#ktt speaks

[eldritch-hollow]

Excitement!

So, a podcast I follow is asking for cosmic horror stories, 2k in length by July. Now, this is awesome because cosmic horror is my jam. And then the next one they are looking for is Cults. Cults! Like the sort that follow a cosmic horror entity? Oh yes. That totally tickles my tentacles.

Just got to complete my sci-fi submission which is due in next week and then yep, onward to cosmic horror. (Well, more cosmic horror because my sci-fi stories may have strayed into that....*whistles*)

[eldritch-hollow]

Not sharing WIPs

One of the big challenges of writing short & flash fiction to be published by others is that it can not be shared on social media.

When you submit a short story to a publisher/magazine/market/journal you usually have to sign a contract stating that it is an original or a reprint. Very few places want reprints. However, if you have posted it anywhere online before, it counts as self-publishing and not an original.

Hence why I am always talking about my work, rather than sharing my work.

[eldritch-hollow]

Icky

I am writing a story in which the narrator is not a good person. I don’t mean he is just bad, I mean he is loathsome. He wraps up his coercive, perverted manipulations in the lie of love and protection. He thinks he is the perfect brother. He thinks that the way he talks and feels about his sister is normal, flattering even. He is truly horrible to write. I feel icky as I type out his thoughts, tarnished by his mind and words. Sometimes it is gross writing horror, but then, it also often produces the best stories. Oh the price we pay...

[eldritch-hollow]

So much to do

I am suddenly snowed under with the weight of possible submissions again. Cosmic Horror, Cults and Dreamlands all need stories 2k up and only have a few weeks to complete. Usually once I have an idea the flow of writing becomes easier and I am hoping that is what happens this weekend.

It feels important to me to submit to these as I want to become established in the weird fiction / cosmic horror genre. I am hoping that once this is out of the way I can spend some serious time working on my submission for Chaosium.

[eldritch-hollow]

Goodbye weekend

Hello productive week. Actually the weekend was pretty good. I got a rejection which sucked but I also got two acceptances and wrote another drabble. Also updated my website. That's 16 stories that I'll have published this year, 15 in anthologies and one in an ezine. Considering I started this year that's pretty good.

I really need to work on my long form though. Writing drabbles (100 word stories) isnt easy to do well but then writing isnt easy . However I do find it easier the shorter a story is. But editing, that makes me think and write. So my scifi story has gone from 5k to 7.5k due to improvements.

[eldritch-hollow]

Slowly but surely

The last couple of weeks have been stressful and difficult due to life stuff. That level of stress really drains the creativity, specially as it flares up my illness.

However, I just got another acceptance and I have several things to still write for. I'm starting to feel the creativity flow again. I cant wait for my holiday next week.

[eldritch-hollow]

My muse strikes again

So last week I finally started to write the Sci-fi story that I wanted. It is turning hard sci-fi and I hope that I can carry it through. The building existential dread at the vastness of space is a nice background emotion for the whole piece.

And despite thinking I was only going to  submit 4 stories for the Beyond anthology, I just submitted a 5th. I won’t be submitting to their next one though as the theme is crime with no supernatural elements at all. But that is good as it gives me a chance to finish the Sci-fi one, which only has a 2 weeks left and part of that I am at a wedding.

[eldritch-hollow]

Back to the grind

So I had a really nice weekend of films, spring cleaning, box-set binging, gaming and drawing Kaiju. However, none of this included writing. I need to start my Cosmic Horror story this week. I talked to the editor and they confirmed it was stuff in the Lovecraftian vein that they were looking for. I can do that. But it is such a huge subject that actually picking one thing to write about is proving challenging.

Second to that there are a bunch of shorter stories I could / should be writing too. I think I probably should open a blank page, but Black Hole by mynoise.net on and just actually start.