Tag Archives: inspiration

Behind the Stories – Instructions for How to Buy a Tent and Quarantine Blues

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I now realized I drafted this post during NaNoWriMo 2022 but never finalized and published it. Such is the time demands during NaNoWriMo. Every free minutes goes toward getting words on the screen and not much else. But, as they say, better late than never.

I have a twofer for you this time, and neither are my usual. “Instructional for How to Buy a Tent” is creative nonfiction; “Quarantine Blues” is a poem. But first the background.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a member of the Northern Virginia Writers Club, itself a chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. The state club conducts the Golden Nib Writing Contest every year. However, to reach the state level, an entrant must place first in their chapter-level contest. There are three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

For the 3.5 years prior to this year, I served as my chapter’s president and therefore was disqualified from participating – mainly because I picked the judge, who happened to be very familiar with my writing. Now that I’m no longer president, I took advantage and submitted an entry in all three categories. I had to make up for lost time.

If you’re reading this blog, you likely know I’m a fiction, specifically speculative fiction, writer. Guess which category I didn’t place in. That’s right, fiction! Whoops.

“Quarantine Blues” took third place at the chapter level. While not qualifying to compete at the state level, it’s still included in the 2022 Golden Nib anthology. As the title suggests, I wrote this during the heart of the initial pandemic when many of us where stuck at home for long periods with our families. It’s in the style of a blues song, a music genre I love and which I always felt amounted to poetry.

My nonfiction piece “Instructions for How to Buy a Tent” took first place at the club level. Right at the chapter level contest deadline, I decided to throw my hat in the ring in the nonfiction category. Searching my hard drive for anything that would work, I found this piece. (I haven’t written much nonfiction, and what I have had previously been published.)

I wrote this one in 2019 as part of a flash fiction writing workshop hosted by the NVWC, so it was only fitting I now would submit it to the chapter level contest. The prompt was to write about a routine process. I had recently undertaken the subject of the piece, i.e. buy a tent to use when the family went camping, so that also seemed fitting. And, as I’m realizing I’ve done regularly in my works, I injected a little humor. Even though I was at a deadline, it’s short at 445 words; so it didn’t take long to polish up before sending off.

And this piece took third place at the state level! That’s twice now that I’ve won third place at the state level. The first time also was for a nonfiction piece. As I mentioned, I don’t write much nonfiction. What I have written has either won a prize or been published. I see the trend too. Maybe I should rethink this fiction writing business. 😜 This also makes me a “multi-award winning” author. Such accolades!

Check out both “Instructions for How to Buy a Tent” and “Quarantine Blues” in the 2022 Golden Nib anthology. It’s time to start thinking about my entries in this year’s contest.

NaNoWriMo Recap 2022

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Another NaNoWriMo is in the books, literally. This is the fifth year I’ve participated, but only the second year I’ve been successful (mostly). Let me explain.

As many of you know, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in November, essentially a short novel. I’m never going to be able to write that much. I get maybe an hour a day to write. At 500-800 words an hour, which is my usual speed, you can see the math doesn’t add up.

My goal for the last three years has been to finish the first draft of a middle grade book. The first two of these wound up in the 15,000-20,000 word range. Now that is doable for me during November.

This year I achieved that goal, for the most part. Technically, I didn’t finish the first draft of this year’s middle grade book until this morning. It turned out I only needed another 200 words to finish. I’ll count that as a success.

I averaged 517 words a day during November, and the manuscript sits at 15,718 words currently. I find I don’t often need to cut large chunks from my WIPs. Instead, I often need to flesh out the word building. I already know this is true for this WIP. I’m guess I’ll add a couple of thousand more words when editing the first draft.

Once I’ve finished that first edit, it’ll be on to my first reader for these middle grade books — my oldest daughter. In the past, I read each chapter to her as I finished writing it during November, and then she read the entire book herself after I’d completed a first edit. This year she wanted to wait to read the entire manuscript once I finished. I think she really wanted to spend the time writing her on story during NaNoWriMo, which she did. She got down 3633 words. Not bad for an 8 year old. She says she has a long way to go. I hope she keeps going.

Whether you officially participated, unofficially participated, or did your own thing, how’d your NaNoWriMo go?

An Unusual Behind the Story – Livelihood

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I have an unusual Behind the Story for you this time. My story “Livelihood” appears in the Northern Virginia Writers Club’s 15th Anniversary Anthology. It’s unusual for a couple reasons. First, it’s a fantasy story, probably the only one I’ve written. While I consider myself a speculative fiction writer, that has really meant science fiction and more recently horror.

I wrote “Livelihood” in response to the submissions call of a specific fantasy market. The call wasn’t specific; it was that this well known market was briefly open. This was fairly early in my writing adventure, and unfortunately, I don’t remember the inspiration for the story.

The story has a little humor in it. Okay, the premise may be based on a pun. It’s not the first time I’ve written a story based on a pun. I can’t help it and have the excuse of being a dad.

The story has a strong, young female protagonist, who is modeled after my younger daughter. My daughter is not at the protagonist’s age yet, but I can see her in a few years being this resilient. My older daughter has a story with a character based on her as well, but that will be the subject of another blog post.

