Practical Meerkat, Week 8

This week, I’m talking about Writers’ Groups Vs Beta Readers vs Going Solo.


Go, read. Leave a comment. Tell your friends. Browse the rest of the blog. That's what it's there for....(and it's filled with interesting/useful/funny stuff!)

Short Story Sale!

I 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. :-)