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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
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| Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 5:05 pm |
podcast update
I've been behind on the Anthro Dreams furry fiction podcast, but I caught up with two episodes this week. First is a classic story of mine, The Satisfied Mind. And second is a nice collaboration and cross-promotion with the guys at Sofawolf Press. Tim Susman's anthology, "New Fables" is about ready to release its third book, so in celebration of that, I ran one of their stories The Perfect Totem by M. C. A. Hogarth. That's a fun story. | | Thursday, January 1st, 2009 | | 8:00 pm |
| | Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | | 11:32 pm |
| | Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 | | 5:22 pm |
looking for spooky stories
I tried posting this query on the FurryLit mailing list, as well as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) furrywriters. I figured I'd post it to my journals as well to see if any of the writers following them recognized it. I'm looking for an old story I remembered that was posted to the FurryLit mailing list sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s. The story was titled something like "Epitaph" and was a Victorian-horror mood piece. It featured a widower falling asleep in the graveyard after placing flowers on his dead wife's grave. He awakes later in the night to see the ghosts rise from their graves and write new epitaphs in spectral words on their gravestones, exposing their hidden sins. The story ends when he finds his wife's grave and sees what she's doomed to write on it. It was a wonderfully clever idea for a story and I loved the mood to it. I'd love to find it again, not only to read it, but I'm considering an idea of a horror-themed anthology, either in print or in audio-book form, to be produced for this year's FurFright. If anybody remembers this story and knows the original author, I'd like to get a hold of them. Also, if anyone has written a good horror story, I'd be interested in looking at it for consideration of inclusion into the anthology. I'm looking for good dramatic fiction, character drama and stories that show hauntings, ghosts and monsters in a sympathetic light, while still having a nice spooky mood. I would also be interested in some good comedy using horror elements, or dark comedy, to complement the drama. The ghosts or monsters don't need to be the protagonists and can still be evil or scary characters, but I'd like some drama to them as well. I will likely be posting later on with more information on the proposed anthology, as I get it fleshed out. I may also attemp to work with audio-book recordings for this project as well as a print book, if I can find the voice talent. It will be a paying project, not as high as professional rates, but on par with small press venues and the writers will get some compensation for their work. | | Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 | | 9:18 pm |
story updates
I've been behind on my posting. I realized that I posted some stuff to my FurAffinity Gallery Page last fall, but I didn't update them here. So here's a link to those new stories I posted. Fire there's Halloween Tricks, a quick little vignette I wrote for the FurFright conbook. I also had a couple of pieces I wrote for the Midwest FurFest conbook using their theme of furries on the high seas. There's a comedy piece, A Pirate Looks at Forty (along with a fun illustration by Sara Palmer) and a slightly-longer romantic piece, again illustrated by Sara Palmer. Finally, since I was one of the guests of honor at the convention, I wrote up some lecture notes to a panel on character-driven writing. There, that catches me up. I haven't been doing any writing of late, but I've been getting into more desktop publishing work for creative endeavors. I hope to be working with both artists and other writers to produce some new books coming out later this year. Stay tuned! | | 9:07 pm |
books for sale on Amazon
I've been working with a separate print-on-demand service, Create Space. The advantages it has over Lulu is that the base price per book is a little cheaper, plus they offer free ISBN registration and listing on Amazon. So now my books are for sale on Amazon.com, which might be an easier site for people to order them from than Lulu.com. The books are: New Technicolor Dreams (story anthology, general audience)
That Old Time Religion (novel, adult readers)
The Journey (novel, mature readers) | | Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 | | 5:02 am |
| | 4:54 am |
character-driven writing panel notes
For anyone who's interested, I've uploaded my notes to the character-driven writing panel I ran last weekend at Midwest FurFest. I think there's some good information in there and that it makes a decent tutorial of sorts. I tried to keep the tone conversational though and not make it too overwhelming like a college lecture. I cover how characters work with setting and plot to create compelling stories. I referenced a lot of different sources of what I considered good character drama, from stories, books and podcasts to movies and TV shows. I received a couple of nice complements on it, so I think the notes and the panel came out pretty good. | | Monday, October 22nd, 2007 | | 11:18 pm |
"the journey" in paperback form
For those that remember my writing back to the very old days, one of my early stories, and the first novel I wrote was "The Journey." In preparation for my Guest of Honor and dealer spot at Midwest FurFest, I've been working on getting books of my writing published. "The Journey" was the first book I worked on; I will have two other books there as well, a story anthology "New Technicolor Dreams," and an adventure/romance/erotic novel, "That Old Time Religion." Some of you may have seen the wonderful cover Heather Bruton has painted up for that. Anyway, for those who are interested, "The Journey" is published and ready now. You can find it on my storefront at Lulu print-on-demand publishing, or with this direct link. You can also check it out on my website, if you don't want to buy the book. I don't have any illustrations for this book, so the value of getting the book is an easier format to read in, plus I did some editing to clean up the text and fix some errors. "The Journey" is for mature readers only. A quick description of the story is as follows: Ben, an average college student, awakes one morning to find he’s been magically pulled into another world by Marissa, an anthropomorphic snow leopard. Even as he’s struggling to contemplate the situation, he’s tasked with accompanying her on a strange and intriguing journey. Ben struggles to figure out and adapt to this strange world, where magic exists and is quite powerful. He also puzzles through navigating the minefields of an alien culture and mindset, as he tries to figure out this strange and alluring cat woman who is his companion and guide. What results is a quest filled with surprises, action, danger and even romance, but will they both make it back intact? This is the first novel written by Will A. Sanborn. The writing style is more embryonic than in his later works, but this book shows where he started from and how his storytelling began. | | Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 | | 5:58 pm |
