Ganymeder

Thirteen- the 52/250 Flash Quarterly

Thirteen weeks have passed since the 52/250 Flash Challenge began: Thirteen weeks of submitting flash fiction based on themes from the site, thirteen weeks of writing 250 words based on a different prompt each week, thirteen weeks of some GREAT flash fiction.

The time passed pretty quickly, though I often wrote a story early in the week and then tweaked it for the rest of the week until the very last minute. When the editors of the 52/250 Flash site asked for a non fiction bio (life summary or one scene), I was happy to submit one though a little perplexed as to how to approach it. My husband helped me out by suggesting something that happened when we lived in Germany. The bio made it into the Quarterly along with my story, Perfect Vision, which was an editors’ choice. I’m very honored.

So if you want to read some awesome short fiction, please check out Thirteen. You won’t regret it.

*image courtesy of Bigfoto.com

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First I would like to thank both

Angie Capozello (techtigger) of Techtigger’s Soapbox for the Fabulous Flash Award

and

Joanie Michelle Rich (Nightcrafter) of Tales of a Nightcrafter for the One Lovely Blog Award.

I apologize that it’s taken me so long to get around to this post. Lately, time’s been slipping through my fingers. Cliche’ but true nonetheless. Between mini vacations, business trips, and homeschooling, life keeps getting in the way. No longer though!

The awards come with a few stipulations, and anyone who knows me knows that I fully intend to warp the rules to suit my own purposes – Namely I’m going to combine the rules and awardees. So consider yourselves forewarned.

For the Fabulous Flash Award, Jon Strother,  founder of FridayFlash said:“I have decided to start the Fabulous Flash Award to spotlight some folks I feel deserve recognition for their, well… fabulous flash fiction.”

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The rules for the Fabulous Flash Award are:

1. acknowledge receiving the award in a blog post
2. link back to the person who awarded it
3. select four other fabulous flashers to receive the award to keep spreading the joy
4. write one or two short lines explaining why you’ve chosen each recipient

My four choices for the Fabulous Flash Award are:

1. Anthony Venutolo of Bukowski’s Basement. He’s writes regularly for #FridayFlash as well as #SpokenSunday. His fiction is sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always entertaining.

2. Icy Sedgwick (icypop) of  IcySedgwick.com. A fellow Nanowrimo-er (Wrimo?) who writes slightly disturbing but delightful fiction for #FridayFlash and #TuesdaySerial. Her accent in her #SpokenSunday fiction is lovely too.

3. Jim Bronyaur of Soft Whispers. He’s a father with so many projects on his plate in addition to a full time job that he’s one of my online heroes. I honestly don’t know how he finds the time, but you definitely should find time to check out his site. It’s currently undergoing a revamp, so in the meantime follow him on Twitter or read Soft Whispers.

4. mazzz_in_Leeds of mazzz_in_Leeds.com. She writes flash and I just love her fiction. That is all you need to know.

The rules for One Lovely Blog Award are:

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1.) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

3.) Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

My 15 4 choices for the One Lovely Blog Award (not necessarily in order) are:

1. Tom Allman of The Vorpal Spork for a great gaming blog. He writes funny posts about newbies wetting their feet in the world on Dark Sun as well as frequent articles in Kobold magazine. He’s an avid gamer as well as an awesome Dungeon Master.

2. Galen (profile), founder of the SixMinuteStory.com. The site is exactly what it sounds like, and it’s wonderful. In the spirit of other great inspirational sites, Six minute story encourages you to write a story in less than six minutes. Timer and story prompt provided, and no peeking ahead! All stories are licensed under Creative Commons.

3. Fred Van Patten of Backlist Books for his wonderful book blog. The site for my very, very, VERY favorite independent bookstore offers video reviews of books and magazines as well as posts events for local knitters and gamers (no, I didn’t type that wrong).  If you’re in the Massillon, Ohio area, this store is a must. Otherwise, you’ll just have to settle for their excellent site and order your literature from there.

4. Susie McCray of Poetry for Your Senses. She writes poetry about relationships and  every day feelings and experiences. The poems are wonderful, and you should definitely check her site out!

