Short Pieces

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That’s all I got

February 22, 2010 in Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces | No comments

When I find myself staring dully and tiredly at the screen and no words are flowing, that’s the signal that it’s time to go to bed. But I did at least make a few words go tonight! And even if about 100 words into each of these things doesn’t seem like much individually, it will at least add up if I keep at it. That’s good advice to keep telling myself.

Let’s see if I can do this again tomorrow.

Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 110
Chapter 7 total: 1,723
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,457

Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 115
Chapter 1 total: 1,417
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,417

Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 115
Story total: 615

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Finally, some more words

February 21, 2010 in Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Shadow of the Rook, Short Pieces | No comments

I’ve been frustrated enough with my months-long block on regular writing that I figured tonight I should try the multi-novelling trick. That’s helped in the past, and I felt it was long past time to try it again, just for the sake of advancing some pointers on various works on progress. I’ve mentioned before how it’s often helpful for me to just try to do little chunks at a time–and tonight, I was pleased to note that it worked again.

So yeah, a small number of words for Bone Walker, Mirror’s Gate, and Shadow of the Rook out of the novels in progress–and a few more for the as of yet untitled story about my Psychic Chick of Size. Whose name is, by the way, Elizabeth Breckenridge. Her male lead is Ross Taggart, and so far what I know about him is that he’s actually too heavy himself (because if there’s anything as rare as a fat heroine in a fantasy story, it’s an overweight hero) by thirty or forty pounds, and that he’s either a private investigator or a reporter or maybe a blogger. I’m not sure which yet. Waiting to see if anything pops out of my head as I throw words at the story.

And we’ll have to see if I finish it in time to submit it to userinfothunderpigeon and userinfodr_pretentious for their anthology.

Meanwhile, the word stats:

Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 109
Chapter 7 total: 1,613
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,347

Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 104
Chapter 1 total: 1,302
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,302

Shadow of the Rook:
Written tonight: 112
Chapter 2 total: 3,950
Shadow of the Rook total (first draft): 13,378

Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 266
Untitled short story total: 500

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Right then, holiday is over and the new year has begun

January 3, 2010 in Bone Walker, Drollerie Press, Short Pieces | No comments

I know I keep saying this, but let’s see if I can hold to it for a while now that the new year is under way, eh?

Back into Bone Walker tonight, with Chapter 7 underway. I’ve got me a Kendis with a head full of stuff she’d really rather not have to be dealing with all at the same time, and a bit about how the magic of Warding a city works, and a bit of Seattle geography all touched upon in the five hundred words I’ve written tonight. This felt good. Let’s see if I can do it again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in case y’all haven’t seen it yet, we’re handing out free downloads of my story “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen” right over here for the 11th day of Drollerie Christmas! I know, I’m already handing it out for free here, but userinfoserasempre said such nice things about the story that I really just sort of have to go “aw”. *^_^*;;

And oh yeah, did y’all see the new poll I have up in the sidebar? (Go here for those of you who are reading this from LJ or DW.)

Written tonight: 508
Chapter 7 total: 508
Bone Walker total (first draft): 17,242

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First review in for Defiance!

November 18, 2009 in Defiance, Short Pieces | No comments

Check it out you guys, Soleil Noir has some lovely things to say about Defiance over here.

About my story “The Blood of the Land” in particular, she says:

This is set in the world of Angela’s previous book “Faerie Blood”. A book I read and enjoyed. I have to say though, I actually liked this story more.

Go check out the review for the full text, and also what she has to say about userinfosuricattus and userinfojoelysue’s pieces as well!

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Now taking requests for next FB-universe short story

November 9, 2009 in Drollerie Press, Polls, Short Pieces | 2 comments

My fellow Drollerie author userinfothunderpigeon has cordially invited me to submit something for the pair of anthologies he is editing along with userinfodr_pretentious, Trafficking in Magic and Magic in Trafficking. I will not be able to tackle writing something for them until after Nanowrimo is over, but December is looking potentially interesting! So all I need to do is figure out what exactly I’d like to write for them.

