The Story Behind the Story: The Envelope

Back in the spring and summer of 2012, I was working on a massive U.S. history project as part of my day job. As I edited a series of lessons about American involvement in Vietnam, I found myself wondering what it might have been like to receive a draft notice. What would it have been like for a young man who had already lost an older brother to the war?

The more I researched, the clearer the story became. I scoured the Internet and found images of the Orders to Report for Physical Examination and Orders to Report for Induction. Being so used to digitally generated form letters, I was struck by the uneven typewriting on the notices. I had to put that detail in the story. After all, it's those kind of details that bring to life the history in historical fiction.

During the story's planning stages, I thought maybe Quincy would fail his physical examination. By the time I started drafting, though, I knew with absolute certainly that Quincy would pass, forcing him to wrestle with his options. Ultimately, he would decide to dodge the draft, catching a bus to Canada instead of reporting for induction as ordered. But my characters, I have found, often have minds of their own and Quincy was no different. He caught a bus, alright---just not the one I had planned.

I took a draft of the story to my then-writer's group, one of whom is a Vietnam veteran. I admit to being a little nervous about his reading the story. I'd read parts of his memoir about his service in Vietnam, and I wanted very much to do justice to the Vietnam experience. To this day, I cannot recall with any clarity what feedback the other members of the group gave me, but I do remember Dan's. He told me his experience had been similar to Quincy's; he too had kept his draft notice secret from his family. I still cherish his words, because they validated my interpretation of events. I had gotten my story right. Thank you, Dan! (On a side note, someday Dan will publish his memoir. I, for one, can't wait to read it in its entirety.)

Click here to read "The Envelope."

Let Me Take You on a Musical Journey

I fell down a rabbit hole today. This actually happens frequently with me, but it's usually work related. I'll go to check one fact and see something interesting and then look to find more about that interesting thing and next thing you know I'm miles down the garden path.

Today, it was a music video that caught my interest. A link was posted on Twitter and that led me to the video and that video blew me away. Not the video itself, but the music.

Consider this an official announcement: I am now a fan of Postmodern Jukebox.

Postmodern Jukebox is a group that reworks pop songs into mid- or early twentieth century musical styles. After watching that video, I found more on YouTube and then found the band's albums on iTunes and now I'm trying to figure out how many songs I can afford to buy.

I'm not really a fan of contemporary pop music. I couldn't even tell you who's popular these days. Consequently, I haven't heard the original versions of many of the songs Postmodern Jukebox covers. But oh, how I have fallen in love with the covers.

Seriously, they are worth checking out. You can start here with "All About That Bass," the song that got me hooked:

The Story Behind the Story: A Seat at the Bar

God bless NYC Midnight. This story, too, is a product of their Flash Fiction Challenge. It was the second round of their 2013 FFC, and I was assigned a ghost story in a hotel bar with sunglasses.

I'd written most of a story set in the early 1900s when it occurred to me to check the year sunglasses were invented. Turns out, they're a product of the 1920s--1929, to be exact. Oops. Draft 1 scrapped.

On to Draft 2.

I tried using third person narration. I tried a more traditional structure. But this story insisted on being something different. The story didn't flow until I transcribed the bartender's monologue word for word.

The nontraditional format had mixed results. The feedback from the NYC Midnight judges was largely negative, but they award the story more points than my other flash fiction entries. Go figure.

After the competition, I workshopped the story in my writer's group and tweaked it here and there to fix some inconsistencies. The result is the story you see now, over on Fiction First.

Happy Halloween!

To read "A Seat at the Bar" click here.

It's All Coming Back to Me Now

At the end of August, I was Burned Out. My energy, creative and otherwise, was depleted. I needed a break and so I decided to take a sabbatical from writing for a month. That month is approaching an end. I know this not just because the calendar tells me so, but also because the creative centers of my brain tell me so.

After weeks of nothing, my characters are once again making cameo appearances in my daily life. A hello wave from characters in The New Novel when I was swimming. A wink and a nod from the main character in my last piece of flash fiction as I was falling asleep. A postcard from a short story that I'd set aside to work on later.

It's not enough yet for me to resume my regular writing schedule, but it's a sign--a comforting one--that my creative batteries are, in fact, recharging and that my fictional friends will be ready and waiting whenever I get back to them.

The Story Behind the Story: Potions 101

It's Back-to-School season, so I chose this month to post a school story.

I wrote this story for the NYC Midnight 2013 Flash Fiction Challenge . It's actually the story that knocked me out of the competition. (Well, the original version did. What's posted here is a revised version.)

My prompt for this particular challenge was to write a 1,000-word fantasy that included a classroom and a cigarette. As with every other NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, I had one weekend to complete the story.

The idea of a young witch in a potions class came to me very quickly, as did her lack of talent in the kitchen. To be honest, I'm not sure where the idea came from. It's entirely possible I was mainlining Harry Potter movies that weekend. But Belva Emerson is no Hermione Granger. If anything, she's got more in common with Ron Weasley.

The story came quickly. It's not ground-breaking or particularly deep, but it's cute and it's fun. That wasn't enough for the NYC Midnight judges, but it was enough for me.

Enjoy the read!

To read "Potions 101," click here.