Go enjoy some fabulous blogs, and have a great week!

Just a quick note:

This week I’m catching up on writing as well as adjusting to a new school schedule for Monsterbat, so my blog posts may be erratic for the next two to three weeks. I’m starting to fall behind in my other objectives, and I need to take the time to accomplish work at home as well as my writing goals.

I have received two blog awards in the past month, and I fully intend to write a post about them. I just haven’t had the time yet – Sorry! I will write about them and thank the generous people who awarded them when I get the time to do it properly. In the meantime, I will post my usual #FridayFlash and links to the 52/250 flash challenge and Audioboo. Photos will probably not accompany them though, because they are very time intensive.

Hopefully, I’ll get back to normal posting after a couple weeks. In the meantime, if I don’t respond to a post or comment right away, I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience.

The Best of Friday Flash: Volume One is now available at Smashwords for the extremely reasonable price of $2.99.  I’m unbelievably excited about this! Not only is one of my stories, A Hell of a Job, published in the anthology, but J.M. Strother also credited me as an Associate Editor. I’m very honoured and flattered to have been part of such a wonderful project.

In fact, last night at the (online) Book Birthday party, I fear I had a little too much champagne and cigars.  So I apologize for the late posting.  I need to go rest now. All the excitement is making me dizzy.

Seriously though, the book contains 67 ridiculously good stories – all of them short enough to enjoy whenever you have a spare few minutes. The proceeds from the sale will go to further promote Friday Flash as an online writing community. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Now, what are you waiting for?

The theme for week #13, Space Camp, will post to the 52|250 challenge site on Friday the 13^th. I didn’t realize the posting date when I originally wrote my story, also titled ‘Space Camp’, so the nature of the plot is oddly coincidental. Though the stories are appearing on the same days as #Fridayflash, I hope people check them both out. Two hundred fifty (or less) words isn’t a lot to read for a small chuckle. At least I hope! My stories at the site are always listed under the name Catherine Russell.

Also, I’ve been trying to be more regular about posting to my Audioboo. You can look for my stories and poems there, as well as check out other #SpokenSunday authors.

Finally, I’ve started reading a new anthology. It’s not exactly breathtaking news, but considering I’m already reading several books, I’m happy that I’m about halfway through this one already. ‘I Am Legend‘ by Richard Matheson is wonderfully written. Like I said, I’m halfway through the anthology, but I finished the story today. I absolutely love his writing style. What intrigued me about the story was that there’s been at least 3 different film adaptations (The Last Man on Earth, Omega Man, and I Am Legend), and they’re all different. I don’t really remember how the Vincent Price film version ended, but the story ends completely different from the other two movie adaptions. I liked the movie endings, but the story ended far better in my opinion.

Soon, Virtual School will be starting again and I’ll have much less time for reading and writing on my own. In the meantime, I submitted some microfiction last night as well as wrote a first draft of a story that’s been percolating in my head for awhile now. It flowed onto the page pretty quickly, which makes me wonder what I did wrong, but I’ll revise throughout the week. Since I’ve been rewriting some classic fairy tales, I decided to have them overlap slightly with some others I’ve already done or plan to do in the near future.

I also followed a story prompt and wrote about a girl who beats the crap out of her bullies. No superpowers, no special skills, not a fairy godmother in sight – just rage from being pushed just a little too far. I’ve also started and continued working on a few other stories and projects, which I’ll try to post to Audioboo as I finish them.

Have a wonderful day.

The 52/250 Flash Challenge site is implementing some changes beginning this week. For one thing, the new flash stories will have Monday deadlines from now on so that they can be published on Fridays. I was a little concerned about this, simply because the publications of both my weekly flash stories will be on the same day each week. My deadlines are different, but it might affect how much the stories are read. Who knows? Maybe people who read stories at one site will follow them to the other if they fall on the same day.

Also, I’d like to apologize to anyone following me for not updating my blog on Monday. We spent a lot of time away from home doing errands and especially getting my son’s new glasses. Our new puppy, Lady, decided that his old ones were delicious. The result was making my son’s next Optometrist appointment as soon as possible. Also, Tuesday he went to the Orthodontist for spacers in preparation for getting braces. He was a bit nervous and worried, so we did some fun things to get his mind off it.

