My 1st Short Story

Ten years ago I had ideas that I was working toward being a published writer. But I never really took it seriously. Working on a single short story, "revising" it once every few months, for years, does not count as seriously writing.

Five years ago I heard Greg Rucka speak at Wizard World Chicago. He said some things that hit home - being unbearable when going days without writing (something to which I could relate), and, more importantly, writing every day to a specific word count (i.e. write 500 words/day, or 3000 words/day) and don't stop until you hit the goal. I took that latter piece of advice to heart, and tried to adhere to it.

But it wasn't until about three years ago that I finally got into a groove of writing every day, with a goal of 1000 words/day. Even with a 2-year-old in the house - and my 10 and 14 year olds - a full-time job (except for these past few months) and all the other distractions of life, I've held to my schedule - with some days being taken up with note taking, others with revising and such - and it's paid off with my first published short story.

"A Stone Wall Between Us" was inspired, loosely, by Joe Hill's short "Abraham's Boys" and polished with the help of advice from Joe's father, Stephen King, and his book On Writing. It was also a result of the advice of two other writers I admire.

Steven Grant, a writer best known for his Punisher miniseries with Mike Zeck, who wrote that if one wants to write fiction it would behoove one to take any writing opportunities they are afforded. To that end, I contributed a weekly column for the Pulse, spotlighting small press comics and their creators. One of the creators I interviewed was CJ Hurtt, who is the submissions editor at Dark Recesses right now and offered to accept any horror stories I might have through his email rather than the "slush pile" address. For that, I owe CJ a great debt.

And Neil Gaiman, who said something similar to Greg Rucka above. If one wishes to be a writer, then write.

The last important advice about writing comes back to Greg Rucka. At that same discussion at Wizard World, he said writing isn't what comes out when you first sit down and type. Writing, the really hard work, comes when you revise those first drafts. It's when you cut those parts you really liked the first time you hit the keys with your fingers. Writing is about forming that first bit of clay you get on the page. Writing is about cutting. This was a point also made by Stephen King in On Writing. And it's something that I find myself getting better at every day - because I have been writing and discovering, as I do the work, what is needed to make a good story.

As an example, the first draft of Stone Wall was almost 8000 words long. Once I'd finalized my revisions, I'd managed to get it down to 5000 words, and, in the process, made it far better. The final edits came from suggestions of the publisher - most of which I took, some of which I declined, which was find with him - and they not only improved the final story, but also gave me something else to look for when revising that can only improve my writing going forward.

Anyway. I've gone on too long. Below is the link to Stone Wall. Please click on the link and check it out. I'm quite proud of this, and I think you'll enjoy it. Just don't look for a Hallmark ending :)

A Stone Wall Between Us

Thanks,
chris

Pages 1-4 of Life is Funny, live now @ Apecmx

My entry for the Ape UFO anthology started up a week and a half ago. I wrote it as a complete story (which sounds pretentious, but hear me out), and unlike the previous tale written by Raphael Moran, “Life is Funny” is more of a slow burn leading up to the climax. Raph’s “Angst” had twists and turns with each page and worked better as an online serialization.

Anyway. The first four – of eight – pages are now live on the Ape comix site. If you’ve got the time, go check them out, (from page one) and if you’re so inclined, down past the bios are links for rating the pages and making comments. I would greatly appreciate it if you took a moment to click the stars or the thumbs up/down– if only for the art from Jason and Osmarco, which I think is beautiful. The more positive feedback, the better.

And I promise, with the next couple of pages, the tension gets amped up and it will be worth your while. Or your money back ;)

Page 2 above.

Thanks,
chris

Life is Funny begins

The story I began in December, 2008 (at which point it was a 6-page script) is finally seeing the light of day. The artwork by Jason Copland and lush colors from Osmarco Valladao are amazing, in my opinion. And Josh Aitken's lettering rounds it out so nicely. It's very cool to see the word I wrote come to life on the page (screen).

I'm very proud of this, and though the overall story is a slow burn, you should check out page 1 at the link below over at the Apecomix site.

