Category Archives: fiction

New publication

A bit of news:  A short while ago–the day before my birthday, in fact–I got word from Red Fez that they wanted to publish my story “Kamikaze.”  Today, the issue went online.  It’s also chock full of other great stories and poems, so make sure to check out the whole issue. For links to someContinue reading “New publication”

Interview with Darin Bradley, author of Noise

Darin Bradley‘s apocalyptic novel Noise hit bookshelves, both physical and virtual, today. So I thought I’d ask Darin a few questions about his novel, the apocalypse, and writing in general. The resulting e-mail conversation, which has spanned the past few weeks, has turned out to be very long, which is a good thing, because DarinContinue reading “Interview with Darin Bradley, author of Noise”

A Writer’s Notebook: “Casting a Wide Net”

This week, another exercise from Scott McCloud’s Making Comics. In this exercise, McCloud asks us to create a cast of characters that share one trait (from a list of traits–see below) but are different in at least four other ways. These academics are my four characters (in the order I wrote them). Sandra: 45, aContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “Casting a Wide Net””

A Writer’s Notebook: Comics cut-and-paste

Today:  Some comics.  Slightly later today:  An explanation of the exercise. In some ways, this exercise is similar to last week’s, in that I’m “borrowing” from other sources and piecing them together into new art.  Of course, this looks wildly different: It’s more than partly visual. I’ve just finished reading the third of Scott McCloud‘sContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Comics cut-and-paste”

Noise, by Darin Bradley

A friend of mine is releasing his first novel in a couple of weeks, an apocalyptic novel called Noise.  I haven’t read it yet, but by all accounts, it’s awesome.  (I have read the teaser text on the publisher’s website–it certainly looks awesome!) Darin and I are bouncing back and forth on an interview aboutContinue reading “Noise, by Darin Bradley”

The short and long of things….

I just received an e-mail telling me one of my short stories made the shortlist for finalists in the short-story category of the Faulkner Wisdom Competition (run by Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society down in New Orleans).  Then, immediately after that, I received another e-mail that I made the semi-finals for the novella category of theContinue reading “The short and long of things….”

A Writer’s Notebook: Word association

This exercise requires a quick explanation up front, but I’ll explain where it comes from and what I’m doing with it below. The prompt itself is this: Brainstorm or free write around one or all of the following words: glass, willow, tile, edge, ring. Few of the houses have glass, because the scale is smallContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Word association”

A Writer’s Notebook: Found dialogue

The following conversation is not one I invented. I made up the characters and the situation, but the dialogue already existed. But I’ll explain below. Jacob smiled and leaned across the table. “It’s terribly funny,” he said. He winked. Sebastian shook his head. “You are pulling my leg.” Jacob only grinned. “You exaggerate!” Sebastian said. “SurelyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Found dialogue”

A Writer’s Notebook: Character details

This story I’m writing about the character named Ford is ballooning, but in the best way–each week I find new ways to build it, expand it, let it breathe. But more on that below.  Right now, five quick questions to help flesh out the character of Ford: a) What are the character’s physical attributes, fromContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Character details”