For those of you who may have missed it last week, my story is featured today on Daily Science Fiction’s website.
Enjoy
If you’re a subscriber to Daily Science Fiction (and why wouldn’t you be? An awesome free story in your inbox every day) then you’ll be getting my flash “Have You Seen My Girl?” in your inbox on the 23rd. I hope you enjoy it and I’d love to hear what you think.
If you’re not a subscriber, the story will be on Daily Science Fiction‘s website on January 30.
First of all, a sale! Actually, it happened back in October, but I was waiting to announce it until I knew when it would appear. This January 23rd, Daily Science Fiction subscribers will have my flash piece, “Have You Seen My Girl?” appear in their email inbox! If you’re not a DSF subscriber (and why wouldn’t you be? It’s a great story in your inbox every day. For free. Sign up here.), then it will appear on their website on January 30th. Give it a read and then come back here to let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your feedback.
And now, a plug. For Christmas, I loaded up my two dogs and drove to the east coast to spend the holidays with a friend. I’m a little bit crazy, so I drove the 1000+ miles in one go–almost 17 hours. And then I did it again, 10 days later, to come back home. 17 hours in a car is a loooong time, but I found a little magic that made the trip fly by. It was almost enjoyable, the first 14 or 15 hours at least. I dug up my ancient 40Gb first-gen iPod that is somehow still working. I downloaded every single story from podcastle.com, almost 400 stories, about 10Gb worth and put them all in a playlist. The moment the car started moving, I dialed up the playlist, put the iPod on shuffle, and listened to random short stories for the entire drive. Wow! Times flies when you are mentally lost in someone else’s world!
So, probably anybody who is reading this blog already knows about Podcastle, but if not, head over to Podcastle and start listening. You won’t be disappointed! I didn’t hear one story in the entire 34 hours that didn’t have me fully engaged. Not only are there up-and-coming authors who will delight you, but also stories by speculative fiction giants like N. K. Jemisin, Tim Pratt, Ken Liu, and Peter S. Beagle (if you don’t do anything else, listen to Podcastle’s very first story – “Come Lady Death” by Beagle. I found it nearly perfect.) And if you prefer horror or science fiction, try Podcastle’s sister sites, Pseudopod and Escape Pod. Enjoy!
I’m an unapologetic longhander.
It never occurred to me to be anything else. Over the last couple years, I’ve been surprised to find out that I’m apparently in a small minority. Almost every writer I’ve told this dirty little secret of mine to has looked at me like a third arm is growing out of my forehead. They shake their heads and politely try to steer the conversation to some other part of the 21st century I might be able to relate to.
It’s been a year since I graduated from Odyssey. Don’t get me wrong—best writing experience ever. I’m not second guessing, not a chance. But, workshops will mess with you. They throw your writing zen seriously out of whack.
You’ll hear, if you’ve been to a workshop or if you ever go, “You’ll have so much in your head. It’ll take you awhile to assimilate it before you’ll see it pay benefits in your writing.” That’s true, and, for me at least, it’s manifested in more than one way.