Category Archives: work in progress

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Good Crit Session

Good crit session with the Speculative Wordsmiths, my in-town writing group. We usually do two stories every meeting and today I gave them my most rewritten/reworked story ever, hoping for some new insight. This is my original Viable Paradise Thursday story, a ghost story, which stands at 8K, the world’s worst length for a short story. I am now convinced that I could make this a successful novelette OR a successful 5-6K short. I just have to decide which way to go.

It does need a better title, for sure.

 

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LOOK Challenge

My friend, John Marani, asked me to be a part of this challenge. You’re supposed to post a paragraph around your favorite instances of the word “look” in your work in progress. I’ll post my three favorite ones below. Be sure to visit John on his blog, Metaphysical Meanderings, where he talks about his experience teaching Tarot, astrology and witchcraft.

Here we go.

1. From “Paper Dream”, a short story that began at the Viable Paradise writing workshop –

She looked up at me, confused. “Beckett, you jumped off the Golden Gate. What the hell else could have happened?”

2. From Oberon’s Heir, my long-in-progress novel –

She felt the last shreds of glamour fray apart as she reached a bathroom. The woman coming out took one look at her and screeched, immediately pushing at the crowd to get away. Miranda ignored her. Nearly blind, she half-fell into the grimy room, and fumbled the door locked behind her.

3. From “The Witch on the Bus Goes Curse, Curse, Curse”, a short story I am about half-way through –

I mean there was just something about the shape of her mouth that said “I can hurt you if I choose.” A certain satisfactory contempt. She did not look like a Halloween witch, but the minute she got on board, I knew. She sat right across from me in a cloud of sulfur and gingerbread.