Week Three of Story a Day

Thank God I decided to update this once a week. It's much easier to keep track of this way.

Antieau, Kim, Storm Poet (Asimov's January 2006)

Odd coming of age story set in 1932. A boy hangs out with his 'crazy' uncle and revives a bit of fantasy in a life with too little dreams. Even though I had little to identify with this family, I was touched.

Comear, Joey, The Machine (Strange Horizons, 16 January 2006)

Two miracle researchers investigate the idea that a machine can store the location of every known particle in the world and recreate it. Ignoring the exponential impossibility of such a data structure without the logical loophole of not needing the machine to store everything, since it's all stored in the machine at one point as time flows by it would merely need to look at itself at a point in the past, the idea has a throwaway line about how the Christian Church would look if Jesus' life were firmly recorded. (I think it would be much better, actually, but that's me.) Comear plays with the idea well, but this really needs P.K. Dick to unravel.

McDonald, Sandra, A Lock of Ra (Lone Star Stories, December 2005)

The background story of war and apocalypse plays into the central plot. If this were a workshop story I'd ask if the war was relevant, but it is a bad question. The hint of the world falling apart comes into play at just the right time.

Gaiman, Neil, Chivalry (Smoke and Mirrors)

I know a lot of people who love Gaiman, but I'd never read him. I found a 14 tape recording of American Gods that I haven't started yet at a close-out, but thought I'd start with something smaller. I am imased at how casually a fantastic element is introduced into the story, and dealt with in a perfectly normal manner. Perhaps my own struggle with modern fantasy is that I don't treat it as casually as this, and contrast it to the ordinary dullness of life. Then again, maybe I do. I'll have to wait for feedback from my group.

Lee, Yoon Ha, Words Written in Fire (Shadows of Saturn, Aug/Sep 2005)

This story opens doors to a mystical form of arson. There just isn't enough here to satisfy me, for some reason. I wanted just a little bit more weird, but too much more would probably break the story. It's a balancing act, isn't it?

Mohan, Steven Jr., Whale Falls (Ideomancer, December 2005)

The lack of clear transitions to flashbacks makes the narrative a bit difficult to sort out on first read. The timing of flashbacks introduces the next major plot point in the story. With a smooth transition, this is a good example of how to do flashbacks that tell a story that takes place over a long period of time.

Pronzini, Bill, Possibilities (The Strand Magazine, October-January)

This is the kind of story I wished I had thought of, because it's exactly the kind of sick joke I would play on nosy neighbors. It managed to up the tension enough to make me wonder if the narrator had killed his wife and was lying about it to me.

More Stories...

Another week of a Story A Day, I've had some ups and downs. So, here's my week in review. I could have sworn there was another story this week, but there wasn't. I did read a 20,000 word story for my workshop, which may be why my count is off.

Bobet, Leah, The Girl With the Heart of Stone (Strange Horizons, Jan 9, 2006)

Odd fantasy story about a girl who grows up heartless, wins her heart, and doesn't adjust well. At least, that what she claims. I'm not sure she didn't adjust well to having a heart.

Carstairs, Neil, The Road Ahead (Byzarium, Dec 2005)

Humans are being transformed into creatures that fly and attack their own family members. This story did a good job of referring to a backstory in a way that made me question what was going on to find more information, not out of frustration.

McNew, Pam, Maggie's Christmas List (Lone Star Stories, December 2005)

This touching story-and I use the term loosely--is wonderful. It doesn't set out a narrative to follow, but examinez one event several ways. When it comes to evoking emotions, this is the gem of the week.

Niven, Larry, Playhouse (Analog, March 2006)

I think I've read other stories set in the Draco Tavern. (In fact, the Dec 2005 Analog has another Draco Tavern story in it.) Niven writes good aliens. He goes beyond humans-with-funny-foreheads. Unfortunately I didn't feel much tension reading the story.

Nordeen, Julie, Stone Pizza (Byzarium, October 2005)

Julie is a friend of mine, but I hadn't gotten around to reading her first published story yet, so I backtracked. As I read this I thought to myself, "I've read this before," and the first part reminded me of David Brin's The Postman, which isn't a bad thing. I love the book (and I'm one of the few who liked the movie) but the resemblance was so strong I read cautiously. Telling a story that I recognize is dangerously close to plagarism in my reading, so Julie switched to a different story, one that I recognized and enjoyed. This is a successful retelling of the tale, even though I didn't feel like there was a chance for things to go wrong.

