Tag Archive: short story


Sunday Snippets Critique Blog Hop 14

Filed under: Critique Blog Hop, My Writing, Walking The Razor's Edge — 4 Comments
April 28, 2013

Button for blog hopA weekend not quite so eventful as last week, but lovely none the less. And now the countdown for my lad’s first birthday begins. One week to go. Nutty! And only a little bit more than that before mine too. Exciting, right? ^_^

Anyway, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time thinking about short stories, flash and novellas and while mooching through my folders yesterday I found a piece of flash. It was clearly written from a prompt, but I can’t remember exactly what it was. Probably the first line. I’m thinking about sending it somewhere, so I figure the best thing I can do right now is get it looked at by you fine folks.

Now, I know this is breaking the rules just a tiny bit, but I’d like to post the whole story here. Its 470 words, so quite a bit over the 250, but I don’t really want to break it up. So, if you don’t mind, here’s the story. Such as it is.

Ask anybody what happens just before you die and that is what they tell you. I’ll tell you that it’s a disgusting lie. I know that for a fact because I’m about to die. It’s as inevitable a truth as the fact that I deserve it, but I can assure you, it is not my life I’m seeing right now.

I see the life of the man I killed.

I didn’t know him, but I know his type. Hard working, married with kids; all that sort of junk. He was a good, yet undeniably unlucky man.

I also see parts of my life that are never going to happen. The beautiful woman I might have married, the little kids I might have bounced on my knee. Hell, I can even see my hair falling out and my teeth turning to mush because I ate too much of my grandmother’s apple pie when I was just a kid. I’d feel bitter about the loss but for the fact that its my own fault. I’ve no right to complain.

Then, as the images fade out and you’re left with nothing but your own thoughts, the fear starts to creep in. First, you fake it out. Even now, part of me thinks ‘it can’t hurt any worse than it does right now.’ Then I realise that there really is nothing else after this. All that other stuff I might worry about fades into nothing as the darkness grows.

It really is dark now. The pavement, the blood, the spent shell casings, I can’t see any of it any more just like I can’t hear the sirens or the screaming of my partner as she tells me to ‘hold the fuck on!’ Hold on to what, anyway? My ID badge? My gun? Whole lot of good that did me.

They’re right about the light though; it really is there. Its starts small at first, but about the time the sound and vision goes, it starts to grow and it’s like the tiniest point of white which winks like a star. It’s warm too. Slowly, it grows to take up the whole of my vision and it’s so bright that I’d worry about going blind if there weren’t more serious problems on the table right now. There’s nothing I can do about it anyway.

I know what I’m supposed to do next; I’ve heard it enough times. A bit like that ‘life flashing before your eyes’ line, people tell you not to move towards the light. They never mention that you don’t have a choice. I certainly don’t; that bullet hit me square in the chest. I have no choice left but to head for the light; I sure as hell don’t think there’s anywhere else left.

Oh and I’d like to thank you guys as well. I did completely change my short story from last week but I did manage to send it off to the competition. I won’t hear back from them for quite some time, but various suggestions and pointers from you helped me do it. Ta very much!

As ever, visit here for the rules if you’d like to join and, meanwhile, hit these links below for what else is going on on the hop.

http://mermaidssinging.wordpress.com/

http://caitlinsternwrites.wordpress.com/

http://ileandrayoung.com

http://jennykellerford.wordpress.com

http://jennifermeaton.com/

http://richardleonard.wordpress.com

http://jordannaeast.com

http://itsjennythewren.wordpress.com/

http://wehrismypen.wordpress.com

http://jlroeder.wordpress.com

http://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/

http://ashortaday.wordpress.com

http://mandyevebarnett.com/

http://www.michellezieglerauthor.com

http://joeowensblog.wordpress.com/

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When Plans Change

Filed under: My Writing, Other Writings — 4 Comments
April 23, 2013

Yep. Typical of me really; the competition closes tomorrow and the short story I’ve been writing and posting to Sunday Snippets was my intended entry. Typical me then, that I look at the piece, decide ‘I like that, but it doesn’t fit the brief as well as I’d like’ and totally change the story! The scenes that you’ve so kindly been looking at for me over the last three weeks are no longer part of the story. In fact, the plot has taken a gigantic diversion and become something else entirely!

Not that this is a bad thing. It’s just a bit nutty to do this the day before the competition closes.

The brief, which you can find here, was Betrayal. Simple as. However, when I looked at the story again it felt like more of a revenge piece, than one of betrayal. Sure, that’s there – he was sleeping with another woman after all – but then Laicee took steps to make herself feel better about it. I’m sure you’ve already guessed, or hit the right ball park, from what I’ve previously written over the last couple of weeks.

So I’ve changed it. A lot. The piece is shorter too, or it will be by the time I’m done. I think the story will be better for it too. And of course, there’s nothing to stop me using the original story elsewhere if I so wish.

