My short story “The History of Wolves” got an Honorable Mention in the 4th quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest.
Category: News
A New Year in Writing
It’s been a good year for writing. In 2010 I finished Book 2 in The Three Earths trilogy along with a handful of short stories. I’ve been busy editing for the last few months and am getting close to moving on to further projects.
I’m looking forward to a lot of exciting work in 2011, including writing Book 3 in The Three Earths and again, as many short stories as I can find time for. Hopefully a few more updates here as well.
Best wishes for the new year!
Hail to the Wrimos
November is National Novel Writing Month! For various reasons I’m not in the game this time, but it’s a great idea: in short, to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. That’s a lofty one month word count goal that requires some serious sustained output. And that’s the point. Output is what matters in this challenge, not necessarily quality, or a coherent plot.
This is an exercise in turning off the internal editor, of taking risks, and writing from the seat of one’s pants (whatever that means). It’s the ultimate application of the principle of bad first drafts. And for some people it’s an opportunity to get out and do something they maybe never thought they would. It’s a great event to encourage writing, for seasoned writers and for first timers. National Novel Writing Month also sponsors a Young Writers Program.
Best of luck to everyone setting out to write 50,000 words this month. Novel writers, I salute you!
The WORDOS Professional Writers Workshop
The writing group I belong to, The WORDOS Professional Writers Workshop, has just gone online with a new website. We meet once a week to critique stories and discuss the craft and business of writing with the goal of improving our fiction and selling to markets.
I’m in excellent company there. Wordos members have published widely, and have won a lot of awards, including the Nebula, the Stoker, and Writers of the Future. I feel blessed to have their feedback, advice, and encouragement.
The website looks great, thanks to members who worked on it. The site features the latest Wordos news, awards, fiction links, a FAQ, writing resources, photos, and a directory (although not all the members are in there yet). Check it out. This is truly a world class group of writers.
Two New Stories
I’ve written two new science fiction stories in the last few weeks:
1. Elly hasn’t felt like herself since having her baby, but change takes on a whole new meaning when giant plants take over the world. I wrote “The Green Invasion” in a busy twenty four hours at Liz Engstrom‘s Science Fiction Weekend Workshop. It was the third such weekend workshop I’ve been to, and the company, the writing and the stories were all great as usual.
2. Klorg hopes his new body will boost his flagging business, but his plans change when he discovers it was somebody else’s body first. I wrote “Buyer Beware” for the annual Wordos Halloween reading.
I’m looking forward to sending these out soon, and writing more short stories before I start writing the final book of The Three Earths sometime after the new year.
Read “Crawlspace” Online
“Crawlspace” was first published in S&M Horror where it placed 3rd in their monthly short story context. It is no longer on their site, but can now can be read here. (There’s also a link on the sidebar.)
I had the idea for this story while standing in my living room one day and thinking about how odd it was that there was this expanse of dark space just beneath the floor, an emptiness that we seldom think of, and in which something strange might dwell.
I’ve had various adventures in the crawlspace of my house. Once I made an exhaustive search for something dead that I never found. It was stinking up the whole house. If you ever have this problem, don’t worry the smell goes away in a week or so. Just don’t think about it too much afterward. Another time I went in there trying to get into my garage after locking myself out, but the hole that had once been there had been sealed up. And there really was a mummified cat down there when I first moved in.
Hope you enjoy the story! Don’t call me if you hear something in your crawlspace.
Dark Mage of Midgard: 1st Draft Finished
The first draft of Dark Mage of Midgard is finished. This is the second book in The Three Earths trilogy. The manuscript is 116,000 words, just slightly longer than the first book.
In this book Anna Karova and Ken Ashbury are swept up in a war that is spreading across three parallel worlds. Only Anna can change the course of the future, but can she stop a war that has already begun?
The challenge of this installment of the overall story was in balancing the multiple characters and plot-arcs involved. I’m excited to be done. I am looking forward to the rewriting/editing process, and ultimately to writing the third and final book of the trilogy.
New Story Online
“The Music of Timothy Shean” is here for all those who missed it when it was first published in Dark Recesses Magazine in August 2009.
My own history of playing the piano is long in years but short on skill and practice. I played for two or three years when I was in middle school. Took it up again briefly when I was in college, and again in 2008. This time I was keen on figuring out various technical aspects of music that never seemed adequately explained to me.
I did manage to unravel a few mysteries, but many more questions constantly arose. In the midst of all this research I had the idea to write a story about a cursed scale. I have long been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Music of Erich Zann” and had in mind to write my own musical tale of horror set at Auxerre University.
I am rather fond of this story. It is the fifth one I have written with some connection to the strange town of Auxerre, Wisconsin. Two others can also be read online, “Crawlspace,” and “Old Growth.” Many of the details about Auxerre and the University trace their way back to my own experiences as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
It is now 2010
Welcome to the future, everybody. Even though we don’t have a flying cars or a robot housemaids, at least we’re all still here. And there’s a lot to be thankful for.
I have two quick updates to start the year:
1: “The Music of Timothy Shean” is no longer up at Dark Recesses. It is now officially in a past issue. However, I hope to make this story available online again soon.
2: The first draft of Dark Mage of Midgard should be finished by March. I’m excited about writing the ending and looking forward to rewrites and editing.
Dark Mage of Midgard > 70,000 words
The first draft of Dark Mage of Midgard has surpassed the 70,000 word mark. This is Book Two in The Three Earths Trilogy. I have definitely passed the mid-way point and am looking forward to the rest.
This middle book of the trilogy may run a little longer than the first. I’ve had to adjust my time table a bit, but I hope complete a draft by early 2010. More updates as the work progresses.
matthewlowes.com 