Seate, Troy, Dancing With A Blind Girl (Another Realm, Jan 2006)

A boy finds happiness in global blindness. There are a lot of "as if" phrases throughout that get in the way every once in a while, and I'd like to see a little more detail of life after disaster.

A Week of Stories

After a week of a Story A Day, I've had some ups and downs. So, here's my week in review

Barnes, John, The Little White Nerves Went Last (Analog, Mar 2006)

What I liked about this was the realistic flashback to a characters childhood. The context before the flashback was kind of confusing, but the flashback cleared up a few things, and the flashback really needed the surrounding story. It's hard to tell a story with a five year old protagonist, but this one worked.

Catesby, Robin, The Happy Jumping Woman (Polyphony 5)

My life is so different than the protagonists (she's a young woman in a sweat shop (okay, I worked in a tech suppot sweat shop)) that I had a little difficulty getting to know her, but I believed her.

Cheyney, Sutton, Battlefield (Thunder Child, Jan 2006)

This 840 piece almost didn't coun't. I went along with it fine until I spotted typos. It reminded me of a piece that I wrote last summer.

Frederick, Carl, The Skeekit-Woogle Test (Analog, Mar 2006)

My pick of the wek, if that really meant anything, and even though I had a little trouble with the ending, I loved the story so much I have to remember to participate in Anlab.

Lanham, Carole, The Reading Lessons (Son and Foe 1.1)

What impressed me was the amount of the world I was able to build in my mind wihtout being told. My image of this story taking place in the early 20th century American South is probably way off base, but it worked. There was enough tension to keep me going. Even though most of the story is flashback, it's a deathbed flashback, so any close call could be the thing that sends the protagonist to the opening scene.

Lovett, Richard A, Dinosaur Blood (Analog Jan/Feb 2006)

This is why I read Analog. Good setup. I can hear the critique group complaining that opening a story with so much preview of the story is deadly, but I suppose that when you have name recognition at a market, you can afford to have a "bad beginning." Actually, I loved the opening. It had a cynical projection of the future that I appreciated.

Melton, Henry, Wildlife (Analog Mar 2006)

I wasn't impressed on first reading, but if I sit down and think about it, it had a pretty cool message. The alien life forms we may expect to meet are more frighteningly familiar than we'd suspect. Perhaps the story was too subtle for me. Perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind to read that story at that time.

There it is. Other folks talk about reading 50 novels a year, which is doable if I allow myself to count my old friends, novels that I have read already. I'm sticking with the short stories. If Jay Lake is right, I'll read plenty of really short novels by the end of the year.

Another peril of workshopping

I was thinking about a story I'm working on, and it reminded me of a previous story I wrote and one of the comments I got back several times. I had a character with an odd telepathic or empathic power (I was never sure) and I added a two or three paragraph hint as to how this happened. Why? Because I could just hear the voices of my workshop saying "How did he get these powers? Where did it come from?" Nobody liked my explanation, and nobody really wanted to know. They were happy to let it exist as is. I cut it from later drafts.
The story I should be working on right now (as I type this out) begs a similar question. Should I explain the origin of some wierd ability or gift of my main character? I don't think I will. I think explaining how the gift arrived is better left a mystery. I don't know if this means that as a writer I'm not pulling my weight, or if ti means that the origin of the ability just doesn't matter. (Naturally, that inspires a thought I'll have to explore later.) I suppose it doesn't really matter most of the time. All this really boils down to is a point I've made earlier: Don't write for your workshop. Most of the time.

Hmmm...

I lost yesterday's post. Oh well. I was discussing my new years resolution to read and critique a story per day. Daily devotions don't work well with me. I'll probably read a story a day, but I probably won't make public comments on them. If I do it will be here or at my new blog (http://www.livejournal.com/users/joshenglish/) which will probably take over this one. I love Blogger, but most of my writing friends are over there, so it's easier to build a community. Unless we can get an RSS aggregator on our groups web site and run it like Google Clips or Live Journal's Friends page.