Diabolical Plots is a Sci-fi/Fantasy zine that covers virtually every media related to the genre from books to movies to video games. This site also features regular content related to the craft of writing. Take a look around!
I recommend Inferno as a great template on how to build on a familiar theme (hell) and insert characters that are larger than a wonderful plot. One of the recommendations that many ‘How to’ books stress is to make your character change from the experience in your story. Allen Carpentier changes like few others that I have read before.
The death knell of yet another popular speculative publication rings loud and clear in this aspirants ears. What does the demise of Jim Baen’s Universe mean for those of us who still struggle to find a foothold in the writing world. Is short form fiction dying? What can other publications learn from what JBU did right and what they did wrong?
This year was … different. I should probably stop right there before I slam the poor con com. But now you’re curious, aren’t you? Well, when Dennis Gagaoin said that we were about to reap the benefits of the con com’s months of fighting, that was clearly not a good sign. I’m not sure if the program they had originally planned fell through because someone bailed or they never truly spent time organizing the opening ceremonies.
More good news, I received another acceptance this morning from J.W. Schnarr who is editing the Shadows of the Emerald City anthology, a Wizard of Oz horror anthology. When I heard the theme, I knew I HAD to submit, and I’m glad I did.
The story is titled “The Utility of Love”, and it’s a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, but the Tin Man is 2 stories tall and… isn’t such a nice guy.
I caught wind of two new anthologies that look promising.
The Way of the Wizard, edited by J. J. Adams
Match-that-Artwork Contest
Click through for pay and submission guideline links.
Fantasy Magazine has reprinted one of our reviews titled Wicked: Novel vs. Musical.
Check out it out!
I have some exciting news today–my first sale! Yay!
Pseudopod has decided to buy my story The Disconnected to publish as a podcast. It will be available for free download on their site. I’ll post a link when it’s available.
The thing I love most about Cold Words is that it takes what seems like a pretty simple spaceport deal and turns it into something really exciting by putting it in the point of view of a 6’4” drug-addicted wolflike alien with ulterior motives. Boy, did that add stakes and complications!
We have, for example, a story that was very popular with our readers last year, Elena Gleason’s Erased, which I was just looking at again. That story on one level is about someone’s boyfriend who is invisible and what do you do when you’re confronted with an invisible boyfriend. But on the other hand, at a deeper level, it’s about what do you do in a relationship when the other person is vanishing.
As an aspiring writer I find the internet to be an extremely valuable tool as well as a colossal drain on my writing time. There are fantastic resources available to new writers that quite frankly I would not have survived without. On the other hand, even these great resources can be an excuse not to write. I’ve listed the links to each website or tool that I have used in my short journey as a writer. I hope you find them useful but I caution you to only use what you need at the moment.
