Kelda Crich

Need More Ideas? Try Wikipedia's Random Article

2012-03-01T04:40:00.003-08:00

I was working on a space pirate story today, but I needed more ideas. A few clicks on Wikipedia's random article search got me: snout moths, an indigenous people's treaty and the Xu Gardens. Wonderful stuff. (I had to click on about a dozen to get the pages that spoke to me.)

The random article link's on the left hand side of Wikipedia. Wikipedia, I love you.

Evil Genius Blogfest

2012-02-28T04:05:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the Golden Eagle's two year blogoversary. I entering her Evil Genius Blogfest -- a day late.

Here's a reprint poem first published in Enchanted Conversation about Snow White's mother. Some of you have seen it before.

Congratulations Eagle. And thanks for being a good blogging friend.

Remember Winter

By Deborah Walker

The lean hare leaping across thewhite sky.

The sun riding high and small andbright,

shine on layers of snow, flakesaccumulate,

into this old, this deepcoldness

I never knew I would feel this.

Spring, summer, autumn, and

then the winter.

I fell though time,

my fate a rolling, turning ballof ice.

Three times I bound my daughter.

First with coloured strings,

tying her to her childhood,

so tight she could not breathe,

Then I pulled the shell combthrough her hair,

My teeth were poison-needle sharp

I'd get into her head,

if I couldn't have her heart.

The third was the offer of flesh,red-ripe with promise.

She bit it eagerly remembering Eve,

the taste of sweet, awaitingknowledge.

Forgetting that old Eve now sits withher raven,

in the cave, alone.

I knew you then, my daughter, maid ofspring.

Innocence and dreaming.

Pure and perfect.

Monumental maiden preserved in glass.

I knew that that all things turn

on the cycle the seasons bring

White-armed Persephone leaving

behind the four seeds in the barrenground.

Daughter, you shed my poisoned gifts,

Will you remember winter,

as you call for the shoes of hotiron?

I will dance, and I will beglad,

for I long to feel some warmth.

But daughter, remember winter, forshe will come again.

Writers' Workshop, Do It Yourself Stylee

2012-02-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

Ever since I started writing, I've wanted to go to the writers workshops, Clarion, Odyssey, Visible Paradise. And in fact I did go, to Milford UK, two years ago. That was a lot of fun. But it's a critique based workshop, where all the participants crit each others stories. I'd like to go to a workshop that incorporates teaching, too.

Now that ain't going to happen, not in the foreseeable future, they're in the States, (any body know of a good one in the UK, please let me know), and they're expensive.
So I've devised my own, do it yourself, at home, on your lonesome workshop. Here's my schedule:

2000 words a day nanowrimo style on my novel
A critique a day for another writer via my writers' forum. I'm not so keen at receiving crits. This is the good thing about the do it yourself workshop. You can tailor it to your preferences.
A chapter a day looking through Nancy Kress' Beginnings, Middles and Ends, including doing the exercises.
I might also do a 24 hour story, a la Writers of the Future workshop.

All this is a bit of fun, but also I'm hoping to improve the level of my craft. It won't be the same, I know. But it should be fun to motivate me. First day today. So far so good. Got to do a crit while making the children their tea.

Are there any other componets I could add?

ps. Good news, a couple of my poems went up today at Death Head Grin.

Crit my Blog, if you've a mind.

2012-02-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is my second blog under my pen name, Kelda Crich (horror and dark fantasy). In terms of readers it's a lot less successful than my Deborah Walker blog (science fiction and nice fantasy)

I think a lot of that is to do with follow back. When I comment I only comment as Deborah Walker. But maybe not.

I guess maybe it's not clear that this is a horror blog. I'm not sure I'm pitching to my target. What do you think, guys?
Anyhoo, I'm taking part n the Critique My Blog blogfest, hosted by Teralyn Rose Pilgrim. I'm a looking for comments.

You can make comments on:

a. Appearance: Does it appeal to you? Is it too busy, or too plain?

b. Layout: Is it difficult to navigate? Is it cluttered, or sparse?

c. Frequency: Does the blogger post too often? Not often enough?

d. Content: Are the posts interesting? Unique? Are they focused, or all over the place?

e. Quality: Are the individual posts too long, too short, too sloppy, or too generic?

