A Hot and Steamy Friday Fictioneers

July 19, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

I’ll wager that got your attention, but my only meaning is the heat wave we’ve been experiencing here on the east coast. Yes, summers in the mid-Atlantic are supposed to be hot and humid, but this goes beyond that to oppressive. Makes me want to return to the wonderful seventies in Oregon. (And did I luck out there–I spent a week there between two heat waves. I must have racked up some particularly good karma.)

The heat leaches energy and creativity from every pore of your body, and though I had a concept right away for today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt–the bicycle had been placed just so to signal someone–I wasn’t sure how I wanted it to go. A pre-arranged signal for an elopement? An indication to a roommate to stay away a while longer? A warning of an unwanted guest?

Each of those sounded pretty intriguing, but my thoughts came back to a place I’ve dealt with in fiction before–The Balkans in the 1990’s, the scene of some of the worst genocide based on religion since World War II.

Many aspects of the civil war in the Balkans baffled historians and diplomats, namely, how could people who had lived together peacefully for centuries suddenly turn on neighbors, even family members by marriage? That was the aspect played up most in the western press. What we didn’t often see were the selfless acts of courage by one ethnic group to protect the other. I’ve tried to pay homage to that in “Band of Brothers.”

If you don’t see the link on the story’s title, then scroll to the top of this page and click on the Friday Fictioneers tab. Then, you can select the story from the drop-down list.

Friday Fictioneers From Oregon

July 12, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Oregon is truly one of the most beautiful states in the union. The coast is an amazing collection of eclectic little towns and medium-sized cities. It is a bit reminiscent of the Maine coast in places–just a bit more spectacular. I’m staying in a small beach town called Rockaway Beach, about 100 miles west of Portland. The beach is gorgeous and not the mass of packed bodies like most east coast beaches–great for walking and contemplating, as well as for the wedding which was the purpose for my trip out here.

The Astoria Column, whose murals commemorate the history of Oregon.

The amazing scenery along the Oregon portion of the Pacific Coast Highway is almost indescribable. Tunnels through mountains, shoulders that drop off to the Pacific below, roads that cut through hills, leaving oddly shaped pieces on either side. Then, there’s the magnificent port city of Astoria. Astoria was a must-see for me and my kids because I took them to the movie The Goonies when they were little, and it was a big hit for them. There is an informal Goonies tour of the various locations in Astoria used for filming, and the kids hit them all. It was great to hear their laughter and giggles. I could close my eyes and see them as little again, enjoying the Goonies’ adventures for the first time.

One of the small towns near Rockaway Beach is Garibaldi, a fishing village, which also has a history of wood milling. It has an interesting vibe about it, and it would make a wonderful setting for a story some time. I’ve taken some pictures as reminders and for later use.

I got an idea for Friday Fictioneers almost as soon as I saw today’s photo prompt. Finding quiet time (away from toddler grandkids, or, as I call them, The Hooligans) to write was another matter. Even now, I’m writing under the deadline of getting ready to go do some more touristy things (Tillamook Cheese Factory for one), but perhaps that’s just the impetus you need on vacation. It’s been almost a week since I’ve written a word, and I’m feeling the withdrawal.

That withdrawal brought forth “Judas Goats,” a little horror story for mid-July in the Pacific Northwest. If you don’t see the link on the story title, scroll to the top of this page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down list.

Friday Fictioneers Fireworks

July 5, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

The thing with having a holiday fall in the middle of a week? I spent all day yesterday thinking it was Saturday. Since I thought it was Saturday, I was excited that vacation was only one day away. Reality crashed in when I sat down to watch the NASCAR race at Daytona and realized, nope, it’s Thursday. However, the good news is, I have more time to pack.

The vacation to the Pacific Northwest is mostly relaxation (even though I’ll be sharing a beach house with my kids and their kids) with a wedding thrown in, also in the middle of the week (the date is significant). The laptop will be along and although I won’t be working on the novel revision I’ve mentioned, I hope to work on some stories for Spy Flash 2. No wi-fi at the beach house, so my contact with the outside world may be limited, though I’ll stake out a coffee shop or two to spend some time in.

I also plan on walking on the beach, seeing some sights, walking on the beach, and, well, walking on the beach. There’s something about a beach and waves and sand beneath my feet that relaxes and soothes me.

