Surrounded by Water by Stefanie Freele, A Review

Stefanie Freele’s collection, Surrounded by Water, contains stories with strong, often lyrical, language and believable, down-to-earth characters, each piece, a reading experience.  It’s her women I am drawn to.  They’re tough.  In “Over the Rolling Waters Go,” the creeping reality of a wife and mother is juxtaposed against the peppy gung-ho spirit of her husband and his idea of family dynamic.  What seems at first blush to be an innocent virtue turns out to be bullying very quickly.  The suspense builds and…I won’t talk about the ending. 

Another mother, in the short but totally satisfying, “If the Unsuitable Neighbor Smells Snow,” shows her own fierce determination. 

“A Bunch of Cash Landed my Way” brings us humorous wishful thinking and “The Problem of Pillows” illustrates Ms. Freele’s deft touch at dialogue. For example, when a student runs into professor with the instincts of a sybil.

“You again,” she [the professor] says without glancing my way.  “You’re not locked in the Bermuda Triangle.” This is stated like a professorial fact, one she may test me on next Tuesday. 

I check my person and confirm I’m not locked anywhere; but as always, I’m intrigued by mention of the Bermuda Triangle, a place you may enter, but gamble on an exit.  I respond, “I’m free to come and go.”

The professor predicts the student will need a new pillow and because the prof has been right in the past, and the old pillow is one of “procrastination,” the student runs out and buys a new one, “a down one, filled with pluckings from once-warm bodies.”  One of my favorite lines in the story is “All of my unfinished business lies upon that pillow, snuggles along its two-hundred thread count loveliness.”  

Wonderful combination of image and meaning and this kind of language can be found throughout. 

And then there is “While Surrounded by Water,” for which the collection has been named.  I’m tempted to call it a “flash novel” because though it is the length of a short story, the content is as gratifying as a much longer work with characters in crisis coming to grips with who they are.  Once again there is a strong, tough woman at its center, one who is underappreciated but full of life and determination.  This seems to be a theme in Ms. Freele’s work.  Quiet triumphs over what life dishes out. 

Published by Press 53 out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with gorgeous cover designed by Kevin Morgan Watson and art by Dariusz Klimczak, Surrounded by Water is a collection worthy of a large appreciative audience.  

Storm Interview, Me and Gloria Garfunkel : Pure Slush's 2014- A Year in Stories

Gloria Garfunkel interviews me about my story cycle for Pure Slush's 2014 A Year in Stories.* 

Gay Degani 
The Storm
January 20 2014 
Interview by Gloria Garfunkel 

There’s no doubt about it, this is the Gothic opening of a creepy tale. How did you decide to start with the point of view of a distant narrator and then switch to that of the protagonist, Jamie. 

 I’m not sure this was a conscious decision, but rather what occurred to me as I thought about how to sustain a group of stories that would arc over the entire year. I realized I had to create something to entice readers to come back and the stranger showed up on the screen when I first sat down to write. When I began this project, I knew I wanted to use the creek and some 1920’s bungalows I pass by on my walks in the late afternoon. It can get rather eerie along the Arroyo and I found these elements compelling. I also knew creating a neighborhood would allow me a variety of interconnected characters, but who they would be, I didn’t know. Who was the stranger? I didn’t know that either. 

Do you like Gothic tales and movies and if so, what are your favorite? 

It’s funny that you cast this as Gothic. I hadn’t thought about this project as anything but suspense, but it makes perfect sense to me. I realize now how inevitable it is that I would write in this way. I’ve been an avid lifetime reader of Gothic romances (no vampires or werewolves, please, just brick up the wife in the wall of the manse). 

From my first Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt novels to the Brontes and Daphne DuMaurier, I’ve never tired of them. I even wrote my dissertation on feminism in Gothic romances of the 19th century. 

What do you think are the Gothic elements in this first story and were they all intentional or did some just creep in? 