Where's my Magic Bean? Climbing to the Next Level.

2012-01-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

Leveling up. This brings me right back to my gaming days. When you level up you attain new heights.

In writing term what activity bought you up to the next level? I had a biggie,right at the start of my writing career when I started to sub-- big time. Stories of success though sheer hard work also welcome

Thinking About the A-Z Challenge. Any Advice?

2012-01-15T04:36:00.000-08:00

Have you taken part in any of the A-Z challenge? I'm thinking about signing up this year. This involves writing 26 blog posts in April and visiting other blogs taking part in the challenge. I thought about writing a series of posts about writing inspiration. I can think of something for A and B, and I'll wing it from there.

If you have taken part:

Did you have a theme? How did it go?
What A-Z blog posts did you enjoy.
Do you have any tips for me?

Oh my, I've just read this:
"Then in 2011 nearly 1300 bloggers signed up and once again the majority of those finished. People are still talking about that Challenge."

This is one popular blog challenge.

I'm Not Wonder Woman-- Or am I?

2012-01-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

The children went back to school today, so it was my first real day of writing. Here's what I wanted to do:

Get my race score up to 30 for my poetry (ie. have 30 subs in front of poetry editors with a view of maintaining that all year). So to do that I need to write at least another 36 poems this month. That's amibitous.

Then I remembered three anthologies I wanted to sub for with deadlines at the end of the month:

Dark Faith 2
The Jim Baen Memorial Writing Competition
Spectral Press Competition.

But I ran into a slight panic when I realised that I've got too many projects, and not enough time. I'm not wonder woman, you know.

So what to do? These are all self-imposed deadlines by the way. It's a question of either prioritising of making more time.

How do you decide what to do with your time?

Edit--12 Jan and with a little modification I'm not doing too bad. No need to panic after all.

Poetry Race Score modified to goal of 20-25* complete
Dark Faith 2* story complete and subbed
Spectral Press Competition.* story complete and subbed
The Jim Baen Memorial Writing Competition ongoing

Mythos Story Published

2011-12-17T07:26:00.000-08:00

My story 'Stone City, Old as Immeasuarable Time' has been published by Lovecraft E-zine. What a fabulous illustration by Steve Santiago. Cosmic horror, despair, old stange places, and neolithic monuments. They tend to slip into my work. The stone mothers in my story are inspired by the prehistoic Venus Figurines, quite a familiar trope in my work.

I'm designating this Lovecraft Homage month, because a couple of weeks ago Innsmouth Free Press published 'Future Lovecraft' which includes of of my poems.

BBC Short Story Competition Open to all UK Published Writers

2011-12-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

If you a non Brit and you've published in the UK, you can enter the BBC International Short Story Award. I hope this applies to some of you, because the prize is fifteen thousand English pounds. Wow. That's good scratch.

Full guidelines are here. Deadline 27th February 2012.

Cup and Ring Carving Poem

2011-12-01T10:24:00.001-08:00

My poem, 'Cup and Ring Carving' is up at Mirror Dance. Cup and ring carvings, are prehistoric and found all over the world. No one know what they meant to the people who carved them.

I love neolithic monuments and always try to visit them when I can. I particularly like standing stones, large and small, my favourite has got to be the fallen standing stone ring at Arbor's Low in Derbyshire (showing my roots there). I wrote a poem about that too, 'The Standing Stones Have Fallen, but the Debt Remains.' It got published in Bull Spec. I'll have to try and get that reprinted somewhere.

Hey, maybe at Mirror Dance.

Tit-for-Tat. I Want to Follow you Back.

2011-11-27T04:54:00.001-08:00

As my numbers creep up on this blog, I'm worried that I might have missed some people to follow back. I'm going to be following you back under the name Deborah Walker, by the way.

If I've missed you, please either let me know via the comments or drop me a line deborahjudithwalker at hotmail dot com.

I want to be your follower.

Suction Cup Dreams: An Octopus Anthology

2011-11-21T03:06:00.001-08:00

A call for octopus short stories from Suction Cup Dreams: An Octopus Anthology.

