Short Story: Lessons in Blade and Barrier /Fiction Vortex Serial Box

Figured I'd get to this while the Fiction Vortex Serial Box contest was still active, and post 2015 reflections on a later date.

"Lessons in Blade and Barrier" is a finalist in previously said contest, and I guess my story would be representing the long undervalued Sword & Sorcery genre; and what better way to represent it with anthropomorphized garden fauna set against feudal Japan background. Why anthropomorphized lizard and mantis? You might as well ask, "Why the Ninja Turtles"? To me it's all supposed to be good actiony fun. Best of all, it's free to read!

The blade surged forward, more lightning than steel. The very air went dense with static. Izo tumbled more than dodged, leaped quickly to his feet, but found his balance off. There on the ground was his right forearm, clawed fingers clenching his katana.

“No,” he gasped, throat suddenly dry. This couldn’t be real, just couldn’t. He didn’t feel anything missing. Eyes squeezed shut, he used his left hand to probe where his right forearm should be. His hand came away wet. He put two clawtips to his mouth, tasted iron and salt.

Only then did he cry out.

The winner of the contest goes to have a ten-part serial (and more money), expanding the world/story that the author has established.

However, the contest is a bit broken. After you vote, you can see how many votes each story has, something I think should be hidden, otherwise an author knows how many friends and family to gather to beat the highest number. Last I checked, all I needed was 30+ votes to beat Fly Red Fox. But I don't feel all that compelled to rally 30+ votes, and Fly Red Fox is a pretty decent story.

I do commend Fiction Vortex for trying something new and hope this contest leads to more potential serials, something that I think is quite lacking in most magazines. For me, I don't need a serial to write sequels, though if an editor complains about wanting more characters/world then they should sign me up for a serial! Seriously, there's only so much you can fit in a 3K story.

Contest ends on January 18th, so check it out! 

Abbreviated Epics is Out!

From Third Flatiron comes their 10th anthology, Abbreviated Epics--and as the name suggests, it's 19 tales of adventures, betrayals, death, sword fighting, and more! Included is my story, Blade Between Oni and Hare, inspired by the Japanese fable "White Hare of Inaba". You can actually check out the story in the Amazon preview function or, you know, just buy the anthology from Amazon or Smashwords.

This is the first time something of mine has led the forefront in, well, anything! Not only that, but a manga-style cover inspired by my story--how epic is that? (Maybe this is bias, but this has to be one of my favorite covers.) 

Blade Between Oni and Hare is actually my second-written tale of Kazuko--the chest-eyed, rogue samurai. And no, not rogue in the D&D sense. (I had one editor think that. Sheesh!) I call her "rogue" because she falls outside samurai tradition (she's a woman and not even of the samurai class), and depending on how you look at it, isn't the most honorable person. Despite all that, she likes to think of herself as samurai, wielding the classic katana--symbol of power and strength.

Hopefully her other story will eventually see publication, and hopefully more will be written. Japanese folklore is a minefield of monsters, both fun and unusual; and while Kazuko transverses Japan, looking to slay fukakimonodomo (Deep Ones in Japanese), she's bound to run into a lot of crazy shit.

Back! --and with new story

Yes, another hiatus from me. Was in Ireland for the latter half of September, and finally got the pictures off the phone, so I'll be posting about that soonish. Didn't catch a leprechaun, but did catch a cold on the returning flight, so had been out of it. Better now (yay!)

First off--new story, "Neither Heaven Nor Hell" from Bards and Sages Quarterly. Can grab the October issue here from Smashwords (because they're so much better than Amazon). If you're subscribed to Bards and Sages newsletter, you actually receive the issue for free.

A wee excerpt of the story:

She smirked. The skin around her mouth crinkled, as though it was a mask that didn’t quite fit right. She held out her hand; all she cared about was the coin.

I nodded and handed it over--thick and heavy, one of the old coins. She took the coin, held it up to her eye and... Where did it go? Just vanished! She didn't put it behind her eye, did she?

“Okay,” she said, “you’ve got half an hour. Then we’re back here.”

“Wait--the coin--”

She jerked me off the stool, and the bar whited out.

If you're familiar with Bard and Sages, then you might be thinking: "What? This is 1st-person! B&S doesn't publish 1st-person!" And you'd be correct. Originally the story was written in 3rd-person limited, but that was apparently confusing (I don't believe so, but eh), so the story was switched to 1st-person. If you wanna know what it was like originally, just replace all the "I's" with "he". That's all I did, lol.

