Updates and Writing Short Fiction

Image courtesy of Stockvault.

I’ve been working on many other projects and stuff lately, and I haven’t been as inclined to write here as I have in the past. Currently I’m stuck on my science fiction novel, and I’ve written a short story that will be published at my local library. Proceeds from the book will benefit the library, which I hope will help them out. It’s a collection of stories based on Grimm fairy tales, and there are some really good stories in there.

Writing the short story had gotten me wanting to write a horror short, and I’ve also been stuck on that one as well. However, I think I’ve made some headway, so I’ll be writing on that. My goal is to make it good enough to sell it to a magazine or some other publication.

Something interesting I’ve learned is how my views on horrific fiction have changed over the years. It doesn’t achieve the same effect that it used to. I also noticed the difference when reading Poe and Lovecraft; the former relies on psychological sources while the latter relies on the supernatural. While I still get invested with characters, supernatural entities don’t do much for me. Recently I read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and I only got invested so much in the story as the characters would allow. A haunted house did nothing for me, which made the ending a little less forceful than I would have liked. This isn’t a critique of the story itself; it’s a problem which belongs to me.

At any rate, I think this story has been rattling around because it’s an exercise in feeling something. Currently I’m working on a theme that I wanted to put in other forms in my fantasy works: be careful what one wishes for in deities. Right now, I think I’m setting up a reverse Pascal’s Wager, where I’m asking what it really might mean if omnipotent beings actually had a universe for an ant farm. This might be fertile ground for my imagination, I hope.

On a related note, I will be wanting to feature a character who is a Baptist minister in said horror story. If anyone reading this is a former Baptist or former member of clergy, I’d be eternally grateful for some insight into how sermons get written and delivered. Drop a comment below if you can.