Soft around the edges

Today, Fictional Musings posted my short story "Celiac's are People, Too." It is a Bo Fexler story, but minus the sex, violence, and much of her edge. It's a story I've been kicking around for awhile and when my head cleared enough the other day, I managed to get it into the computer.

People with allergies, intolerances and disorders are, I think, more prone to blame things on their condition, which is what makes the idea behind this story so intriguing to me.

But then again, I'll readily admit that many things in the world to me are amusing and ripe for story possibilities. I'm quirky that way.

• Last story finished: Celiac's are people, too
• Story in Progress: Merry Maid Murder (at super-snail pace)
• Reason for not writing: Ill... though I think I've finally nailed down why. For this week...

Good or Bad

Muzzle Flash just posted the shost story "Bad Dream." Bo's up to some naughty stuff. ;-) But it's for her case and for her client. Besides, I don't think the man *really* minded...

In other news, by the middle of this week, I finished the 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month. Not done with the story, but there's a solid tale in the middle of it. It joins two other stories that are in limbo. I don't know where I want to go next-- too much thinking perhaps.

For now, I have to clean my desk so the stupid cable guy can get to my TV to put on the digital box that I *don't* want but can't avoid because my cable company is playing 'jack the customers!' Yea!

• Last story completed: Bad Dream
• Story in Progress: Merry Maids Murder & NaNoWriMo2007
• Reason for not writing: Writer's block
• Current Song: Sex is not the Enemy by Garbage (one of my FAVE bands!)

This time, it's personal.

There's a new site out there for crime and mystery fiction: Darkest Before the Dawn. And the first story published by them is a Bo Fexler story called "Misguided Flight." Gotta be a good site, right? It's run by the same folks who run Powder Burn Flash, only Darkest Before The Dawn takes fiction up to 10,000 words. Perfect...

"Misguided Flight" follows Bo as she takes a case to find a missing young woman. A woman who doesn't tell her parents nearly half of what's going on in her life. A woman exploring what life has to offer. A woman who only picks controlling men for relationships. Part of the investigation affects Bo deeply. It's a struggle for her to stay focused on the case, not on the choices she made.

So, read and enjoy!

• Story in progress: NaNoWriMo2007; Bad Dream
• Last story finished: Misguided Flight (and first accepted...)
• What should I be doing: Grading papers. I *hate* grading papers... especially some of these history assignments.
• Song I'm listening to: Uninvited by Alanis Morissette

Irritations

After a fantastic run of acceptance and publication this past year, I seem to have fallen a bit into a slump. Not for lack of ideas! Or even of stories. The problem is I've been working on things that are too long for most publications OR that are, ah, well, not going to be accepted by most places. Usually for sexual content.



The other thing holding back some of my completed stories is 'themes'. I hate themed issues. Almost as much as I hate celebrity 'news'. Few of my stories fit into any themes because they are just written as stories. Everyday stories. Cases where Bo uses her brain, body, and fists to get what she wants. Fun stories. But not themed. And several of the places that used to take regular stories-- with profanity, sex and violence-- have gone themed.



Somedays it seems like I'm the only fan of hardboild crime noir pulp fiction. From the number of emails and comments-- and hits-- I get, I know that I'm not, but pulications don't seem to cater to our ilk so much. Or they go themed.



I hate themes.



So, I wait. Iwait for publications that take my kind of stories. And in the meantime, I'm going to try to work on some shorter stories that do fit the requirements of the publishers. And my NaNoWriMo story.

• Last story finished: Edits of "Family Affairs of Adult Children"


• Story in Progress: "Merry Maids Murder" (working title!)


• Reason for not writing: Working on NaNoWriMo2007-- currently over 13k words (out of 50k)


• Song in my head: "Back in your head" by Tegan and Sara