Guns & Magic

Summary: That didn’t go the way I thought it would.

 

I came into November with no real plan … and I think the results speak for themselves.

 

That said, I did:

 

So NaNoWriMo 2009 wasn’t a complete bust for me. Just not as much of a success I had hoped for.

 

Another result of my experience this month is the realization that my writing process has changed. I had developed some habits and a mindset back in 2006 during my A Short Story a Day project that were good habits and a useful mindset–for that project. Now I think those habits/mindset have been getting in the way of my writing since then. Or maybe I’m just getting older and changing my approach to writing like I’ve changed my approach to a number of other things.

 

Either way: Something’s changing. I need to re-adapt.

 

And, somehow–additional evidence that something has definitely changed–I’m coming out of November with the odd urge to create my own online magazine of slipstream short stories…

 

-David

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel.

 

-David

 

I didn’t write anything today. I almost feel bad about it.

 

-David

 

By David Michael

 

As Ted Millet pulled into the dark, not-as-empty-as-usual parking lot of the aging strip mall, threaded his way through the pot holes, and parked his Ford Focus-On-The-Fact-That-It’s-Not-A-Pinto in his normal space, he knew he was lying to himself. He just couldn’t decide what it was he was lying to himself about this time: his job, his life, or the huge, idling diesel semi-tractor trailer sans trailer parked in front of his donut shop.

 

Normally, at 2 in the morning, his was the only car. He had the strip mall to himself, making the first batches of glazed, cake, and old-fashioned donuts in near-perfect solitude. Not this morning, it seemed. He could feel the rumble of the massive diesel engine even here inside the enclosed cab of his Focus-On-Anything-But-How-Much-You-Hate-Your-Job, and a pit of fear opened up in his stomach.

 

(more…)

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And the story is finished at just over 3100 words. It’ll be posted momentarily.

 

-David

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: 60th Anniversary Anthology, edited by Gordon Van Gelde.

 

-David

 

Still working on the same story.

 

-David

 

The story I’m working on isn’t finished. I expect I’ll finish it tomorrow.

 

This brings my total for Nano up to 15K.

 

-David

 

Those words are from my first few outlines of new stories. Oh, yes, I’m counting them. =)

 

-David

 

I’ve been calling a lot of what I write “modern fantasy”. By which I meant “fantasy elements in a modern setting”. I should’ve known I wasn’t using the phrase right. Most people I told “I write modern fantasy” seemed to think I wrote stories about “vampires” and similar … uh … stuff. Demons, sure, even the occasional zombie. But vampires? Fuck no.

 

“Magic realism” seems another good candidate. (Go Wikipedia!) “Speculative fiction”, though, just sounds kinda stodgy.

 

So I’m going with “slipstream”.

 

Somehow it’s almost comforting to have a genre. Or at least a cool tag I can apply.

 

-David