I leave on vacation tonight.
Overall, I feel pretty good about it. The last couple of months I’ve been trying to expand my writing. I love hard science fiction, but I’ve always been somewhat weak at writing about it. I think I’m overcoming that slowly.
Over the last couple of months, I’ve written:
1. The First Principle of Power
2. The Day the Laughter Survived
3. Fading Light from a Dying Star [This is really a horror story set in the far future, but I think it counts.]
4. Valedictorian Speech, 2055
5. One to Spare
For someone scared of writing science fiction stories, I think I did ok.
mallory_blog did a wonderful beta for #4 and #5. “Valedictorian Speech, 2055” is a bit sappy and sugary, but I think it fits the intended market. With only 800 available words, it is tough to write a solid story, and even more difficult to put that story in the form of a speech. Still, I think it is right for the market.
I wrote “One to Spare” for the Future Syndicate anthology. mallory_blog brought up a couple of good points that the story might be better if it starts early with the main character and her sick daughter. However, I’m not sure that this would work for this anthology. I might come up with a different entry for this story.
On the drive to work, I gave some thought to my writing. I need to complete novella #3 and editing novella #2. I need to do this BEFORE starting any other stories. When I get back, I will make that my first writing priority.
Other stories coming down the pike: [Cut because people might not want to read these and I mostly put them here so I don’t forget them.]
I am working on a story called “The Elixir of Tears.” This is a fantasy setting story about a pirate that steals a potion from a wizard to save his queen.
“Song of the Innocent” will be another Jacob Heller story dealing with his new brother-in-law infamous rock star Johnny Dalton.
“The Fisherman’s Wife” will be an erotic dark fantasy with Selkies. A selkie married a fisherman and then left him when the call of the sea became too much. Thirty years later, he finally catches her again.
I have an idea for a second novella for the crew of the Phoenix involving breaking someone out of prison.
“Prince of Cats” involves a god becoming upset with a mortal when he claims a title not truly his.
“The Pit Stop War” is about two clerks at a late night connivance store that try to kill each other.
“The Sugarman Cometh” is about a child molester with special powers that discovers that he is but a small fish in a very large pond. This is a Crossroads story.
“Jeremiah Heller and the Dead Man’s Hand” is about Jeremiah Heller chasing down a special deck of cards. This deck of cards was a tarot deck and now whenever it draws the Dead Man’s Hand, the person playing is fated to die. However, if another hand is drawn, the person gets a blessing.
“Redd” is about the son of Little Red Riding Hood and his tendency to howl at the moon.
“Webs” is about Little Miss Muppet and what she is really afraid of and really wants. This is a dark erotic fantasy about bondage.
The Universes of Jason Andrew 