations from those first campaign flyers.
They arrived in a variety of ways. At first in the mailboxes, in accordance with the bylaws.
Later more unorthodox means intended to grab attention for their words. Printed on invisible or octarine paper, scented with sulfur or jasmine, woven through with enchantments that produced moving, illustrative images of tiny workmen laboring on the parking lot or engaged in wrenching the building skirting awry with pirate-like gestures and red drunkard’s noses. A few unscrupulous tried bullying cantrips or mental snares, but those were quickly discovered and invoked a fresh crop of warnings, legal threats, and expansions of points previously made.
If you want to read the rest of the story, you can get it, along with at least six other stories, at the end of July by signing up to sponsor me in the Clarion West Write-a-thon. Even a small donation entitles you to the stories, so please do sign up!
...
Links of interest from this week that aren’t related to social media or writing/publishing.
Keffy S. Kehrli provided me with this distracting tale of a man, his cat, and text messages.
If you’re writing steampunk, this resource might prove useful when looking for Victorian slang.
Breaking Free of the Gender Binary is an interesting talk from Laura Lubin about changing gender identity from female to gender neutral.
I don’t know why I want to make a rainbow rose, and the process looks laborious, but the result sure is pretty.
Gauchopunk, from the Multiculturalism for Steampunk blog.
A couple of interesting pages from Scott Berkun’s site. A piece on why even wrong schedules are helpful and a review of a recent book, Why We Love Sociopaths, talking about sociopaths in recent television.
...
One Response