Also, first time I get to share TOC space with fellow W1S1er, Milo James Fowler. Yay!

Other news ... "Blade Between Oni and Hare" was accepted by Third Flatiron, second story they've bought from me; first time was in Universe Horribilis anthology. First time Kazuko, my chest-eyed rogue samurai character, will be in the spotlight, and first time I get to be the lead story with cover artwork. How cool is that? The cover is pretty epic as well.

TOC for the Abbreviated Epics anthology (and once again, sharing space with another W1S1er)

Blade Between Oni and Hare by Siobhan Gallagher
HMS Invisible and the Halifax Slaver by Iain Ishbel
Beyond the Turning Orrery by Deborah Walker
Heart-Shaped by Manuel Royal
A Wolf Is Made by Jordan Ashley Moore
Through an Ocular Darkly by Martin Clark
Damfino Plays for Table Stakes by Ben Solomon
The Committee by Margarita Tenser
Rain over Lesser Boso by Gustavo Bondoni
The Perfection of the Steam-Powered Armour by Adria Laycraft
Assault on the Summit by Daniel Coble
Fortunate Son by Steve Coate
Odin on the Tree by Jo Walton
Refusing the Call by Elliotte Rusty Harold
The Blue Cup by Marissa James
Toward the Back by Jake Teeny
The Lost Children by Alison McBain
Great Light's Daughters by Patricia S. Bowne
Qinggong Ji by Stephen D. Rogers
On a Train with a Coyote Ghost by Robin Wyatt Dunn

Flash Fiction: Eye of the Beholder & Oh Deity, My Deity

Halloween may be over, but there are still treats to be had--unless you went to the grocery store and found the leftover candy wiped out--or perhaps you'd prefer a horrific trick or two?

First up is Eye of the Beholder from Horror D'oeuvres; it does require a subscription to read the whole thing, but hey--if you enjoy horror in flash form, they have plenty of that. Also, they've got a book club deal. Very pleasant experience working with the editor, nice and prompt, and pays on acceptance. Funny thing is, I almost didn't send this story there, because I didn't think it was dark enough. It's not. It's just fucking weird.

How weird you ask? No spoilers, but it does involve an eyeball in a very unusual place. Further hints: inspiration for this story came from Japanese ghost story Shirime and the lewd Goatse.cx meme, also riding a lot of public transportation in the Phoenix area. Oh, the weird things you will find while waiting for the bus...

And secondly, Oh Deity, My Deity from Black Frost Media--a newish market who also pay on acceptance. If only more markets could do that... You might recognize the deity character from a previous story. It's more of a prequel piece, and I'm currently shopping around a pre-prequel flash with Asteya, then sometime in the near-future I'll get around to writing the final fourth piece which will tie all the stories together. At least that's the plan.

This is also one of my rare 2nd-person POV stories. I kind of stopped writing 2nd-person after a number of rejection from editors saying they didn't like it. Psssh. I still stand by that 2nd-person is a perfectly fine POV, people just need to get that stick--or is it eyeball?--out of their ass.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween, and here's looking forward to Thanksgiving. Although according to the stores, it's Christmas already!    

Flash Fiction: Peaches in the Breeze

Only found out the other day that my flash piece--and first ever acceptance!--was published over at Abyss & Apex. I was told it was going to be published in January 2014, but better early than later, right?

This piece was accepted back in December 2011, and A&A wasn't kidding when they said they were backlogged. Then I naively waited a year for a contract, as that was before I realized you need to get after editors, because they will let things slide. I can't emphasize that last part enough.

As for the story itself, it was inspired by a shirt--no joke. Threadless has lots of neat, artsy shirts; and when looking at this shirt, because I was looking for an idea for a flash story for the Earthbound flash contest, and thought a Japanese Medusa-esque woman would be pretty cool.

A big thanks to Rez for smoothing out the tense in this story. Present-tense is inherently choppy--and you can disagree, but that might speak of your tin-ears--so I don't recommend it, especially with 3rd-person narrative. With 1st-person, it can sound pretty natural, so that works; but I have rarely encountered present-tense sounding natural in 3rd-person. That's not saying you can't do it, it's just a lot more work if you do.   

And why yes, I did draw that picture (click on it for full size), with some crappy Crayola colored-pencils. Did you know that they got rid of red-violet? Haven't drawn in ages, but feels nice, if not obsessive (I was up till 3am erasing smudges in mspaint).