Pay is $20 and a copy of the anthology.
Deadline 31st January 2012

Now how can you resist that?

Ghostly/Supernatural Writing Competition

2011-11-15T04:27:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Cate Gardner, a writer of the weird and scary for details of this Spectral Press/ Read Horror are writing competition.

writeus an original ghostly/supernatural story, about 7500 – 8000 words

think MR James, Algernon Blackwood, HP Lovecraft and ArthurMachen.

think imaginative,atmospheric and unsettling tales,

where suggestion, implication, tension andsuspense play leading roles.

Prizes are publication and SpectralPress publications.

deadline 31st January.

I'm going to enter, I hope. It's a great excuse to get stuck into some longerhorror.

Also some news, I've had recent acceptance from Stupefying Stories and After Ever After.
Hoorah.

Congratulations to me,

2011-11-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

or snagging an acceptance. My poem 'Cup and Ring Carvings' , will appear in the winter edition of Mirror Dance, a rather lovely poetry/prose e-zine edited by the talented writer/editor, Megan Arkenberg. I've been published in Mirror Dance before. If you're of a mind check out my poem: 'Madam White Snake'. A very popular Chinese folk tale, akin to say little Red Riding Hood.

Gosh, isn't that illustration, marvellous?

Zombidays

2011-11-07T09:28:00.001-08:00

I was very pleased to receive my contributor's copy of Zombidays this week. It's one of the last anthologies to be produced by the Library of Living Dead Press (the Library will be concentrating on novels for the foreseeable future). My story, 'Burn Bright and Bide' is quite seasonal, celebrating Bonfire Night, (5th November) when we celebrate the fact that Guy Fawkes didn't manage to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

Without the Library of the Living Dead Press I'm sure I wouldn't have written so many zombie stories. One story even made it into the British Fantasy's 40th anniversary anthology, Full Fathom Forty anthology (that story also made it into a Year's Best Lesbian Stories anthology).

So thank you, Library of the Living Dead Press, I'll miss your anthologies. But who knows you may very well rise again.

Coffin-Hop Winner: Jason

2011-11-02T04:16:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jason Darrick who has won my coffin-hop prize of $15. Thanks to everyone who entered I really enjoyed the suggestions for work of online horror.

Coffin Hop was fab, wasn't it? I really enjoyed reading everyone's blogs. And I seem to have come out of it with lots of great prizes.

I won Elizabeth's tiny book and the Ones-Buck collection.
I also won e-stories/zine prizes from Milo, Carole, and Penelope.

I hope I haven't missed anyone. It's all been a whirl.

Thanks guys. Is it just me, or was this more fun than writing? We should just hop around each other's blogs all the time, winning prizes.

Ahoy Sea Serpent Blog Hop

2011-10-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is the final instalment for one of the storylines in Kerri Cuevas's Ahoy Sea SerpentBlog Hop.

You're here because you chose to swim back to the larger dome and the peopleyou saw within.

Go Back: you gowith the Creature
Start Over

There's no wayyou're going through that green glowing door. Quick as a flash you flip in thewater and head towards the large dome. You're expecting the sea serpent tofollow you, so you swim as fast as you can. It feels like your heart'sbursting. A few more metres-- only a few more metres. You stretch out your handto touch the dome. When you glance around you see the sea serpent is waiting bythe green door, staring after you with a curious expression on its face

You almostturn back, but that's ridiculous. There are people in the bigger dome, wellalmost people anyway. Perhaps they're mermaids. Or perhaps this is the lostcity of Atlantis. Hopefully they're air breathers too, the oxygen tank is low.This is your best bet for survival,

You kicktowards the membranous doorway, and push through it. It's like swimming throughcling-film. For a moment your body presses taught against the membrane. Thereno air. You can't breathe. Panic overwhelms you. You should have taken theother door. But, finally it rips and youfall through to the floor of the dome, where you lie gasping. You hear the odd sucking noise as the membranereseals behind you.

The air! Yousuck in massive lungful. It's breathable but with an odd taint, of salt whatelse? You think of creatures washed ashore bloated and corrupt. You're confused.You rub your eyes because you can't see. It's as if you're looking throughcloudy water.