Have you ever done that? Been absolutely sure and ready that a piece of writing was what you wanted, to realise, right before the deadline that you didn’t quite have it? What did you do?

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What Films Can Do…

Filed under: Film, My Writing — 2 Comments
April 16, 2013

I found this post in my ‘drafts’ folder and felt a pang of shock when I realised that it’s a year old. I haven’t sat on my yoga ball since I was pregnant, so it must be almost year to the day! I’ve no idea why I didn’t post it at the time, but here it is now. Enjoy! :)

So I watched Secretary a little while ago.

Secretary movie posterI remember being drawn to the cover of the DVD (what’s not to like about a woman bending over and gripping her ankles like that?) and then realised that it had both Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader in it. I’ve adored James Spader since Stargate, where he played this lovely, long-haired, linguistic geek, but I’ve not really seen him since. I’ve just not looked. Realising that Stargate predates Secretary (by almost eight years!) I figured it would be nice to see James again.

I started out watching the film on my yoga ball, stretching out my back because I’d been sitting in a not-so-great position all day. Maggie came along, kicked things off, but as soon as she got to the office, I realised I couldn’t sit on that ball and expect not to fall off.

James Spader was so deliciously creepy! I mean really, totally, wonderfully creepy (!) and realising that was how he played the character meant that I had to sit properly to pay attention. A couple of scenes made me really pay attention and I came away from the whole thing with a little tingle in my legs and a short story forming in my mind.

By the time I made it to bed and pulled my laptop into my lap, I had two characters in mind and the outline of an opening to the story that I knew would stop me sleeping if I didn’t start. So I did. At the time of writing this post, I’m 491 words into a story of undetermined length, featuring a loud mouthed, domineering business woman who works beneath a dull witted, meat-head of a man who has just brought his son into the company to be her secretary.

The second I started writing I realised that Raven was loose. Not that it wasn’t me, but more that the subject I had picked and the direction the piece was going was already far removed from my usual fantasy head. I had stepped very quickly into that headspace where Raven is most at home and when she rules the roost. I have to say… I liked it! I still like it and I can’t wait to see what comes out of me when I next put my fingers to the keys on that piece.

In fact, this is how I opened it:

There is something utterly delicious about leaning over my desk.

I don’t have to be doing anything special; just leaning over it is enough to send little thrills of pleasure shooting up and down my legs. When I take my hands back to the tops of my tights, underneath my skirt where the sheer fabric slides beneath my fingers like silk.

Another sensation I enjoy.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I suppose I should explain how I got here in the first place and why on earth I would be leaning over my desk, tights exposed in the middle of my office on a busy Wednesday afternoon.

Naughty, naughty, naughty.

I’l keep you posted on how it progresses. :)

I haven’t written any more of this story, although I have found it again. Reading it now, as one might expect, gives me a little wriggle of amusement as I realise that even in the space of a year my writing has improved a ton! I know that sample is only a first draft, but I’m still gratified to see that even those have improved in the space of a year.

Have you guys rediscovered any writing recently? Maybe half completed stories, or blog posts you never managed to publish? What are you going to do with them?

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Erotica Calls My Name

Filed under: My Writing, Other Writings — 5 Comments
July 26, 2012

B&W man and woman.I’ve called it a guilty pleasure in the past, but the more I go back through some of my old writings (since reading the Fifty Shades triology I haven’t been able to stop myself), the more I realise that I wrote a hell of a lot of erotica a few years back.

Yes, most of it was yaoi, so doesn’t really count (yaoi can’t be considered anything other than smut, the way I was writing it back then), but there was a phase at about the same time in which I wrote lots of M/M, F/F and M/F erotic shorts. I’ve been pulling them out so I can go through them one by one and all the while, a little corner of my mind keeps asking me; ‘why don’t you do something with these?’

It is a very small corner. My first love is fantasy, but I can’t seem to turn away from the part of me that enjoys erotica and kink and scribbling all those things down on paper. Especially after my raging post a couple of weeks ago. And, of course, I’m still taking part in Six Sentence Sunday (SSS), where most of my offerings are from erotic novellas and shorts. Similarly most of the other writers taking part in SSS seem to be erotic novelists.

I wouldn’t, for a second, dare to call myself an erotic novelist but there is certainly a part of me that regularly tears free of its cage and writes a bunch of naughty, saucy things. And, as I now remind myself, it IS in my tagline: ‘Ileandra Young, gleefully penning smut, vamp-fiction, fantasy and comedy since 1997.’

Hmmm.

I think, as part of my ‘on going project’ I’m going to start gathering these stories together. Maybe there really is something I can do with them after all.

Stay tuned.

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Bonus Blog: Alt Fiction 2012

Filed under: FUN!, News — 4 Comments
April 16, 2012

alt fiction logoI couldn’t not write about this event…! What sort of crazy fan-girl would I be if I didn’t share my thoughts on my second literary con (in just a bit of a call back to the first one).