Although I would answer this question “they just crept in,” it is obvious years of reading these kinds of stories has had its influence on me. What could be more Gothic than angry nature? And wind! Night! A heroine who feels threatened and takes action? A dark stranger? A seemingly interested male? I just realized too, that though they live in the bungalows, there’s a deserted mansion next door! Wow. 

Discounting what happens later, does the hero, the stranger Mars who is the son of Mr. German, give you the creeps like he does me? 

I wanted Mars to be unsettling and suspicious. I want the reader to wonder about him so I made him aggressive with his attentions. Creating tension is the only way I know to get people to move on to the next story. 

Is the Gothic element just an opening scene or does the story proceed to a Gothic ending? Don’t tell me, but I hope Jamie’s kids are safe. 

My goal has always been to have mystery in this story. As I said before, I hadn’t really thought of it in terms of labels, so I hadn’t considered a “gothic” ending. In Jane Eyre and Rebecca, fire destroys Thornfield and Manderlay respectively. Both Mr. Rochester and Maxim de Winter are ruined men, but their women are faithful. I’ll have to think about this. You’ve opened up a door here, Gloria. The ending is, as yet, unwritten.

You can read interviews by Gloria Garfunkel with other authors participating in Pure Slush's 2014-A Year in Stories here: http://pureslush.webs.com/gginterviews.htm#931986546


*Pure Slush’s big project for 2014 is under way. It’s a multi-volume anthology called 2014, it includes 12 volumes, each volume devoted to a month of the year, and therefore named January Vol. 1, February Vol. 2, etc.

Each writer involved is contributing one story per month ... so 12 stories in all, from 28 of the 31 writers involved. (11 from two of them, and 7 from the last.)

And each of these writers is taking one day of each month - the 5th, the 13th, the 21st, for example - and setting his / her stories on that same day of every month.

So, for example, a writer takes the 10th – Friday 10th January, Monday 10th February, Monday 10th March, Thursday 10th April, etc – throughout the year.

What we’re publishing is a series of stories from each writer that arcs across the whole year, involving the same character or set of characters. Twelve days in the life of that person or people. So every month, as the books are released, readers can dip into these characters’ lives. Like a serial.

Each volume is being released (in print and eBooks) a month or more before the start of each month in 2014 ... so readers can read a story a day, in real time.

Written in the present tense, these stories can be read as if they are happening NOW ... which if the reader chooses to read one per day, will be like experiencing these characters in real time.

All the days of the month were assigned to writers who said yes, I want to be involved, put my name against a date! ... and you can check out who they are by clicking here.

Sunday Flash

mint
science
video
feline
god 

55 words

The Faithful 

Video cameras around the Washington Mint are gods to the feline population along 9th Street. They gather to pray several times a day when a high priest makes his rounds dropping sardines at each surveillance point. No rhyme or reason to this ritual, but cats never question religion or science.

The 2014 Project-Win a Free Book!

The drawing has happened. The winners win the month of January for Pure Slush's 2014-12 Months of Stories!! They are--puh-rumpuh-bum--Jo Gatford,Jayne Martin, Debbie Kirby,Jeff Brown, and Inga Harris!!!

*****************************************************


I want to give away January!!! Participate!! You just might win a free 2014-A Year in Pure Slush's 2014-12 Months of Stories book, vol. 1!!!!

If you add your name in the comments below (it may take a while to appear)  between 12:00 AM PST January 19 and 11:59 AM January 19th, you may win 1 of 5 free print books of 2014-A Year in Stories!! Yep, I'm having a random drawing on January 20th. 

Or if you are on Facebook, you can enter at my regular page: Gay Degani or my Gay Degani-Author Page.

