My short story has been submitted to Five on the Fifth’s contest! I read through Wolf’s Moon Night on Sunday night, making a few small changes, then again on Monday night. I finally worked up the courage to submit it on Tuesday, one day before the deadline. Submitting to a litmag — and particularly a contest — is daunting. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: The Revision Plan”
The Book: Revenant: Advent
Author: Valerie Dugie
Published: 2010
Genre: Science fiction
Indie books are fun. I came upon Revenant: Advent because I happen to know the author personally. When I found out recently that Valerie Dugie had published her first book in 2010, I promised I would read it.
And I really enjoyed it. Continue reading “Book Review: REVENANT: ADVENT, Valerie Dugie – A Sci-Fi Thrill-Ride”
I need a better
ending than, “It’s snowing on
Mt. Fuji,” damn it!
Steve D
My new schedule is awesome. I have a new schedule at work, by the way. For well over a year I had been trudging through an early shift, 6am to 3pm. I loved having a full afternoon of daylight ahead of me when I got home, and I even enjoyed being in the office a solid three hours before most everyone else — 3 hours of peace and quiet before the fluorescent lights blazed and the coffee machines were overrun with empty mugs waiting to be filled.
Okay, so I’m writing a Trump post. How original. But bear with me for a moment, because I had a crazy idea last week that has sounded less crazy in my head the more I’ve let it simmer.
The last couple of weeks have seen the addition of two eyebrow-raising figures to Trump’s inner circle. Roger Ailes, the former founder, chairman, and CEO of Fox News, joined Trump as an “advisor”, and no one can seem to figure out what the hell he’s supposed to be “advising” for Baby Hands. Then, Stephen K. Bannon, the chairman of Breitbart News, was appointed as the chief executive of Trump’s presidential campaign.
These alliances aren’t really surprising on their surface. Fox News jumped on the Trumpwagon as soon as it realized that Cruz just wasn’t quite sensationalist enough for its brand, and Breitbart is what Fox News would be after a two-month coke binge followed by a one-month molly bender, just to take the edge off. Both have leveraged Trump’s celebrity to push ad revenue (along with CNN, NBC, and every other news outlet), and Trump has leveraged them to incite his mostly white, mostly male, mostly bigoted, mostly paranoid support base into a fever pitch of borderline American Fascism.
So why are these appointments important or at all relevant beyond Trump’s ongoing media frenzy? Continue reading “Trump’s Next Business Venture Might be Terrifying”
Murky water flows
through the hills and woods, snaking
towards the ocean.
Steve D
So I’m pretty sure I mentioned last week that I’m working on a short story to submit to an online litmag contest this month. Right? Yes, here!
Five on the Fifth‘s submission deadline for their short fiction contest is looming rather large on August 31. I currently have about 1,500 words of a first draft, with a pretty clear idea of how I will set up the final act and conclude the story. I think my submission will end up finishing around 2,500 words, but I’ve been known to miscalculate projected word counts in the past. Continue reading “Short Story Update – The Deadline is Coming!”
How quickly our ro-
mantic awe of nature is
dropped with a bee sting.
Steve D
Lesson #37 from finishing my first manuscript: Try to find that balance.
Accomplishing anything effectively is about balance. Finishing the first draft of The Warden of Everfeld: Memento over the last few months was a bit tiresome. I had not met my monthly writing goals since the end of NaNoWriMo 2015, and I was constantly falling behind – according to my own exceedingly high standards. I just wanted it done, but I didn’t always have the motivation or the willpower to just sit down and write.
Continue reading “Writing Lesson #37: Writing Consistently is about Balance”
A broken street lamp
lies abandoned, a teaser
of that which remains.
Steve D