LINK

Thanks,
chris

COLOR

I'm working up a superhero pitch for a number of prospective publishers, and am lucky enough to have Osmarco Valladao, who did the coloring on my forthcoming short story in ape's UFO anthology, signed on to color this story if it ever gets picked up. He has a lot on his plate right now and was not able to color the proposal pages, but he did give me some options regarding the coloring of the costume thanks to his coloring for the proposed cover, which also has a new log Osmarco used that makes this cover looks a hundred times better than the b/w mock-up I did, which I threw in for comparison's sake.

Now I just need to decide on a final coloring scheme.


Enjoy,
chris

Sold my first Short Story

So,

I've been hacking away at this writing thing, seriously, for a couple of years now. Before that, I was trying to call myself a writer, but the commitment, for whatever reasons, was not there. It's just easier to sit down and read a book or surf the net or watch a movie than it is to sit down and write. That's really what it comes down to.

But the last couple of years have been productive, even if most of that is hidden on my flash drive.

But January 2010 should see both my first professional comic writing credit and my first published short story go live. I've written about the comic story, "Life is Funny," which will debut around the middle of January on Ape Entertainment's online anthology site. But the short story has only been hinted at on Facebook.

About a year ago, I sat down in Borders to find out about this "Joe Hill" guy. (Yeah, the Joe Hill who had the best-selling horror novel, in paperback I believe, last year - Heart-Shaped Box). I pulled down a copy of 20th Century Ghosts read the introduction and decided to check out the short story "Abraham's Boys" based upon the Van Helsing character from Dracula.

It was an amazing story, and I was impressed with how items in the beginning the seem tangential, as if they were only window dressing for the setting, come back in the end to be integral parts of the tale. And something in my brain clicked, and I felt like I understood how to use this structure to create a story that would be far more lasting than the other pieces I'd written. And there, in the Borders cafe, I started to map out my tale.

From this, came "A Stone Wall Between Us," which is set in the early 1900s and tells the tale of a small farming family wherein the mother has passed and the young son and daughter are raised by their brooding, often misguided, father. I'd rather not say anything else so as not to give the ultimate narrative of the story away.

So, I had this story. It was in a horror vein, though not as overt as "Abrahama's Boys," which, itself, was a more tangential horror story than one normally associates with the genre. What to do with it?

Now, the funny thing about the UFO anthology at Ape, is that many of the creators that have stories in it, are ones I've met online over the past few years, all writers and artists looking to "break in" to the business. Some of these I profiled when I was writing my weekly column at the Pulse. And one of these guys, CJ Hurtt, is an editor/contributor for the online horror anthology, Dark Recesses from Cutting Block Press. He told me in an email that he was now the submissions editor for Dark Recesses (which sounded like it might be a rotating position), and if I had anything horror-ish, I should send it along to him, personally. So, I revised Stone Wall, utilizing advice I took away from Stephen King's book, On Writing - and why did I wait so long to read this?

Now, I'd submitted a couple of earlier stories to Dark Recesses, and been rejected. Those stories were, admittedly, not ready for "prime time." Both needed to be better fleshed out, were little more than outlines waiting to be expanded. I had no assurance that this one would get much farther than my previous offerings. But, a few weeks later, I got the reply that, after CJ passed the story along to the Publisher, I had a sale. My first.

I signed, faxed, and then mailed copies, of the contract, and on Christmas day, I received an email with notations from the editor working on Stone Wall with suggestions on how to improve the story. Much of what he noted involved my proclivity to create sentences where two actions read as occurring at the same time, when they were actions that would have to occur in sequence. There were other notations that helped to clarify the prose as well. Most of the notes I worked into the narrative, while the suggestions opened my eyes to a few other places where I could make modifications to better clarify the narrative. and a few of the suggestions I chose not to take, which was fine with the editor.

As with "Life is Funny," the editor made sure I understood that this was my story, and he wanted this to be a dialogue rather than an edict set forth by Dark Recesses. Having this experience with a working editor, I can say I've learned a great lesson with regards to my writing and look forward to applying it to subsequent stories.

I hope, and believe, this is only the beginning. Writing, and getting published, is not only a matter of "who you know," which can be applied to most things, but it also involves being open to suggestions and evolving/learning as a writer. This would not have been possible if I had not been writing regularly for the past few years. Just by doing that, and sharing it with my wife or with others along with what has become evident to me just from the actual writing, I have learned a lot and seen improvement.

I will throw up the link when the story goes live. And hope for more in 2010.

-chris