****

Nineteen days into the 2014 Project - A Year in Stories and it's kind of taken over my life.  Well, not really, but it's kept me busy reading.  So far I've read the following:

The Miracle of Small Things by Guilie Castillo-Oriard
La Ronde: Made and Gina by Townsend Walker
The Meet Cute by Derek Osborne
Ralph Rudinsky here... by Gloria Garfunkel
Carmine by John Wentworth Chapin
first Impression by Lynn Beighley 
Wingy by Andrew Stancek
Isa by Rachel Ambrose
Carpet Muncher by Gill Hoffs
Snakes and Snails by Susan Tepper
Father Eleanor by Jessica McHugh
You Can't Choose Your Friends by Shane Simmons
Cornfield by Michelle Elvy
Storm Lake by Len Kuntz
First Inning by Michael Webb

Making Music byJames Claffey

The Suicide Club by Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz

Compassion by Stephen V. Ramey

These stories are available in print as well as an ebook or Kindle edition.  And they go on for the whole year.  Here's what editor and publisher Matt Potter says on the back of the January edition:

So this is the idea...a year of stories, one story a day for an entire year, all written like they're happening now as you read them...and each writer has a set day each month, where the read can watch /read about/discover again/enjoy characters' lives as they unfold across the year.

Sunday Flash (55 Words)

river
scrap
award
edge
performance


Juliet Fails

She finishes her 'Juliet' and stumbles through backstage mayhem out into traffic. Horns honk. Lights blind, but she knows how to find the Thames. Her performance belongs on the scrapheap, no awards here. Worse. Only humiliation can follow. On the edge of the river, she doesn’t  hesitate, knowing only too well, she’s a better “Ophelia.”

Beyond the First Goal

When we are new at something, sometimes all we can think about is that first goal.  Learning to roller skate (blade!) doesn’t look that hard.  If  we can stay upright, feet on the sidewalk, body vertical, we’ll soon be doing figure eights and sailing backwards. The same goes for writing.  When we sit down at the keyboard to write a story, we figure if  we can get enough words on the screen, we’ll have a tale worth telling. 

In some ways, we need this attitude to get started.  If we knew we’d fall on our asses for the first twelve times we skated over a twig, a crack, our sister’s Barbie doll, we probably wouldn’t try.  We need that initial belief in ourselves to put the skates on in the first place.  The same is true for writing.  We picture ourselves  clacking away at the computer keys with lines of type building and building.  It is the only way to deal with our initial fear.

However, how we handle the results of those first attempts can dictate success or failure.  For many, a bruised butt and bloodied knees spell defeat.  “I don’t want to do this!  This is too hard” and they head inside to watch Saturday morning cartoons.  Others wear their scabs like badges of honor and take a moment to reassess their goals.  They realize they can’t jump from standing upright on skates to skimming down Devil Hill, carving eights in the liquor store parking lot, floating backward to the awe of the younger kids without blood and guts.

The same is true with writing.  Although there are those who have a natural talent for the written word can sit down and write it without too much angst.  But these are rare cases.  Most of us may write a story that has many strong elements, but as a whole it doesn’t work.  Not yet.  And we need to reassess and learn the craft.

This is the make-or-break moment for most writers, the moment of looking at a piece of writing as it might be read by others, readers who do not live in the head of that writer.  The ability to look at one’s own work with a critical eye does not come easily.  It is a skill that is learned with practice, patience, and awareness of what works and what doesn’t.  An expertise that evolves over time. 

Just as a young roller skater learns the sidewalk is smoother than asphalt, a writer learns clarity is more important that an obscure turn of phrase, but to do this, both must be willing to see beyond their first goals.  They must accept the reality that becoming good at something requires the understanding that learning is a process, that the large goal must be broken down into smaller goals because everything is more complex than we first perceive. 

There is a difference in skating and writing.  We teach different muscles to work harmoniously together.  In skating we train our bodies and our brain too, but most it’s about legs and balance and reaction.  In writing we train our brains–and our hearts. 

How do we train our brains to write?  We set up mini-goals, lots of them, beyond our first goal.  Here are a few I believe in, though sometimes I find it hard to actually do them all!

