Reluctant_Sir: Blog

I am trying something another writer suggested.

See, posting an entire story in one day, you are limited to those that happen to see it that day or are already predisposed to check out your offerings regularly. You are also graded based on other content submitted that day.

By spreading out a complete story over several days, you have a much greater chance of more people seeing that the story exists and reading it!

What do you think? I know I like to see the whole thing at once, but a chapter a day is not too much of a hardship for readers, right?

Anywho... the story is about Max. A young genius from a tiny town way up north in the great state of Texas. The chances for a pickup in a town like that are astronomical, at least until Max takes his CAP test!

Now he has a chance to get his family, his friends and a select few others out of the dead end town and safe among the stars! Well, as safe as you can be with a ravening horde of semi-sentient beings coming....

Fell in love with the Swarm Universe when I found it shortly after joining SOL and a couple of ideas came to mind if I were ever to try and get involved.

Twins is the first, but not the last. It was just a scene, more than anything, and it let me dip my toe into someone else's pool to test the waters. The folks who populate Thinking Horndog's Sa'arm writers group are phenomenal.

They were able to quickly answer any questions about the canon as well as offer a lot of good advice about the story itself. It is scary trying to play in a fully-developed fantasy universe that belongs to someone else, but they made it less difficult all around.

The next story is out for a final edit and is much longer, a full-fledged Sa'arm story instead of a shorty one like this. A third story is already in the works as well, so stay tunes. These will take a while as I am determined not to break anything, not to violate canon! They will have to be thoroughly vetted before I release them into the wild.

Thanks for your warm support and stay tuned!

Posted a quick, flash fiction piece from a writing prompt. This one tickled my fancy and the story appeared in my head almost fully written, just the details had to be fleshed out.

I think that this kind of writing keeps me mentally agile, keeps me in the groove and encourages me to write more!

As for upcoming, I have two Swarm Universe stories in the works, both being vetted by the combined wisdom of the other Swarm authors. One is a short story, the other longer, but both were fun to write. Once they have been approved (for Canon) I'll get them posted.

Now this is a story all about how,
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute, Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the ... King of England

Okay, so I ran with the Arthur story but a lot of folks continue to write in, suggesting ways the story could go. Good suggestions, strong suggestions, but suggestions I am not going to take.

Let me explain. The whole flavor of the little writer's prompt exercise was humorous, tongue in cheek, first person story telling. I could see where it could be expanded to turn the snippet into a short story, so I did that, but I could not have taken what I wrote and turned the story on its head to make it a hard-charging action novel about a modern crusader. It would have been a disaster.

I could start over with a whole new take, a whole new flavor and who knows, it may be something one of you want to tackle. It may be something I even decided to do some day, but today is not that day.

Today I continued in the same flavor and turned the snippet into a short story. I reposted over the original (there were a couple of minor continuity edits) so if you want the whole thing, click HERE.

Thanks, everyone, for the fantastic and fervent feedback, I hope you enjoy the story.

That fragment of a story was one of those things you do to get the juices flowing. It was in response to a writing prompt someone else threw out there and was never intended to be a full story.

Reader responses filled my inbox and almost every one said a variation of, "You aren't going to leave it at that, are you???"

I don't know. Really. I have no story line, that bit that exists today popped into my head when I read the prompt.

I don't want it said that I am completely unresponsive to my readers so... maybe? No promises, but I will play with it and see if it becomes something more.