script: the colors of my dreams
Back in June, I participated in and finished the Script Frenzy project, which is the screenplay analog of the National Novel Writing Month. This time the challenge was to write a 20,000-word screenplay in a month. That was something new for me, but it worked well. I'd figured out the ending of the story ahead of time, which was different than my first novel. Also, it was easier to write a smaller screenplay, than a 50,000-word novel. The project didn't feel quite as intimate as writing a novel, but it was a good exercise in having to show and not tell. With only writing scene descriptions, actions and dialog, I couldn't have any internal emotions, without showing it externally some how. The story for the script is based around thoughts on creativity. Creativity is a beautiful gift and it does add color and wonder to the world. It makes for a good outlet and conduit for personal energies, but it can also be focused too inward at times. Many times the creative process is solitary, which is okay, as alone time is good and important, but it takes balance. If you're too focused on it, then it can keep you away from other people. I took those ideas and increased the stakes, to make the story more interesting and dramatic. There's also the threat of losing not only talents, but the creative spark, which touches a chord with me, and was the other theme I wanted to write about. With those topics, I think that while people won't agree with the main character's choices, they can at least understand them. It was a fun project to work on. I said it wasn't as intimate as writing a novel, but the characters did speak to me at times, though a little softer here. There were a couple of scenes that I found more emotional than I was expecting as well. Those scenes ended up being a love letter to my muse, as well as dwelling on the idea of loss of inspiration. Writing those scenes were quite rewarding. So there you have it, a story about creativity. The genre is independent film with a bit of speculative fiction and some junk neuroscience added as well, to make everything work. I was hoping to get a chance to proofread and edit the script, but time got away from me. I'm now busy working on self-publishing some books for sale at Midwest FurFest, so I don't have the time to do the final polish on this. I'm releasing it as it is instead. The script is available in both formatted HTML and printable PDF formats. | | Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 | | 1:42 am |
blood money
It's near the end of the month and I'm running out of steam, but I managed to get some writing done today. It's another quick vignette, sketching out an idea I had. I really like the idea of it, but the execution feels a little flat to me. I think I could've been a little more subtle with the setup, but then the story didn't lend itself to being very long, so there wasn't a lot of time for it. Anyway, it was kind of a fun experiment and I like that I've been writing a few different ideas, along with my normal themes, this month. I think working on these short little scenes may also be helping me to write a little more efficiently. ( Blood Money ) | | Saturday, November 25th, 2006 | | 1:28 am |
evening at the writer's block cafe
So what do you do when you need to write something to satisfy your nightly word-count quota, but you're feeling unmotivated. Yoy get your muse to show up and drag you off to a silly idle idea you had from a couple of weeks back. This is pretty goofy, but it was fun, and there's a few pearls of creativity and half-decent writing amongst the absurdity and bits of wish-fulfillment. I made it past 50K words tonight too! I hope to get in over 60,000 by the end of the month. ( Evening at the Writer's Block Cafe ) | | Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 | | 12:32 am |
incognito in plain sight
This is a vignette that I wrote this up Saturday night at Midwest FurFest, but only had time to proofread it and type up the notes tonight. The idea for the scene was inspired by a couple of things. First, I was thinking about what if Anubis or another god showed up at a convention, and wouldn’t it be funny if people were thinking they were playing a character, and didn’t know they were a real. I had also been thinking about my novel "That Old Time Religion." I'd had a couple of ideas for stand-alone sequels that I never got written. I'd been thinking them over a few days ago. This scene takes some of the ideas for the character interactions I'd thought of as possibilities for those sequels. This scene is kind of talky and might have a little too much exposition, but if you’re familiar with the stories and the characters, I think it might be a nice way to get some closure on the characters. It does bring in some ideas I had from those story outlines, so that’s nice. The dance scene is fun to imagine. It also mirrors the opening chapter in the novel, with Anubis and Thoth at a dance club. You can see that scene from the first chapter of my old novel project. ( Incognito in Plain Sight ) | | Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 | | 6:48 pm |
a brief conversation with my critic
