Or: What really happened in the Garden of Eden before the Fall.

"Apple In Your Teeth" is now up at Golden Visions Magazine. O:) Scroll down, I believe it's the second one in the list.

(On a side note, this seems like a good month for snake-oriented stories.)

Enjoy!

~Merc

P.S. I refuse to put disclaimers about the content--be offended it you want. This is fiction; I rest my case. :P On the other hand, it's quite clean and work safe reading. ;)

Read more...

#Mercfail

You know that post awhile back I did about novel goals? Yeah. The 500 words/reading every day one. Um. That hasn't happened. At all. Zilch. Nada.

Total #Mercfail.

*sighs*

*sets herself on fire*

*reboots brain* Let's try this from the top, again...

Reading: every day. Oh, I do read every day... a lot of short stories and stuff, you know? But the stack of novels sitting there (staring at me with murder in their non-existent eyes) hasn't moved. I also meant to do some reviews. #Mercfail

So, the idea is to read from a novel every day.

Writing (on novels): let me get back to you on that one.

~Merc

Read more...

"It Never Helps" up at TOL Summer 2009!

I've always adored The Evil Overlord List. Who doesn't?

In honor of #34 (the inspiration), I'd like to announce that my short story, "It Never Helps", is now published in the Summer 2009 issue of Tower of Light Fantasy Magazine.

Enjoy! (Unless you happen to be terrified of snakes. In which case I suggest therapy. ;))

~Merc

Read more...

Because This is Awesome--QuasarDragon

I stumbled across the blog QuasarDragon the other day, and I must way, it's awesome. Dave finds all sorts of free speculative fiction, art, comics and more on the web, and compiles them in bite-sized posts regularly. With pictures!

If you're looking for stuff to read, definitely check out the blog.

~Merc

Read more...

Weekly bout of fangirlishness: "Only the Dogs Bark" by Dawn Lloyd

Awhile back, I critiqued a story on CC that was absolutely fantastic. I don't remember how long ago it was, but the story has stuck in my head. (Seriously, I can't look at brown/blue eyes the same way.)

And now, I'm absolutely thrilled to plug Dawn Lloyd's story:

Only the Dogs Bark

(Published in the recent 2009 issue of The Future Fire.)

It's fantastic, haunting, and has lovely world-building. A definite treat. Go read and enjoy.

*throws flaming confetti*

Congrats (again), Dawn!

~Merc

Read more...

The Bastard Saga (published in The Town Drunk)

*throws flaming confetti*

I'm super excited to announce that the June 2009 issue of The Town Drunk is now live, and features my S&S parody (with zombies):

The Bastard Saga
Bast is the Chosen One, commissioned by a doomed wizard to save the world from Rackshalok, Prince of Demons and Lord of the Underworld. But what’s in it for Bast?

With sincerest apologies to Elric of Melnibone and Audrey Jr.


~Merc

Read more...

Direct Correlations

It occurred to me the other day there may, in fact, be a direct correlation between my reading habits and writing productivity.

A couple years ago, before I started really getting into short stories, novels were my main focus. I was also reading/writing (and finishing) novels much more frequently than I am now. When I started being attacked by short story ideas and slipping into full-fledged combat (i.e. writing them down, editing, polishing, submitting), my reading also tipped from novels to shorts. I read more online magazines, more short story collections and anthologies, etc.

Part of this, I think, is my short attention span--look! sparkling zombie chickens!--and the instant gratification shorts give. When I focus, on average I can write 1k an hour. I can (with focus and determination) finish a short story in a day/several hours if I work at it. When you add that + shorts don't take me 6 months to revise + I can submit lots at once + the fact I've sold several stories it and feel like I'm getting somewhere= something like, "Merc's brain is firmly in short-story-gear and possibly the gear stick is now stuck there."

And because things work in reverse, I've noticed I have a difficult time reading and finishing novels lately. This is not the fault of the novels I've been trying to read. It's the damn stick shift that's stuck.

Novel writing (let alone finishing--what is this ending of which you speak?) is almost non-existant, and all I seem to be reading is shorts.

