Kalbzayn's Writing World - Writing

Want to read a story I wrote?

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:27:18 -0700

It is not the big story that I have been promising, but it is something to hold you over in the meantime. And, it ties into The Curse of the Five Pennies, too.

The story can be found over at Fictional Musings. Kelly Parra posts a lot of flash fiction stories that writers send to her. If you have something around 700 words or less, you should consider submitting it over there. Anyway, here's the link to my story.

Cursed by my own story

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:08:26 -0700

Unfortunately there were no monkeys and my story, Curse of the Five Pennies, is not going to be finished in time.

After reading my rough draft, I was very unhappy with the basic story arc as well as most of the writing and decided that it needed a pretty big rewrite and I did not get enough time over the weekend to make that happen.

I will post the story when I get around to finishing it and hopefully it will turn out to be a better story with the rewrite.

For those of you who are spitting mad that I teased you all along and now have nothing to show for it, I have a story that will be showing up tomorrow I thing on Fictional Musings. When it goes up for sure, I will mention it again with a direct link.

That's all. Carry on.

And a monkey might fly out of my butt

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 21:06:05 -0700

I have a short story that I am supposed to finish by Monday night for the Paperback Writer eBook Challenge. I am horribly behind schedule and have a ton of other stuff going on between now and then. What are my odds of finishing on time?

As they say on Wayne's World, "Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt."

I will type frantically between now and then and try to get it finished. After all, it is just a short story. How hard could it be to finish one of those?

UPDATE:I just stopped by over there to get the link above and noticed that I jujst won a free book. If you write fiction and are not reading her site regularly, you should be. She gives a lot of great advice and had drawings to give away free stuff from time to time. Plus, she has a ton of books published so you should at least go over there to try and figure out how she does it. As far as I can tell, she seems to put most of the emphasis of the magical experience of getting published on actually sitting down and writing...a lot.

Which reminds me. I need to go look for a monkey.

Curse of the Five Pennies - Teaser

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:57:43 -0700

This is just a little teaser for the Curse of the Five Pennies which is due to come out on October 31st. None of the teaser stories will actually be part of the official story. These are all just side stories around the events that happen in the story. This one takes place one day after Curse of the Five Pennies ends.

Aftermath

The head football coach walked into the locker room. The team quieted as Coach stared at the floor.

"I just got some bad news." Coach struggled for his next words.

"Is Tyler sick? If so, we'll be fine. These guys suck."

"No, Randy. Tyler isn't sick," a tear rolled down Coach's face. "Tyler is dead."

The locker room exploded with questions. Coach waved his hands to try to silence the team. One of the assistant coaches whistled to get the locker room back under control.

"Nobody knows anything right now. Something bad seems to have happened. The game is canceled and there is going to be a city wide curfew tonight affective immediately. You all need to head straight home. Now before you guys get all macho and go sneaking around, it appears that somebody is running around killing people, really butchering them up. This is no joke and you all need to get home."

The assistant coaches took over hurrying the kids into their street clothes, coordinating transportation, and creating checklists to keep track of which kids called when they got home. Coach drove through the small town to his neighborhood on the outskirts. The newer subdivision with fresh siding and small trees contrasted with the small ranches throughout the rest of the town.

Coach grabbed a beer and stood on his back porch staring at the woods behind his house. Small towns were not supposed to have problems like this. But, then again, the woods were not supposed to have some of the sounds he had been hearing recently either.

Curse of the 5 Pennies

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:37:39 -0700

I just updated the sidebar with a semi-official title for one of the stories. The Curse of the 5 Pennies.

Whether I finish it in time or not, I'm writing it in response to the E-book Challenge of at Paperback Writer's blog.

I'm hoping to finish it on time. The story is a campy horror story with lots of action and a fair amount of violence. There are only 6 characters and 1 monster so there can't be that much violence, eh?

And it takes place between a dirty, run down gas station and a creepy, old, abandoned bridge with evil looking drawings on it. On Halloween, of course.

And there's a monster that just can't possible exist...right?

The stories in the challenge don't need to be creepy or have anything to do with Halloween, but with an October 31st deadline, how can I resist.

No matter when I finish, and it better be before October 31st, I will publish the story over here in PDF format. I'm working on getting in touch with an artist friend to make a cover that will make downloading the story worth while on its own. He's good and can do creepy with the best of them.

So far, I have finished doing an extremely quick and dirty run through of the plot. It has sentences for everything that needs to happen from start to finish. Now, I need to go back and fill in all the details, dialogue, and killings. Oops, did I say that out loud.

Are you planning on entering the challenge? If so, how is your story coming.

Finding directions for your characters

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:31:22 -0700

Do you have a character stuck in the woods? Does she need to find her way out or further in? It sure would be nice to know which way was north, right? Tired of having your characters look for moss on trees?

Go read article of 13 ways to find north if you're lost int he woods.

Make sure you do your research before using them to make sure the methods listed are acurate. If you ever get lost in the woods and get more lost using these techniques, don't come looking for me.

What the hell. Come looking. You won't find me. Your already lost in the woods.

