The Good, the Bad, and finally, the last instalment of the series, The Ugly. Ugly Girl was the most difficult one to write in the trilogy. I struggled with it for nearly a year. It was only when I broke the bonds of the detailed outline I created for the story that the words flowed into a decent 68k-word story. The last instalment of the If It Ain’t Dutch, It Ain’t Much series (formerly Dutch Master) is Service Girl, a short story I wrote in a week.
But first, let’s delve into the world of Zuzanna Sówka. Even in your sixties, you can still consider yourself an ugly girl. In fact, Zuzanna never reached the stage where she considers herself an ugly woman; she’s stuck in the ugly girl image of herself.
“Ugly Girl” can be enjoyed as a standalone novel, though some background context from the first two books may enhance your comprehension of earlier plot points.
I hope you enjoy the story; I certainly enjoyed writing it.
A star is born - the version from 1976 with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand - was the inspiration for my Halloween story this year. The song is called Hellacious acres and this is the last line of the text is:
Admission′s free you pay to get out
It stayed with me all these years. Admission free, you'll pay to get out. Enjoy Valhalla.
Link to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptr9vCKpbrA&list=RDPtr9vCKpbrA&start_radio=1
Congrats to the winners of the Halloween competion.
Ever truly yours,
Han
I wrote the short story ‘the Nightingale’s Story, A prayer without witness,’ triggered by a Writer’s Digest challenge. Write a short story of max. 1500 words. So how hard can that be? It turns out it’s more difficult than I thought it would be — at least for me — to confine myself to that word count. I tightened it a tiny bit today, but it’s still 1849 words.
However, it is not only an exercise in compressed storytelling, but it is also an exercise in writing in third-person limited POV. Until now, all my stories were in first person POV, like the majority of stories here on this platform. I wrote the story on impulse, following a disturbing incident in my personal life.
A third thing that’s different is that my short story is a virgin. A “No Sex Story.” My first. Please be gentle with me.
Until now it only got three votes, so this probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but winter is coming, and I’m already adding winter spices to my tea. That’s OK, though. I wrote this for myself, but if you like it, that’s a bonus. And hey, it’s the season for bargains and bonuses.