When you see today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt, note the body language of the two people on the right. That’s what inspired today’s flash fiction “Carpe Diem.” Unfortunately, it was a posture all too familiar, and whereas today’s story is not autobiographical, it is reminiscent. If you don’t see the link on the title above, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down list.

Unexpected Paths will be on hiatus next week, and a new Friday Fictioneers post will depend on finding a wi-fi hot spot. Cross your fingers.

June’s Final Friday Fictioneers

June 28, 2013June 27, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Can it be possible we’ll soon be halfway through this year? Where has the time gone?

The novel revision is going well. Ahead of schedule in fact, which is good since I’ll be on vacation July 7 – 15. I think I’m about at the point to take a break from it anyway, so vacay will come at a good time for a lot of reasons. I’m sure I’ll come back to it refreshed.

Tuesday, I taught a one-night workshop on putting suspense into your writing, and that was enormous fun. We did it on a Facebook Event page, which didn’t go as smoothly as I’d like, so if anyone has any other suggestions, I’d appreciate it. Still, it was pretty cool to be “teacher” again, and I was honored someone asked me to do it.

Maybe because I’m about to take a cross-country flight and maybe because in my old job I worked a lot of “unruly passenger” issues, I came up with “On The Road Again.” Not exactly an homage to the Willie Nelson song of the same name, but I think you’ll see it’s apt. The photo prompt has a lot of layers to it–the POV and the implied motion. Simple yet complex, and my little story probably doesn’t do it justice, but it was fun to write.

As usual, if you don’t see the link on the story title in the paragraph above, scroll to the top of this page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select it from the drop-down list.

Friday Fictioneers First Day of Summer!

June 21, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Now the hard work begins. Now, I’m coming down off the high of the positive remarks about my novel excerpt and beginning the revision of the first draft. I have the workshop instructor’s marked-up copy, plus my notes from our one-on-one conference, plus the comments from my fellow workshoppers, and those will be a big help, but revising is the hardest work of all.

Since the key to any good work of fiction is to get the reader to turn the page, the extraneous dreck has to go. I think Fred Leebron’s words will have to become a mantra for revising: “The first draft is for the characters; the final is for the reader.”

So, here’s my process. The first revision is a re-type of the MS, editing as I go. Then, I’ll put it aside for a couple of weeks to get it out of my head. Next, I’ll print out a double-spaced copy and do a physical line-edit. (I’m old school; I still need to have a hard-copy version and a red pen.) While doing the line-edit is when I’ll read the MS aloud, and it’s amazing what you find when you hear your words spoken. Once I incorporate the changes from the line-edit, I’ll either pass the MS through my critique group or have a couple of folks from the workshop review it. Finally, it’ll be off to the workshop instructor for review, and then the process will probably start all over again; but that’s the writing life.

Another hard part of the hard part is that for the next several months I’ll be focused on this MS alone, and I know I’ll miss working on the Mai/Alexei novels. I’ll still be doing Spy Flash stories, but delving into my world of spies and intrigue will have to take a back seat for a while.

And I’ll always have Friday Fictioneers! I know I’ve praised this exercise before, but it has allowed me to delve into genres I thought were beyond me–sci-fi, fantasy, horror. Today is one of those times, even though it’s a fairly straight-forward photo prompt: a soldier standing guard. What you don’t see is what the soldier guards, and that’s what got my imagination going–and you get, “The Unknown Soldier.”

As usual, if you don’t see the link on the story title above, scroll to the top of this page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down list.

A Tinker Mountain Friday Fictioneers

June 14, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

I’ll post reflections on Tinker Mountain Days Three and Four once I get back from a meeting I’m attending in Northern Virginia this weekend. Yes, after workshop is over this afternoon, I’m hitting the road and driving almost 300 miles to attend the American Ethical Union assembly in Fairfax. Oh, joy.

But here’s today’s Friday Fictioneers story, “Simon Sez.” As usual, if you don’t see the link on the title, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tag, then select the story from the drop-down list.

June Friday Fictioneers is Busting Out All Over!

June 7, 2013June 6, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

This week’s photo was quite the poser. I looked, walked away from the computer, then looked again. Yep, it was the same both times. It spawned the whine, “How will I ever come up with something for this?”

