Week 6: 10 Weeks of 10 Stories

Staff Sgt. Alicia Anderson (Freeman) from Queens, N.Y., is pinned with an Army Commendation Medal by the Joint Multinational Readiness Center Command Sgt. Maj. Frank Graham.  Photo courtesy U.S. Army.

Story #6 is done and away!

After I hit the halfway milestone, I had this little voice saying:

“You’ve done five.  That’s pretty good.  You can stop now.” 

So I really did have to write the story, because I had committed to doing it.  It’s easy to find something else to do than write something.

It probably didn’t help also that I was fried over the weekend from the writer’s conference.  It’s hard being an introvert and being already so many people all day long.  I tried to get breaks, but not enough to recharge effectively.  Plus I got two rejections — same story.  And I’m still working on the novel and nearing the halfway mark.  Then there were the two major storms that rolled through.

Yup.

This story was tough to write though. It was for a military anthology from a prestigious press.  The only problem was that they didn’t pay, which irked me.

They want to support the soldiers, but they don’t pay for the writing?! 

However, the majority of the calls are like that, and I do want to get visibility in this area.  I doubt if very many women are writing for this, except for the wives, and all the stories all probably defaulting to male soldiers.

The women’s voices need to be heard, too.

But I kept it to flash fiction, because I wasn’t going to write a 5,000 word story for free.  The story took about 30 minutes to write and was 500 words, and I hated it.  I kept feeling like something was wrong with it, though I couldn’t pin down why.

I’m guessing it was simply because I went out of my comfort zone with it, and quite a bit.  It’s easier for me to plop soldiers in a fantasy because the focus on is on the fantasy elements and being a soldier is part of that story.  This one put a magnifying glass on a single moment of being a real soldier in a real place.

So I ignored those little voices saying it wasn’t good and sent it out.

See also:

• Week 5
• Week 4
• Week 3
• Week 2
• Week 1

 

Week 5: 10 Stories in 10 Weeks

Army Spc. Elizabeth Wasil wins gold in the 1500-meter wheelchair race during the 2013 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Colo., DOD photo by EJ Hersom

Week #5′s story is done!  Just needs an edit and proofread to clean it up, and then it’ll be off on submission to an online magazine.  The theme I’m submitting to was war.  I figured that the publisher would get all kinds of submissions from male writers and few from female writers, and probably no one writing women characters.

The story needed to be flash fiction because that was the magazine’s requirement.  But I also had one, which was to make sure I wrote a story that wasn’t too theme specific.  If the magazine rejected it, I wanted to be able to find other markets fairly easily.

There was only one small problem …

I had no idea what the heck I was going to write!

Usually I have a generally idea by Sunday, but this time, I didn’t have anything.  War, fantasy, and flash fiction is a tough thing to put together.  Everything I was coming up with either was going to be a challenge getting the fantasy in, or was going too theme specific.  The short length was also presenting a challenge because the story has to get to the point pretty fast.

So I was in a bit of a panic because I have to finish a story and submit it by the end of the week.  I had to come up with something!

It kind of started with the question people always ask me about Desert Storm: “What was it like?”  I think every soldier lies when they answer this because no one wants to hear what it was really like.  By the time I got out at lunch and sat down to write, the idea had morphed into the secrets soldiers keep from each other.

It was about 900 words, and I wrote it in 30 minutes.

See also:

• Week 4
• Week 3
• Week 2
• Week 1

 

#Flashaton 1st Hour: Customs

Flashathon started this morning at 9:00 with the prompt, “As we started.”  There was a moment of panic when I first started because I had no idea what I was going to.  Then I set it the woods, because I was thinking of Fort Lewis, and then I thought about an old idea I’d had, and the rest of the story took shape.  Here’s “Customs” for you:

As we started, the sun crept up into the sky.  The light wasn’t enough to chase the chill out of the morning.  My breath puffed out in fog clouds.  Even my wool uniform didn’t keep as much of the cold as I liked.

The woods around us were still — the trees standing as sentries to time.  They’d seen a lot, but never told stories.  It was probably a good thing, since where we were going should be a secret.  The male soldiers wouldn’t like that we had gone.

I glanced at Annis.  We were the only two female soldiers in the company.  The King allowed women in, but the male soldiers didn’t want us.  We were intruders, and we spent our days trying to ignore the outright contempt and derision.  These men were never treat their sisters and girlfriends this way; yet, we were evidently fair game.

We stayed silent until we were clear of the camp.  We did not want our voices to carry.  But Annis finally spoke, her voice threaded with fear.  “Do you think we’ll be all right?”

“I wish I knew.”

I didn’t have any answers.  Yesterday, a seer — a man, of course — had predicted that the king’s foolishness would end with this battle, when everyone would be able to see that women didn’t belong.  I thought he was injecting too much of his own opinions into his “Seeing,” but there was a part of me that wondered what was going to happen.

Tomorrow, we would go into battle.  Our first one.

