Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sunday Links & The Week in #storyeachnight: February 12, 2012 Edition

I'm still working on adjusting to my new blogging schedule of Monday, Thursday, Sunday after having done Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday for several months. It sort of feels weird only writing up one mid-week blog post. I'm going to give it a while, though, and see how I feel about it after a couple of months.

One routine I've picked up recently is reading a short story every day/night and tweeting about it. Nicole Cushing has been doing this on the #storyeachnight hashtag for quite a few months. Here are the stories I read this week along with the comments I made on them.


2/5 - "Exit Interview" by Lynne Heitman from BOSTON NOIR: Office/gender politics & a hostage situation.
2/6 - "Cellmate" by Theodore Sturgeon from an old paperback of E PLURIBUS UNICORN
2/7 - "Fever Dream" from THE VINTAGE BRADBURY: Child realizes a danger no one else sees. Some chilling aspects. But it also felt a bit dated and not just because it had a doctor making house calls. "Fever Dream" & last night's "Cellmate" were both late-40s Weird Tales stories. I felt that Sturgeon's held up better.
2/8 - "Night Nurse" by Harry Shannon from FAVORITE KILLS: A nightmarish trip to a hospital for the MC in this story.
2/9 - "Mrs. Hatcher's Evaluation" by James Van Pelt from 3/12 Asimov's. Fun story,very critical of modern education theory
2/10 - "The Secret of the City of Gold" by Ron Goulart from the 1-2/12 issue of F&SF. It featured series character Harry Challenge, seems to have been intended to evoke the feel of old (old) school pulp fiction. I think I tend to be more forgiving of originals than pastiches & this didn't strike me as a terribly amusing pastiche.
2/11 - "Scrap Dragon" by Naomi Kritzer from the 1-2/12 F&SF. A fairy tale or bedtime story with LOTS of..."editorial" suggestions by the "listener." Quite enjoyable; it put a smile on my face.


As I do every Sunday, I've gathered together links I've liked/gotten something out of from things I've read this week. Here are this week's links...



"The New World of Publishing: What Indie Production Actually Costs" (Dean Wesley Smith) - An interesting look at ways to reduce the cost of putting together a good-quality product for writers who want to go the independent publishing route. I think that Dean painted a bit of a "best case" scenario here, but it's certainly thought-provoking for anyone who's dismissed that approach as being "too expensive." It certainly doesn't have to be.

"You Must Be This Long to Ride This Genre: What to Do When Your Novel's Too Short" (Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story) - Truthfully, I suspect I may end up needing this advice when I get to work on revisions of "Adrift," the novel I wrote a first draft of during November. At 57,000-ish words, it's not overly-long even for a YA novel. And, from what I've looked at so far this month, I suspect there's going to be some fat to trim from those words. So, I read this post with a lot of personal interest. Janice always puts together quality blog posts, and this is no exception. If you're struggling with a too-short novel, stop by and check it out!


"One Writer's Guide to Cheating Time"
 (Ami Hendrickson at Museinks) - A good post by Ami on time management and several of the techniques she uses to get the most out of her time.


"Writers -- Get Ahead By Proofing Backwards" (M. J. Wright) - I've heard this advice before -- to proofread your own work, read it backwards to prevent yourself from going on "autopilot." It seems like a good enough tip, but what really made this post something that stood out for me was the list of all the different kinds of proofing and editing that go into a finished manuscript through a publisher. (And, ironically, I noticed two typos in the blog post...)

Additionally, here's a recap of the posts from this week on my blog:

"Why Blog?" - Monday I talked about the reasons I blog and asked others for their thoughts on this topic.

"D. Thomas Minton Interview" - Thursday I posted an interview with science-fiction and fantasy writer D. Thomas Minton.

Have a great writing week, everyone!

4 comments:

  1. I love to read GLIMMER TRAIN short stories. I think it's a great way to get a quick charge for my brain. :)

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    1. I'll have to pick up an issue of Glimmer Train sometime. I'm sort of aware of the publication, but don't think I've ever read it.

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  2. I love the idea of reading a short story a night. Very cool.

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    1. If you decide to join in, I'll be curious to see what you read. #storyeachnight could definitely use more participants. :)

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