Whisks

  • Great stuff @seagreen. Super story.

  • ‘We have picnics at Stonehenge when we’re off-duty, it’s enormous fun.’

    (400 words)

    You lean back against the fallen stone, head tipped so that your horizon is the great circle of stones and a mosaic sky. Smoke from your cigarettes moves through the air like moths and the stone is cold against your arms, your hips. The others are laughing, but…[Read more]

  • Red Sun

    Sunsets are very different here. Everything is different, but it was the sunset that I was staring at last night. Or rather, the absence of a sunset.

    OK. No sunset. Tell you what, there aren’t any asthmatics here on Grissom’s planet either. I’m not blaming anybody; when a 300-mile-wide asteroid drew a bead on Earth at twenty-five miles…[Read more]

  • Barny replied to the topic Choices in the forum Group logo of Things that go bumpThings that go bump 5 years, 8 months ago

    Oh ok then Believer. Justin time šŸ˜‰

  • Clebs replied to the topic Choices in the forum Group logo of Things that go bumpThings that go bump 5 years, 8 months ago

    Home
    Believer
    Vase

  • Barny replied to the topic Choices in the forum Group logo of Things that go bumpThings that go bump 5 years, 8 months ago

    Home, Belieber, Spoon

  • RichardB replied to the topic Choices in the forum Group logo of Things that go bumpThings that go bump 5 years, 8 months ago

    Away
    Unbeliever
    Book

  • OK – at the risk of badgering people, three and a bit days left to enter “Things that go bump”. Also – 18 members at present, but only 16 sets of choices. If you’re intending to take part, don’t forget!

  • Raine posted an update 5 years, 8 months ago

    So turns out all my submissions are made in the spirit of ‘This is the best I can get it right now, but I’m sure it’ll change again down the road’. Because this edit is an actual ‘This version will get published’ and it is VERY DIFFERENT. I am DAUNTED, people. Halp.

    • Have faith in yourself, Raine. They accepted the ms because you’re good.
      And maybe do some deep breathing and have a glass of something to steady the nerves, though not too much obvs šŸ™‚

    • Daunt not, my dear. They liked what you sent. They think it’s more than good enough. They KNOW the world is waiting for it – as are we.

    • Of course it’s the good stuff!

      • It will be wonderful. And, of course, it is daunting but that is because you care about your writing and want it to be the best it can. Which is why it was so good in the first place!

    • My lovely, I feel for you and know just what you mean!! It’s real, and it will be permanent, and that is full of daunt. But forget all that. You have to. You probably have an ideal reader when you write? Write for them. Make it good for THEM. And a work of art is never finished, merely abandoned. You will have to walk away at some point, but…[Read more]

  • Kate replied to the topic Choices in the forum Group logo of Things that go bumpThings that go bump 5 years, 9 months ago

    Away, unbeliever, ring

  • “I don’t care where you’ve been, You ain’t been nowhere till you’ve been in – the Things that go Bump writing challenge.”

    Find the group. Join. Enjoy.

  • JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 9 months ago

    Just wondering how you are all dealing with the Covid pandemic within your writing. I’m in the planning stages of a new novel and can’t decide. Do I set my novel pre-pandemic? Which feels like a bit of a cop-out. Do I ignore it completely? Same comment. Or do I try to set it in the current situation with the problems and concerns of the pandemic…[Read more]

    • I think it depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the pandemic. Considering how long it takes between drafting a novel and seeing it in print (if it gets that far), if you take the optimistic view the whole thing will be over by then, it’ll no longer be a part of contemporary life, and nobody will worry much whether you’ve included it…[Read more]

    • Not answering your question, exactly, but I’ve read a number of short stories which include reference to Covid and in general I find them offputting, a bit bandwagon, which might be because we’re in the middle of it. I think if your novel is set at the time, a passing reference to its restrictions might be enough. But the same (to include or…[Read more]

      • Personally, I’d leave it out. So many people now must be writing pandemic stories, that the mention of it alone might put readers on guard. Also, optimistically speaking, by the time your novel comes out, life may have returned to normal and your story would be dated.

