Story-a-Day September continues! I've missed two days so far. I tried to torture myself by staying up too late to write something, anything, but then I remembered that suffering isn't required and anything I wrote while half-asleep wouldn't be worth the effort. Perspective. Right? For about half of the days, I worked on previous stories, …
I finished my third story for Story-a-Day. I'm feeling that familiar mix of joy--I did it!--and dread--It's probably terrible. Being terrible isn't the end of the world though, is it? Why do we feel compelled to do something that we don't even have confidence in? It really makes no sense. It's actually a privilege to …
Two days in and I'm sticking to my plan. I've taken two old stories and finished them up. Well, I say finished... Yesterday, I reworked my story on a typewriter. Last year, I came across this typewriter in a thrift shop on sale for $20. Twenty bucks! And the blooming thing works! (Maybe I've talked …
Today, I received this lovely deck of oracle cards. I received the book last year and actually met the artist. Next month, I hope to meet the author. So, the booklet included states, The words on the cards and in this booklet provide suggestions for interpretation, some purposefully contradictory, some mystic and ambiguous. In the …
Dear Llama, If you told stories, what stories would you tell? Would llamas write of teen angst, mid-life crises, or trips to other planets? Llamas in space? Llamas in love? The Llama, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Probably not the wardrobe. More like a barn door or a pasture gate. Actually, no. Why a manmade …
Oh Tarot. Here we are again. I know I have a project problem. But there are worse things. So, aside from the stories (and blog posts and newsletters and life stuff), I've long wanted to make my own Tarot cards. I've said this many times before--as some of you know. But this weekend more motivation …
Have you watched the documentary about Ursula K LeGuin? If you're a fan of her work, obviously you should. If you're a writer, you also should watch it. If you gain inspiration from learning about other creative people, then definitely go watch it. I'm currently reading her Hainish stories. Her world building takes my breath …
I went through files and files and files this last weekend in a crazed effort to organize my writing as if this will fix all my problems. Well, the problems remain, but I do now know that I have 124 short stories. Thank you, Story-a-Day! Or curse you as the case may be. The stories …
Look at all those pages. They contain time-travelers, demons, wayward teens, psychopaths, dragons, and other mad adventurers. They're all clamoring for their stories to be finished. I've made this commitment to them before and then been lured off the path by even more shiny tales of the heartbroken, the daring, and the wicked. So here …
Sometimes terrible news distracts me from my writing. I don't mean terrible news affecting me directly, but nightmares visited upon friends, acquaintances, or strangers. You might think that working so much with words meant you had just the right words for any situation. I don't find this to be the case. We have many stories …
Marta Bacon 