New Blogs on List

Yes, I know.
I've been MIA or AWOL or something.

But even so, my spec. brain is still at work.

First off, I was able to go to a small, local writer's retreat with my sister-in-law, fellow writer, and bookstore owner. We had a blast at the Carlinville's Writer's Guild. I'd link their page, but I don't see one. They have a facebook page, but I've never had luck linking and following facebook links. So I'll link them here.
(They asked me to get back to them on whether or not the retreat has inspired me to write more. I have to say, yes, the inspiration is here. But it didn't add more hours to my too busy days so, no I haven't written much. But I'm inspired to try to figure out how better to get to it.)

The second thing I got to do was to meet some fellow Avenir Eclectia Writers which I may get into later, because it really was a great to just be in the same room with people who understand the spec. brain. Here's more about it here: Avenir Girl's Day.

Okay, onto the blogs. I've added Where Light Pierces the Darkness, Speculative Faith, Jennifer Eifrig's blog, and The Factotum's Rostrum. Check them out if you haven't been there before.

Inside Avenir Eclectia: Nomads

I added some more info on Inside Avenir Eclectia concerning Nomads:

A Few Notes on Nomads

Installment #10 up at Avenir Eclectia

#10, "Sanja's Veil" is up. It is a rare look inside the mind of an Eclectia Nomad.

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/12/sanjas-veil.html

Three New Blogs Added to Blog List

For those interested in writing for Avenir Eclectia, there is a place with much info concerning this shared universe. The blog is called "Inside Avenir Eclectia" and hosted by Grace Bridges, founder of the Avenir Eclectia story world.

Through my friend, Walt, I found "Rocket Science for the Rest of Us" hosted by Karina Fabian. Okay, I admit it. I have it in my blog roll for my own sake because I'M interested in space and rocket science. Walt is doing a smash up job giving an eye witness to the space race starting in the fifties.

The third and final addition is "Travis's Big Idea". Hey, I listen to anyone who can help me get my mind around dimensions that the human mind cannot naturally detect. He is also in my list so I can find him faster. Anyone else who wants to tag along can enjoy the benefit. Also, Travis is a fellow AE author exploring ideas and pushing creativity in Grace's playground for speculative writers.

Number 9 Is Up At Avenir Eclectia

What could be worse than the dreaded Avenir Eclectia ailment "Ash Lung". Well, if Jereth Davis is telling the truth this time, the answer may lie here:

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/11/worse-than-ash-lung.html

Installment # 8 Up At Avenir Eclectia

#8, "The Offering" is up. Thanks to those who have commented over there already.

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/11/offering.html

Titles in Flash Fiction

In flash fiction, every word counts and often does double duty.
Because you can use precious few words, the title becomes even more important and can be utilized to do double duty.
The title can help place the characters in their setting so less words are need in the body of the work.
Grace doest this in "Maddie's Pub" on Avenir Eclectia by letting the reader know where this story takes place even before it starts.
http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/05/maddies-pub.html

It can also can be used to foreshadow and add extra 'punch' to the last line or hook of the story. I did this in "Just Remember".
http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/09/just-remember-flashback.html

These are two ways to get the most out of your titles. I wouldn't mind knowing more ways if anyone has any ideas.

Installment # 7 Is Up At Avenir Eclectia

I'm kind of excited about this one.

It's my first attempt to interact with other people's characters, Grace's Maddie, and Kat's Jax.
I hope to do more of this in the future.

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/10/meeting-at-maddies.html

Installment # 6 Is Up On Avenir Eclectia

Dangerous Jobs, #6 of my story thread is up on Avenir Eclectia.

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/10/dangerous-jobs.html

It's fun pulling some of the stories together.

Avoiding the "Skim Zone"

If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as thought writer had stated them -- Ernest Hemingway

I also remember reading somewhere that a writer should only write what the reader will read, implying that there should be no skim-worthy prose in what we write.

I'm a novel writer trying to write flash or micro fiction for Avenir Eclectia. It is a true challenge to get "The Big Picture" down in micro sound bites. Even though I look at each piece as a chapter to a whole, they are very short chapters. AND the power in each chapter has to be ramped up, no setting or info dump filler allowed.

This became abundantly clear when I had a 'chapter' that I was working on and it wasn't working. Long and short, I realized that it simply wasn't powerful enough nor important enough to justify its existence on Avenir Eclectia.

So what did I do?

The only thing I could do.

I scrapped the whole piece.

It was painful but doable. And ultimately, it was a blessed release to let the thing go rather than to fight with it to make it into something it couldn't be. The important information that I wanted to convey will make an appearance as a sentence or two in another piece that will keep the reader reading and avoid the "skim-zone".

Installment #4 is Up on Avenir Eclectia

"Equipment Malfunction" is up on Avenir Eclectia.

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/09/equipment-malfunction.html

Installment # 3 "Just Remember" Is Up.

"Just Remember" A Flashback is up on Avenir Eclectia.

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/09/just-remember-flashback.html

For those dropping in from the Unofficial ACFW At-Home Writer's Conference that don't like speculative fiction, go ahead and check it out because this scene is a quiet moment between a mother and son with low levels of "spec" jargon. It could have happened on earth now or sometime in history concerning places we know rather than the made-up places of AE.