    • Interesting. I wasn’t planning on writing a story about the pandemic but was thinking about whether the story I had planned to write should acknowledge the pandemic. For example there is quite a lot of travel in it and it feels weird to have someone just hop on a plane given what’s going on. Have to think a bit more.

      • Best of luck!

        • Yes, best of luck, Jane. FWIW, I don’t think ignoring the pandemic is anything of a cop-out. I’m choosing to ignore it in my next one for similar reasons to some remarks above, that a) it risks becoming band-wagon and, if it does (hopefully) pass, Covid might age the novel by the time it comes to print. Mostly b) that books are commonly escapism,…[Read more]

          • I agree there’s a risk of bandwagon. I think it can be hard, too, to think of something interesting to say about a situation when we’re still in it. Hard for me, anyway.

      • Yeah, its a tricky one isn’t it? To ignore it completely, or assume that a book based two years from now can still ignore it completely seems a bit unbelievable to me. This is a world changing event, ignoring it for present/near-future settings would be odd imo. BUT I have absolutely zero interest in novels *about* it. I do think the shifting,…[Read more]

        • Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!

          • I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.

            • I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.

  • Daedalus posted an update 5 years, 9 months ago

    Still not a robot

    • Now there’s a coincidence. Neither am I.

    • I sometimes think a robot would be better at identifying the traffic lights than I am. Hang on, maybe that’s the point…

      • Those blasted traffic lights. I’m always relieved to get the fire hydrants. I think I’m becoming a fire hydrant fan.

        • Good to mix things up with the occasional bit of fire hydrant. But where’s the other street furniture? Why can’t we identify some litter bins for a change, or bike stands or something?

          • Dogs. I want to identify all the dalmatians in a field full of friesan cows.

            • I once saw a dalmatian in a field full of daisies.

              Re street furniture, it could be the tables and chairs a coffee shop blocks the pavement with in a town near me.

  • Hi all, thought you’d be interested to know that ‘Bathymetry’, a short story which came out of a previous winter short story challenge is going to be published in Strange Horizons, which is a bit of a dream publication. Whoop whoop. I can’t actually remember which challenge but it was on the old Word Cloud – A Winter’s Tale perhaps?

    So that’s 3…[Read more]

  • 390 words.

    Prison? Or exile?

    My senses woke – to unfamiliar birdsong and the whisper of wind through long grasses; to the brush of warm air across my skin and the scent of lemon lavender and rose petals spiced with cinnamon; to the taste of salt-tinged air on honeyed lips. I stretched, easing joints taut with inactivity, then opened my mind t…[Read more]

  • Raine replied to the topic Indie publishing deal in the forum Podium 5 years, 9 months ago

    Thank-you all for the lovely comments. šŸ™‚ It’s a long way off being an actual book but I’m enjoying knowing it’s coming! Now to edit…

  • Raine started the topic Indie publishing deal in the forum Podium 5 years, 9 months ago

    For anyone who hasn’t seen this on FB or Twitter…
    Some news…
    https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/post/welcome-to-the-family-lorraine-wilson

    Its a small indie press in Edinburgh (so local – yay!) & they are a perfect home for my square peg of a book!

    • 👏👏👏🍾🍾🍾

      • About time too! Great choice of publisher (and author) – it is as though it was meant to be. Congratulations, Raine x

    • You know what I think about this – delighted for you. And delighted others are going to get a chance to read this wonderful book

      • Yaayy! I’m SO SO delighted about this news, and they are very lucky publishers to have snapped you up. What a wonderful team you make. Just surprised it’s taken this long but now your gorgeous prose will be out in the world. So happy for you lovely! xx

    • That your square peg eventually found a publisher with a square-shaped hole to fill should encourage everyone else who has so far failed to find their fit.
      Really, really delighted for you.

    • This is just the best news. So pleased for you. And it’s about time your exquisite work got the attention it derserves 😊

    • Well done Raine!

    • This is great news, Raine!

  • Knicks replied to the topic Choices in the forum Group logo of Things that go bumpThings that go bump 5 years, 9 months ago

    Home
    Unbeliever
    Ring

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