Thursday, April 2, 2009

A New Short & Another B

I had a few days of this week remaining to do some writing. I wanted to do some work on A Kookaburra's Laugh, but I also noticed that all my current stories are out in the wild. I had a choice. I could work on two stories I haven't retired or I could write something new.

I wrote something new. 3690 words of Christmas horror. Very much a family who slays together, sleighs together, type of thing. Fun. First draft is done. Time to let sit before revising, and then maybe going out to beta readers - I know who you are, as do you, so no need to throw up offers - it'll be winging your way in the not too distant future. It is currently untitled.

This is for the Inaugural Festive Fear Anthology to be released by Tasmaniac Publications. This first one is only open to Australian writers (sorry), but make sure you keep it in mind for next year (no doubt I'll be reminding you anyway). I expect the TOC to just get better each year. This year I expect quite a few AHWA members to get behind it. Danielle, David, Flick, and everyone else who is an AHWA member and reads this blog - get cracking. You've got until June to submit.

And to top things off, I got Module 2, assignment 4 back today. That's 6 straight B's for semester 1, 2009. At least I'm passing.

For the next couple of days, I'll be reading short stories in "The Book Of Shadows" which has waited patiently for me to get to it, and knocking out a few thousand words to my manuscript. A Kookaburra's Laugh is way too long to keep writing so I'll be calling it by its nickname AKL. Thought I'd better mention this before confusing everyone.

Okay, I'm rambling; time to go.

Speak soon.

BT

7 comments:

  1. Holiday themed horror seems to be a trend this year. I am working on one for an Appalachian Christmas Horror antho. (Open to anyone, as long as it is set in the Appalachian region)

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  2. Oooo...Christmas horror. How appropriate. I noticed another antho with the same premise on Duotrope the other day.

    Sounds fun.

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  3. You write AKL, yet I keep seeing AKC. Now I think you're writing about dogs!

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  4. I was thinking of submitting to that...might have to spend some time thinking about how to add a Marxist twist to a horror story set at Christmas.

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  5. I saw the Appalachian one, and even began researching the area, but got sidetracked while waiting for inspiration. That was at the time I wrote Dreaming, Digging up the Past, and Swirls in Obsidian - I guess the muse came home with the wrong books.

    But this one I'm trying to keep the Aussie feel and gunning for more tension and fear rather than cheap shocks or predictability. Best laid plans and all that...

    Nat - I'll have to look up what AKC stands for. I'm just hoping the K has nothing to do with Korean Boy Bands - mix that with dogs and I'm starting to scare myself - or is that just my twisted imagination again?

    D - good girl.

    Ben - I'd be interested in your brainstorming process for that. I can only think of Scrooge McDuck, but he brings everyone together in some form of Marxist Utopia, instead of giving everyone a free cooked goose - there goes that twisted imagination again.

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  6. Christmas horror, cool! If you need any on-the-spot research questions answered for Appalachia, I live here. Ask away!

    And a B average is very good!

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