Mini-Goals for Each Story

• Create content by taking notes, brain-storming, writing a “shit” draft
• Write a draft
• Do research to understand the world you’ve created or the personalities
• Think about story structure
• Make certain everything in a story serves a purpose (especially in flash)
• Be willing to delete that which doesn’t fit into the structure
• Go through the story to improve the language
• Make certain everything that needs to be clear is clear
• Make certain that verbs are active, that nouns are specific
• Proof-read carefully
• Set it aside (this is one of the hardest mini-goals because usually at this stage we are sooooooo excited about what we’ve created, we can’t wait to send it out)
• Reread and make changes after it’s been set aside
• Ask a trusted reader to read it (trusted: gentle, supportive, yet honest, honest, honest)
• Decide what notes you agree with and what you don’t and make edits
• Set aside again, at least an hour or two so that when you proof-read for the final time, you have enough distance to find now what your eye skipped over before
• Send out and cross fingers

Mini-Goals for Personal Growth

• Read widely and deeply
• Talk to others about writing
• Be open-minded
• Try new genres
• Be a mentor

 None of this is necessary if a writer is writing only for himself.   Just as skating up and down the block might make one child happy, putting together a story for fun can work for the “Sunday author.”  But if your goal is roller-derby, you’d better to be willing to work.  And if you want to be published?  Guess what…

This article was first published at Flash Fiction Chronicles on November 22, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 and some tidbits you might be interested in!

 INNOVATIVE READING

I'm participating in a writing project with 30 other writers. This is the brainchild of Matt Potter at Pure Slush out of Australia and involves each of us writing a story for one day a month for all the days of 2014.  

I picked the 19th of each month since my birthday is the 19th of March (St. Joseph's Feast Day and the day the swallows return to Capistrano and now "a very special episode" in 2014 Volume 3). The umbrella title for my twelve stories is "The Old Road," but each one is a separate piece about people who live in this particular neighborhood on the edge of a small city.  

Matt's idea is that readers will read each story on the day it is supposed to have occurred as written by the author.  All stories are told in the present tense to enhance the feeling the action is taking place RIGHT NOW.  

Some of the writers are making the experience more interactive.  For example, below you will find a link  to Stephen V. Ramey's blog,  Ramey Writes, where he intends to discuss each story on the day it is published.  Discussions to ensue!!!  For a taste of Guilie Castillo Oriard's work for January 1, "The Miracle of Small Things." 

I have a Pinterest page where you can find my research and inspiration for the stories I'm writing.  You can find this HERE. Other writers will be doing similar things to make this a fun experience.

To participate, you will need to purchase either the print volume for each month or an ebook. Worth the price to go on this reading adventure. 

If you want to challenge yourself to read the stories, the link to buy the ebook is HERE. 

For Kindle, go HERE. 

For print (and these are gorgeous books!), go HERE. 

For free shipping on print, use this time-limited code: SHIPSHAPE14

THE NOVEL IS STILL ON ITS WAY

I confess I've been holiday-hazed. Exact date for What Came Before is unknown (blame the vagaries of my current life), but coming soon, out in time for AWP in Seattle at the end of February, but hopefully on-line sooner.  Camille Gooderham-Campbell and I are busily doing edits and proof-reading the text. I have a Pinterest Board for this too, HERE.

'Tis More Blessed Giveaway Contenders & WINNERS

Here is a  list of those eligible for the 'Tis More Blessed Giveaway organized by Milo James Fowler.

Stephen Ramey
Linda Manning
Milo James Fowler
Cliff Garstang
Kristy Gillespie
Diane Aurit
Sean Bennick
Katherine Lopez
Glenn Landry
Mia Avramut
Gary Hardaway
T.L. Gray
George Wells

Since I had thirteen entries, I'm giving away two copies of Pomegranate Stories!!!

The winners are, selected from a hat, Linda Manning and T.L. Gray!!!

Please send me your address either by Facebook Message or via email: gaydegani@yahoo.com.

'Tis More Blessed Giveaway - Pomegranate Stories

Just a note that I'm participating in the " 'Tis More Blessed" giveaway sponsored by Milo James Fowler so if you enter you may in a copy of Pomegranate Stories.  I haven't actually figured out how this works!!!  I think it has to do with a helicopter but I don't know how to set it up this late in the game. Sooooooooooo.... If you enter and want my book and can't figure out how to do it through the helicopter thing, just put your name in the comments section and I will have a drawing on the 20th.