Writing progress and a sidebar update

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:44:18 -0700

I'm writing again. Buy me a cookie.

I'm going to try to write a minimum of 50 words for each of 3 stories that I am working on. I'm not planning on having many 2000 word days and don't really care at this point. I figure if I make myself write 50 words every day, I will normally write a little more. For example, today I wrote 75, 193, and 78 for the stories.

50 words can't possibly scare anybody. I can cough fifty words. Typing them takes about 2-3 minutes. Our new hamster could pound out 50 words a day. My big fear with this new experiment is finding out that the hamster writes better than me.

A couple friends recently have been politely pestering me to write something. So, I figured if I can put a little progress bar like you find in the sidebar, they can see my progress and only pester me when the sidebars don't move for a few days.

5 pennies

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:05:08 -0700

I was riding back from the Iowa - Iowa State football football game on Saturday. We stopped at a gas station in Rochelle, IL for potty and snacks. I walked into the tiny, slightly dirty bathroom and noticed about 4 flies buzzing around which just made the whole room seem a little creepier than it should have been.

There were 4 pennies sitting on the back of the toilet bowl and 1 on the ground next to the toilet. 5 lonely pennies in a dirty bathroom in a medium sized town in the middle of nowhere.

As the flies buzzed around and I made room for another Pepsi, I realized what those 5 pennies were doing in the bathroom. Scary, scary stuff. I was smart enough to leave the pennies where they were.

One of the characters in a soon to be written by me story will not be so smart. He and his friends are sure going to regret that decision.

Another day, another idea

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 21:03:03 -0700

I had kind of give up on writing a book/story for a while. I've been working on my daddy blog and it is taking care of all of my writing desires recently.

Yesterday, I had a flash of an moment in my past out of nowhere. When I was in tech school in Monterey, CA back in '96, I spent Thanksgiving alone. Almost everybody else went home for the holiday. I went down to a bar and met this older civilian couple. They were in their 50s. I was 21.

We hit it off instantly and were talking and laughing all night while listening to a cool reggae band.

They found out that I would be spending the next day, Thanksgiving alone on base eating some lame food in the food hall. That was unacceptable. They invited me over for Thanksgiving with them.

But, there were some problems. They couldn't drop me off at base because I had no real way of contacting them the next day. This is pre cell phones everywhere. So they let me spend the night. Then drove me home so I could shower and change the next morning. Then drove me back to their house to eat all day with them.

Amazing story right there.

But, it was a little more bizarre. They had a daughter that was 19. We flirted for a few days afterward, but she ended up being a bit of a junkie so I bailed. My friend ended up dating her friend for a few weeks more. The friend had a baby which weirded my friend out a bit and they ended up calling it quits without much fanfare, too.

So, I was remembering that night in the bar and the day eating at their house and meeting their daughter and the whole thing and thought, "Hey dummy. There's a story there."

And my wife might be interested. There won't be any dragons.

If I ever get around to writing it that is.

By the way, if that couple happens to be reading this, thanks. That was one of the most memorable nicest things a stranger ever did for me.

Chapter Endings

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:42:16 -0700

I have never really paid attention to how important chapter endings are before. After reading a couple Michael Crichton books and a few adventurish stories recently, I noticed that they all do one thing really well. The last few lines of each chapter make you read the next chapter.

You hear a lot of talk about making sure your story opens a bang. This is the moment when the reader decides to bother with the book or not.

I have read a lot about making sure the ending captures the reader, too. This is the moment when the reader decides whether to buy another of your books or not.

People do not talk about the structure of chapters as often. When you are reading a book before going to bed, what is it that keeps you awake until 3am reading the last page? The chapter endings.

If a chapter ends, "Yeah, we'll have to talk about that more tomorrow," then guess what. I'm going to read about it tomorrow.

If a chapter ends, "'Yeah, we'll have to talk about that more tomorrow....' At that moment the monster emerged from the closet and bit off Marge's head," there's a good chance I'm going to stick around to see what is going on.

The problem with ending chapters with such a dramatic hook is that the book can quickly become hokey. I find myself yelling, "Come on. Nobody has that many bad things happen to them."

But, in reality, that is why the big hook endings work. We do not read books to live in reality. We read to escape. If somebody has a problem, it better be bigger than mine, or I'll go back to doing my own chores.

I do not expect to win any literary awards. I would like to entertain a few people now and then. While writing my next story, I am going to remember to focus on keeping the pages turning by ending my chapters with a bang...even if I have to kill somebody to do it.

Novel or Novella

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:55:45 -0700

I bumped into an old friend from grade school the other day. Actually, I stopped by his parents house and got his phone number, but do you really care about the details?

After talking to him on the phone, I started having a bunch of memories of grade school through high school. One of my big dorky habits was playing computer role playing games. I also enjoyed reading fantasy books. I was always annoyed that some of the of the freedom and common sense in the books did not translate well to the games. I got tired of fetching the watch-a-ma-callit and bringing it to dork in the hut just to get a few more gold so that hopefully I could eventually buy a better sword.

