Category: Writing

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Good News Everyone!

Yet another Good News post!  These are my favourite.  :3

The scariest short story I’ve ever written has been accepted!  “Dark Light 2”, sequel to the wildly successful “Dark Light” will feature my piece, “Duck”.  My name will even be on the cover (along with the other contributors; that’s pretty cool!).

Annie hears her mother call from downstairs.  As she rushes to go to her, her mother stops her.  “Don’t go; I heard it too.”

(Incomplete cover below.)

I’ll of course let you know when it’s out and link to it and everything.  I’m really excited to see this one in print, and really pleased that my attempt at writing something scary-pants actually worked.  So here’s to Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly, and to their anthology, “Dark Light 2”.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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Good News Everyone!

Hello all.  So glad to be able to share some more good news with you today: a short story of mine, “Mirror Twenty-Two” has been published!  It’s part of the online portion of the Haunted Waters Press ‘From the Depths’ magazine.

…And you can read it for free!  It’s a paranormal-military-action-horror.

“For our purposes, that little girl is no longer a little girl,” he said with measured calm.

I want to thank everyone that has subscribed to my blog.  It’s really nice to have a few people interested in my work.  I’m so, so grateful for your readership, and it’s nice that I can share some nifty things with you.  🙂

“Mirror Twenty-Two” by H.G. Bleackley

Hopefully I’ll have something more in this universe to share in the new year; I’m working with an artist to adapt another story into comic form.  I’m really excited about that one… And I really dig the world I’m building using short stories.  I think there might be something more there, something bigger.

Also, I’m adapting my latest novel into a screenplay, which I will start shopping around in January/February.  My screenplay chops are a little rusty, but it’s coming along.

So I’ll keep writing, and submitting, and sharing.

Thanks once again for reading.

Heidi out.

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“Why Stories Should Never Begin At The Beginning”: A Xpost by Chuck Wendig

Why Stories Should Never Begin At The Beginning.

He makes his point quickly, and he makes it well.

“The point is that I got to the fucking point.”  

Just give it a read.  It’s fast and it stabs right at the heart of the problem that oh-so-many writers experience, myself included.

I also have a counter to it though…

I loved this post and thought it was great advice.

That being said, this trend of starting right in the action, with you main character in the worst trouble of their life, has me of two minds.

On the one hand, it makes for compelling reading that draws you in lickety-split.

But on the other, what is happening to exposition, to showing characters how they are *before* they are fighting for their life? So often we’re dropped right into a compelling tale without having really any idea of *who* the main character is, what they’re like normally.

I’m hearing more and more editors and publishers saying you have to hook your audience on the first page, in the first paragraph, in the *first sentence*. Well ok, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to go back and give a little exposition after I bait the hook.

I don’t write my books like I’m telling the story to a friend in a bar, because that’s not what I’m doing. They’re reading a book. And if the story is compelling enough, I want them to be able to have the attention span to read what’s going on a little bit before my character is bleeding to death on the steps of the art gallery.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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The Breakfast of Champions

Well, my meat lovers pizza was a success.  It was… delicious.

Bacon, ham, and homemade sausage.  Caramelized onions.  Mushrooms.  It was great.

And did I mention cheese?  A bed of mozzarella with a topping of old cheddar?  Yeah.

The Breakfast of Champions.

Last night was Mediterranean, tonight is Hawaiian.

But first, rewriting a terrifying short story to tighten it up for submission to Dark Light 2.

Cheers guys.

Heidi out.

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Pals of the Pen Variety

I got myself some pen pals!  So far I’ve written two letters (hand written) on the topics of the destruction of mankind, and the colonization of space.  I’m expecting the first letters from two others, for a total of four pen pals!  I’m excited.

Well, the hunt for an agent is… happening.  I want to say going well, in that I’ve found several agents who I feel would really dig my book, AND who I’d like to work with.  So yes, in that regard, it’s going well.  As ever, the rejection letters are trickling in.  I had my fastest one ever today; 24 minutes!  It seems fast, but then, if it’s not right for someone, I’d rather know sooner rather than later.  🙂

I’ve been trying to get to know the agents I’m submitting to a little more before I contact them.  For some, it’s a bit hard if they don’t have a big internet presence.  They best ones so far have been agents with blogs, and that have done interviews.  My favourite has been Eddie Schneider, who did this fantasic AMA on Reddit a while ago.  That was really great to read, not just to get to know more about him as an agent!

Also happening on Reddit right now, is an AMA by author Michael J. Sullivan.  I have great respect for him; everywhere he shows up in r/writing he imparts so much wisdom, so many useful tidbits.  He answered a lengthy question of mine today! Thanks Michael.

On the non-writing front, The Walking Dead.  Is.  Fantastic.  I haven’t cried that hard during a TV show in quite a while; this last episode, “Killer Within” had me bawling my eyes out.  MAN.  What excellent acting.

I participated in the Reddit Halloween exchange.  My gifter sent me this:

Fun!  I sent my match some interesting candy, including White Rabbits, a Double Decker bar, and a few other yummies.  Oh, and a big fake spider.  >:)

DELICIOUS.

This years Reddit Secret Santa is live!  Sure to be a record breaker.

…You know what else is delicious?  Pizza.  I’m making a meat lovers tonight, from scratch.  Using sausage I made myself.  I’m excited.  And then tomorrow, a Hawaiian.  Then the next day, Veggie Mediterranean.  Gosh, pizza is awesome.

Pics to follow.  🙂

Cheers guys.  Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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Weekly Top Lists and Polls!