Our feet crunched on the path, following in the footprints of hundreds of other soldiers.  We were the first women to do this — but we had to do it in secret.  The men had refused to allow us to come with them.  The hardest thing was hearing that if we went we would curse the battle.

The path wound under the trees, and into a deep chill that pressed upon us.

“We’re getting close,” Annis murmured.

We emerged into a clearing of sorts.  No one kept it clear.  The trees just knew not to grow here.  In the center of the clearing was a wall, built out of fieldstone.  It didn’t look like much.  In fact, anyone who was not a soldier would probably pass it on by, not realizing what it was.

The air shivered, and I heard the murmur of voices.  Soldiers past and present.  Annis and I hesitated, wondering how the spirits would treat us.  The men hated us.  What would the spirits do?

Annis and I exchanged glances, then she drew in a breath and stepped forward.  She was braver than me.

Welcome washed over us, a warmth that worked its way through the cold of the morning.  The tension in my chest loosened.

Annis looked over her shoulder at me.  “Are you ready?”

My mouth dry, I stepped forward.  We didn’t know what the custom for the wall was, only that there was one.  I approached the wall and stared at it for a long moment.  Finally I reached out to touch it.  A thousand souls reached back for me, giving me their strength and courage for tomorrow.

We’d make our own customs.

 

A little pre-Halloween fun — green cats!

IO9 had a prompt that was too good to pass up.  I’ll admit I thought of the Addams family as I wrote The House of Green Cats, so enjoy!

And don’t forget to wander by and check out my article Balancing Writing and Blogging on Vision: A Resource for Writers.

 

A short scene for your reading pleasure

This is just a quick scene I did for Forward Motion’s September Challenge.  When I heard the theme, I couldn’t resist.  The homecoming of soldier isn’t always about fanfare and parties.

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Drop by and check out all my non-fiction publications!  There are quite a few available online for your viewing pleasure.

 

Stone Magic Flash Fiction Posted on Writer Unboxed

My flash fiction story “Stone Magic” is posted on Writer Unboxed’s 7 Sizzling Sundays of Flash Fiction.  This time I wanted to do a contemporary fantasy.  I had just read Writer’s Workout (a good book, BTW), and it said to plan for 10 drafts.  That seemed like a lot, but this story of only 247 words took 7 drafts.

The first 5 were the result of two elements coming into the story in the first draft.  I picked one, and it sent me in the wrong direction. No surprise there!  My family and friends know how easy it is for me to go in the wrong direction.  Seems to be a natural state of being me.

On draft 5, I still wasn’t happy enough with the story, so I let it sit a day.  It hit me today what to do, and I gutted the story (except for two sentences) and story turned into magic.  The last draft was nibbling at the word count to make it fit within the guidelines.

Please drop by and check it out and don’t forget to vote for it!

Can you guess where the story is set?

 

Sand Dollar Wishes Takes Honorable Mention

My flash fiction story Sand Dollar Wishes  took honorable mention at Writer Unboxed’s 7 Sizzling Sundays of Flash Fiction.  The story is set in Morro Bay, California.  Whenever I went to visit my grandparents there, I always found a sand dollar somewhere in their house.

 

The Librarian Flash Fiction

My flash fiction “The Librarian” (just a hair under the 250 word count requirement) is posted on Writer Unboxed’s 7 Sizzling Sundays of Flash Fiction.  Please check it out and vote for it.

The story behind the story: The story started with the required picture inspiration, and though I wanted to write a story, I wasn’t sure what to do!  I don’t do stories about kids.  So I spent the afternoon at National Harbor trying to figure out what I was going to write on.  I kept going to the first funeral I went to for my aunt — probably because my grandmother just died and that funeral came up in a discussion with my father.  Neither one of us wanted to remember Arva in a coffin — we wanted it to be the way she always was to us.  I also realized I didn’t want to do a story that was set in a house because everyone else will do that.  Then I thought library, and then librarian.  And the story came to me complete.  I wrote it and did a second draft in 30 minutes.

 

Sand Dollar Wishes Posted on Writer Unboxed

My flash fiction story Sand Dollar Wishes, which is set in Morro Bay, California, is posted on Writer Unboxed’s 7 Sizzling Sundays of Flash Fiction.  I looked at the photo prompt and thought beach.  But I didn’t want to write about kids and kites.  Then I thought about my grandmother, who is 95. The last time I talked to her, she forgot who I was during the conversation.  She’s been declining since late last year and had taken another step down in the last few days.  So this is a story of sunsets and seashells.

Below is a photo from Mike Baird, who has many wonderful photos of Morro Bay posted on Flickr.

Please drop by Writer Unboxed and check Sand Dollar Wishes out!

 

Flash Fiction Posted on Writer Unboxed

The cable finally started working, and I was surprised to see a contest over on Writer Unboxed.  Looked at the picture prompt, hated it, and then I wrote a 158-word story for it, which I called The Mask.  Drop by and check it out — and don’t forget to look at the other flash fiction pieces being submitted.  It’ll be interesting to see what diverse stories we get from that picture!