A crowd of peoplesurround you, as you struggle to sit up. A man reaches down to help you."Isthis Atlantis?" you ask. A hidden city of treasures, knowledge, magic.

The manreaches down and touches you gently with a cold hand. "Atlantis? No, mydear."

Your visionclears. You see them. All of them intheir various stages of dissolution, a woman with her skin hanging in tatters,moving slightly as if moved by an unseen current. There's a bloated look aroundsome of them, and others are a mixture of bones and flesh. You do not scream. Youare surprised by this. Your mind feels calm, as calm as heavy water.

"This isDavy Jones's Locker. The resting place of those who drown at sea," explainsthe man.

"But the seaserpent led me here," you say.

"He ledyou to the green door," says the man. "You should have gone with him.He's a kindly soul. That pathway wouldhave led to the surface, but now . . . now, it's too late, my dear."

You struggleto your feet.

"Don't worry.We're not so bad here." The man dances a few steps. "We'll while awayeternity waiting for the sea to dry."

You hear music,haunting and compulsive. You find yourfeet moving in time, a wild and spinning motion like a whirlpool of the sea andyou join with your dead fellows dancing in the locker of the drowned dead.

And outsidethe sea serpent looks on, mournfully. You realise that you should have gonewith him. The music swirls around you,as you dance to sound of the sea.

Coffin Hop Competition: Small But Nice Cash Prize

2011-10-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. Competition. Competition. I gotta think of a great competition and come up with a prize for the Coffin Hop around horror writers websites.

Here you go, I've thought of one:

What's your favourite horror/dark fantasy story or poem, available to read for free online?
To enter, nominate the story or poem in the comments. It can be old or new. (You can nominate one of your own, why not)? and post the link. I can't stand judging, so I'm going to select a valid entry by some kind of random process, possibly involving a hat.

The prize, is $15 to be paid via paypal, on the understanding that you treat yourself to something Halloweeny.

Visit the other Coffin Hoppers for more competitions. I've got my eye on Elizabeth's tiny book.

Poetry Jag. Best Venues for Horror and Dark Poems?

2011-10-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

Lovely, lovely poetry. I'm in the mood. I've got a lousy one poetry sub out as Kelda, compared to fourteen subs as Deborah (science fiction and nicer fantasy). This needs to be rectified. What are you favourite horror or dark poetry venues?

Duotrope's listing 109 venues. That's a lot. Although many of them take all types of speculative poetry. I've got a few dark poems in the shed, but I probably need to get writing. Ralan's also a useful guide, listing poetry, flash and micro-fiction twitter markets together. Any writers of dark poetry out there?
Here's where I'm subbing to:

Death Head Grin No pay. Takes reprints.
Dark Metre . Newish Market. £2.50 reprints only.
BULL SPEC takes dark poem. High quality print venue *waves* to the editor who's a follower
Scifaikuest horror haiku and other minimalist forms
OG's Speculative Fiction
Mirror Dance no pay. Lovely illustrations

Tip: And this is totally unsubstantiated. It's just a feeling. It's always worth subbing a poem to anthology if they take poetry. They don't get as many poetry subs as prose.

How I Write . . .Anthology Fail

2011-10-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

I've really been enjoying writing for anthologies and themed publications lately. Recently I've subbed to 10Flash, Attic Toys, Rocket Science, Lost Tales of Dark Civilizations, Damnations and Dames, and two this week Nasty Snips II and Mortis Operandi.

Why? Well, I love the way that the anthology call gives me a jump-start for a whole new story.

And with a lot of subs, comes the occasional acceptance and the rejections. I used to think that the rejected stories would be a hard sell, but curiously enough I did some stattage and it seems that a story made for an anthology is more likely to sell. You can take my stattage with a pinch of salt I suppose, because the numbers aren't that high, but still . . .

Also worth considering is the fact that payment level seems more or less irrelevant. For instance a story rejected by a token paying anthology can find a home in a semi-pro or professional paying venue. Go figure.

Here's a few anthologies that I subbed for and was rejected by, and then subsequently sold the story.