This year, Alt Fiction was right on my doorstep. As a matter of fact, it took place in the very same venue I visit for the Phoenix Writers Group, so it was nice to be on familiar ground (and nice not to have to travel to Derby when I currently weigh about as much as a beached whale -_-).

There were familiar faces in the form of members of the writing group, faces from last year and of course guest speakers that I recall from their name or from chatting with them last year as well. The experience, however, has been very different; probably because I have one of these events already tucked under my belt.

Let me take you through it (in brief, I promise!).

Oh and apologies in advance for the hefty splattering of links. Its not my usual style, but I couldn’t help it; where I could find them, I just had to link web presence to the names, because these people are fab and I want to share hem with you. :)

Saturday
Alex Davis ran a fabulous workshop on Short Story Writing that gave me a few ideas and ways to try submitting some of the short stories and flash I seem to be collecting. I have to do something with them, right?!

Next was Mark Chadbourn who ran The Business of Writing. His workshop was so fantastically positive that a blog post I actually have scheduled for late May (y’know, when I’m buried under nappies and puke stained muslin) probably needs a vast rewrite! I came away from that workshop (even better because I totally gatecrashed it – I hadn’t signed up for it) with a buzz and desperate need to start making plans now, now, NOW!

How Not To Pitch (Dragon’s Pen) featured Ramsey Campbell, John Jarrold, Steve Tribe and… I’ve missed someone. Damn… who was it? Grr. *sigh* As well as the brave authors who verbally ‘pitched’ their work in true Dragon’s Den style. That was vastly entertaining. It was filled with lots of things you know inwardly, but should admit that its good to be reminded of. They were great examples of things you most certainly should not do, later reinforced with what you should do when making a pitch. Regardless, I know that, if I was pushed into a face to face pitch right now, I’d probably fluff it. I’m not ready for that yet.

Writing As A Day Job gave things a different slant compared to Mark’s workshop, but Adam Nevill, Niki Valentine, Conrad Williams and Kim Lakin-Smith certainly woke me up enough to keep me eager to fulfil my plans.

I wrapped up the day with the Comics Panel, (which was hilarious – I will put my hand up and say that I had no idea there were quite so many comics out there) and a reading, plus Q&A with Ken MacLeod. He’s ace! I seem to have two of his books upstairs (I don’t remember buying them, but who cares, I have them!) so I’m going to enjoy reading those.

Oh and I almost forgot (how the hell did I manage that?)! I did a reading in the Flash Fiction open mic section over lunch! ^_^ I don’t have a list of all the readers, unfortunately, though I’m sure I can ask the lovely Alasdair Stuart who has a recording of all the readings! Wheeeeeeeeeee! If you’re wondering why I’m so excited about that, its because he says I can have mine, which means I’ll be able to post it here so you can hear it. ^_^ I’ll put the excerpt up anyway, but I think it would be nice to have a live reading on the site. So look forward to that in a few days.

 
Sunday
I managed to spend the whole day in one room; three panels of talks that made me bounce.

The Extremely Dangerous Fairy Folk, was searching and energetic and made me wish I’d recorded it in some way. Mainly because they made so many references to things I want to check up on regarding true fae. None of this tiny, child faced, cute creatures; more of the dark, evil evil creatures that steal your children. ^_^ Thank you to Graham Joyce and Kate Laity for that one. Oh and thanks for signing my book Graham (!).

Return Of The Short Story continued a recurring theme of talks/panels/workshops I was interested in this weekend. Short stories haven’t gone anyway and again its a great time to be writing fiction below 10,000 words. Again I came out of that one ready to leap over buildings (or at least ready to sit back at the PC and start tapping keys).

However… Diversity in Fantasy was my absolute favourite this year. Last year I remember feeling intimidated and frightened by the apparent lack of diversity at the con and in the speakers. However after the comments that sprang up in the comment-stream of that last post and in my research since then, there are definite improvements. And to hear Anne Lyle (I totally wanted to steal her t-shirt!), Adrian Tchaikovsky (even cooler because he’s a LARPer :p) and Mark Charan Newton talk about sexuality, race, religion and gender, both in fantasy and in the authors was just so interesting. I sat at the front bouncing up and down like a crazed fan-girl with a reeeeeeeeeally stupid grin on my face. But I don’t care; I enjoyed myself immensely. And I’ve missed someone again; I’m so sorry (-_-) I’m so useless with names unless they’re right in my face!

 
All in all, even with the waddling up and down stairs, fighting with the weather (I hate April showers!), and constant trips to loo (I want my bladder back!!!) I had a fantastic time. The whispers are that next year’s event is provisionally booked for the first week of May 2013, again in Leicester. Well that just makes me want to burst into song. Bring it on folks, bring it on.

Well done and huge thanks to Writing East Midlands, Adele Wearing, Phoenix Square and all supporters/partners for putting on a great con! See you next year, if not sooner! x

 
PS… I got another six books to read! What with yesterday’s Kindle downloads I have no idea where I’m going to find the time!!! :-/

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