This is where you folks come in! I’m really rather liking the idea of using short stories to explore other glimpses of the Faerie Blood universe as I’ve already done with “The Blood of the Land”, but I’m not sure yet what sort of story might fit into the requirements for this pair of anthos. Want to help me decide? Then answer the following poll! (Readers on LJ or LJ-clones, please come on over to my Wordpress site to vote!)

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The Civil War anthology is OUT!

November 9, 2009 in Defiance, Drollerie Press, Short Pieces | No comments

Ooh ooh ooh, the anthology I’m in with userinfosuricattus and userinfojoelysue has just come out, people! Now available for sale on Drollerie Press’s store is the Civil War anthology Defiance, featuring our three pieces set during that time frame, each with supernatural elements in it.

My story’s “The Blood of the Land”, in the same universe as Faerie Blood. The slave woman Dorcas, who is gifted with healing powers, is escaping along with her beloved Caleb and fleeing north to Canada. But when they reach their first stop on the Underground Railroad, a farm owned by the Warder Elias Sutherland, they find Elias’ wife has been murdered by the men hunting them–and Elias’ Warder wife Jenny is not taking her slaying kindly.

Laura Anne Gilman and Joely Sue Burkhart also have excellent stories in this release, y’all, so I highly encourage you to check it out!

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Sneak anthology cover art peek

September 27, 2009 in Drollerie Press, Short Pieces | No comments

Y’all know that anthology for which I wrote “The Blood of the Land”?

My editor userinfoserasempre has now posted a sneak preview of its cover art along with a sneak peek at other covers of upcoming Drollerie releases. Check it out over here! Click on the first thumbnail to see the anthology I’ll be in, along with userinfojoelysue and userinfosuricattus! There’s a title for it and everything!

I’m quite excited to be part of something userinfosuricattus will be in, as I’ve been meaning to read her for forever!

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In honor of the Outer Alliance, a short story for you all

September 1, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

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I’ve been seeing news going around today about the Outer Alliance, a new group advocating queer and queer-friendly speculative fiction. As a bisexual in a lesbian relationship, I find this to be pretty much the epitome of Awesome. There’s an official announcement post over here. And I’m officially joining the group. Here’s its mission statement:

As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.

And furthermore, I’m finding it a pretty strong call to do something with arguably the queerest thing I’ve written to date: “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen”.

Those of you who’ve been following my writing for a while may remember that I originally wrote this as a submission for userinfoaerialscribe, to go into an anthology that unfortunately never saw the light of day. It’s been sitting around on my back burner ever since. The thing is, it’s a short story, and I prefer to focus on writing novels.

But I’ve still got this short story. And because of the call of the Outer Alliance, I have therefore decided I’m going to release that story for public consumption, under a Creative Commons license, here on this site.

“The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen” is set in the same universe as Lament of the Dove, and is extremely early backstory for the Big Bad of that novel. But it’s less her story than it is the story of Cerridwen and her beloved Damhnait, two young women whose city is caught in the eruption of her magic. Transformed into a male, Cerridwen must choose what seems like a peaceful existence on the surface–but which will risk her the love of Damhnait if she accepts things the way they are.

Y’all can read the story over here. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

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Done done done

August 30, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

Cross-posting this, since it’s to announce a piece is done!

As of this afternoon I’m relieved to tell y’all that I have indeed finished “The Blood of the Land”, my Civil-War-era story set in the Faerie Blood universe. I think it’s safe to say that this has the highest body count of on-camera characters I’ve ever written, which is pretty impressive considering that this is only 7,107 words, and I killed off a total of five characters on camera, and had one start the story dead. I had to do some interesting thinking as well about who exactly had to die, and who would have to do the killing. userinfosolarbird gave me a nice listening ear on that, and after I explained my thoughts to her, she was all about the killing off. Even aside from her usual penchant for violence!

I didn’t call for beta on it because I wanted to go ahead and send it in to my editor, which has now been done. Now we’ll see what happens next with this thing! More on what happens with it when I have it.

Written in scattershot fashion over the last week: 659
The Blood of the Land final total (first draft): 7,107

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After extensive cat-vacuuming

August 24, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

… I have finally thrown a decent amount more words into “The Blood of the Land”. A few of these words are actually from Saturday, but that’s okay, I’m counting them now.

