Night of the Living ROW

Final ROW80 Check in for Round 2, 2012

Having reached the end of another ROW80, Mortimer decides to take a well-deserved nap.

We’ve reached the end of another round of ROW80. This round, I haven’t been as attentive as I would have liked. Of course, lots of life intervened. But all we can do is all we can do.

My plans for this round:

• Update ROW80 page, for last round and this one: I updated the page at the beginning of the round but it needs another update.
• Spend 15-30 minutes minimum 4 days a week on new novella. I’m working on expanding Postcards from Hell and its sequel, Ants in the Mailbox into a novella. My MIP is on hold for now: For the last month, I’ve tried to catch up with work projects and a big move. I put a hold on writing work until I get settled.

There’s a Story Here Somewhere: Inspirational Images from Flickr

*Looking for the Summer (June – August) Writing Challenge – Every Picture Has a Story? See below for details.*

Flickr is my favorite site to scout for images to use on my blog. There’s a wealth of Creative Commons licensed images and it’s easy to search for them. The images vary widely in quality and artistic value but I’ve rarely failed to find just the right one for a post.

And, of course, it’s all free…which might be the most important factor to a blogger who isn’t making money off her blog.

My Favorites stream over there is already jammed with more images than I can use in a couple of years but I just keep adding more. So many of the images I’ve encountered have captured my imagination, inspiring blog posts, stories and stories-to-be. Here are some that have really stuck with me even though they have no story…yet:

April-May Writing Challenge: First Impressions and Famous Last Words

Great opening lines draw us in, making it impossible for us to turn away and great last lines linger long, long after we’ve read the end. Two of my favorite first and last lines come from Stephen King’s work.

“The man in Black fled across the Desert, and the Gunslinger followed.”  The Gunslinger (1982). Ooh…I know I want to follow them both. Don’t you?

“lady fingers they taste like lady fingers.” Survivor Type (1982). That one even makes my husband shiver and he’s never read the story.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write either the opening or closing lines of a story. Start us off with a bang or leave us begging for more. As usual, any genre will do and the word count limit is 100.

Here’s how it all works:

• Prompt: Create the first or last line of a story.
• Genre: Anything goes. Mystery, Western, romance, historical fiction, alternate history, steam punk, science fiction, horror, fantasy, slip-stream, or whatever.
• Word count: 100 words.
• How to share: You can put it up on your blog and link here or (if you don’t have a blog) you can email (sonia DOT m DOT writes AT gmail DOT com) it to me and I’ll put it in a post for you.
• Time limit: From now until the next challenge is posted in June.
• Prizes: No…no prizes. Just the reward of a story well written.

There were some fabulous stories for the March Writing Challenge. I’ll be updating this post with links to them all shortly. In the mean time, cruise on over and read them here (in the comments).

***

I’ll posting over at the Life List Club tomorrow. Come on by and say hello.

Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
keyboard ~ blur by striatic, on Flickr CC BY 2.0

Happy Haunting!

It’s that time of year again.

You know what I’m talking about. Pumpkins, candy, assorted monsters taking off their human skin and walking around as they really are, extorting the neighborhoods for treats…

…and hauntings. We cannot forget the hauntings.

Ants in the Mailbox – Postcards from Hell, Part 2 (a 500-word story)

My friend, the lovely historical fiction writer Haley Whitehall, issued a flash fiction challenge in the horror genre and this time it involves a prize! The contest runs until 10/31/11, so there’s still time to enter. My entry is Part 2 of a story I wrote for BeKindRewrite’s Inspiration Monday IX. You can find Part 1, Postcards from Hell here.

And now…

Ants in the Mailbox

They stood at the edge of the front lawn gone almost knee-high with weeds. The figure in the filthy postal uniform lay still on sidewalk.

Steve looked right. Left. Nothing else moved anywhere on the street.

Deanna squeezed the stock of her crossbow. “He really dead? Dead-dead?”

Making the ROWnds

ROW80 Check In for 10/26/11

I’m feeling good about last week. Still didn’t nail every goal but I was successful overall. The shorter blogging schedule is really working for me and I’ve fallen in love with my MIP again. Suddenly, I want to sneak off at every opportunity and dive into my story.

Here’s where I’ve been:

• Work on MIP tasks 4 days/week: Figures that when I cut back on my goal days, I’d end up doing more. I did a whopping 6 days this week. And I downloaded my free Scrivener trial 2 days ago…that’s really perking up my writing. Woohoo!
• Exercise for a minimum 5-10 minutes at a time, 5 days/week: Still hitting 4 days/week. Perhaps that’s what really fits into my rhythm and I should focus on building up the length of each workout and not trying to hit all 5 days first.

And the Writer Said, Let there be Blogs (and a ROW80 Check-In)

blog fatigue: (blawg fuh-teeg) noun

1.  the condition of being overwhelmed by one’s blog and/or the number of blogs to read, often characterized by an avoidance of blogging related activities and a loss of the pleasure previously associated with those activities

Last week, we discussed whether or not an epidemic blog fatigue was on the horizon. The consensus seemed to be that the risk of blog fatigue has indeed sky-rocketed but it doesn’t have to take any of us down.

Blogging and social media gives writers the opportunity to connect with a vast number of other writers, to see

Do the ROWky Pokey

ROW8O Check-In 10/12/11

The first week of ROW is done! I got off to a bit of a slow start but I’ll be up to speed soon. Here’s my progress so far:

• Start exercising, minimum 5 minutes at a time, 5 days/week:
  I worked out 3 days this week for an average of 10 minutes each time. Not exactly the 5 days I’d planned for but still better than 0. I’m getting into the habit now, so hitting all 5 days next week should be no problem.
• Update ROW8O page for the new round: Haven’t updated the page yet.
• Have Friday’s Life List Club guest post ready to go by Wednesday: Got this one done!

Driving Mr. Dexter – Dexter Morgan, Part 1

*warning – the following contains spoilers from the first three Dexter novels. Given that the novels have been out for some time and the television show is entering its 6th season, I doubt these spoilers will negatively impact your enjoyment of either. Still, you’ve been warned. *

Driving Mr. Dexter

Dexter Morgan. Forensic blood spatter analyst and friendly neighborhood serial killer.

What’s that you say? Friendly and serial killer in the same sentence? Indeed.

See, Dexter isn’t your average homicidal maniac. Oh no. Dexter is a cut above all the rest. Because Dexter only kills people who really, really deserve it.

Never Stray from the Path – Little Red Riding Hood, Part 1

Once upon a time, a young Girl set out through the woods to bring her Grandmother a basket of goodies. Along the way, she met a Stranger who, upon learning where the Girl was headed, told her of a short cut. But the Stranger had tricked the Girl and, when she arrived at Grandmother’s house, the Girl found that the Stranger had eaten her dear Grandmother and intended the same for the Girl.

This is the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It’s an old, perhaps ancient, tale. Many different versions have existed throughout the ages, shifting sometimes