The Thing About Avenir Eclectia

Grace and I have been emailing a bit back and forth about the direction of Avenir Eclectia and, to me at least, it's exciting. For those new to my blog and to flash fiction, Avenir Eclectia is a "Multi-author, Microfiction Adventure" in the Speculative genre. To find it, go to my blog roll and click on the link. Then for an extra treat, watch the video trailer concerning it there.

The thing about Avenir Eclectia is that it came into my life at the exact right time. My writing was stagnant. I had received average scores from ACFW's Genesis contest and, though I appreciated the honesty of the judges and was glad that I didn't get bad scores, somehow getting only average scores quietly took the wind out of my sails.

I've been working on my craft for years, learning everything that I could and had hoped for a little better scores after so much work. But here lately, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a contest writer. There will always be someone who can polish better than me. And in fact, for me, contests curtail my creativity rather than stimulate it. There are so many things they ding you for that you are not walking on sunshine, you are walking on eggshells. And I'm a terrible eggshell walker.

Anyway, back to Avenir Eclectia. It came at the right time. I needed something to work on in short bursts since my schedule had become crazy busy. I needed something that inspired my creativity, which the story world of Avenir Eclectia truly does. Volcanoes, bugs, a space station, a nearby planet ripped in two, beautiful aquatic life. What a wonderful place to play and to forget about contest scores. You can just let creativity be king, queen, and court jester rather than letting eggshells rule the day.

Other people of other genres could learn from Avenir Eclectia, like Romance writers or Western writers. Someone could come up with a story world, put it on a blog, and discouraged writers could work on their writing skills and have short term successes and interaction with other authors and readers to encourage them on to bigger and better projects.

So that's the thing about Avenir Eclectia. It's a fun place to play and a good resource for letting your muse out of the eggshell closet.

Peculiar Lot

Us spec writers are a peculiar lot. We understand each other, for the most part. Or at least we give each other space for our peculiar creative flows. Other people, including family, well, they just don't always get us. They may love us and nod with a smile even as their eyes glaze over while we try to explain the story or flash of spec brilliance we had in the middle of the night.

On our long trip out west, my mother and I had a lot of time to talk and we covered a lot of ground. Finally it came up that I was writing again. Mom got real excited because she thinks I'm brilliant and should be a multi-published author, it's just the world hasn't had the privilege of discovering me yet. You know how mothers are.

Anyway, she asked me about it and, while loving this new outlet of flash fiction and being excited about the story world of Avenir Eclectia, I wasn't sure how to explain it so I just said, "Oh, I'm not sure if you'll like it." (What a wonderful self promoter am I.)
Then, explaining flash fiction to her, imagine my surprise that her enthusiasim did not wane one degree but rather increased. She started talking about Ernest Hemingway and Kent Hauf and their sparse yet beautiful writing styles. So I thought, what do I have to lose?

When we got to our destination I found a computer and brought up Avenir Eclectia for her to watch the video. I love the video and music and hoped that it would set the stage for her to read my stuff. Well, the computer wouldn't play videos. Disappointing. But I had mom there and didn't want to leave her hanging so I let her read my two entries presently up on AE.

I'm happy to say that she didn't hate them. Or at least if she did, she hid it well. No, I really don't think she hated them and that she even liked a few things about them.

Another note on family. I make my kids read my entries before I send them in. As I mentioned before, they aren't crazy about flash fiction. Well the last one I had them read, my son said something along the lines of, "Hey, things are starting to come together and make sense." And he said it almost like he was excited about it. Almost.

Anyway, we spec writers are a peculair lot and we've got to stick together. And if we can get support from our families, that makes it even better.

The Spider in the Chaparral

My second Avenir Eclectia installment is up!

http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/08/spider-in-chaparral.html

And it has at least one enthusiastic thumbs up.
Thanks Walt!

What Is Flash Fiction?

I'm still learning.
But on Avenir Eclectia, the pieces can be anywhere between 150-400 words.
Also, I know that my children don't like flash fiction. I have them read my work before I send it in to see if it makes sense or there are spelling errors. 400 words is too short for them. They want a bit more to their stories. And that's a good thing.
But I'll tell you, I'm kind of enjoying reading the flash fiction from other contributors. Because I'm so busy, just a snippet of a story is better than no story at all.

So, flash fiction is a way to get a bit of a creative story into your fast paced life, a life just a little too busy for a full length novel at this time.

It is also a good way for an over-worked, frustrated novel writer to still work on fiction to sharpen her skills for the time to come when she's not quite so busy and she can actually work on that novel.

Surprise!

Yes, I got a big surprise last night.
I started this blog because I'm on a new road in my writing life. I'm experimenting with flash fiction and found a site I felt I could contribute to.
I sent something in last week knowing that they already had many contributors and thinking that mine wouldn't come up for months.
They have a policy. New contributors get their first piece pushed up and my first one was published today.
I'm excited. But more importantly, I'm inspired to press on with more of my story ideas for that world. Whatever encourages us to write, it's always a good thing.

You can go take a look
http://www.avenireclectia.com/2011/06/until-again.html