Dead Bait
Book of Tentacles
Federations
Destination Future
Sword and Sorceress
War of the Worlds

What about you readers? Do you sub to anthologies? Any success in selling rejected stories elsewhere?

How I write . . . Subbing Like a Loon.

2011-10-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Warning: mileage will vary.

I'm going to have a real go with the short stories this month. I'd really like to get my race score up to 20 for Kelda. Have you heard of race score, guys? You give yourself points for each submission you make. When the story comes back, either rejection or acceptance you lose the points. It's not my idea, Dean Wesley Smith came up with it. (Although I have written about it, on Flash Fiction Chronicles if you want more info).It's just a trick to motivate you. I find it helpful, because it really pushes me to find markets, and you never know where a sub is going to find a good home.

So, let's see where I stand. After a flurry of rejections, and an acceptance or two I stand at 9.

Let's come up with a list of markets
F&SF
Apex
Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations (I've subbed there today, but it does look like a tasty market).
Shock Totem.
Spinetinglers.

So next I'll go through my stories, and see if anything can be subbed. I'll refresh myself with the guidelines for each market, and read some stories and see what I've got that can be a good fit.

That's just off the top of my head. What I'll do next, is nip over to duotrope.com and gather some more markets. I'll do a search for horror short stories, and familiarise myself with the markets.

Then off I go. It's not that time consuming especially as a lot of my subs are already in standard manuscript format. If I find a market that I like, but I've got nothing suitable for I will write something new

The good thing about this approach is that I'm in control of it. I can't control acceptances, but I can control submissions. I know the numbers can seem scary to people. But, hey, I'm not saying you should do this. I'm just saying that this is what I do, and that it works for me.

This is pretty much my process, and has been for the last couple of years. It's kinda hard work, but I like it.

What about you, readers? Any good horror/dark fantasy markets you can share? Is your subbing process like mine, or do you do think completely differently.

It's All About the Recognition

2011-09-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to A Quid for the Quill who gave me this snazzy award. I'd like to pass it on to some nifty blogs with under 200 followers. These are all fine writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Good times at Joe Rommel's Muse Musings
Cate Gardner writer of the strange and the dark.
Lydia S. Gray always makes me smile
Michael at Something Sticky This Way Comes
Juliette Wade. Gosh I don't know how many followers she's got. Probally heaps, but there's always lots to be learnt about the craft from this professional science fiction writer.

A Quid for the Quill and Lesann also gave me the Versatile blogger-- thanks guys.

A Heads-up for Little Red

2011-09-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

One of my favourtie venues, Enchanted Conversation opens for subs on 27th of September. This is a venue for the retold fairy tale.

And this issue's theme is 'Little Red Riding Hood'. Enchanted Conversation takes prose up to 2000 words (prefers up to 1500) and poetry. It's one of the best paying venues on the market (10 cents per word for prose, $50 for a poem), and it has very high production values.

I'm going to have to think of a twist for my story. Werewolves spring to mind, but I think that theme is going to be popular (maybe too popular).

Check out the guidelines, and good luck to those who decide to sub for it.

Nabbing More Short Story Sales

2011-09-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

When selling a short story, some things are out of your control. But thinking about what is under your control I'd say:

Quality of the Story.

Where you submit it.

Fairly uncontroversial stuff. And there are ways of working on your story quality. But something occurred to me today when I noticed that my four big sales this year are to venues where I'd previously published. This tells me that editors who've previously bought my work are more likely to buy another story. And a little stattage to back me up: I'm five times more likely to sell a story to if it's a second or more sale.

So that's led me to a new wheeze. I've made a list of priority markets. This includes venues: I've published in, venues where I've received encouraging responses, and a couple of venues with higher than average acceptance rates, plus my all-time dream market. They're all top markets, there's no compromise.

My plan is to sub to these markets as a priority, to see if I can get more sales. It all seems a bit obvious really. Do you guys do this? I must admit I wasn't before I had my revelation today.

Judge and Jury Blogfest

2011-09-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm taking part in the Judge and Jury Blogfest run by my new blogger friend Gwen. The blogfest is still open is anyone wants to join us. Here are a few details from her site, and my entry is below.

HOW DO I PLAY?

