Short Story Sale!
Feb. 25th, 2011 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanI came back from running errands to discover a story-acceptance in my mailbox - "Crossroads" to Fantasy Magazine. Nice way to end the week, no?
I really love this story, which started out as part of a writing exercise when I was teaching at Odyssey last summer, on how to introduce multiple characters at once.
The opening line:
"John came to the crossroads at just shy of noon, where a man dressed all in black stared up at another man hanging from a gallowstree."
That wasn't the exact original wording of the opening line, of course - it took nearly 5 months for me to bring it to where the story needed to be. (yeah, 5 months. In my defense, there was some novel-writing in there, too. But I'm not the "bolt 'em out" type, nope).
I had no idea what was going on when the three characters came into my head, standing at the front of the classroom after assigning the exercise. I certainly didn't expect the voice - or the world -- that came out of it. I hope I get a chance to get back there, some day. But for now, "Crossroads" at least has a home. :-)
I really love this story, which started out as part of a writing exercise when I was teaching at Odyssey last summer, on how to introduce multiple characters at once.
The opening line:
"John came to the crossroads at just shy of noon, where a man dressed all in black stared up at another man hanging from a gallowstree."
That wasn't the exact original wording of the opening line, of course - it took nearly 5 months for me to bring it to where the story needed to be. (yeah, 5 months. In my defense, there was some novel-writing in there, too. But I'm not the "bolt 'em out" type, nope).
I had no idea what was going on when the three characters came into my head, standing at the front of the classroom after assigning the exercise. I certainly didn't expect the voice - or the world -- that came out of it. I hope I get a chance to get back there, some day. But for now, "Crossroads" at least has a home. :-)
