D is for Dig in, a villanelle

 Blogfest, Blogging, Stuff I've Written, Writing  20 Responses »
Apr 052011
 

You are not a writer unless you write,

I tell these dreamers who want to pretend.

Live by day and write late into the night.

 

After each new Twilight we fight the flight

of green dreamers who do not comprehend-

You are not a writer unless you write.

 

No sure green light after endless rewrite

with butt in chair, ten-thousand words to spend-

Live by day and write late into the night.

 

The dream-road is long with no end in sight

upon beyond “the dark and stormy” wend.

You are not a writer unless you write.

 

Become immortal beneath the starlight.

Seek adventure within the fiction penned.

Live by day and write late into the night.

 

Dreamer, stay! Keep fighting the wild fight.

Tell your story until you pen “The End.”

You are not a writer unless you write,

Live by day and write late into the night.

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  • Marieke’s Musings- BOW TIES. This is the first post I read on Marieke’s blog and it tied together bow ties and Doctor Who and some writing advice and I just sort of went jelly-kneed because it was like my own personal nerd heaven. I’ve become a standing fan of Marieke’s Musings from this day forward. Also, there’s a trailer for the new Doctor Who season on her blog and it looks FREAKING AMAZING. I haven’t seen the end of the last season though so I’d better get on that.
  • Geek Twins- This is such a great nerd blog! It has a great comic book feel and a lot of wonderful posts. Commenting on this blog is weird though. I’ve never seen anything like it.
  • E.J. Wesley – I really love the background on this blog, and despite the fact the pictures show up a little wonky for me, E.J.’s posts are really great for writers. His A to J Blog Challenge has a theme of writing about topics from the writer’s toolbox. I’ll be following E.J.’s blog all month long, it is that well written.

A sample from this weekend’s write-fest

 Stuff I've Written, Superheroes, Writing  2 Responses »
Mar 222011
 

I have butterflies.

Those kind that make you do things you would never do under normal circumstances.

Two years working on one manuscript and the only thing I’ve shared on my blog is a prologue I scrapped more than one draft ago. It’s not a trust thing and I’m not worried about what people say. I’m made of iron when it comes to criticism. It’s not even that I think someone is going to run off with my ideas. It just feels presumptuous of me. The final draft isn’t done and I’m sharing it like it is something to be proud of? I don’t know, it feels like asking too much of my blog readers. If I’m going to share, it ought to be done and it ought to be good.

I’ve been working on my new manuscript for a little over two days and I am bouncing on my tip toes, eager as anything to share with you what came to me Saturday morning.

I haven’t edited it yet. This is what started writing itself in my head at 9am. If there are spelling or grammar errors or weirdness of any kind, that’s because this is about as first drafty as you can get. I’m so nervous. I hope you like it. Comments are welcome but not necessary if you don’t want to. Criticism is also fine.

I hope you enjoy it!

p.s. I was listening to the following album a lot of the time I’ve been writing this. The album is called “We are Complex” by Curl. You can find them on Magnatunes.com:


We Are Complex by Curl

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One

Arin Maddix

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October Blogfest: A Goblin Lullaby, a short story

 Stuff I've Written, Writing  2 Responses »
Oct 262010
 

Nell’s mother loved her very, very much. More than anything she owned in her whole life. Nell’s mother told her it was for her own good, to keep her safe, that she locked the door to the little closet where the little girl slept every night.

The closet was just large enough for a little girl to lie down on blankets with pillows, clothes hung above her but weren’t long enough to brush her. Way up on one wall there was a tiny window, just a little too high for Nell, but it let in some moonlight and Nell’s mother would crack it sometimes for fresh air. But it was a cold October and Nell’s mother would not take the chance Nell would catch a cold. Nell slept soundly every night, only sometimes wishing to leave her closet.

It was this night, a Halloween night, that something extraordinary was going to happen to their tiny Midwestern town. This extraordinary thing was unprecedented. It had simply never happened before.

That thing began with the notes of music. Sounding far away, it woke Nell from her cushioned sleep. At first she wasn’t sure what had woken her, little pale hands rubbing tired eyes. She sat up and listened, tinkling music like a jewelry box coming from somewhere far away. It was like a carnival in her head, blossoming colors and stories that she didn’t know she had ever heard. It was magical.

She sat and listened but she wasn’t the only one. Children all over the neighborhood sat up and listened, awaked from dreams of candy and costumes, from a night of trick-or-treating. All young ears were perked and listening, all hearing stories and smelling sweets that they each individually loved or longed for.