Every Suspect (remember, this includes the Jury) must write a short defense scene in 300 words or less (a short intro to the scene is acceptable). It can be about anything legal or illegal, minor or major. A stolen kiss, cheating, robbery – even murder! It does not have to involve the law or court. Feel like sharing a scene from your manuscript? Cool! Or maybe a scene from a short story you’ve written? Awesome! It only has to be a scene where someone defends themselves against something.

WHAT ARE THE RULES?

The blogfest will run from Monday, September 5 – Saturday, September 10.
At 12:01am Monday, September 5, a linky tool will go live on Run Gwen, Run!
Post your entry on your blog and then add a direct link to your post to the linky tool on my blog before 11:59 p.m. September 10th.
Come back on Wednesday, September 14 to see the six finalists (chosen by the Jury), and then again on Saturday, September 17 to see the winners!
All genres and forms are welcome.

WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?

Each of the 12 Jurors will receive a $5 Amazon Gift Card since serving on the Jury is compulsory (According to the Judge, this should in no way be construed as a bribe!)
A $10 Amazon Gift Card booby prize will be awarded randomly to a new follower – I’ve already picked out the Follower’s number. You may already be a winner!
Third place prize is a $5 Amazon Gift Card
Second place prize is a $10 Amazon Gift Card
FIRST PRIZE is a $15 Amazon Gift Card
All prizes to be awarded at the completion of the blogfest.

Here's my entry, taken from my possible novel: 'The Artifical Heart of Tilda Skerritt.'

"Just look what you've done, Sila." Senior Glaz tapped his fingers against his cheek, a sure sign that he was angry. "Look, I said."

Sila glanced out of the window at the burning under city. Weaving through the rising smoke the lights of the security vehicles flashed blue and yellow. The control efforts were unfocused, infective in the face of such concerted chaos.

"This is your fault, Sila. The media reports have indentified you. The people are asking questions. The Senate are asking questions."

"But it was your idea to set the hunters on the refugees," said Sila. "I was only . . ."

"Only following orders?" Senior Glaz raised an eyebrow. "Try telling that to the mob."

"I'm not to responsible, sir. I had no reason to believe that the hunters would betray us. It goes against everything they stand for."

"And yet they did."

"I believe it was the son of one of the men. A unstable boy. That woman, the people runner, somehow turned him against his own father. She's dangerous, sir." Sila looked again at the burning under-city. "I'm sorry, sir."

Senior Glaz smiled, "At last. Your apology was a long time coming, Sila. But you're family and I'll protect you."

"Thank you, sir."

"But you need to do something for me."

Yes, that was the way of Glaz. There was always a price to be paid.

Senior Glaz smiled. "The riots give us an opportunity. I want you to find my wife, and take care of her."

"Take care of her?"

"Oh, for goodness sake. Do I have to spell it out for you? I want you, Sila, to kill my wife. Make it look she's a causality of the riots. It's the perfect time."

"But I'm not killer." How could he ask such a thing?

"Then, my dear sir, you have a problem. If you want the protection of my house, you need to redeem yourself in my eyes. Show me that you have some value. Prove yourself to me, Sila."

Or get thrown to the mob. What other choice did he have?

"Yes, sir."

Stutter up at Eschatology Plus Rocket Science

2011-09-04T07:14:00.001-07:00

My flash story 'Stutter' is up at Eschatology this week. Eschatology is a venue dedicated to apocalyptic and Lovercraftian fiction, two of my favourite things. I hope they re-open to submissions very soon, because I'm feeling a little dystopian.

Also very pleased to receive a story acceptance from the Rocket Science anthology this week. This is a hard science anthology, edited by Ian Sales which will explore the realities of venturing off Earth. It's a funny thing, I don't really consider myself a hard science fiction writer. But you know, with story sales to Nature, Cosmos and now Rocket Science I think I ought to seriously re-consider that. What am I like?

Attic Toys, and Lost Civilizations Anthologies

2011-09-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'd like to write stories to sub to two semi-pro anthologies in September, both with the same deadline October 31.