Now, shorts and reading of them is not bad. I adore short stories. But I love novels, too. I want to get back into novels. Writing them. Reading them. And--y'know--finishing them. (Possibly short attention span + slow reader = shorts are more "instant gratification/feeling productive". This shouldn't be an excuse, brain.)

I have this shiny stack of new books. Sitting there. Taunting me.

Possibly I need to ween myself back onto novels by reading an hour a day on one book. Then I'll see if I can get myself to write on a novel every day and see what happens.

If there is a correlation here (alas, no flashing neon signs are appearing to confirm my suspicions) then I think one will lead to the other. If I read more novels, I may get back into the mindset that I require to write them. (I'm well aware how novels are different than short stories.)

So, even though I seem to suck at following set goals :P I'm stating (yet again) a new one.

Reading: an hour a day on one of my shiny new novels sitting by the couch. Probably in the evening/late afternoon around supper time.
Writing: let's try this 500-words-on-a-novel-project-per-day thing again, ja?

Poking and mocking of failures (and cookies when I make it!) much welcomed. I may even *gasp* post updates.

~Merc

P.S. I love this page.

Read more...

Weird, Wacky and Questionably Wonderful--May Recap

Argh, even though I've been looking forward to June, I keep forgetting it is, actually, here. So.

May was a moderately successful month--though I probably started way more than I finished, sigh.

GOALS SET IN MAY

- finish "Mutter?" (my third Fourth Reich short)
Much singing and dancing in the fiery streets--I finished this short (yes, damn it, it is still a short even at 9,500 words).

- finish the teeth/dentist horror short
Um... there are definitely no subconscious barriers but... er... no. *sigh*

- finish my goblin non-short (just so it's out of the way)
Poor sexy goblins got forgotten and neglected--I only just remembered I meant to do this now.

- do something novelish
Rah! Work on NECROMANCER FALLEN actually happened.

- do crits
Amazing. I did some. Go me.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Novels
Progress actually happened. Not much, granted, but I wrote almost 6k on NECROMANCER FALLEN which, sadly, seems like a lot of late. *grimace* (You know that goal (ha ha) I'd set awhile back, 500 words on NF before other stuff? Yeah. Uh, didn't happen.)

Short Stories
Only finished four actual shorts this month, though there were about ten Twitter-length (140 characters) shorts mixed in with that. It was an odd month. All the Twitter-shorts were horror. ;)

I wrote a second-person-present-tense-zombie-infested-clockpunk-twisted-retelling-of-Snow-White which was... well. What do you think, given the description? :P It was weird and dark and fun in interesting ways.

Finished "Mutter?", another Fourth Reich short involving an orphaned, telepathic griffin and blowing things up. Fun.

Rounding out the (finished) flash-fic spectrum in May, I wrote a sci-fi short I'm not entirely sure what to make of (involving, apparently, a boy who falls in love with a metal girl?) and a purely weird horror short (inspired after reading Jerebear's work) about a shrew who lives in this kid's head.

In the realm of started-but-not-finished, there was a more electic mix: an urban fantasy short about a genetically created nephilim on the run, a sci-fi/noir thing, a fantasy about were-tigers-turned-gladiators, more horror, and the next Maggot short (apparently about Maggot the chronically unlucky assassin's unintentional hunt for immortality).

Much wackiness involved in it all, but fun. I'm actually surprised how much I liked most of what I wrote this month...

Other Writing Stuff
I apparently wrote two outlines, one for a serial of horror shorts, the other for there were-tiger story. They are longer than some of my shorts. :|

Random Trend of the Month
Yay, the zombies make a resurgance! In fairy tales, fantasy, and sci-fi.

The theme this month seems to be: suicide missions (i.e. jobs that look fairly deadly and impossible but characters take them on anyway for whatever reason). Makes for fun conflicts.

OVERALL

Total word count (rounded off): 37,000, so not too bad given I did mostly shorts and had quite a few days I didn't write.

Satisfaction level: moderately high. Yay! I liked a lot of what I wrote in May, I experimented, and managed to have fun while being somewhat productive. I think. :P

Blogging still remains the iff-y topic, doesn't it?

How was your May?

~Merc

Read more...