I, in the guise of Aplomb Pomilio in Second Life, will be reading my original short story “NetWorld” this Saturday evening (February 19th at 6pm SLT). This story originally appeared in Undercurrents, published by Third Person Press.
This is the fifth of The Quillians Fantasy and Science Fiction Workshop monthly readings and other special events, occurring on the third Saturday of each month at 6pmSLT (9pmET/6pmPT).
If you miss it, you’ll have a chance to catch the recording once our new podcast gets rolling, but you’re urged to attend now as the podcast won’t be starting up just yet.
The reading will take place in the Workshop building, on the second floor beside the traditional meeting circle. The reading is a voice event, so attendees are encouraged to come with their “ears on” and their microphones off. Since the event is also being recorded, we request that you refrain from using audio ‘gestures’ or other devices that create ambient noise.
A Reading in SL
Anti-Valentines Day Challenge
Sherry Ramsey, fearless, interim, co-leader of our online, Second Life writing group affectionately known as The Quillians, issued a writing challenge last week. We were to write an “anti-Valentine” poem.
Here’s my tongue-in-cheek, bumpity-thumpity response:
heart words: an anti-valentine poem
february 14, 2011
thump
beat beat-beat-beat
heart beat-beat-beat
up beat-beat-beat
thump lump skippity-beat
beat thump red hot
sweet date
pump fate
lub-dub respirate
pump bump thumpity-hump
breast beat chest bump
in-flate
vibrate
pump-pump circulate
up beat pumpity-pump
ping pang pittery-pat
in-spire chest fire
thump-thump-thump desire
bump breast ache beat
stiff beat hump bump
soul white heat mate
pulsate
palpate
bump-bump procreate
pump pump pumpity-hump
mate thump thumpity-hump
beat beat-beat-beat
beat beat-beat-beat
off beat-beat-beat
red vein fake feign
spit spat pittery-pat
blood bleat vain cheat
stalemate
ingrate
bleed thump violate
lub dub thumpity-pump
trump beat off dump
beat down break up
ache beat bleed deep
thump dump slump chump
pump dump bumpity-lump
pang ache jumpity-jump
ping pain pulse rate
prostrate
deadweight
thump-bump defibrillate
beat beat skippity-beat
beat beat-beat-beat
soft beat-beat-beat
pump red heart hate
sensate
oxygenate
hate hate hate hate
thump bump thumpity-pump
beat bleed beat beat
heart beat-beat-beat
thump
Thanks Luta for a fun exercise!
Other entries from the group:
Gary Henderson
Authors with Glasses
It is Airborne night next Tuesday, February 15 at Governor’s Book Pub: Authors with Glasses starting at 7pm.
Come hear Sherry D. Ramsey and Julie A. Serroul read from their stories published in Third Person Press’s Airborne.
There’s also an open mike and, just so that the three-legged entity that is Third Person Press doesn’t become unstable, I’ve been promised a spot to read one of my post card stories. Come out and support Cape Breton’s speculative fiction authors!
Governors Pub & Eatery
233 Esplanade
Sydney
7 – 9
The Nashwaak Review
Check out my short story, “Worker Bee” in the new double issue of The Nashwaak Review (St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick).
From the website:
“The list of international award-winning contributors in this issue shows how far our magazine has come,” says Stewart Donovan, Professor of English Language and Literature and Irish Studies at St. Thomas University and editor of the Review. “Its reputation now attracts some of the finest writers in the country and beyond.”
Award Winning Poets and Short Story Writers
Award-winning poets and short story writers from across Canada are featured in the issue including Bert Almon whose most recent collection of poems A Ghost in Waterloo Station, won the City of Edmonton’s Book Prize and the Writer’s Guild of Alberta’s Award for Poetry.
Roger Nash, winner of numerous literary prizes including the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Poetry, has two poems in the publication. Fern Carr, who has had her work published and distributed in over twenty countries and composes and translates poetry in five languages, has three poems in the issue.
Acclaimed poet and fiction writer Cyril Dabydeen is also a contributor. Dabydeen’s novel Drums of My Flesh was long listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and won the Guyana Prize for Fiction.
The issue publishes writers living and working in remote and exotic places: Julian Hoffman is living in northern Greece; Elena Johnson was the inaugural writer-in-residence at a remote research station in the Yukon; Joshua Learn recently spent a year freelancing in Latin America.
Emerging Writers
The issue also features many emerging writers. Deborah Herman from Toronto is a graduate student at York University. St. Thomas University’s Troy Fullerton, who was published in The STU Reader, has one poem in the book. And Matthew Cook, a student at Cape Breton University, earned the 2009 David Alexander Prize for the best essay written by an undergraduate in history at a Canadian university for his essay “Going Down the Road: Rural Cape Breton Migration to the Sydney Steel Plant 1899-1920”.
The artwork on the cover is by Lynda Lou MacIntyre, a recently retired school teacher from Cape Breton and artist of four previous Review covers.
A New Chain Story!
The Cost of a Tasmanian Tiger
The Chain Story is pleased to release its twenty-third story, The Cost of a Tasmanian Tiger by Paul Genesse. Click on the story title to read to the tale.
