Archive for the ‘short story’ Category

Update: The Street Urchin’s Gift

Posted: January 17, 2012 in short story
0

Well, I’ve been working on it for several weeks, but it looks like I’ve finally completed the final draft of The Street Urchin’s Gift, a short story that takes place in Victorian England and revolves around a young boy and the mysterious box he recieves. This story took a lot of research to do and I struggled over whether to have an ambiguous ending or to have a very dark, fleshed-out ending. In the end, on the counseling of a friend, I went with the fleshed-out ending. Now all I have to do is find a publication who’ll want to publish it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Oh, and the weather around campus has been crazy. Snow, rain, sun, heat, cold, it doesn’t stay consistent. It’s like God wants to annoy us all for the heck of it.

Actually, that’s probably the case.

Winter Quarter 2012

Posted: January 12, 2012 in Living and Life, short story
1

Well, I’m working hard. That’s pretty much it. I’m taking four classes and they’re not exactly the picture of easiness, especially my Linguistics course (that last one counts as my math requirement, believe it or not!). I’m also working two days out of the week, and also trying to have a life (which for me basically involves conversations with friends, reading a multitude of books, and watching different shows on TV. I don’t do the drinking-partying scene, though I’m sure I’d be popular there).

I’m also still working on that short story from last quarter/year. I’m still trying to work on whether to have an ambiguous or flesh out a real creepy one. If I do the former, then the story will be more literary than horror but will have plenty of choices of places to be published. If I do the latter, then I’ll have to make a rather violent ending and try and find a horror magazine that would go for this sort of story. Thankfully I’m working with a friend who’s been giving me excellent feedback. Perhaps I’ll be able to get this thing published with his help.

I’ll keep you posted on how this quarter and my writing goes. Wish me luck!

Ripple: Rejected

Posted: November 30, 2011 in Living and Life, short story
0

Well, I hate to say it, but Ripple got rejected. However, they did give me some feedback that cheered me up a bit. First, the editor of the Grove, the magazine I submitted Ripple to, said it was amazing that I had written such a story when I basically taught myself how to write fiction (while my high school was a good one, it specialized more in essay-writing for college instead of fiction-writing, but with this economy and job market can you blame them?). The editor and his staff also agreed that the second draft was much better than the first draft, so that’s something positive. In the end, it all boiled down to the fact that they had a lot of submissions, a lot more than usual apparently, and some of the work was a bit better than mine (and probably came from upperclassmen). Well, hopefully the next short story I write, whenever the inspiration strikes me, will be good enough to publish somewhere. Wish me luck.

PS The quarter is almost over on campus, and I am so glad! Honestly, I loved my classes and I had a ton of fun, but I just want to relax before winter quarter starts and I start a whole new round of classes and a whole new crazy schedule. Just gotta get past exams, and how hard can they be?

You know what, don’t answer that last question. Just leave posts encouraging me to do well in school and in my writing.

Update: Ripple

Posted: November 20, 2011 in Progress Report, short story
0

A few posts back I said that I was working on a sci-fi story called Ripple, and that I was sending it to one of the local literary magazines on campus. Well, I met with the prose editor of said magazine, and he offered me some suggestions about ways the story could be improved (this magazine is unique because it takes the time to meet with its contributors and give suggestions for improvements).

Needless to say, they had a lot of suggestions on how to better the story, and I’m pretty sure I used all of them. When I was done, the second draft of Ripple looked a heck of a lot different than the first, but I think that’s a good thing. I’ll find out soon enough whether or not they liked the second draft enough to put it in the magazine. If yes, then I’ll party. If not, then no hard feelings; I’ll just try again till I get published.

Oh, and a happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Enjoy the turkey while we remember that the Native Americans were kind enough to give us their corn and we repaid them by sending them to the worst pieces of real estate we could find! Don’t deny it, we did do that and they won’t ever let us forget it.

Fall Quarter Productivity

Posted: October 10, 2011 in Progress Report, short story
0

In addition to all the college stuff (studying, taking classes, social life, eating, etc.) I’ve been trying to write as much as possible, and I’m happy to say that I haven’t been sitting on my bum not doing any writing this whole time. I’m pleased to say that as of this posting, I have finished and sent off two short stories. One is called Ripple and is an alien invasion story (funny subject for me, considering I don’t believe in aliens that invade our planet from millions of lightyears away, but whatever). The other is called Here Kitty, Kitty and is a short-short fiction piece (meaning it’s under a thousand words). I hope to have good news about thse stories soon, so keep looking and maybe I’ll let you know.

In addition, I’ve been working on an outline for the sequel to Reborn City. Yes, I know it seems like a bad idea, when you don’t even have the novel published, to start on a sequel, but I think it’s a great idea and if RC does get published, it’ll be good to at least have some of the next book on hand. Wish me luck, I haven’t even finished two chapters in that outline and it’s already around two pages (not so unusual for a novel, really).

Excerpt: Summers with Grandmother Fumika

Posted: September 14, 2011 in short story
0

When I started this blog, I mentioned that I had previously published a short story entitled Summers with Grandmother Fumika in a tea connoisseur’s magazine. The story involves a young Japanese girl performing a tea ceremony for a kitsune fox spirit. It was my first short story to be published in a print periodical, and to this day it is still one of my best works. Below I am inserting a small excerpt for you to read. If you like what you see, feel free to go online to www.teamag.com and order a copy of the Winter 2011 edition of TEA, A MAGAZINE. It is a fascinating read, including tea trivia and lore, recipes, and much more.

Here is Summers with Grandmother Fumika:

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. I whipped my head around, trying to catch a glimpse of what I couldn’t have seen. Was it really—?

            A white foot and tail disappeared around the corner of the house, the tail swishing in the air. I stood up, surprised and confused. Had I just seen—no, it couldn’t have been, it was probably just some animal. The only reason I thought it was that was because I had been thinking about Grandmother Fumika’s stories a few seconds ago.

            Nevertheless I tiptoed towards the corner of the house, in case it was either a kitsune or a normal yet very dangerous animal that had wandered onto our property. I peeked around the corner and gasped so loudly that I thought it might hear me. Lying near the koi pond was a kitsune fox spirit, a real kitsune fox spirit! Was I seeing things?

Please leave a comment telling me what you think.

Newer Entries