My brain is like the rotor of a helicopter at full speed right now and I've got people yakking at me as I type this so please please please put your name down below and I will send the winner a copy of Pomegranate and if over ten people  enter, I will select a second winner, and if over thirty people enter, I will select a third winner.  So enter enter enter.  And as I bonus I will choose one winner (a fourth winner) to receive my new suspense novel, What Came Before, in February.

Serendipitous Flash Fiction Day

I've been busy this morning trying to keep up with all that's out there in the Flash Fiction internet world.  Phew!  A lot is going on.

First up is the December Quarterly issue of Smokelong #42!  And it's just like opening a great big holiday present!  Authors and stories this time around include Caren Beilin'sPortrait of a Writer I Remember as a Young Masturbator, Craig Buchner's Masters of Matchsticks, Michael Chaney's As If a Bestiary Had Wings, Michael Czyzniejewski's The Meat Sweats, Matthew Dexter's Preemie, Kate Folk's Summer of Pinbugs, Rosie Forrest's Next Rest Stop, Twenty-Two Miles, Brendan Gauthier's Freckles, Megan Giddings's Twenty-Five Minute Wait, Jason Jackson's Queuing, Photographs, Morning Eyes, Alisha Karabinus's Everything in This House Is Crooked, Rebecca King's Lot's Wife, Adam Peterson's When You Look for Us, I'll Be Here, Heather Rounds's If You Find an Infant Squirrel, Peter Schumacher's Habits, Nicole Simonsen's How to Write a Hardship Letter, Ashley Strosnider's The Low Hum of Vegetation, Jacqueline Vogtman's Whose Voice We Wanted to Hear, and finally Allison Williams's Śūnyatā.  

My interview with Matthew Dexter is HERE.
My interview with Kate Folk is HERE.
My interview with Rose Forrest is HERE.
My interview with Alisha Karabinus is HERE.

Second up: "Why I Write Flash Fiction" essay up at FFC.  Lastly I have an article up at Flash Fiction Chronicles about why I write flash where I once again call up the reportage of Malcolm Gladwell.  Check it out, leave a comment, share with gazillions. Find the article HERE.

Third: Nonnie Augustine's book has been selected by Kirkus Reviews as a BEST BOOK OF 2013!!!!  Nonnie's book isn't flash, but she's a flasher nonetheless or should I say, Nonnietheless? Here's some LINKAGE and here's what Kirkus has to say:

"Like a well-wrought memoir, this medley of free- and fixed-verse poems combines vivid personal narrative with probing self-reflection...Poetry that often transcends its own bounds, spilling over into readers’ lives and forcing them to confront their own narratives."

Here's a sense of her language: “I almost saw Nessie,” “I almost won the jackpot,” and “I almost had a child. / She was there in my womb / until chromosomes killed her. / My God, that would have been something.” Among the losses, though, it “appears gone for good are dramas and bothers, / threats and therapists, drunk, needy lovers. / And…lovely, lovely, lovely is my cat’s furry belly.”

Folly Blaine reads "Beyond the Curve"

A few years ago, "Beyond the Curve" won a quarterly short story contest on-line.  Sponsored by Women on Writing (WOW!) every quarter, this competition offers a unique option to aspiring writers because submissions are limited to 300 and judged by literary agents, making it doubly cool.  The entire site is a great place to find articles on writing such as Brenda Hill's "Write What You Know: Sage Advice or Hogwash?" as well as links to other writers, classes, and contests.

Here's "Beyond the Curve," the story that gave me the confidence to keep writing when I was just starting to find my voice.  Voiced here by the wonderful Folly Blaine: 

Folly Blaine reads "Something About LA" Right Here

How lucky I am to have come across the wonderful Folly Blaine.  She's the podcast editor over at Every Day Fiction and records stories there.  She's also "for hire" if any one is interested. I commissioned her to produce three of my stories for my blog spot since I've been so busy I have been woefully negligent. Since my suspense novel, What Came Before, will be coming out in various formats in early January, I also figure if I'm going to try and do this right, I need to start stirring up interest so some of you out there will give it a look.  So here's Folly's reading of "Somewhere in LA."  This is the story that won The Glass Woman Prize for 2011.  Thanks you, Beatte Siggriddaughter.