I have killed off poor Elias Sutherland, and I think I just got to a scene break, after which there will be a short epilogue in which Dorcas gets to flee along the river with Caleb, leaving behind a couple of Warder ghosts and a deeply confused foreman who I think will be running away from what just happened there as fast as he can go.

Written since Saturday: 546
The Blood of the Land total: 6,448

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Quota reached tonight

August 19, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

I have just realized that as this story’s shaped up, it’s turned out to be as much Elias and Jenny’s story as it is Dorcas’s. This sits well enough with me, although I’m now getting to the bittersweet bit at the end. Which I hope will make other people go Sniff. It does me, a bit!

It satisfies me though to top 500 words, since I actually said I’d do that as I was leaving work today. And I did. Go me!

Closing in on 6K, and also closing in on the end. This thing may come in shorter than “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen”.

Written tonight: 507
The Blood of the Land total: 5,902

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Now we’re talkin’

August 18, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

All the gushing I’ve been doing about Faerie Blood spreading around the Net aside, I do still have other work in progress–and tonight I actually managed to throw a decent amount into “The Blood of the Land”. Well and thoroughly into the climax at this point, with pissed-off-and-dead Jenny Sutherland going postal on the slave hunters.

Not sure how many more pages I have to go. Ten, maybe; we’ll see if this rough ballpark estimate holds up. And once I get the initial draft done, I can think about whether Jenny is a ghost or more like a zombie. I can’t help but envision her right now as looking a lot like Summer Glau during the Reaver battle in Serenity, only, y’know, dead.

Written tonight: 521
The Blood of the Land total: 5,395

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Back to the story

August 16, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

I’m kind of surprised at myself; this thing may come out quite a bit shorter than I originally anticipated. Definitely under 10K, and possibly even under 8K. The ghost of Jenny Sutherland has made her appearance, and hoo boy howdy, is she pissed.

More tomorrow.

Written yesterday: 166
Written today: 583
The Blood of the Land total: 4,875

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Quickly, because it’s bedtime

August 12, 2009 in Faerie Blood, Short Pieces | No comments

It took me a few days to retool the plot flow for “The Blood of the Land”, but now I have a decent idea of how the rest of it will play out, and hopefully in fewer words than my original plan. As of tonight I’ve resumed throwing words at the story and hope to make significant inroads on it this weekend. Editor userinfoserasempre has been updated and will expect the story at the end of the month. Wish me luck, folks.

Meanwhile, eReader.com joins the ranks of places where you can buy Faerie Blood, so the list of places for purchase has been updated accordingly on my Books page and on the FAQ page. Yay. Now if Amazon and Barnes and Noble will follow suit, that’ll be neat. ^_^

Written tonight: 290
The Blood of the Land total: 4,126

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Back on track

August 9, 2009 in Short Pieces | No comments

Got through what little changes I needed to the story and have now returned to adding new words. And… aw, what the hell, here’s a little bit of what I wrote tonight.

Galvanized, Dorcas seized Elias’ arm with one hand and his face with the other, but no matter how she pressed she couldn’t get him to turn his gaze to her. Then Caleb gave a cry and pointed, and shock rolled up from within her, threatening to drown exhaustion and dread alike. The moon’s radiance, thin trickle of light though it was, was enough now to cast a silvery sheen down on the little island–and in the heart of the trees on its nearest bank, she spied the shape of a woman. Dorcas couldn’t see much of her from a distance, what she wore or what her face was like. Yet she could see the moonlight shining right through her as though she were made of mist.

And she could see grief breaking out across the face of Elias Sutherland, enough to tell her he was looking now at his Jenny. His wife, she thought. Her healing Power recoiled in her, as if the shape on the island revolted it somehow, and that was all Dorcas needed to tell her she was looking on no one alive. If that shape was Jenny Sutherland, Jenny Sutherland was dead.

Now I just have to figure out what happens next.

Written tonight: 592
The Blood of the Land total: 3,836

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