The first is Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations. This has been open for a couple of months. The editor, Eric J. Guinard, is publishing a very helpful blog. I've had an idea about the Japanese underwater 'ruins' of Yonaguni

The Attic Toys anthology looks fun. This is edited by Jeremy C. Shipp. From the guidelines:

"We are seeking twisted tales of attic toys. We want fresh stories that blow our minds into little bits. Things we love: character-based tales, horror with a heart, dark humor, unique monsters. In terms of genres, we're looking for horror, fantasy, Bizarro, or some combination of the three."

Yes, one could have fun with abandoned toys. What about you short story guys, are you writing with a venue in mind?

Care to Share your WIP?

2011-08-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to readers old and new. I'm campaigning (thanks Rachael) and my groups are horror, and short stories, (oooh and couldn't resist adding myself to paranormal, too). So, if you've a mind, would you like to share your current work in progress?

I'm working on a short story for 10 Flash Quarterly. Their current prompt is; It's quiet. Too quiet. They take flash 800-1000 words, and are a great venue.

This is my third attempt. The other stories went way too long. It's called 'Face Without a Mouth' and features Neolithic statue menirs. They're fascinating, but then again I love Neolithic monuments.

What are you working on, guys?

Third Campaign For Blog Followers

2011-08-22T08:57:00.001-07:00

Lovely Rachael Harrie's third campaign for blog followers opens today. I'm hoping to rustle up a few more followers for this blog.

I know most of you know about it, already. Heck, that's where we met, but if you don't and you want more followers, high-tail over there quick.

The Enduring Attraction of Noir: Pulp it up.

2011-08-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

There must be something in the air. My current work in progress has a criminal element, for the Damnation and Dames anthology. So I've been refresing myself with elements of the noir style,dark fiction, people of a criminal persuasion; dames, booze, betrayal and fendoras. And what do you know, Tor has just announced a noir week. They're including hard-boiled criminal detectives, too.

Boy, am a big Jim Thomspson fan (The Grifters, The Getaway, among many others). He wrote about losers, sociopaths and psychopaths. I can't recommend them enough, especially if you like your noir to go downright surreal at the end as the main character decends into madness and dissolution. The ending of The Getaway just blows me away, very macabre.

Noir lends itself to SF, think of the film Blade Runner, and many other stylish dytsopias but I haven't seen many noir/fantasy crosses, which is what Damnation and Dames Anthology is so interesting.

Any noir fans out there?

Finish What You Start

2011-08-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is writing advice from Neil Gaiman and Jay Lake. Two guys who know how to crank out of good story. Do I follow it? Do I heck. So this month's task will be to finish up some of my half started efforts. I am not looking forward to it. The new stories in my head are so much more appealing. I don't think this is going to work (bad attitude, I know). But I like to try new things, so let's say I'll pick out five stories that I've done at least 1000 words (I got plenty). Then get then as good as I can and sub them. Seeing as this is my Kelda blog I'll pick horror/dark fantasy. It would be neat to have five Kelda stories to sub.

Here we go:

Incy Wincy Alien Snow Spiders (1500 words)* complete and subbed

Numbers are Magic (1700 words)

Capability Evans (1000 words) -- Cameo Evans and the Magnetron (2700)

Fungal Tree (3000 words)* complete

House of Concurrence (1000 words)

What about you, guys? Do you finish everything. When do you let go?

Updatery.
Day one -- Blimey, I've only gone and completed, and subbed Incy Wincy.
Day three-- completed Fungal Trees, but not happy with it. I'm not going to sub.
Day five -- I've turned 'Cameo Evans' into a clockpunk adventure, and I'm at 3.2K. Worked on it for a few hours, but I am so desparate to start something new. For the rest of the day, I'm going to treat myelf to some new flash. New, I need something new and shiny.
Day five-- as anticipated the new story is flying. Hee hee. Will still finish the others though.
Day eight-- Got distracted by poetry. Boy I hate this. Might have to abandon. At least I got two done.
Day nine-- Got an encouraging rejection from Fantasy for one of the stories. Am encouraged.

Writing a Short Story: How I Do It

2011-07-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

This post details how I write a story. I thought it might be useful for writers who are considering writing short.