Paul Genesse is the author of several short stories featured in anthologies such as Steampunk’d, Fellowship Fantastic, The Dimension Next Door, Furry Fantastic, Imaginary Friends, Catopolis, Terribly Twisted Tales, Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms, and more. He is also the editor and the co-author of the origin story for The Crimson Pact anthology series. His first novel, The Golden Cord, Book One of the Iron Dragon Series has become the bestselling book his publisher, Five Star Books has ever had. Book two, The Dragon Hunters is out and more novels are on the way. Paul writes when he’s not working the night shift as a registered nurse on a cardiac unit in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he does his best to keep the forces of darkness away from his patients.
In his spare time he has worked as a writing instructor/motivational speaker, computer game consultant, copyeditor, and proofreader. Listen to podcasts, read free samples or watch videos about the Iron Dragon Series and his other works at www.paulgenesse.com.
There’s still time
Third Person Press has announced an extended deadline for its next anthology, Unearthed–Volume 3 of The Speculative Elements series.
Writers have until the end of February to polish your story. Make sure to read the full guidelines here to improve your chances of acceptance. The stories MUST be speculative and you MUST have some connection to Cape Breton Island in order to submit.
Airborne Launches!
We here at Third Person Press are thrilled to announce the publication of Airborne, Volume II of The Speculative Elements Series.
Third Person Press is an independent publishing venture based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Third Person Press, founded by Sherry D. Ramsey, Julie A. Serroul and myself in 2007, is interested in promoting speculative fiction by writers from (or who have a substantial connection to) Cape Breton. We enjoy the challenges and rewards of working with both new and more established writers in bringing our readers one simple thing–great stories.
As of October 6, 2010, Airborne will be available at thirdpersonpress.com and Amazon. Digital downloads and e-reader versions will be available for sale online in all the major formats.
Take a look at the Airborne trailer, put together by Sherry Ramsey:
A book launch reception will take place in Sydney, Nova Scotia on October 6 from 6:30 to 8:30 at the McConnell Library. Most of the 16 contributors will be in attendance. Several of our authors will read from their work, we’ll have refreshments, book sales and signings and music. If you’re in the area, please come down!
Volume I of The Speculative Series, Undercurrents (released in December 2008) is also available online. Submissions are open for Unearthed, Volume III until the end of this year. Please see the guidelines page at Third Person Press for all the scoop on what we’re looking for.
The latest Chain Stories
A couple of weeks ago, I posted info about Mike Stackpole’s Chain Story project.
Since then, three new boffo stories have come online.
Check out:
Emerald Guardians, Rigel Ailur – Rigel Ailur’s other stories include “Brigadoon” in the Star Trek anthology Strange New Worlds 10 and (writing as Kris Katzen) “Kaboom, Ka-bye” in the Origins Awards nominated Shadowrun Sourcebook Seattle 2072.
Blazing Bodices, Robert T. Jeschonek – Robert T. Jeschonek is an award-winning writer whose fiction, comics, essays, and podcasts have been published around the world. Watch for his young adult fantasy novel, MY FAVORITE BAND DOES NOT EXIST, coming soon from Clarion Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. How much does he love pulp fiction? His story collection from PS Publishing is titled MAD SCIENTIST MEETS CANNIBAL. CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT CHRONICLES features his story, Shipwreck in the Sky. Twisted flights of fancy laced with dark humor are his passion.
and
Gentlemanly Horrors of Mine Alone, Donald J. Bingle – Donald J. Bingle is an oft-published author in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller, and comedy genres. Having tackled near-future military science fiction with his first novel, Forced Conversion, and extremism and global warming in his second novel, GREENSWORD, Bingle is currently putting the finishing touches on his first espionage thriller.
S.P.O.T. List
working draft
However, if you can’t spot the problems and errors in your own work, you can’t improve it. To this end, I offer my SPOT list. Just for fun, let’s say S.P.O.T. is an acronym standing for: Solving Problems On Time. “On time,” in this case means before sending it to a publisher and therefore before you receive that first rejection letter.
Remember, when you do get a rejection letter, 90+% of the time, it won’t tell you what’s wrong with your story. Do the work on the front end. You’ll still get rejections, but you’ll have much more faith that your story really is good enough and that will sustain you until you find the right spot for it.
This list assumes that you have already written a story that has well-drawn characters who have understandable motivations and actions and a interesting plot that has a beginning, middle and end. If your story doesn’t have these things going for it, the rest won’t make much difference in its acceptability.
The best way to spot most of these is to read your work out loud. Once you get to the nitty-gritty line edits, read it backwards, one page at a time. You’ll see typos and errors that your brain won’t notice if you read it normally.
- S.P.O.T. list
- Verbs:
- Make sure your verb tenses are consistent and make sense. Check every one. Rout out passive voice whenever possible (had, would, could) as well as excessive use of forms of “to be” (mainly, is and was).
- Telling:
- Occasionally you have to move the story forward with small bits of telling, but if it’s more than two or three sentences, find a way for your character to demonstrate. SHOW IT.
