Swords Against Boredom

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Filed under: My Fiction/Writing

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My flash fantasy, Monochrome, will appear at “Every Day Fiction” on Dec. 7.

I note it appears the day after a story called Garden Pests by frequent Swords Against Boredom participant Ellie Tupper, and I look forward to reading that. I see some other familiar names coming up in December, too. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Monochrome will be my second appearance in EDF’s flash-story-a-day venue. EDF categorizes stories as “Fantasy,” “Science Fiction,” “Horror,” etc. to facilitate archiving … but I honestly wasn’t sure which of those labels best fits Monochrome. It’s fantasy to some, perhaps not to others. It’s science fiction, under some definitions, probably not under others. Its central idea might be horrific to some, welcome news to others. So I left the weighty decision of which label to apply up to the EDF editors, and I wonder what they’ll come up with.

My ghostly take on the William Tell legend, Tell’s Choice, garnered a lot of good responses at EDF in October. If you are so inclined, you can read it here.

– Steve

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Filed under: My Fiction/Writing

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My flash fantasy, Monochrome, will appear at “Every Day Fiction.”

It’s my second appearance in this flash-story-a-day venue. My ghostly take on the William Tell legend, Tell’s Choice, garnered a lot of good responses in October. If you are so inclined, you can read it here.

Monochrome is a bit of an oddball story. Every Day Fiction archives stories by category — science fiction, fantasy, horror, literary, a few others — and I wasn’t sure which category it ought to go in. The story is a result of my musing about God, creation, religious beliefs, human nature and neutral paint colors.

It’s a bit of an experiment, too, in a way. One of the nice things about Every Day Fiction is that readers can — and do — weigh in with comments about the stories. I’m interested to see how people who aren’t inside my head interpret this story.

For those who haven’t yet checked it out, EDF is a wonderful venture. A new flash story — 1,000 words or less — every day, on the Web site and available as emails. EDF publishes just about any genre.

– Steve

P.S. I also still have stories live online at “Electric Spec” and “Down in the Cellar.”

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Filed under: My Fiction/Writing

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The lastest edition of Flashing Swords ezine is reviewed at The Fix, a short fiction review and discussion site edited by Eugie Foster.

Marshall Payne wrote the review, and seems to enjoy a sword-and-sorcerous tale more than the people at Tangent who reviewed previous editions of Flashing Swords. Payne took the time to link to my brief bio of Calthus in his review of The Gods-Forsaken World, which I appreciate, and I thought his comments in praise of TW Williams’ narrative voice in No Man’s Knight were spot-on.

– Steve

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Filed under: Rants

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With the earlier discussion of the Conan: Red Nails animated film project, and a live-action Conan project supposedly in the works, I thought I’d take a few moments here to talk to people who haven’t read any of the stories by Robert E. Howard.

The popular image of Conan is the character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movies. That fellow, though, has very little to do with Howard’s Conan. Here are some vital differences; in each case, I’ve countered Arnold’s movie actions with the actions I believe Conan would take instead:

ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Grows up in slavery.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Chews off his own leg — and other people’s legs, if necessary — in order to escape his shackles and win his freedom. He does this every single day until he’s free, or dead.

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ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Learns his fighting skills in gladiatorial-style arena fights, and basks in the adoration of the crowd.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Goes over the wall and kills the bastard who put him in the pit — or dies trying.

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ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Is “bred to the finest stock” as his leering captors look on.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Fights his way out of the cage, kills a few captors, takes the “finest stock” with him and does the breeding at a time and place of his choosing.

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ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Stands relatively still, performing slow-motion katas with his sword, then swipes away when some fool gets too close.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Moves with supple grace, strikes with lightning speed and slays five people in the time it takes Arnold to say “Crom!”

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ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Says “Crom!” with an Austrian accent.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Says “Crom!” with a Cimmerian accent.

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ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Foolishly accepts Bombata’s pitiful, unbelievable, remarkably pathetic “I thought you were going to hurt the girl” excuse for attacking him.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Cuts Bombata in half, and then asks Bombata why he attacked.

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ARNOLD THE BARBARIAN: Turns down the pretty little new queen who offers him a chance to rule by her side, and says he’ll go seek his own queen, and his own kingdom, before striding boldly out.

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN: Turns down the pretty little new queen who offers him a chance to rule by her side, and says he’ll go seek his own queen, and his own kingdom, before striding boldly out — but he boffs the pretty little new queen a few times before he goes.

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Feel free to add your own items to this important scholarly treatise.

– Steve

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Filed under: Great short fiction/Writing

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Now and then, I want to showcase short stories I really like, and spur discussion if possible. I got the idea from Paul Jessup, who is spotlighting a short story of the week over on his blog.

Here’s a link to a short story called The Star by Arthur C. Clarke.

I read this years ago, in a science fiction class at The Ohio State University. I think this story is brilliant. From a pure craft level, it achieves strong characterization and plot and setting in a rather concise package. The brilliance, to me, lies in the theme — it depicts a collision between knowledge and faith in a way that still hits people decades after it was written.

The Star amply displays the power potential of short stories, and while it is clearly science fiction, it most definitely rises to the level of literature.

Read if you like, and feel free to discuss what you like or dislike in Clarke’s story.

– Steve

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Filed under: My Fiction/Writing

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One of my Spider John stories, The Bloated Curse, will appear in the Return of the Sword print anthology from the fine people who bring you Flashing Swords ezine.

The Bloated Curse has a bit of a tortured history. It originally was sold to Flashing Swords under the editorship of Howard Andrew Jones. When HAJ moved on to Black Gate and new management took over at Flashing Swords, the management created a Flashing Swords Annual E-Anthology. Spider’s story went in there. It was available for sale for a very short time before Flashing Swords parent company Pitch-Black Books went belly up. My Spider John story sank along with it.

Now a new team is in charge at Flashing Swords, and they are reviving some of those “lost” stories — along with a lot of new stuff — in Return of the Sword. Editor Jason Waltz is taking some of the e-anthology material and adding to it some other cool stuff he’s run across in his busy sword-and-sorcery-driven life.

Whew!

One of those new stories is from my good friend Ty Johnston, so I’m really looking forward to that. Another writer whose work I’ve enjoyed is Bruce Durham, and he’s in there, too.

Keep your eyes open here for details.

– Steve

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Filed under: Movies

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Sword-and-sorcery fans, here’s the official web site for the upcoming animated feature movie, Conan: Red Nails.

The concept art thus far looks pretty good, and it sounds as though the producers are going to attempt to portray Conan as Robert E. Howard wrote him. Whether they do that or not, time will tell. But “Red Nails” is one of the better Conan stories, and there is potential here to produce a Very Good Thing.

– Steve