The games were fun in their own way, but when you tried to imagine a real person dealing with the restrictions of the game engines, they always seemed a little absurd. I used to play Bard's Tale a lot. I remember a couple spots where you walk into a little tiny room and have to fight 396 really large creatures. How did they all fit in the room? Were they part clown?

I've been desperate for a writing project that sounded fun, so I'm going to write a story that is based off of how the games actually played. And, since I have no desire to ever get "published," I'll probably post the story here or on another site that I create for the purpose.

Then comes the real question. How long should the story be? A short story would be fun for picking a certain ridiculousness and making fun of it. After all, how many world changing adventures begin with a group of adventures going into the basement of the bar to fetch some wine or chase away some rats? But, I don't really have trouble finishing short stories. I want to try and finish something longer.

A novel would be fun. Follow the journey from beginning dweebs to mountain shaking heros where they combat the great evil overlord and the epic battle to end all epic battles...at least until the sequel. But, I don't really feel like committing to a project that takes that long. I'm hoping to get something done in a couple months.

So, enter the novella. I used to love reading Stephen King's novellas. I enjoyed Leopold McGinnis' novella, The Red Fez. The stories are just long enough to really develop, but not long enough to drag. That's where I want to start. I'll send my dweebs into the basement armed with only their steely determination and see how far they go. Once it looks like they might have a real mission on their hands, I'll try to find a nice low level boss to battle and then call it a day. If people like it, I can write something bigger to track the rest of their adventure. If it sucks or I never finish it, I haven't wasted a year...unless it takes a year to write 100ish pages.

Time to break out some of the old games and look for the things real people would never have to do.

If you want me to let you know when it is ready (if it is ever ready), send me an email at kalbzayn [at] gmail.com and I'll make a little list of people to notify. I won't give the information to the government. And I probably won't sell the list to anybody. That's more than you can say for most companies these days.

By the way, my friend is a seriously talented artist. If you are looking into some cover work or anything like that, let me know and I'll see if he is interested and available.

Poem - I do

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 21:55:16 -0700

Here's a poem I almost missed. It is so short that I thought it was jst a couple notes to develop someday. If so, I forgot the plan, but like it the way it is. I wrote this while we were planning the wedding that was going to take place in Rockford, IL while we were living in Hephzibah, GA. It also reminds me that I should find the poem that I wrote for Rebecca after one of our very first dates that ended up showing up at our wedding.

The ring, the tux...
The house, the pets...
The wife, the life...

She smiles. Those eyes.
I definitely do.

Poem - Heather Bells

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 21:35:17 -0700

A lot of the poems in this little series were done by flipping through a book and picking 1 word at random from 10 different pages. Those 10 words had to be used in the poem in the order I found them. Without further ado...

Heather Bells walked freely in and out
Of the asylum on the east side of town
When walking in she would always receive a parcel
Wrapped in the shape of a brick
From the skeleton wearing the green smock
The dancing master told her that the green smock was symbolic
But she could never remember the meaning once the mushrooms were
Passed around and that's when the walls morphed and wavered
Back into those of the city hall
In which her desk held files concerning the infirmities of the world
When her eyes cleared they never seemed to focus on those files
'Cause somehow the files were always behind her
And the precipice ahead just on the other side of the window
Which seemed to drop off just before the asylum on the east side of town

If you want to play along at home, the words were in this order.
1) Heather Bells
2) Asylum
3) Parcel
4) Brick
5) Skeleton
6) Dancing Master
7) Mushroom
City Hall
9) Infirmities
10) Precipice

What did you come up with?

A Certain Rate - Another poem

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:12:02 -0700

A Certain Rate

There's a certain rate me and my friends
Walk so as to not raise suspicion
Time has vary little effect on the rate
And urgency is all but ignored
It is almost certain and we would be
Willing to bet that no one will notice us
Maybe say "hello" but not really take the time
To notice that this morning we
Are going to the dive on 39th instead
Of the establishment of fine cuisine on 41st
'Cause the food on 39th is better

A free poem

kalbzayn@gmail.com (Mike Miller) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:39:55 -0700

Three things prompted this post.
1) To push my last post down toward the permanent archives.
2) I've been writing some notes in an old notebook from years ago. There are a few old poems in it that I'm going to share with the world.
3) Paperback Writers eBook challenge. I know these won't qualify for the challenge but I like the spirit of the sharing, so here we go. And maybe I'll do a story for the contest someday.

I'm not sure how many poems there are. I'll probably do a couple a day until I run out or get bored or get told by the audience the torture.

Here's the first one.

If I decided to come with you
Would you decide to come with me
Or would that be just the thing that pushes you away

If I decided to pull you
Would you smile and say, "Okay"
Or would you pull back harder and expect me to follow

If I shed a tear in front of you
Would you watch with your stomach feeling hollow
Or would you just nod and tell me about the things that you've been through

If I asked you to accompany me
Would you grab your bags and shoes
Or would you make sure the place was favorable

If you asked me to come with you
Would you expect me to be malleable
Or would I get to follow the same rules as you