Hey guys.  Sorry I’ve been bad about updating; it just feels like I can only post “I’m working on it” so many times.  😉  But yeah, the manuscript is done.  I’m now waiting for my beta readers to get back to me, and their notes are trickling in.

I met with a high school book club on Monday, which garnered me 10 contacts in my target audience!  I’m extremely pleased but also nervous as butts.  Writing it is one thing, having other people read it is entirely another.  Good ol’ Alot of Doubts rearing his stupid ugly head again…

Onwards!  I have decided, to keep my posts regular, that I shall post a Top 5 list every week, with an accompanying poll for all you awesome readers to take part in.  I’m hoping this can get us all thinking and talking about our favourite whatevers!

Why top 5?  Well, top 10 seems overdone, and much too easy.  I tried to just do top 3, but that was far too hard!  I ended up with runners up, which defeats the purpose.  So, I have settled on a top 5.  Each choice pertains to my ‘elemental’ theme, with each selection relating to the ‘element’ I pair it with, if only esoterically, and often without explanation  Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and, sort of the runner-up category, Heart.

I was going to call it the EFWWH List, but that felt like tripping at the finish line.  So I’m going to go with “The Captain’s Five”.  Aside from the obvious Captain Planet reference, it sounds cooler, and more sci-fi.

So I give you, without much further ado, the first “The Captain’s Five” List and Poll!

The Captain’s Five:

Top Sci-Fi Novels

“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card

This is a quintessential Sci-Fi read.  Compelling and extremely well written, it has characters that get under your skin, that get inside your head.  The story follows a boy bred for Battle School who must take charge and lead the other children as they prepare for another war with the alien “buggers”.  The whole series, and the shadow series from another character’s perspective, is at the top of the sci-fi food-group pyramid.

“The Hyperion Cantos” by Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion” and “The Fall of Hyperion” are just, absolutely, stunning.  Sci-fi at its best.  Set in the far future, the first book contains the stories of the pilgrims sent on the suicidal Shrike Pilgrimage to face a terrible being who contorts time and breathes death.  Beautiful and terrifying, it is full of wonder.
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

It may have been the timing of me reading this one, namely in the formative grade 8 adventures into more ‘adult’ lit, but this one really struck home.  I think my English teacher was rather horrified when I championed some of the ideas in the book.  Eugenics to steer the future of the human race?  What’s not to love!  Oh, maybe not the way they taylor the classes, people bred to be stupid, you know, for slaves.  0_O
“Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus” by Orson Scott Card

I know I know, two OS Card’s on the list?  Well, he *is* my favourite author.  And the two I picked are knight and day different.  Pastwatch goes about the business of studying humanity by peering back through time, literally spying on people as they go about their lives, unaware they’re being watched by the future’s anthropologists.  But when the earth reaches the tipping point where we’ll be unable to survive on it, Pastwatch embarks on a mission to save it by sending people back in time, to strategic places, to try and correct the mistakes of our past.  Absolutely fantastic.  This is my most lent, and most bought-as-a-gift book.
“WWW” (“Wake”, “Watch”, and “Wonder”) by Robert J. Sawyer

I think Robert J. Sawyer is brilliant at seeing the world, and telling us how it’s going to be.  Or rather, how it’s going to be if just this one thing happened.  In WWW, that one thing is a sentient being coming into existence in cyberspace.  It’s gripping, and asks some truly important questions on what it means to be human, and what our reaction to such a scenario is likely to be.

So, thus concludes the first ever Captain’s Five!  I hope you enjoyed it.  Mayhaps I’ve left you with a new book or two to find and read?  🙂

Now: take the poll!  Let everyone know what *your* favourite sci-fi book is.  Results published along with next week’s “Captain’s Five”!

…Please ignore “Sample Question 2″…  Ain’t nobody got time for that.  >_<

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Well, the bulk of the writing is done.

Three and a half months.  60k words.  Not bad.

Now comes the hard part… the part where I can see all the things wrong with it and have to fix them.  Even worse is seeing things wrong with it that aren’t actually wrong.  This is when the crushing doubt threatens to kick in and trip me up.

I’m taking a bit of a break.  I’ll let it ruminate for a week before I even begin fixing the things I know about, and it’ll be a month of thinking about things from all angles.

In the mean time, I’m looking forward to VCON, a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention that begins tomorrow.  I’ve never been!  There are a ton of great events for writers.  Really looking forward to it.

But today, Doctor Who and Minecraft, while I try and shake my brain free of the Alot of Doubts.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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Writing Styles: A Kind of Method Writing

I had a very interesting day on Thursday.

I’ve been getting caught up on the climax of my novel.  Imagining the future is *hard*.  Writing about it in a way that makes sense, not only within the context of the plot, but also just as background noise, is extremely challenging.

I’m finding it difficult to weave all my pieces together in the final stages of the book.

I had the idea to go to where the rising action takes me, and head to the location I’ve set the ending of my book.  I think it’s a kind of Method Writing.

The Vancouver Art Gallery.

At sunrise.

So I woke up super early and caught the first train downtown.  I made tons of notes.  Trying to see what it was like, and then see what it will be like.  And not only that, I had to imagine it from the air.

I spent several hours watching downtown lighten in the dawn, watched all the people go about their lives, and went back and forth from the North and Sound steps of the VAG, making notes all the while.

It was extremely helpful.  I actually changed which side of the VAG the climax will take place; the light was all wrong, and landing from the air will be much easier on the South steps.

It really helped put me there, in the future- I went over each building an imagined how it would look.  What would have changed, what would still be the same.

If you’re getting stuck on something, go out into the world.  Make notes.  It might help you.

…It certainly helped me.

Now, onwards!  The final 10k words beckon!

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.