The Blue Candle Society

The hat was getting more conspicuous the further east he traveled, not that it had ever really let him blend in. It sat on the table next to him, because he’d been raised not to wear a hat while eating, even though there hadn’t been as much call for hats back in Vermont where he’d grown up. Still, he liked it, and had started wearing it as soon as he’d been able to get hold of one, back in Wyoming.

He gave the hat an absent pat as he reached for his coffee. It was attracting attention just sitting there, apparently. A couple kids in the next booth were looking at him, one craning his head back to stare and grin. They didn’t look like proper corn-fed Indiana boys (was that right or was it just Iowa boys that were corn-fed?), which was probably why they weren’t more accepting of a nice cowboy hat. They looked more like the kind of kids who spent all day hanging out at a garage, or maybe outside a convenience store, now that they were out of high school and didn’t know what to do with themselves. All greasy denim and scraggly haircuts. Other than one man slumped over the counter of the all-night diner, they were the only ones there, in the wee hours of the morning. Continue reading ‘Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 2’

Posted in Serials

Thanks to Language Log, I now have a handy resource regarding the passive, for next time someone scolds me for using it.  It may take me a far amount of time to sort through it and figure out whether any given thing I’ve written actually is passive – I’ve read the post several times and I can’t say as I’ve absorbed it all yet.  But heck, it’s all there, somewhere.

Posted in General writing things

The first issue of Arcane magazine, with my short story “Ricky and the Elder Gods” has just been published.   So if you are among the thousands enjoying “Road Trip”, I encourage you to check it out – it has the same setting, and unlike the serial has been edited and everything.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Short Stories

So as I was driving along near my house the other day I passed a horse and wagon going the other direction (I’m making the assumption it was driven by an Amish person, since it was a quintessentially Amish wagon, but I suppose it could have just been someone with a beard who really likes black).   Moments later I passed someone else driving a front end loader with a dead cow in it, looking like he’d be catching up to the wagon soon.   I don’t know how I could live around here and not write, really.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Central New York

Israel took another bite of his strawberry shortcake, idly watching the band on the park bandstand. They weren’t bad, for a bunch of aging men with potbellies playing Eagles covers. He was kind of disappointed with the strawberry shortcake, though. He expected better at a strawberry festival. A little girl went by, dragged by her mother as she stared up at Israel and the tattoo of the blue candle on his cheek. At least, he assumed that was what she was staring at–maybe he’d gotten even more charismatic since last time he’d been out in the world. He showed her his teeth in a grin and she darted forward, dragging her mother now. Continue reading ‘Serial Saturday: Road Trip, Part 1’

Posted in Serials

I’m planning to run a bit of an experiment by posting a serial here, a bit at a time. I like serials, myself, but they aren’t the easiest thing to get published, so I’d rather toss a serial out on a website, as opposed to, say, a short story.  Really, though, I’m interested in seeing if I can maintain a serial in small chunks for an extended period of time, since it will require a fair amount of cliffhangerization.   I’ll be moving fairly quickly with this, and I don’t expect it to be particularly polished, so comments and critiques are welcome.  My plan is to post a piece every Saturday, so I can use the nicely alliterative title “Serial Saturdays”.

Posted in Serials
Tags: Serials

Well, one has to start somewhere. While roaming the internet looking at other writer’s blogs to steal ideas gain inspiration from, I was struck by the fact that they all seem to point to dozens of publications and awards. It seems a bit arrogant for someone with one publication to be cranking out blog entries, frankly. Why would anyone ever want to read what I have to say? But hang on, I’ve apparently decided people would want to read my fiction, so perhaps a certain amount of arrogance comes with the territory. And like I said way back five sentences ago or so, one has to start somewhere. I suppose I could have just waited until I’d published a few more stories before bursting onto the world wide web, but of course the beauty of all this is that if it turns out I’ve jumped the gun and created a web presence too soon and I’m just talking to myself, no one will know about it.

Posted in Uncategorized