- Info Dumps:
- This is usually back story. Often it’s what the writer needed to know in order to write the story not what the reader needs to know to visualize and enjoy the plot. Cut out non-essential information, intersperse the rest throughout the story (see also: Telling).
- Flat Writing:
- Areas you ‘phoned in.’ (In the first draft of my novels, it’s always Chapter Seven.
) This happens to all of us and is tricky to spot. Best advice: Read your story out loud. - Transitions:
- Be sure your characters aren’t dropped into places or situations that haven’t been set up. Provide your reader with breadcrumbs so they don’t lose their way. Put in a scene break if you’re starting a whole new situation.
- Plot Holes & Logical Inconsistencies:
- Sometimes we can’t see these but the best way is to be honest with yourself. If you feel slightly unsure about a plot point or if there’s some part of the writing that causes you to stop or stumble, deal with it now. If you think someone else isn’t going to notice, you’re wrong.
- Phony Dialogue and Over-writing:
- These go together because there’s an attempt by the writer to give too much information in the wrong way (see also: Telling). Dialogue has to sound natural (though in order to sound natural in writing, it generally has to be more succinct than the way people actually talk). Cut information and dialogue that keeps the story from flowing. This is also a good time to point out that any dialogue tag other than “says/said” or “asks/asked” is risky. This is because those words are almost invisible to the reader. Other tags like “interjected” or “peppered” may seem descriptive but they distract and take the reader out of the story.
- Tell-tale Adverbs:
- If you often end a dialogue tag with an adverb, you are telling the reader what the emotions are, not showing (see also: Telling) (is there a pattern here?). This is a matter of degree. Adverbs are allowed, but use sparingly. Try to show what the character is feeling. Examples – “…she said, morosely,” becomes “…she said. Her mouth drooped, echoing the downward curve of the umbrella she held over her head. “…he responded, suspiciously,” becomes, “he responded, his eye darting like erratic ping-pong balls.”
- Narrator Intrusion:
- This is tricky. Does your narrator speak like one of the characters? Even in first person narration, you need to be aware of and make a distinction between what is narrative and what are the character’s thoughts. Also, in first person, reduce the number of “I’s” used. Find another way to say the same thing.
- Floating Characters & the Smell Test:
- Floating characters do a lot of talking to each other without being grounded in their world. Intersperse bits of information that tells us where they are, what the environment around them is like and what their senses are picking up. This brings us to “The Smell Test” which is more than smell, it’s about incorporating all the senses into your writing. “The breeze, while refreshing in its warmth, repeatedly whipped hair into her eyes and mouth.” “He idly played with the peas left on his plate.” “She caught a whiff of cilantro as she walked past the restaurant. The smell zapped her back to the day she met….”
- Repeated words:
- This seems nit-picky but is important because using the same word too often in the same vicinity causes a careful reader to notice. This pulls them from the flow of your story and that is the last thing you want. Also, be careful about using an unusual word too often in the same work. It’s noticeable and causes the same reaction.
- Spelling and correct usage, of course:
- Spell-check your work, but be aware that it won’t catch your confusion over “there, their and they’re” or lie/lay or past/passed or other usage errors. If you’ve had these problems corrected by other people in the past, make a list of your common errors, pin it on your bulletin board, and make sure you always check your work for them before sending it out.
It’s a lot, but don’t let yourself be overwhelmed. The more you write, the more you pay attention to these things, the more automatic some of them will become. It doesn’t mean you’ll be able to spot all your mistakes. It’s always easier to see them in someone else’s work, so trusted first readers are a vital part of the revision stage. However, your first drafts will improve and you won’t have as much work to do afterwards. And here’s the most important part: if you do your best to look for and solve the problems associated with these issues, your work will have a better chance of being published. End of story. 
Happy writing and good luck!
Feel free to copy this graphic as your reminder:
The Chain Story
Take the time to check out successful writer, Mike Stackpole’s newest project.
It’s called The Chain Story and combines collaboration, networking and organization to collect an ever-lengthening chain of adventure stories from a burgeoning list of talented writers. The stories are virtually linked by virtue of being ‘told’ to the assembled at The Wanderer’s Club, though each story stands alone. In fact, stories can be set in any location–real, fantasy or parallel–and any time–or several times–with any subject matter. The only criteria is that they be a tale of adventure.
Check out the site’s Table Of Contents to see the order of the stories.
The stories themselves are posted on the author’s websites, giving readers an opportunity to see what else that writer is up-to. All authors are posting these stories for free for a limited period of time.
Don’t miss it!
Call for Submissions
Third Person Press
Third Person Press is excited to announce a call for submissions for Unearthed, Volume III in the Speculative Elements Series.
This anthology of speculative fiction from writers who have a connection to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia follows on the heels of the phenomenally successful, Undercurrents, released in December 2008. Volume II in the series,Airborne, will be released at our launch on October 6, 2010 at the McConnell Library in Sydney, NS.
Submissions will be accepted between June 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. Before submitting, please read the submission guidelines, the expanded guidelines and, if possible, Undercurrents.
Bookmark the Third Person Press website for updates and information. Or, you can follow us on Facebook and twitter.
What People Say