To find out more about Folly, check out her very entertaining blog, Maybe It Was the Moonshine:  HERE.

9/11

Our family has gone to the White Mountains of Arizona for almost thirty years, taking our two small children strapped into the saddle in front of us up rocky mountains, into canyons, across meadows strewn with wild flowers such as purple penstemon, yellow Mexican hat, spirals of "cowboy toilet paper." It's been a respite for us from the crazy rest of the world, but in 2001, not long after we returned to the traffic and noise of L.A, the twin towers of the World Trade Center  in New York were hit by two hi-jacked airplanes.  In Washington D.C, the Pentagon took another hit, and somewhere in the green fields of Pennsylvania, passengers overtook the terrorists whose target was most likely the Capitol or the White House and died in the fiery crash that resulted from their bravery.

We have never been the same.  

Yet every summer, we've packed up our truck and headed east across the desert to the ranch and found the monsoons helped to heal, the cool evenings, balm to our souls.  As individuals, we were lucky to have such a sanctuary, as Americans we had thousands to mourn. 

We met dozens of people over the years at the ranch, strangers on Sunday night, boon companions by week's end.  For us, seeing Marty and George Rozelle when we drove up the dusty road and parked our car by the main house, was always a delightful surprise because returning guests didn't always return the same week. When they did, it was sweetness to enjoy each day of the week. These two, George with his booming sense of humor, his intelligence, his kindness, and Marty who matches him point for point, added so much to our annual visits, they became family too.  

George passed away in 2008, but he left so much of himself behind.  Last night, to honor the losses we have all suffered as individuals, as friends and families, and as a nation, Marty sent out a poem George wrote in the aftermath of 9/11. With her permission,  I'm sharing it with you.

AND THEN

They hit us hard and at home

Lives were lost and buildings destroyed

Smoke, debris, vivid pictures saturated our senses

Shock, fear and anger filled our hearts and minds

And then,

Public servants and people from all walks of life

Performed heroic acts

Rescue and recovery efforts produced

Both miracles and anguish

And then,

We came together as a nation

Reflecting on our lives and values

Families grew stronger

Strangers became friends

And then,

Time passed and old habits returned

Compassion, concern, courtesy, civility

Slowly gave way and once again

Us became me, we became I

And then,

It is now

As we stop to remember and seek meaning

Let us re-dedicate ourselves to

Being a nation of caring, considerate individuals

And then,

We will truly honor the memory of those lost.

George F. Rozelle 

September 11, 2002

Contract Signed for WHAT CAME BEFORE

Like so many writers around the net, I do have a novel and this one has been a long-time coming.  It will be out in late 2013 by Every Day Publishing, thanks to editor Camille Gooderham Campbell.

What Came Before is the story of Abbie Palmer, a woman who has repressed her childhood memories to live a "normal life," but when she learns the secret of her movie star-mother's past, she must face her own demons to understand what came before.

I'm working hard to revise, edit, and proof this project which has been close to my heart for a very long time.

Podcast Library of Stories: MINE!!!

Today at Every Day Fiction, I do "Stephen King." Think "pie-eating contest." It's a five minute listen. Read by the fabulous Folly Blaine.

http://www.everydayfiction.com/podcast-edf127-soggy-sandy-by-gay-degani-read-by-folly-blaine/

The fun thing is I just realized that my podcast library of stories is growing.  Here are some other quck listens if you have the time and inclination.

FLASH FLOOD, read by Folly Blaine
ORANGES, read by Folly Blaine
THE BREACH, read by Robert C. Eccles
THE LONDON EYE, read by Michael Sherlock

Lots happening lately.  

Catherine the Great's Untold Stories!

