Thanks

Thanks to all of you who have visited this page for the first time. I figure most of you have found me through the site The Clarity of Night. My traffic is triple the usual. Welcome everybody.
Thanks also to my everyday readers. I sometimes struggle with what to write about here, so I [...]

Writing Update

I just wanted to post a quick update about my writing. I entered a writing contest over at The Clarity of Night. The contest was 250 words inspired by a photograph. I have to say, this was quite challenging for me. I had a hard time crafting a story that was only 250 words, [...]

Gas Prices

My intention for this blog was to discuss my struggles in becoming a "writer". However, I feel I need to deviate from this today and discuss something else. If politics and gas prices don't interest you, you may want to skip this post. For information purposes, I am registered as an Independent, though I would [...]

Great First Sentences

I have often heard that the first sentence of a short story or a novel is very important to the work, as the first sentence should capture the reader's attention and make him or her want to continue reading the story.  So, as a little audience participation I would like to hear some great first [...]

I won again!

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I entered a submission for Chapter 7 of my local newspaper's Stort Story contest. I just received a call from a reporter at the newspaper letting me know that my submission was picked again! I am pretty proud that my chapter was picked, as I was pretty happy with the [...]

New Writing Contest Opportunity

As you can probably tell, I enjoy entering writing contests. I came across one today on the blog “All Kinds of Writing“. The contest is from “The Writing Show” and they are looking for the best first chapter of a novel. First Prize is $150. This seems like a pretty cool [...]

Short Story Contest – Chapter 7

Here is my submission to the short story contest I mentioned yesterday. I am proud of this one and think it is some of my better work. Since I have already won once, I don’t mind if my submission isn’t picked this time. I had fun working on it. To read the [...]

My writing update

Last night I worked on my submission for Chapter 7 the ongoing short story contest I have been entering (I was selected for Chapter 5).  I think I finally have my groove back as I really enjoyed working on this submission.  I will post my work here tomorrow.  In the meantime, here is a link [...]

The End of Storytelling?

The other day, I heard someone lament the fact that due to television and other distractions, we no longer tell our children stories. In the old days, the person lamented, children would often ask their parents to tell them a story and the parents would then proceed to spin a yarn. Soon, I will be [...]

Death and What Comes Next – Terry Pratchett Short Story

I stumbled across this short story a few months ago and thought it was worth sharing. It is yet another example of the brilliance of Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series of novels. Those that like “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and Douglas Adams in my opinion will enjoy the Discworld books.
In this [...]