Part of NaNoWriMo is to get writers to ignore their internal critics and focus on just the writing at hand, because too much critique can stifle the creative process. I've had to sell myself the idea of not doing a traditional novel for the project, but it's working well for me. I figured I'd write up a little dialog with my critic. It was a fun exercise, but I could maybe use more of it. I still have trouble writing mean characters and he could be more forceful. Even so, it's something I could do more with from time to time, for other areas of my life to. Facing and taming your personal monsters is good. I may do more with this idea, and encourage them to have stronger voices. A Brief Conversation with my Critic“I heard you’re writing a novel for NaNoWriMo this month. What’s it about?” “Well it’s kind of an alternative novel. It’s the story of a guy who wants to get back into the creative flow. It tracks his progress and his life during the month, and shows the stories and creative ideas he gets written.” “Hmmm, that sounds suspiciously like just writing in LiveJournal.” “Yeah, kind of, but I’m getting stories written as well.” “But it’s supposed to be National Novel Writing Month! Don’t you think you’re cheating?” “Not really. Yes, I’m bending the rules, but the movement is very democratic. I don’t feel bad about it, and I’m not going to let you make me feel that way either.” “I still don’t know if I buy it. You’re supposed to be working on a novel, not a hodgepodge of whatever you throw together.” “Ah, but NaNoWriMo also has “Writing” in its title. That’s the whole point of it, to get people to write. I’ve written more this past week then I have in a long while, and that’s what matters to me. Next year I’ll focus on writing one long piece, with a coherent storyline, but this time I just need to get back on the horse and write.” “But that shouldn’t be anything that comes to your mind; it should have a point to it, not just your random blog musings or diary entries.” “Shush you. That’s another thing this exercise is all about, keeping your critic in check. It’s all getting me to write more, and that gives the creative muscles a workout. It’s not all about high art. Besides, I’m putting stuff in that has some point, even if it’s just my life and some introspective thinking. I could use a little bit of writing therapy and thought. I’ve also decided that this project is going to be like a time-capsule for the month of November.” “It still doesn’t sound that interesting.” “Maybe so, but I’ve already decided that some of this collection isn’t for public consumption anyway. This is a personal project for me, though I will share the stories and bits of scenes that I like.” “I bet you’ll post this won’t you?” “Yeah, I was thinking about it. My humor writing is still not that great, but the absurdity might be interesting, and it explains more about my project for the month.” “There you go, looking for attention again.” “So I like to share my work with others, there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re starting to take some low punches, away from the literary criticisms.” “It still sounds like a waste to me.” “On the contrary, I’m getting a good word-count bonus out of this, plus it’s fun. Anyway, my Muse is behind me on this, now that I’m listening to her again. So I’ll talk to you later...” | | Sunday, November 5th, 2006 | | 2:22 am |
rediscovering moonlight
I have a lot of old ideas stored away in my head. A lot of them I never do anything with; many times I lose the inspiration and initial burst of creativity if I can't or don't sit down to write out the story right away. Sometimes I'm reminded of old ideas and that inspiration can come back though. When I saw the fat gibbous moon getting out from work last Monday night, it reminded me of this story idea. I didn't get it written until tonight, but it helped fire me up for NaNoWriMo and writing more during November. It also gave me a burst of energy to write the story for Ultraviolet that night. I hope to resurrect some other old ideas from creative limbo as the month goes on as well. This idea goes back several years. I can't remember how old it is. I like the mood of it, but the execution could be better. It's kind of stiff and stilted, but there are a parts of it that I like. Not everything I write is great, and this is a good example of the "story sketches" I do as writing journals, just to get a scene down, but not fully fleshed out. It's a quick read, and I still like the idea. ( Rediscovering Moonlight ) | | Friday, November 3rd, 2006 | | 1:39 am |
adopting an ancestor
It's been awhile since I've written much and a longer time since I've posted anything here. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again this year, so you can expect more stories from me. I'm doing it in a bit of an alternative way though, focusing on journaling and short stories, instead of a singular novel, but working toward the same wordcount goal. I saw a web page on the Day of the Dead celebration, linked to by Ayame in her journal. She’d gone to the celebrations in El Paso with her family last weekend. So I’d been thinking of doing a story on the subject of finding a lost ghost and befriending them. I’d originally thought of someone finding a lonely grave at the corner of a cemetery, and that leading them to find the forgotten ancestor. I then remembered it was very similar to an old episode of “The Wild Thornberries” that I’d seen several years ago, when Ashley was watching the show. There’s nothing knew under the sun, but I was still a little disappointed, and wanted to come up with a different angle for it. Then I’d kind of forgotten about it, until today ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) eselgeist had mentioned the holiday in his journal. He spoke of how beautiful it was, and how it celebrated life and death as a cycle and also was all about the family. That inspired me again, so I sat down and wrote this little vignette out. I’m fairly happy with it. It’s kind of slow and stiff in the beginning, but I like the ending and the sentiment. It makes me feel warm and happy. ( Adopting an Ancestor ) | | Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 | | 5:17 pm |
| | Monday, November 29th, 2004 | | 1:41 pm |
| | Wednesday, November 24th, 2004 | | 3:49 pm |
broken circle, chapter three
It took me awhile, but I finally got this chapter done. It came out fairly well, though I realize that the idea of the curse is heavily derivative of The Dark Crystal. I tried to make it sound as plausible as possible though. I know I'm not as good with the big concepts in fantasy stories, that I do better with character growth and interactions. That's what I've been doing with most of this story anyway. ( Broken Circle, Chapter Three ) | | Sunday, November 14th, 2004 | | 3:17 am |
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