Obsession: Story Background

So, here’s the background for the short story Obsession, which came out some time before I started writing backgrounds on stories published in places other than my website.

Publishing Details

Obsession was published by Hub Magazine [External Link] in their 96th issue back in August 2009. You can find the actual issue here: [External Link]

Themes

Obession is basically about what the title says. However, in a moment of confession, this … Continue reading

Sunday 9th December, 2007

PLUG/REMINDER: The Girl From Yesterday is in the first issue of the Ranfurly Review [External Link]

Nothing much going on this week, web-site or writing wise. I’m polishing my intended Cone Zero [External Link] submission. It’s on draft 2 and seems to make sense. To me, if to nobody else. Faith is a bit of a pig. I’m still busy first drafting. It’s coming out it bits and pieces and then I’ll have to stitch it all together and (hopefully) make it work. And Hybrid is just made it to the front of the Critter [External Link] queue, so next week I shall be having another look at that.

Other than that, I’m busy with: dog, moving house, the usual flood of admin work that comes with the end of school term, and preparing for my next job.

Sunday 2nd December, 2007

Welcome to Advent! I’m finally willing to admit that Christmas is on the way and have started singing along with the overdone festive songs in the shops.

And with the preparation for Christmas and the New Year, comes the preparation for a new job. I’ll be finishing at Netherhall School [External Link] at the end of term (Wednesday 19th December + plus a few non-term time days) and start as an Environmental Officer for the Waste Recycling Group [External Link] on Monday 7th January. It’ll be a full time job, so I’ll also be giving up my work at the CBDN [External Link] and will probably have to cut back on my writing. But don’t breathe a sigh of relief, because I don’t intend to give up completely!

Talking of writing, I’ve submitted The Big, Bad Wolf to the Drollerie Press Little Red Riding Hood Anthology [External Link], and the first draft of my Nemonymous Eight: Cone Zero [External Link] effort has been finished and is currently being tested on a number of lab-rats. Actually friends and family – it would be too cruel to force it on actual animals and the animals are more likely to eat it than read it, anyway. Finally, The Girl From Yesterday is in the first issue of the Ranfurly Review [External Link], so go read it!

PS I subscribed to the Murky Depths [External Link] on Thursday. My order for the “back issues” and my subscription arrived on Friday. And it is breathtaking!

Sunday 25th November, 2007

Although I’ve added a few extra reading materials, things haven’t gone quite to plan with my writing this week. I’ve started my Cone Zero [External Link] attempt, but I haven’t been able to dredge more than 500 words up, yet. Faith also remains stubbornly half-formed. But then, I’ve quite enjoyed just drifting around this week and not worrying about word counts. They’re bound to work themselves out in their own time.

However, I have been working on some genealogy this week. Someone pointed out the freely available Gazettes Online [External link] (now added to Useful Links page), and I have been looking for legal announcements regarding my ancestors. There’s no sign of a divorce for my 3rd great grandparents in the SANSOM line, but my 6 x great grandfather of the same line was apparently declared insolvent/bankrupt in 1832. The excerpt has been added to their family page.

I have also found two other excerpts of interest to me, one for a James TABERNER of Pemberton/Wigan and a John CHARLESWORTH of Upper Langwith. They aren’t related to me (as far as I know), but I’m looking into their family trees to see if I can connect them to mine. The excerpts have been added to the relevant family pages and at some point in the distant future (pending results), I may add some detail about their ancestry.

Sunday 18th November, 2007

Well, things have turned out pretty much as expected this week. And don’t worry – my projects page has been updated to reflect it all, so you can play “spot the difference” to your heart’s content.

The Gospel is now in its third draft. I’m still not happy with it and will probably re-draft it several times over the coming months. The second draft of White Heart has been completed (wooo hoooo!). And a request for dedicated readers (RFDR) has been put in the Critter’s Workshop [External Link] system for The Longest Night. The RFDR itself consists of the synopsis for The Longest Night and probably won’t make it to the front of the queue until January, as I have a short (Hybrid) to go through first (up for critiqueing from 05/12/2007).

I’ve heard back from the Interzone Mundane issue editors (more information here: [External Link]) and my story The Ally-Ally-Oh has been very nicely rejected. Being determined/positive/stubborn/a pain in the proverbial/all of the afore-mentioned, it’s gone straight out again to Murky Depths [External Link], which was queued up to be added to my reading material list before I made the decision. Now I just look like I’m brown-nosing, seeing as I haven’t actually subscribed yet (the joys of obscenely low income). Oh, well.

You may also notice the addition of The Big, Bad Wolf to my projects. It’s a modernisation of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy/folk tale (Wikipedia info: [External Link]) intended for Drollerie Press and their anthology of Little Red [External Link]. Hopefully, it’ll be ready in time for the deadline. Then I just have to worry about them liking it.

And for my next trick… This coming week, I’m hoping to start putting together the first draft of Faith properly. It may take some time as I need it to fit perfectly with White Heart and the rest of the planned Hound of Kern Trilogy, but develop in its own right as well. I’m also hoping to put fingers to keyboard for Nemonymous Eight: Cone Zero [External Link]. I have an idea. I just have to write it down.