Monsterbat with his broken glasses holding 'Lady'

Monsterbat with new glasses

My biggest news, for those not following me on Twitter, is that my first sale is officially published! Flash Me Magazine published my story, Doomed, in their July 31st issue. The story, which originally appeared here, has been removed temporarily from my blog during this issue.

So, starting Friday, I plan to update my #Fridayflash with a link at the bottom to my 52/250 story for the week. I’ll try to keep posting poetry and other tidbits in the meantime, but until then-
Have a lovely week!

*(above) Ann Hagedorn teaching the Creative Non Fiction class

My final class on my final day of the Workshop ended at lunchtime yesterday, and I’ve found myself asking over and over again what I’ve brought home from my experience this past week.

Quite literally, I’ve brought home a hell of a lot of books. Three poetry books by our poetry instructor, Cathy Smith Bowers, as well as the poetry dictionary by John Drury. I was tempted to bring home many others, but since my To Be Read pile (of both paper and electronic books) is already quite steep, I’m afraid adding much more will cause it to topple and kill me in my sleep. So I resigned myself to the poetry books, not only for pleasure, but I’m sure they’ll be an invaluable resource for my writing projects – both prose and poetry.

Aside from physical things, I’ve brought back a renewed commitment to the craft as well as a lot of questions. The questions are things I’ve been asking myself for awhile, but I think my time at Antioch has given me tools to find the answers. What do I want to do with the previous rough draft novels I’ve written? Are they worth revising or should I just look at them as experience and move on? Where do I see myself with my writing 5 years from now? In 10 years? I still don’t have the answers, but I’m much closer to finding them than I was before.

The classroom setting was invigorating, and I enjoyed being around creative, literary people, but there were lots of things that I didn’t expect as well. I was pleasantly surprised that the Creative Non Fiction taught techniques that were equally useful for Fiction and Poetry. In fact, all the classes tied into each other, overlapping and stressing the same points again and again in different ways.  The theme throughout the entire workshop seemed to be free flowing creativity, without worrying about technique or craft, that you later sculpt into a work of art.

*(above) Cathy Smith Bowers teaching The Craft of Poetry class

I had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful people. My instructors were wonderful. My poetry instructor signed ‘A Book of Minutes‘ for me – my new favorite poetry book. I sat next to a very nice lady and exchanged emails with her. Hopefully we’ll stay in contact. The only thing I was a bit disappointed in was (I know it sounds corny)… I didn’t really bond with any other writers. That probably has more to do with me than anything else. I spent tons of time writing though – which was absolutely wonderful.

I’ve also gotten some very exciting news over the past couple days. I’m fairly bursting to tell it to the world, but since I’m not sure if I should (yet) I’m going to wait until all my i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing, submitting, dreaming.

And hopefully, someday, I’ll be able to go back to the Antioch Writers’ Workshop.

I don’t wish to be repetitive, so I’ll just say that my classes covered everything in more detail today. We went into more detail on the importance of tension, especially in Fiction and The Craft of Poetry. In Creative Non Fiction we went into greater detail about chronologies, especially how to use story structure to capture the reader’s interest. The two speakers for ‘How to Pitch’ were previous Antioch students who have published books. They were able to relate their experiences trying to get published.

After lunch, I relaxed a bit before working on some poetry. Cathy Smith Bowers, the poetry instructor, talked about enjambment and other ways to create tension in a poem. I asked her for some advice about one of the poems I’m working on, and I think it’s really helped. I’m glad I decided to take more time for these poems. I need to finish some reading for tomorrow (the final day of classes) and polish up a scene I’ve been working on for Fiction class.

I had prewritten a #Fridayflash for tomorrow, but since I’ve been working on the scene I thought it might make a nice flash for a change. From the prompts we were given in class, it’s gone a completely different direction than the types of stories I usually write. I’m still wavering which to post, though it would be nice to get feedback on my scene. I think it fits the criteria she gave, but it’s a bit emotional and sentimental. I’m not sure if I hit my mark or went way over the top. Since I don’t really write a lot of bittersweet scenes, I’m ambivalent.

