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In 2005 and again in 2008 I attempted to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge, and came up short both years. 2005 I was deployed, so getting the right time to devote to writing was almost impossible. And in 2008 I just ran out of steam, in the first week, and didn’t come even a little but close to completing.

But it’s a new year. I’ve done significantly more writing this year than I did last, and I feel more solid about my skills.

However, I have no story. The story I attempted in 2005 was so under developed, that I just started from scratch and tried it again in 2008. While I didn’t get far in 2008 with it, I did get far enough that I couldn’t really justify picking up where I left off, that would be cheating. So I need to come up with something else I guess.

I’m considering online plot generators or even just character generators and go from there. Oddly enough, for the moment, I don’t have any spare characters just sitting around collecting dust, waiting for a story. But there are a few things I’d like to avoid this year. Vampires, out. Zombies, definitely fucking out. Fey folk, probably out. Elves, dwarves, halflings, out. What’s left? I’ve nothing against fantasy, and while I wasn’t completely wowed by China Miéville’s, “Perdido Street Station,” I did like that it wasn’t bound to many of the standards (maybe clichés?) of fantasy fiction. Or at least the ones I’ve restricted myself to in the past.

So, I got to get to it. Only like 10 days to go to get brain storming, and character creating, and world building, and all that fun shit before I get to the frustration that is actually writing.

I haven’t really read a whole lot of modern urban fantasy. “Valiant” and “Tithe” by Holly Black were both great books, and I certainly loved “The Good Fairies of New York” by Martin Millar. In fact “Fairies” was so good I even picked up Millar’s “Lonely Werewolf Girl” though I don’t really read much in the way of werewolf fiction. I’m going to stop right there, if I say much more about Millar, you might think I’m in love with him. I’m not. Just his voice.

Anyways, this was just a little bit of flash fiction I started this morning, and finished this evening. It might be a prologue to another story I’m kind of percolating right now, but that will have to wait a while, if it ever appears at all. This is really my first attempt at a modern, urban fairytale.
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This isn’t untitled out of some pseudo-artistic pretension, but rather since I really don’t know what to call it. I got angry at myself tonight for not writing more, so I forced myself to write something. This is what came. Read the rest of this entry »

“I hate the snow,”

I say

grinning like a fool

in the Nevada desert

Well, I started to put some more of my work on here.  Over to the right you should see some new pages.  The stuff under, “The World,” is just background information for the setting of many of my stories.  “A Time to Flee,” isn’t written yet, but it is outlined.  What follows is a short character sketch I did to better aquaint myself with some of the characters, and better establish some of their background (for me).  The three introduced in this short are all supporting characters in the story, “A Time to Flee.”  If I do my job right, you shouldn’t have to read this to understand, “A Time to Flee,” but I had to write it to understand the characters. Read the rest of this entry »