It's just one way. Other writers have different ways of writing. Things to note: I'm not an outliner, and I'm an adder-inner. I write a fast, rough, lean first draft and then add in lots of details. I would say this was fairly typical of my process at the moment.

The details aren't important, I've put them in as illustrations. So rather than saying I spent 6 hours refining the first draft you can actually see what's involved. I wrote this story over a week, interpersing with other works.

Step 1. Idea generation. 30 minutes.

I make a decision what genre I want to write. In this case horror.

The first idea may come from the reading I've been doing, or from a prompt, in this case it came from the current 10Flash prompt: It's Quiet, Too quiet
Few minutes brainstorming lead me to snow (snow is quiet). Also I remembered another story I'd read featuring spiders and to ice trap door spiders. Spider. I liked that. Research on Wikipedia and cultural representations of spiders led to the jorogumo (predatory spider women).

Step 2. Fast first draft. 2 hours.
So with no clear idea where I'm going just the seeds from stage 1: the spider woman, the snow and in this case the ending (the spiderlings crawling over his paralysed body).This is the most instinctive phase for me. Step 1 gave me enough to get started on the the first draft which came in at 1500 words. I often have a picture, too, to give me a little motivation. The plot revealed itself to me as:

Foreign soldiers in a conquered land visit brothel
Looking for more women they find the Spider Temple
Two soldiers attack Spider priestess, while my main character does nothing to prevent it.
When they leave, Priestess kills herself and calls on the spider goddess.
Sickened by the incident my MC flees to mountains.
MC picks up mysterious stranger on the ice-bound mountain track
She turns out to be the Spider Goddess,
She paralyses him, weaves a web around him, lays eggs on him.
He hears the quiet sound of the spider eggs hatching.

Hmm, too long for flash. I could cut, but I don't want to. The story feels to big for that. (I actually wrote a more complicated plot in draft, with a interweaving linear narrative) but for purpose of this post, it's fine to give you the linear example.

Step 3. 2nd, 3rd, 4th drafts 6 hours.
This stage is where most of the work gets done. I work through the story, page by page, exploring and expanding it.
I was particularly interested in why my MC stood aside while the priestess was attacked. So I created some back story, where my MC owes his life to his fellow soldiers. I also made him disfigured, and I added a nice delusional point when he feels that the beautiful stranger might be persuaded to become his lover. Added a lot of details on the setting, taking architectural details from ancient Japanese temples. Removed the rape scene, made it an attempted rape, with the soldiers killing the priestess lover, the priestess killing herself. Her blood bringing the Temples spider statue to life which kills the other two soldiers. Added some details about a real-life Spider temple, taken from another intenet search. Add the idea of the 'Weatherman's' army, rather than any recognisable nation. Changes the Spider Goddess who I felt was too wordy. Would a revenge goddess really feel the need to lecture her victim? I eventually get to a stage when the story feels nearly finished.

Step 4 Final draft. 2 hours. final version 3000 words.
Another pass through, really tightening the dialogue. Added a small segment in second pov, to tighten the tension.

Step 5. All done, sent it off straight away to subland.

Verdict. I like it, it's pretty tight. But I've managed to add some interesting details Although it's 'proper horror', -- bad guy gets his just deserts, I've managed to put some interesting exploration of why people do the things they do.

I'd be fascinated to hear how my process differs from yours.

Machine of Death

2011-07-11T03:21:00.000-07:00

The Machine of Death Anthology closes on the 15th and I've got half a story written. But I've got to give a shout out to the editors, who've blogged about : How to finish your story in one week or less.

Inspired by this I've been working. Not actually on the half-finished story, but on a new story for them, which is really flowing well and will be finished. The editors have advice about this too: How to craft a story about a single anything.

I may even finish and sub the first story, too.

New Name

2011-06-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

I write science fiction, horror and fantasy. I've decided to create a pseudonym to distinguish between the genres. This blog will feature my horror and dark fantasy works, written as Kelda Crich.

I hope this isn't going to get confusing. Most of all, I hope I'm not going to taken over by my pseudonym a la King's The Dark Half.

I'm pleased to announce my first sale as Kelda Crich. My story 'Leydra's Maiden' will be published by Spinetinglers in July.