A Unicorn Story in the Works

At one time I wrote a story about a unicorn for CBAY Books' Stepmothers and the Big, Bad Wolf anthology with the intent of writing about the metaphorical wolf that is fear, rather than a literal wolf in my story.  Turned out, however, that the bulk of the stories they got took the idea literally, so my unicorn story would have looked odd in that grouping, and the story was declined.

When people say 'wolf,' they actually mean 'wolf.'  Who knew?  :)

I now find myself faced with the prospect of writing another unicorn story that will in fact deal with the same theme (fear) as the first one.  It will be set in the modern world, though.  I am looking forward to this.  Now, I think, it's time to do some research.

Story Setting

I've spent some time over the last day or so reading Strange Little Girls.  I'm finding that Sirens Call seems to prefer--at least, for that anthology--stories set in the modern day but with the injection of some unique element of weirdness.  So I believe I will have to re-think what I was planning.  That's okay.  I have to be adaptable to what a particular market wants.

I've Moved!

Greetings, friends and readers!

Welcome to my new blog on Blogspot/Blogger  I decided I really did not like the version of this that I have on Facebook and wanted something that was more like a journal.  I find that I am too easily sucked into reading Facebook, because there is never and end to it; I just keep scrolling and scrolling because there is always something new, fascinating, and entertaining to read or comment on--and I can't resist novelty.  When I read Facebook, I do not have an off button.  I also think that I will tend to write longer posts here than I typically have on the Facebook version of this blog.  Lastly, I prefer Blogger because it gives me the ability to categorize my posts and to format my text, a feature absent on Facebook.

I need a format in which I can write a post, communicate with my readers, and not be tempted to look at anything else.  This is it.

At the moment, this blog is no-frills; I might add pictures and things later.  I will migrate posts from my Facebook page to here so that I can keep a record, and I will back-date them as they are dated in Facebook.  At some point, if I can figure out how, I will delete the Renee Whittington Facebook page.

My intention is to post here at least once a week.

UPDATE:  I have deleted the Renee Whittington page on Facebook.

Renee

Story Work for Sirens Call Piece

I spent this evening doing more background work on the story I am writing for Sirens Call. I decided that I needed to understand the setting and my character's particular subculture very well before I started writing the story. I want to have a clear and vivid feel for it in my head.

But now the story is saying to me, "You could make a novel out of this." Yeah. Maybe for NaNoWriMo, not sooner.

I believe I will begin writing it tomorrow night, as I don't want to get so wrapped up in the worldbuilding and the cult my protagonist belongs to that I ignore the real point of the story.

I have also bought a copy of Strange Little Girls, which is a previous anthology that Sirens Call published recently. I want to get a feel for the kinds of stories and settings that they are looking for.

Working on Story for 'Alone with Your Fear'

Tonight's writing involved working out the background for a story I will submit to Sirens Call later this summer. Tentative title is 'Andrion's Crown.' It will be submitted for the Alone with Your Fear anthology.

I was going to write a story for their Strange Little Girls anthology last year, but I never could work up a good idea.

Recent Submissions

Recent short story submissions:

"Weight" to CBAY Books.
"The Witch of Braighe" to CBAY Books.
"Stavros" to Flash Fiction Online.

One hundred words was too short for "Stavros."  It works a lot better at 762 words.