Two Short Stories for the Price of ... well, none -- it's free!

I've been working on my fiction writing, and getting better about submitting my short stories to online literary magazine to be published, and it's paying off!

Two just went up online this week:
Hot Heat
This is a twisted story about a twisted kid. It's Jennie's favorite short story of mine, randomly. :)
There's actually a lot I like about this kid - even though he's a sociopath -

Year End Wrap-Up

Way back when, I posted some of my New Year's resolutions for 2010, and about mid-year, I gave a brief update. Well, here's the final tally:
•Continue running with LJ - oh, no ... that did NOT happen. But that was a conscious descision on my part.
•Run another half marathon -- again, didn't happen due to the realization that running a half marathon makes me a tired and sore girl.  Half marathon?! I couldn't have made the goal a 5K? I did that!
•Travel somewhere awesome -- yes! I went to New Orleans for my birthday. This is one of the ones where I realized I completed the goal after I had done it. But traveling somewhere awesome is kind of always in the back of my mind, so it's a good goal to put down every year.
•Continue working on tennis - oh and how. That's a yes.
•Double money earned on freelance projects -- I ended up doing this right in the beginning of year, luckily. And, by the way, doubling the money wasn't too hard, since I had earned probably $30 on freelance stuff back in '09.
•Take a writing class or attend a conference -- this was the biggie, and the one I focused on the most. Success! And it was lots of fun.
•Finish "the book". You know, "THE" book. The one that I've been working on forever -- this wasn't the year. In fact, I didn't write much in THE book at all. But I did write a bunch of fun short stories, and rediscovered my love of writing. I think I needed a break from THE book, and this was a great year to take a break. In a way, I don't feel unaccomplished on this one, even though the goal wasn't achieved. I'm thinking 2011 will be THE year to finish THE book.
•Read the Bible - check! Not as much as I should have, but a check. And this will be a recurring goal.
•Read Fearless with my girlfriends - yes. At least... we read as much of it as we could take. It just wasn't for us. But if you want a recommendation for an amazing book to study with friends: Plan B by Pete Wilson. Do it.
•Book Club - Nope. Total slacker on this one.
•Poker Night - well, you say no enough times and you just stop getting invited. So slacker on this one, too.
•Something out of my comfort zone -- hmmm... I'll have to think about this one, but I don't really think it happened. I am very much a "stay in the comfort zone" type of girl. I might try again for 2011.
•Make new friends/build relationships with old -- yeah, this happened, but it's always good to keep doing this. (Is it weird this is a goal? I feel like this is kind of a weird goal to have...)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I did on my resolutions. I think it definitely helped that I wrote them down and kept them in front of me all year long. On to an even better and brighter 2011!!

Surprise, surprise!

What a surprise! When I checked my email this morning, I found out that a short story I submitted for publication has been chosen! And it's already up on the site! Check out the literary blog Einstein's Pocket Watch for my story Fly Fishing Lessons.
It's the first short story I wrote, years ago, and it's the first one to get published (which is kind of crazy, since another short story, Nosepicker, was chosen to be published in another literary magazine months ago, but won't be published until the fall -- a more normal time line for these things, I'm learning.)
I'm kind of loving that there's no wait with this one. Yay! I'm very excited.

Christy will be famous someday...

Christy has doubts about her amazing writing talent, but I am here to tell all of you that she WILL be a famous writer someday. AND....I plan on riding her coattail all the way to the TOP. I have already made plans to be her stylist/administrative assistant when this occurs.
Christy has one of the most creative minds of anyone I know. The way her mind works in conjuring up story lines and adding imagery to the story is amazing.
She gives life to her characters, characters with unique personalities. Characters you can relate too.
She often comes into work saying "I thought of a story last night that I am going to write." She proceeds to explain an authentic, carefully detailed storyline. I often wonder if my mouth is hanging open, because I can't fathom coming up with something like that in a YEAR, let alone a night.
This simple fact is why Christy blogs more than I do. I love blogging--I just have trouble coming up with things to talk about.
So Cheers to Christy! Talented, Smart and the only reason this blog is still alive!

