Flash Fiction Contest Entry (from my Patreon page)

Re-posting from My Patreon Page:

 

“I usually mirror many of my Patreon and Blog posts; however, with my project for the August 2017 Flash Fiction contest at SFFworld, I have been only posting on my blog.  I feel I needed to include my Patreon page as well so here it is.

A couple of days ago I decided to take up the current Flash Fiction contest challenge at SFFworld.  I have participated in the contest on several occasions before, which is where the origins of most of the content for Mystics and Misfits comes from.  I have been absent a long time and decided I needed to brush up my writing with a challenge.  

If you go to SFFworld.com and look under the writing category you can find the contest thread for the rules.  The contest is open to anyone and is a great source of feedback for your writing.

At this point I now have 969 words of the 1,000 word limit written with only a little bit of closing dialogue to write on my entry.  The deadline is August 31st so I plan to ignore my story for a day or two and them reread it with fresh eyes for errors, plot holes, etc.  Hopefully, by next week I will surprise some old friends by posting an entry.” 

New $1/$3 Reward, Dragon Dreams: Paths of the Wise One Ch. 2 (from my Patreon Page)

I have uploaded today’s $1/$3 reward of Chapter 2 in Dragon Dreams: Paths of the Wise One at My Patreon Page.  Patrons can download either a rich text word document or a PDF file.  If you have a Kindle, I recommend the rich text version.  The write up for this chapter is:

“Here is the second installment of the Dragon Dreams Series.  Our protagonist has encountered the great blue dragon and been drawn into the dream world where it exists.  Now all thoughts of another life come only fleetingly in his dreams in this realm.  Luckily, he manages to find a companion on his journey to discover the truth of this reality, a Siamese cat.  Together they begin a search for a Wise One mentioned in a journal.  What will they find when they locate him?” 

It’s official

Today my blog officially doubled the number of views over the record setting number of 2016 with four and a have months left to go.  Your continued support gives me hope in my endeavors and hopefully sparks ideas for you as well.  Please, if you like what I share, add my posts to your facebook, twitter, or other type of social media.  I need as much exposure as I can get to help my Patreon page come to life, giving me some much needed financial support to continue creating content.

A Word in the Hand, contest entry update

Passed the 650 word mark this morning and I wanted to share the title with you, “A Word in the Hand Beats Two in the Bush”.  I actually came up with that title before I came up with the concept for the crossword content but once you read what I did, the title becomes even another layer of humor in the story.  Long time readers of this blog know that I tend to use every part of a story to tell the story, including the title.

Where I am in the tale is the point of the reveal; however, I still need about 350 more words to be close to the thousand wore requirement of the contest.  Yes, there is some give and take with the limit, but I like to be as close as I can be.  The hard part here is fluffing the story without bogging down the pacing.  I feel I was able to mesh the extended intro into my middle piece without messing up the reading pace but now I have to do so again.  I do leave some room for post reveal filler to bring the story to a close; however, again, I don’t want to drain to much from the reveal moment to fill the word requirement.  Well, not much further.

Contest Update

Okay folks, I am up to 435 words with a longer intro setting up the location, which is an old production plant of the Brandstar Company.  The two protagonists, Bob Ballenban and Sheila Randling are clocking in for their shift.  Outside, a strong summer storm releases a heavy downpour, thunder, and lightning that causes the lights to flicker.  With a little more filler, I will be ready to transition into the main plot point containing the Crossword theme and then a little more writing to finish the punchline.  What do you think so far?

Flash Fiction Contest

Well, I am 235 words into my entry for the August 2017 flash fiction contest.  I have chosen a humorous take on the near future and the rapid growth of technology.  I don’t want to give away too much yet because I am still setting up the punch line.  Also, the actual thematic part of the plot may be only a third of the story, which means I will have to try extending the story with relevant setup material and dialogue.  I have a bad habit of focusing on the meat of the story and struggling to give the world and characters a life of their own.  Many of the short stories in my “Mystics and Misfits” collection are expansions of such tales.

Monthly Flash Fiction Contest for August at SFFworld

If you are interested, the August flash fiction contest at sffworld can be found here August Flash Contest.  The theme for this month is a real skull buster, crosswords.  Basically you have to come up with a thousand word story that is about crosswords, see the link for more details.  I have not entered in some time but I may take a crack at it again, though right now I got nothing.