Out today is Catherine refracted from Pure Slush. Here's the tagline: 

The unofficial unofficial biography! 19 salacious stories that delve deeper into the true life of Catherine the Great ... and where no one has gone before! With Susan Tepper, Andrew Stancek, Sarah Collie, Joyce Juzwik, L. S. Johnson, Todd McKie, Dusty-Anne Rhodes, Christine Tolley, Robert Mangeot, Stephen V. Stephen V Ramey, Gill Hoffs, Anne Scott, Kim Conklin Hutchinson, Claudia Bierschenk, Juliet Beckman Hubbell, Matt Potter, Mira Desai, and me.

From "The Cossack Ultimatum"  by me. 

The steward closed the door firmly behind her. She hurried to her chair, tossed her needlework to the floor, and sat down. “I have a plan.”

Read me on your iPad!

I've just discovered a new site which puts short stories in an app so that they can be read online via all those magic devises like cell phones, iPads, etc.  It's called Ether Books Mobile.  Here's the link: http://writers.etherbooks.com/Default.aspx.  

 I have a piece that is up now called "Heading to Perdition" previously seen at K. C. Ball's 10Flash.  You need to download the app itself to read it via iTunes or Google. 
 You flip the pages like real pages.  I've never seen that before.  Anyway, I'm using it to publish the stories that were printed in mags that no longer publish and there are no archives.   And I'm taking the opportunity to revise them.  So the first one up is Heading to Perdition from 10Flash.  You have to download the app and then go to discover.  Here's the ether site link and info about the story. About "Heading to Perdition."

If you have time, please check it out and give me a review.  Even it you don't care for the story, tell it like it is. 

My FaceBook Digest

I realized today as I was visiting my FaceBook groups that I leave a lot of advice around and decided, hmmm, these could all be turned into craft essays.  But then I thought, good grief, like I don't have enough to do already!  So I maybe when I write a bit I like or feel strongly about, I'll just put it here since I don't really do much with my blog anyway.  I invited anyone who wants to comment to do so! 

At  EDF's Roundtable

Raymond Daley 

How do you deal with a story you don't have an end for? Do you keep it in the hope you'll think of one in the near future or do you abandon it?I've got so much stuff I've started with great ideas that just ran out of steam or eventually turned out not to have legs to stand alone.It's depressing. It's enough to put a writer off writing.
Thoughts? Suggestions?

What I said: 

Set aside, don't abandon, because although not every story ends up being something that you care about, most of them can be "saved."  They are saved when they are set aside for a period of time (an hour, a day, an month) and reread as if written by someone else.  They can be saved by asking specific questions such as what does my character want? what does he fear? what stands in her way? what do I want her to learn?  They can be saved by research.  Google the setting, find key words and look up synonyms. go to wikipedia and check out personality types.  

Go here to find out what others have said:  EDF's Roundtable

AtFlash Fiction Chronicles New and Emerging Writers Group

BonnieZoBell  

I seem to be a kind of binge writer. I can go for long periods of time, days, months, a year, and write every spare second I have. Right now I don’t seem to be writing very much.

What I said:

A friend of mine called me a binge writer and in some ways that's true. Really though I'm at my computer every day for the most part. The thing is I always have several things going at the same time and so my output is somewhat erratic. I've also had a terrible habit of sending things out too soon and I'm trying to curb that impulse. Usually I will be working on all these different things and then I'll get pissed off at one of them because I haven't been able to get it right and I'll say, okay, I don't care if it's shit or not I'm going to finish this sucker today and that's when I make the most progress, But it's never done. Nothing for me is ever done. Every one of my stories for my chapbook has been rewritten to some degree or another. 

Go here to find out what others have said: Flash Fiction Chronicles New and Emerging Writers Group

StoryADay Worth Every Minute

It's taken me almost two weeks to get back around to The StoryADay challenge, but here I am.  As can be seen in my previous post, I managed to keep up--more or less--the first couple weeks, and very pleased that I kept to that commitment.  The second half was tougher for various reasons.  Once I got behind, I struggled to get caught up.  After doing several random prompts, I began to feel stressed about them.  They prompted me to write fast and to get words on paper, but what words?  At some point I began to feel as if any more new "starts" were unnecessary and I needed to go back and start searching for meaning in the ones I had.  