The music, harmony and lyrics and melody, all combined to do something tantalizing, like a cookie jar that none of them could quite reach but smelled warm and soft and sweet. Nell stood and stared at the small window and strained to hear. The music floated, swept down streets and knocked on windows. It beckoned and it promised.

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October Blogfest: Nerves – a short story and an author reflection

 Stuff I've Written, Topics in Writing, Writing  5 Responses »
Oct 112010
 

I don’t write horror, not usually. I like psychological horror, but I’m not real interested in gore-slasher-horror. I like stories with an ounce of wonder to them, no matter the main genre, so when it comes to horror I tend to lean toward horror-fantasy (haha, is there such a thing?) that takes wonder and spins it up with a dash of super-creepiness.

I wrote a short story a few years ago called “Nerves” for a contest and then later I put it in the zine I helped create. “Nerves” was inspired by a rereading of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charolette Perkins Gilman and the Maggie Gyllenhaal movie Secretary. The idea of a girl being let out of the hospital before she’s actually cured intrigued me. I thought there could be a great horror story there.

I like “Nerves” but it isn’t a story I’d let my grandma read. Or my coworkers. It’s weird because as a writer I am sometimes worried about how I will be perceived by the content I write. When I write horror I am even more aware of this. I can come up with some pretty twisted, psychologically creepy stuff, but will that mirror back on me? Will people think I am twisted and creepy because I can spin a good horror yarn?

I don’t know. I hope not. I think most people would be shocked to find out I lead a pretty boring, video gaming playing, book reading, cat snuggling life. I don’t have a dirt floor basement or anything. I don’t know 101 ways to torture your friends. I just know how to put words together that will scare you.

I wrote “Nerves” with the intent that the story would be kind of creepy and sad where the main character is this victim whose life will never be like yours or mine. At the end, she shifts from victim-protagonist to villain-protagonist and I was really interested in exploring that kind of shift.

I do not usually go for the big disturbing finale. I like my endings to be a little warmer than that. But with “Nerves” I wanted things to get uncomfortable and yet I wonder if people will read it and think, “Wow that Sommer is kind of twisted.” Well, no, Sommer’s not. It is just one story with a shocking ending. I good horror tale and nothing more.

What do you think? Do you think horror writers must be twisted to be able to write about scary, disturbing things? Or are they just great spinners of tales that just happen to keep us awake at night? Does this idea that the content of our stories somehow speaks about the content of the author?

Click on the More button if you’d like to read “Nerves.” It isn’t very long, there’s no gore, but there is a twist ending that is a lot more shocking than my usually horror/fantasy stuff I’ll be posting later this month.

Thank you for reading and Happy October everyone!

Sommer

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October Blogfest: Kingdom of Monsters and Lost Children, a poem. Also, The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman

 Fantastic Authors, Stuff I've Written, Videos  2 Responses »
Oct 042010
 

little children
in your beds,
figures dancing
in your heads,

ghosts of memories,
dreaming flight
heroes, dragons
fill the night.

while you’re sleeping,
safe and sound,
like all the children
in your town

dark things hunt
around your bed
in your closet,
in your head.

wanting, gnashing,
lurking, breathing.
drooling, dripping,
scratching, seething.

little children
you’re not safe.
there are monsters
in every place.

scream for your mother
she’ll never come.
once they have you,
you’re all alone.

And here’s some creepy awesome sad poetry from someone with a lot more talent than me – the absolutely amazing and mind blowing author extraordinaire:  Neil Gaiman and his poem “The Day the Saucers Came”


October Blogfest: Charles Perrault inspired me

 Comics, Stuff I've Written  2 Responses »
Oct 032010
 

About five years ago I started writing a horror comic called Homicidal Sweethearts. My artistic talents were pretty sad though, so I hired a girl from my French class, Sarah Johnson, to draw the comic for me. I inked and colored the comics using Photoshop. Some of the writing is kind of embarressing now, I had no idea what I was doing! But all in all, I like it, and I miss it. So I thought I’d share the beginning of the series here. We didn’t get very far because my webmaster left town unexpected and I had no idea how to run the website. It broke my heart a little. There is something really amazing about being inspired to create, to tell stories. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the rush that creation gives me.

I know it’s a little silly. But this is the poem that inspired me to create what I did-

Little girls, this seems to say,
Never stop upon your way,
Never trust a stranger-friend;
No one knows how it will end.
As you’re pretty so be wise;
Wolves may lurk in every guise.
Handsome they may be, and kind
Gay, or charming-nevermind!
Now, as then, ‘tis simple truth-
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth!
-Charles Perrault

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Homicidal Sweethearts, Comic 1 and 2

Click to make bigger.