The story also is unusual because not many will get to read it despite its publication. The 15th Anniversary Anthology celebrates (as the name suggests) 15 years of the NVWC’s existence and features fiction, nonfiction, and poetry works from current members. However, the club published the anthology only long enough to order a certain number of copies but did not leave it up for general sales. If you want a copy, you’ll have to come to an event where the club has a booth, like Art on the Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia on November 12! If you’re in the area, stop by and have a chat and maybe pick up a copy. I’ll be there.

Behind the Stories – Dyson Vacuum Sphere

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A fellow blogger Lady Jabberwocky on her own writing journey that I recently discovered gave me the idea to discuss the inspirations for my stories. I’ve sometimes mentioned in this blog snippets of the inspiration for certain stories when I announce their publication, but I thought it’d be interesting to revisit a little and do a deeper dive. I still only plan to discuss those that have been published. I simply need to keep those acceptances up to continue this line of blogs. 😀

Luckily, for this first installment, I get to announce a publication and give a behind the scenes tour of the story. And do I have an interesting one for you!

First, the announcement – my story, “Dyson Vacuum Sphere,” appears in The Virginia Writers Club Journal 2022 released last week. I am a proud member of the Virginia Writers Club and its Northern Virginia chapter. A couple years ago the Virginia Writers Club began publishing a journal of works by the club’s members. I’ve appeared in a prior issue of the journal. However, since then, there has been a revision to the editorial standards. Let’s just say the barrier to entry rose.

Now on to the fun part – the backstory.

I had recently written my first comedic story in response to a publication’s extremely detailed called. Though that story wasn’t accepted by that publication, it was later accepted but by a market that then went defunct. That story hasn’t found a home yet, so I’ll have to talk about that one another time.

After practicing my comedic chops, I wanted to keep going. The Dyson Sphere episode from Star Trek: TNG was one of my favorites. It brought back Scotty! Combine that with the similarly named Dyson vacuum, and I had a story that essentially was one long dad joke.

I’ve always liked a good dad joke, but I’ve come to appreciate dad jokes even more now that I’m a father of two. Mixing my love of sci fi and dad jokes only seemed logical.

I enjoy writing most of my stories (or why would I be doing this), but I especially enjoyed writing this one. Not only does the premise include several dad jokes, but one of the characters tells a couple more dad jokes in the story. I’m proud of those since I made them up myself! Maybe I have a future in standup comedy. After Bob Saget’s death, I tweeted about how comics at their core are writers, and I still feel their writing talents are underappreciated.

If you want to groan at a couple of dad jokes, give “Dyson Vacuum Sphere” a read in the The Virginia Writers Club Journal 2022.

2Q22 Update

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It’s that time again, writers, readers, and everyone in between. How were my writing and submission exploits during the second quarter of 2022? Read on!

Words written = 5,026
Submissions = 24
Rejections = 21
Acceptances = 1
Shortlists/Holds = 0
Publications = 0
Rewrites = 0
Withdrawals = 0

If you think this looks a lot like my first quarter, you’re spot on. This time around I wrote 1500 words more, had three fewer submissions but three more rejections, and had one fewer acceptance. I’ll take the status quo at this point. It’s better than a regression.

It was an interesting quarter for two reasons. First, those 5000 words were not attributable to any new works. All 5000 were additions to existing works. About half went to finishing (finally!) my WIP middle grade novel that I started during last year’s NaNoWriMo. That’s how close I was before getting sidetracked. Another quarter went to finishing a story I’ve been collaborating on with a friend. We’ve been working on this story for years, but life kept getting in the way. The irony is, after all that work, we need to cut it down by about half to fit under the word limit for a submissions call specifically requesting collaborative works. The last quarter of my quarterly word count went to expanding three other stories.

The second interesting thing about the quarter pertains to where my submissions were as June 30 approached. About a week out, I sat at 12. Thanks to a bit of luck as to what markets were open and a bit of free time, I was able to double that to squeeze in a respectable 24 submissions.

The one acceptance was by the Virginia Writers Club Journal. I’m a member of both the Virginia Writers Club, where I currently serve as Recording Secretary, and its Northern Virginia chapter, where I currently serve as Vice President. In the past, the state club’s journal didn’t have much in the way of acceptance standards for works submitted by members. However, this year, that changed. A new editorial board was installed and now includes editors tasked with raising the bar for works accepted for publication. I’m pleased one of mine made the cut. I’ll, of course, share publication details once released.

From a writing standpoint, I’m both excited and a little scared by this quarter. On the one hand, I’ve been using my runs to plot my next middle grade novel, which I’ll write during this year’s NaNoWriMo. It’s going well. I have most of the plot mapped out, maybe needing only 2-3 more scenes. Also, the family and I are going on vacation. I’m hoping the lack of reliable internet and it being the summer will leave me time in the evenings to write rather than catch up on work.

In addition, yesterday, I submitted to the Virginia Writers Club’s Golden Nib writing contest. As the president of my local chapter the last three years, I was not eligible to submit to this contest. Now that I’ve taken a step back, I am pleased to be able to submit again. Hopefully, the story I chose stands up to the competition better than my submissions several years ago. The judges of this competition over the years have not favored genre work, which is pretty much all I write. Maybe I’ll throw in a poem for something different.

The scary part is I’m not sure what to work on. I have one idea for a short story and another for a flash story. These have been bouncing around in my head for awhile, but I’ve never felt the urge to write them. Maybe it’s time I get them on the screen. There’s no sense waiting for lightning to strike.

That’s it for those three months. How’d your quarter turn out? Any writing triumphs or failures?