Here's how I finished up:

May 19 Heroine (502)

May 20 Julian Meets Liv (605)

May 21 Wheel of Fortune (704)

May 22 Notes on comfort Zones (760)

May 23 Trap (416)

May 24 Research and rumination on Comfort Zones (500 words)
May 25-28 Worked on Comfort Zones

I'm still working on "Comfort Zones!"  Cannot get it right.  Tried to take bits of it for the Flash Mob 2013 Extravaganza that is going on, but couldn't get it shaped into anything.  Nice descriptions but what did it mean???  So I started the month off terrific but petered out toward the end.  Not disappointed thought because I have two strong stories to work on that I know I can get into shape and there are at least three more that I might be able to do something with.  That's success in my book.  So thank you, Julie Duffy at StoryADay for sponsoring this event and thanks to Sue Ann Connaughton who was my "Accountability" partner.  

It's Past the Middle of May and I'm Still at It

I meant to write this post on the 15th of May, the half-way point of Story A Day month, but as it seems to be for me these days, I've been running behind.  And I'm still behind, but I'm only a couple of days off.  Here is a list of the work I've done, most of them brand spanking new and a couple of stories I've had in my file to revise.  

May 1 You Don't (100)

May 2 Fish Bowl (856)

May 3 Enid (740)

May 4 Wandering by Bus (500)

May 5 Shing (845)

May 6 Julia Roberts (612)

May 7 Snickerdoodled (385)

May 8 Arsenal (450)

May 9 Mono Lake (450)

May 10 PS serial chap 1 (390)

May 11 PS serial chap 2 (405)

May 12 Folderol (855)

May 13 New Life PS serial chap x  (732)

May 14 Lost in the Woods (1080)

May 15 Blue (244)

May 16 Terminus (788)

May 17 The Cossack Ultimatum  (1536)

May 18  Small Town

A Story a Day??? Can I do it?

It's May--Short Story Month--and all kinds of fun stuff is happening.  For example, Julie Duffy over at StoryADay.org has thrown down the gauntlet.  I've decided to take the challenge though right from the get-go I'm thinking "Say What??"  Don't know exactly how I'm going to keep track.  Can't pub the stories here if I want to develop them to submit, but hoping I can at least track the experience.  If for no one else, at least for myself!!

Also it's time for FFC's Short Story Month List of Links to great online stories and it's up to you out there in the ether to make the suggestions.  Here's the scoop.

Every year, Flash Fiction Chronicles has honored May as Short Story Month by asking readers to supply their favorite short story links.  We have asked for 100 links to excellent online stories in the past.  This year I’m hoping we can reach 150!  This sets all of us up with many many great pieces to read during the course of 2013-2014.  This is a loose, fun endeavor.  No prizes and not too many rules.

WHO: You may suggest any short story that can be found online except your own.  You can suggest up to ten favorites.  However, please do not use this opportunity to promote your own work.

WHAT: What we want are YOUR favorites beyond your own.  What stories have made you gasp, smile, laugh, cry, and/or say “I wish I’d written that!”  Short stories can be any length under, say, 10,000 words.  Suggest dribble, drabble, micro, flash, short short, short, you get the idea.

WHEN: May 1 through May 31, 2013.

WHERE: Two places where you can make your suggestions: here at FFC on THIS PAGE in the comments section and at Facebook in our new FFC Short Story Month Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/487327604669717/).  Please do not email suggestions to me or to FFC.

WHY: It’s short story month!

HOW: Using this page in the comment section or the new FFC Short Story Month Group at Facebook, include in this order: the story title, the author, the venue including direct link to the story, and your name.  It should look something like this:

While You Were Away” by Tara Laskowski in matchbook suggested by Gay Degani: http://www.matchbooklitmag.com/laskowski.html