Blathering On

So, Winter's Regret has been out for a few weeks now. Hopefully, you bought it, read it, and liked it. Hopefully, you liked my story, "An Unexpected Reunion." Being somewhat brain dead this week, I thought I'd share a little about how that story came about. I don't think there will be any great revelations here, but perhaps it will interest you. If not, have a nice weekend, and maybe I'll have a little more functionality next week.

Back in a time that's embarrassingly-long ago, an idea was born, an idea that grew into a manuscript I have mentioned here far too many times (hint: it's called PARALLEL LIVES). During the first two or three months I was drafting that novel, I was on fire. It seems new ideas and scenes were popping into my head constantly. It was almost like living with a movie or tape recorder inside my skull. Whatever else I was doing, the story was playing out, and when I had writing time, I was essentially transcribing what I had seen/heard/thought earlier.

At some point, the ideas dried up, but that was fine, because the story itself had run its course. And I did have a story (I should point out that a lot of these scenes just seemed to play out in my head independently of what had come before or what might come after; they were just ... scenes). But I also had too much. There were some scenes that were, functionally speaking, duplicates of other scenes. And some scenes that just didn't fit the way I thought they would when I first wrote them. Finally, there were some that I thought had to come out just because the thing was too long. "An Unexpected Reunion" fell into this category. I liked the chapter as it stood in the manuscript, but on further review, it wasn't essential. Out it came.

The tough part of turning that excerpt of a deleted chapter into a stand-alone short story was the fast that I still have plans on getting its parent published. So, I could have changed the names of the characters so they weren't people represented in the original manuscript and pretended it was its own thing, but I really didn't want to do that. Instead, I had to find a way to leave it open enough that, should (when) PL gets published, it all makes sense, but with enough of a story and conclusion that it leaves readers satisfied. I think I managed to do that.

That's it for me, hope you all have a nice weekend.

Hey! Because I'm always bad at this, if you're interested in buying Winter's Regret, it can be found

At Amazon or Smashwords or Createspace. Enjoy!

Here At Last

The calendar may say it's March, but at The Doubting Writer, winter is still going strong! That's right, folks, though St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, we have ten below zero this morning! What else? Frozen lakes! Ice dams! Snow in the forecast! Our heating bills are insane!

Whew. Sorry, I just found myself channeling one of the old Crazy Eddie commercials. Anyway.....

It's finally here:

Included are stories by Mindy McGinnis, Cat Woods, Matt Sinclair, Paul Parisi, and some guy with a mustache and glasses. I'm thrilled to be in this anthology, and I can't wait for my copy to arrive--there are some excellent writers in there and I'm proud to have made the grade.

Where can it be found? I'm glad you asked:

Smashwords

Kindle from Amazon

Createspace

Now, it somehow figures: Editor Matt Sinclair never said, "You're stories must take place in the season of the anthology." If he had, I would never get published by him. "Last Man Standing," from the summer anthology, takes place in spring. And "An Unexpected Reunion," my entry for Winter's Regret, takes place in summer. I'm not sure it will warm anyone's heart, however. I do hope people enjoy it.

Next week, I will actually have my act sufficiently together to do a giveaway. For now, if you absolutely can't wait, go on and buy it, and leave a review--you won't regret it.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Snowy Friday

Well, here I sit on a Friday morning, waiting for word from the school about whether they'll be open today or not. The Catbird was sent home early yesterday; the school was already set for a half day today (teacher training day), but I'm sure they're loath to give up a day to snow if they don't have to. The new superintendent here (and he's at least four years on the job now, so he's not really new, but you know how these things go) is from the North Country, so he's used to this stuff. It all depends on the roads.

I don't especially mind the snow--most often, the air around here is cold and dry enough that it's fairly easy to shovel--and in truth, I think our friends along the seaboard have had more snow than we have, which is unusual. This winter has felt especially arduous and endless, however, and I think it's largely because it's been so damn cold. We've had more single-digit and sub-zero days this winter than we've seen in probably6 or 8 years; it can really wear you down. As I sit here typing this right now, the thermometer reads a positively balmy 15 degrees, and we're supposed to push 30 today. Heatwave!

Speaking of winter, Matt Sinclair, the big brain behind Elephant's Bookshelf Press, sent out the cover for the Winter Anthology:

I really like the look of this cover--it really catches the mood, don't you think? The anthology is slated for a February 28 release date, a little delayed, much like this winter has been. Matt has been quite busy, as EBP has this and another anthology slated for spring, plus a novel due out in March, and more. That's a lot on his plate.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this on, and  to reading the great stories others have submitted. Meanwhile, on another book note, I've seen my pages for the works submitted for our writers' circle book--nice! The laid out versions match the final version I submitted. This is the part where we see how many errors actually creep into during the publication process. The most glaring I've found so far are an annoying lack of paragraph breaks in one of my pieces.

Well, hey, look at that, I've just gotten word that our school is closed. I can see the steam coming out of our superintendent's ears from here--maybe it's enough to melt all that snow. On that note, I'll sign off here and hope you have a happy weekend. Be well.