Off to finish my homework. Have a great day, keep writing, and hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow!

July 14, 2010.

Wednesday’s classes continued the curriculum of the past couple days in more detail. In Fiction we analyzed more passages. The ‘How to Pitch’ class featured another agent speaking. In poetry we talked about other poems, and how to turn our ‘Hunk of Stone’ into a crafted work of art. Our Creative Non Fiction instructor went into more detail on certain aspects of the Writer’s Toolbox, and she covered Story Arc, Chronology, and Organizing your research in a way that I found really helpful.

I’ve begun to notice that all my classes have the same thread weaving through them: Dredging up the unconscious in a somewhat messy way in order to express your creativity, and then worrying about all the other technical things to craft it into something beautiful. My mind kept going back to Nanowrimo, and how you do exactly the same thing when you write your rough draft novel. Of course, no one mentioned Nanowrimo, but I couldn’t help thinking about it just the same.

My husband and son went to see a movie yesterday, so they picked me up pretty close to when my classes were done. We ate and walked around Yellow Springs and took lots of photos. It’s a cute town. I have no way of posting them now, but I will post them probably next week. One’s even going to be a writing prompt.

I need to go to class now, so have a great day!

July 13, 2010.

When I walked through the doors of Antioch Midwest today, I felt much more prepared and less nervous than on my first day. I settled in close to my seat from yesterday, set up my laptop, and broke out my new poetry book for some reading before the first class started.

In today’s Fiction class, we covered the four basic styles of telling a story: narrative summary, description, scene, and half scene. As an exercise, we wrote a short narrative summary, and then added dialogue to change it into a half scene. For homework, we were instructed to compose a scene, keeping in mind that it’s a mini story with a beginning, middle, and end. After lunch, I spent about an hour and a half writing a short scene.

We had a real treat for our second class. Janet Reid, Literary Agent, spoke for about 20 minutes about things every author should know when approaching an agent. (I’m also checking out her blog.) Then the rest of the hour she answered questions. Each person was allowed a question of no more than 10 words. Since I figured most people were asking about novel submission, I asked about something different.

I asked, “How would someone pitch a mixed genre anthology to you?” She asked who the primary author would be, and when I (sheepishly) said “myself” her answer was, “You wouldn’t.”  Ouch. She said that they’re lots of fun, but unless an already famous author contributes to it they are very hard to sell. She then suggested submitting a novel instead. I didn’t mention I have a novel since it’s nowhere near ready. It still needs heavy editing, and since that’s not an agent’s job (something every author should know about an agent) I didn’t mention it. She was very informative and funny, and if you get the chance to hear her speak I highly recommend it.

During our third class, we analyzed two poems about loss written in very different styles. The instructor made suggestions on how to read like a writer so as to glean information and techniques to use in your own writing. Also, before the class I spoke with her about her poem, “Thyme,” in A Book of Minutes which she graciously signed for me. Anyone who loves poetry should definitely check this out.  I’ve already read many of the poems several times.

The morning’s last class began a few minutes late, which was unfortunate since we had to rush through some of the points. The information she packed throughout the class kept me typing notes the entire time. I intend to more fully review ‘The Writer’s Toolbox’ tools that she discussed at a later time. It’s fascinating.

After class, I bought my obligatory bottle of rocket fuel (read: Highly Caffeinated Beverage) and ate my lunch in the student lounge. It was nice. I had the place to myself, spread all my books and things on the table, and did homework and reading for the next three hours.

My tweets this week will necessarily be much less frequent, though I do intend to try to blog daily about the conference. Between reading books and working on homework, I’ll try to catch up reading more #fridayflash. I do have something prepared already for this Friday though, as well as the 52/250 flash challenge. I’ve been working on some poems also that (hopefully) will be finished this week. I could probably polish them off tonight, but I want to use what I learn in the classes to improve my work. Until tomorrow (maybe), Good night and keep writing!