Inspiration shows up everywhere.

 Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 302013
 

Today’s example comes from what I saw when I walked out of the house this morning, on my way to Home Depot to buy fill dirt. What’s different for me is that it wasn’t a lightning strike of desire to write fiction, the poetry muse got me instead.

PantiesStockPhoto

 

 

 

 

Secret

Have you told Victoria your secret?
You lost your panties in a rush.
An insistent impassioned moment?
Perhaps a tumble from your bag?
I guess it doesn’t matter now.
I found them balled up and lonely
On the concrete in front of my home.

Victoria won’t be happy now that
Your secret is out and abroad,
Inspiring a free verse poem from
Your neighbor, the horror author.
For me it was a treat to reveal them.
Unfolded from tragic abandonment,
Smelling of your fabric softener.

 Posted by at 10:00 am

Use what you know.

 Tips, Writing  2 Responses »
May 212013
 

As a relatively new writer, I’m a big advocate of using what you know to add reality to your fiction. Using places you’ve been, and situations you’ve been in, gives a feeling of authenticity that fabrication doesn’t.

Sitting in a donut shop yesterday, I was plotting out a section of “Blood Soaked and Gone” that will probably lead up to, if not become, the climax of the novel. The setting appeared in my head, maybe because I dreamed of the Acme grocery store in my home town the night before, and it was completely different from what I’d originally planned. (Hell, I’ve left digital footprints all over the place, hunting for information about secret government bases. Hi, NSA!) I spontaneously decided to use someplace I know.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

©Brandon White, www.TidalFish.com

The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I’m not going to tell you WHY, but if you’ve read “Blood Soaked and Invaded” you’ll probably understand.

I can’t tell you how many times I drove across that 4.1 mile stretch of elevated highway over the years. I have so many memories attached to all that concrete and steel, and I know they’ll come out in what I write. That’s why I’m doing it—using what I know and a place that I know.

It is why you, as a writer, should try writing something set in a familiar place that has emotional attachment for you. You’ll be amazed at what your words communicate to your readers.

Another little tease from “Blood Soaked and Gone”

 BSAG, Teaser  1 Response »
May 202013
 

Anything we might have said after that was drowned out by Chunhua’s techno-telepathic barbarian yawp. It surged through our brains and curled our toes.

As a unit we all cried the same question back to her, “WTF?!”

“I got it!” She yelled. “Mine, I tell you! Mine!”

Did you know that you can hear someone cackle like an evil witch through nanotech cellular service? You can, because Chu let off something that left claw marks inside my skull and made my bladder twitch.

I got up and booked to the next room, along with almost anyone else in a leadership position. 410 got crowded in seconds. That’s the power of technologically enhanced twitch reflexes, I guess.

Chunhua was sitting on the floor with the most disturbing, moist-eyed, teeth-bared expression of bloodthirsty triumph on her face I’d ever seen. Any alien, zombie, sociopathic turd, or giant monster would have trembled in the face of a loaded Chunhua Yan. Something, or someone was going to die, and I thanked my lucky stars that it wasn’t me.

“What is yours?” I asked, since I was standing right in front of her.

“I hacked it.” She beamed up at me.

“You rock.” I gasped in awe. “There has never been rock that rocks as completely as you rock. No topography has ever been so stony and rigid as your rocktasticness in this moment. I am honored to be in your presence.”

“Jesus Christ, Frank, d’ you think you could pour it on a little harder than that?” Shawn kicked me in the shin.

“Not without a fire hose.”

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