Tag: fiction

Just submitted my first short story.

Whew.

I heard about this Weird West anthology a couple months ago when it first opened for submissions.

It was being held by Ranconteur Press, a relative new comer to the publishing world. But they’ve been selling books chock full o’ short stories like mad, so I figured why not put in.

And beside. Weird West?

That’s right up my alley, alongside West of Prehistoric.

Originally, I was going to write a ‘WoP’ type story. Not directly related of course, since my publisher currently holds the rights to Jedidiah Huckleberry Smith. But of a similar vein. Cowboys and dinosaurs. Woohoo.

Then my wife told me I should try something new. She suggested Sasquatches. (They are all the rage in our little town in the NC mountains. We have a Big Foot Festival every year.)

But with everything going on between my daughter’s health and writing Book 5, it really didn’t appear like I’d be able to write a story.

And it bothered the heck out of me. Because I wanted to do expand a little bit and try my hand at the short story game. And this seemed like the best opportunity I’d have.

Then, on Monday, things aligned. I sat down and started writing… knowing that the story was due on Friday.

Four days. Four days to come up with a basic plot and fill in the details and action.

With the wife’s blessing, challenge accepted.

So, I wrote. A bunch. About 1k words per day, which is a lot for me… for three days straight. Last night, I wrote 2.2k words.

(It has to be between 5,000 – 8,000 words. I hit 5,267 words. 🙂 )

After finishing at about 10pm, I hopped on my personal Facebook page and asked if anyone was still awake who was willing to read my first short story submission.

A few folks came to the rescue. Including my former Platoon Commander from the Marines. He stayed up until almost 2am taking notes then sent them over with some ‘conditions’.

Erik,

  1. I am not an author and have never written anything outside of a 5 paragraph order.
  2. I have been drinking.
  3. I have read your prior work and I think that you are a very talented author. I am proud to say that I know you and even more proud to say that I should call you my brother.
    The following is my honest and candid response:

Then he proceeded to tear my wonderful little story apart. 🙂

Which was awesome. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. Then I freaked out and typed like crazy to fix it.

And now my story is 10x better.

Summed up? If I had to put it into a quick little blurb:

An unnamed man seeks death and a confrontation with God. Finds Sasquatches instead.

Fun, fun.

If it’s not picked for the Wyrd West anthology, that’s fine. (Really, it’s just my feelings and pride that will be hurt…) I’ll post it up here for everyone to read. It was a great learning experience and neat to try my hand at something other than the WoP series.

For anyone else interested in Raconteur Press, below is the link to their site.

https://raconteurpress.substack.com

And now feels like a good time to thank my Beta Readers. Not just my old Officer buddy, (Who was the greatest officer I’ve ever known.), but to everyone who has offered to read my stuff first to make sure I don’t look stupid when it goes to print.

That includes, everyone from NC4x4.com and CarolinaGunForums.com.

You guys rock.

And a special shout out to Joel. You ALWAYS read my stuff and give the BEST feedback. And you’re enthusiasm for what I write keeps me going. Thanks Buddy!

I should know by the end of the month if I get picked.

Now it’s time to get back to Book 5, wrap it up, and move on to what I owe Conundrum Publishing. (So excited to write some WWII sea monster and Modern Day Expendables type stuff!)

Oh yes, before I forget.

I grew a magnificent mustache the past weekend. It lasted for about 8 hours before being shaved. But man, it was so cool. I just walked around the house quoting Tombstone to myself.

(You’re a daisy if ya do….)

Have a great month folks.

Thanks for the prayers for myself and my family. Answers and solutions for my daughter’s health are on the horizon and coming our way. And writing will be restored to it’s usual pace once again… one day….

Thanks!

Look out JK Rowling!

I think there is almost two dozen copies of my final draft floating around out there in paper form and word files.

So far, the feedback has been great. But the really tough ones should be coming back soon. I’ve a cousin who was a career editor, and he’s going to pillage and burn my manuscript like vikings descending upon an unsuspecting monastery. Not that I’m a  terrible writer, very far from it… but every time I open the document to print it, I’ll skim along and see something that I don’t like or some pesky error.

Yesterday I realized I capitalized Father in the middle of a sentence.

Argh… stupid newbie me.

When asking for honest reviewers who would shred my book apart on Facebook, I also stated that it had only a dozen swear words and nothing risque, because I want my kids to be able to read it eventually.  Then, right before I printed it off for my 14 year old nephew, I ran a word search and realized I had 25 shits, 19 damns, and 1 asshole.

Which is kind of funny to say out loud.

Anyways.

It took pretty much zero effort to cut out over half of them without looking like I was intentionally cutting out where a swear word should go.

Instead of, “I don’t give a shit.” I could use, “I don’t care.” Works just as well without the whole, “Oh foyer, I burned the darned muffins’ lameness/obviousness.

Speaking of my 14 year old nephew, my sister-in-law told me this today:

“Micah has already read to page 30, and when I asked him about it, he replied, “it has cowboys, and monsters, and barn burnin’s, and bar fights. It may possibly be the greatest book I’ve ever read.”

So, obviously I’m going to take the Young Adult genre by storm as well as the Fiction/Awesome/Pew Pew genres.

Look out JK Rowling….

Toxic Masculine Cowboys with Colt Peacemakers are going to smoke-check your Prepubescent Wizards with Bent Magic Twigs.

Question – What spells can deflect 250 grain .45 bullets traveling at 1,000 feet per second?

Answer – None of them.