Undeterred

Well, my submission to the NYC Midnight 100-word story competition was not in the top 5 for my group, so I will not be advancing in this challenge.  

I was tasked with writing a Historical Fiction story that included "sunbathing" and the word "edge."  You can read it here: The Summer of 41

Although I did not advance, I did receive some AMAZING feedback from three judges (mostly suggestions on improving the last line).  Anyway, I am very happy I participated and will definitely try again next time.  

Next up is round two of the 1000-word challenge later in July. 

Travel Update

I have a very busy July on the travel front. First, I'm heading to Portugal (Lisbon) for a few days, and then on to Spain (Madrid and San Sebastion) for ten days. Once back, I plan to head back to our cabin in Massachusetts for a few days and then on to Toronto for a week of bridge (NABC tournament) with a college friend. 

Roadside Picnic

I am halfway through the book and quite enjoying it. My read-along group will be meeting this weekend to discuss...  It is not too late to join us if you are keen. Just shoot me an email at wardeng@gmail.com and I can add you to the group meetings going forward.

Otherwise, no coding updates and no longer fiction updates, but each is still progressing slowly.   Given above travel, my output is likely going to be low for a few more weeks.

stay cool if you can. (IT IS SO HOT).

peace,

greg

Suspense

I should hear about that first NYC Midnight 100-word story TOMORROW.  The suspense is killing me. 

In celebration, I whipped up my first 100-word Suspense story. 

Dentist Dreams

Submitted!

 

Yippee!

Again, I won't be able to share the story until it has been officially judged. 

48 hours and 1000 words is pretty interesting.  I got the prompt (genre, location, object) at midnight (friday night/saturday AM).  noodled it for maybe 20 minutes--nothing felt good--and went to sleep, hoping my background brain would get to work.  Saturday morning I fussed around with a few ideas in my head, but still mostly hemming and hawing.  As I was on the clock, I forced myself to think through a basic plot and characters, expecting to hate it.  But I knew that until I wrote the first story I would not be able to write the second, hopefully proper, one.  And so I labored through a story for a few hours, trying not to re-write too much along the way.  I then handed it off to my three beta readers, only one of whom knew it was coming.  I set it down, grabbed some dinner, thought about making some edits but was really pretty drained.  So, I loaded up brain with all the things I did not like about the first story, and the few things I did like.  I then went to bed.

I got some feedback back from my first reader, and from my background brain, and did a major revision. I started with a clean sheet of paper and basically wrote the same story again, but cutting out the parts I did not like from before, and adding more detail to the bits I liked.

Sent it back out.  And too my surprise I got mixed results!  One person liked the first story much better, and someone else the second one.  Oh dear.

But this was a blessing, actually. Each version had a good part, and a bad part.  I was able then to make a third version of the story, now much more focused on the bits that were working for my early readers.

I then showed it to my daughter (she had been out all day), and she liked it. She also pointed out one last sentence that was a little odd.  Fixed that up, and submitted it.

I highly recommend people doing these challenges; they are fun and make you stretch your brain.

Reading update:

We have picked Roadside Picnic as the first SciFi read along for the summer.  Aiming to have a zoom chat around June 22 to discuss the first 100 pages.  Hit me up if you want the link.

peace, Greg