Then for some reason I thought about a time in my life when my parents were separated and my time with my father, who was in the Army, became less and less. Whenever I did see him, it was as if he tried to outdo the previous present he brought me. All I wanted was the time with him, but how does a five year old communicate that?

So, today’s photo made me think about what part-time dads would do to keep their daughters their little girls, and “Young at Heart” came to me. I seem to be on a sentimental kick lately, but I’m certain the dark will return. It better.

As usual, if you can’t see the link on the story title, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down list.

The Last Friday Fictioneers of May

May 31, 2013May 29, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Okay, it’s the end of May. How could we be five months into 2013? Wasn’t it just New Years last week? Time flies when you’re writing.

I’ve had some good carry-over from last week’s retreat–Monday’s post on the retreat itself, a pretty killer political blog post on Wednesday (Click here if you’re interested; if you’re not politically to the left of Stalin, you won’t enjoy it, so you might want to skip it unless you are.), a draft of a new Spy Flash story, today’s Friday Fictioneers (of course), and several more scenes for a novel draft, which had a lot of plot holes. Plus some great writer talk with a writer friend. I love it when the giddiness carries on.

But…a week from Sunday it’s Tinker Mountain Writer’s Workshop, and I’m already doubting the twenty-pages I sent in for the Advanced Novel workshop. Is it advanced enough? Am I advanced enough? Will everybody else hate it? You know, the exact same feelings I had last year about this time.

Week after week, Rochelle Wisoff-Field manages to find a truly inspiring photo, and today’s is perhaps one of the most intriguing. Yeah, I say that about each of them, but this one is so interesting, I’m sure the collection of stories will be eclectic and amazing.

Today’s story, “Put on Your Red Dress,” features my two characters from the Spy Flash short story collection, Alexei and Mai, on a little adventure to find… Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. If you don’t see the link on the title above, scroll to the top of this page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down list.

Friday Fictioneers Retreating

May 24, 2013May 24, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Since writing is an essential part of a writing retreat, I had no option but to write for Friday Fictioneers–especially with such a nostalgic photo as we got this week. I’ll be blogging next week on the writer’s retreat, so I won’t go into much detail here, except to say–a whole lot of writing is getting done!

Today’s story is “Priorities,” and if you don’t see the link on the title, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, and select it from the drop-down list.

And don’t forget to check out the two book selling/signing events I’ll be doing the next couple of weeks–see details in the top of the righthand column.

Time for Friday Fictioneers

May 17, 2013 / unspywriter / 1 Comment

So, I opted to enter a story in the New Letters Literary Awards contest after all. “Unconquered” is actually the epilogue of a novel I’ve been working on for some time; however, with a few minor edits, it worked as a stand-alone story. On the same day, I polished a story I’ve submitted a couple of times to other journals (and had rejected) and submitted it to the Blue Ridge Writers Annual Contest. That story is “Meeting the Enemy.” And we’ll see. I just repeat my mantra: “You won’t get published if you don’t submit; rejection is part of the process; acceptance awaits.”

Mantras aside, I’m crossing my fingers, toes, legs for a little luck.

One of the best things about Friday Fictioneers is seeing how other writers interpret the photo prompt. A single photo can inspire romance, horror, speculative fiction, historical fiction, genre mash-ups, and much more. It just reinforces that as writers our imaginations hold sway over all we do. A fascinating process which we sometimes can’t see in ourselves but can see in other writers. I always think that what I come up with is obvious; yet, when I read other Friday Fictioneer stories I’m amazed at the breadth of the creativity–and sometimes our lunacy.

Perhaps I’ve been too inundated by trailers for the new adaptation of The Great Gadsby in the past week or so. At least it seemed that way when I looked at today’s Friday Fictioneers inspiration photo. The excesses of the Jazz Age were echoed by the “Summer of Love” in 1967, which, being a teenager stuck on a farm, I only participated in vicariously. The parties in the two eras may have involved different stimulants, but the debauchery was just as, well, debauched. That’s what came to my mind, immediately followed by what it might be like for a hard-partier decades later, perhaps someone who didn’t put the party days behind her.

That led to “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.” As usual, if you don’t see the link on the story title, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down list.