In 1999, I decided to make a New Years resolution, something I almost never do. I wanted to get something published in 2000. In the closing days of ’99, I got my first acceptance letter, so I thought I was set. Unfortunately, the magazine folded before issue 2 came out, so I was back to square one.
Then came “Harming Obsession,” a story I wrote for a Halloween contest. Not only did it win, it was published (thereby fulfilling my resolution), and has been republished twice since then. It was contracted for (and paid for) another, more recent appearance, but that market vanished, too.
Since “Harming Obsession” is a Halloween story and since we at Storytellers Unplugged sometimes post short fiction during October, I thought I’d give the story a new chance at being read. I also took the opportunity to tidy up some messy viewpoint shifting that took place near the end in the previously published version. Seven years on, though, I think the story stands up pretty well. Since I’m currently editing a 24-year-old story of mine, I am painfully aware of how self conscious a writer I was in the early days.
“Harming Obsession” is probably the story that I get the most comments about. The creative writing class at the local high school even studied it for a few classes. I met with them earlier this year and was intrigued by their discussions. At first, they thought it was something that any of them might have written themselves, but after a while they detected something in it that they were still striving for.
Anyhow, if you want to read a creepy Halloween tale (~2000 words) drop on over to Storytellers Unplugged, where there’s a brief introduction about how I came to write the story. I also recorded an audio version of it that should show up at Podango soon.
I finished Playing for Pizza last night. An entertaining book, though lacking somewhat in suspense or overall tension. A fast read, with well-developed characters and an excellent sense of place. I’ll review it for Onyx in the coming days. Now I can tear into Fatal Revenant, the second book in the final chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
As I mentioned above, I’m still working on revisions for a story I wrote nearly a quarter of a century ago…and boy does that concept alone take the air out of my lungs. I think it’ll end up being roughly the same length as the original, 2500 words, but not many of the words will be either the same or in the same order. It’s a pretty simplistic story, but it’s a fun one so I thought I’d try it out for a Halloween contest.
I found this interesting: Who Googles What?. It’s a breakdown by nation of top search words and phrases. For example, the top nations who search “hangover” are Ireland, the UK and US whereas internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the most frequent searchers for “sex.”