Getting into the practice of practice

My writing teacher has us writing at least 1 hour per week, and really we should be writing 1 hour per day. So, while I'm not necessarily writing more, I'm thinking of writing all the time. So today, while I was thinking of writing, I had an epiphany, which let me in on my own little subconscious secret of why I don't write.
Being the neurotic girl I am, I keep several copies of my stuff in several places. Unfortunately, since I'm also super lazy, there tends to only be one updated copy somewhere. So, I'll have copies of my work on my home computer, on my flashdrive and on my work computer, but I'll only have the most up-to-date copy as an .odt file on my flashdrive. Don't ask me why this happens, but that is always the case. So when I want to work on my story at home, I'm inevitably out of luck because I only have Word at home.
I will sit down, pull out my flashdrive, start up my computer, open the folder and then BANG! Realization hits me: I can't work on my updated file. I either have to open a new word document and type away, transferring the copy later (this is bad, because I'm writing "blind" so I will get details wrong), or I can open an un-updated copy and try to work off of this (this is also bad, because then I have an un-updated file, with new stuff, that has a newer date attached to it... this will undoubtedly screw me up at some point in the future).
So, I was sitting here at work, pleased because I have 2 copies of the most up-to-date story on my flash drive. One is an .odt file and one is a .doc file, but they are the SAME, which is an achievement all on its own. And I thought, "I should really just go ahead and write."And this is where the epiphany struck like lightning: My next thought was, "I'm not going to write because I don't want to have to save the files again."
Oh, lazy, lazy Christy. This is why you're not writing? Get to it.

Characters in Everyday Life

Okay, so while we didn't specifically talk about the Peanuts crew in my writing class this week, we did discuss characters (and these are some of my favorite characters). Characters in stories need to be believable, so the best way to develop characters is by keeping your eyes and ears open all day long. Taking snippets of everyday life and incorporating them into stories builds a base that people can relate to, and will make readers keep turning pages. This works for ALL characters. Even villains work best when there's some issue that helps the reader understand why they are the evil way they are. Sympathy (or empathy, or some kind of 'pathy) does wonders for character development.
So let's look at our Peanuts gang and see if we can find their flaws, their desires and all that good stuff that makes a character into a realistic person we can care about:
Charlie Brown: poor Charlie Brown! He is a normal kid, with a little sister and a dog. He wins spelling bees, but crumbles under pressure. He has a crush on the little red-headed girl. He is not so great at sports; in fact, kites and footballs seem to be going after him. Good grief! So what does he desire? Probably a normal dog, a normal sister, normal friends. A well-placed kick at that football. A nice day with a kite. A chat with the little red-headed girl.
Snoopy: well, he's a complex dog! He likes writing and imagining stories with him as the hero. He likes doing his own thing. He likes dancing. But... Snoopy has some family issues that come to light. He has some visits from long-lost brothers, but they never feel quite at home in Snoopy's little doghouse. This is a dog that yearns for adventure, but also for the stability of a family.
Linus: oh, little Linus is one of my favorites. So innocent and pure! So dependent on his blanket! Linus loves spending time with friends and he loves his security blanket. He is either unaware or just ambivalent to the affections of Sally. His desires are to write that perfect letter to Santa, tell the world the true meaning of Christmas and to see the Great Pumpkin!
Lucy: well, I guess if anyone's a villain in this list, it's Lucy. She's always the one pulling the football from Charlie Brown and overcharges (in my opinion) for her advice. But she's always around, so there's something about that group that keeps her there. Oh... I know. It's Schroeder, the man of Lucy's dreams and lover of classic music composers.
So, there we go. Even in the simplest of stories, the characters are multi-dimensional and interesting. Each one has his or her own desire or obstacle to overcome.
Think about characters in your favorite stories: What drives them? What changes in them throughout the story? Why do you care about them, or hate them, or pity them?