Tag Archives: Dark Horizons

11th April – Editing Alt Hist and Looking for a market for Chivalry

Over half way through editing Alt Hist, which is coming together nicely at the moment. Had a two week hiatus because of work commitments that also affected work on Hell has its Demons, but should be back on track now.

I’m still looking for an outlet for my short story Chivalry, which I really think is one of my best yet. Wondering about Dark Horizons as a possible venue – no money, but I’ve heard its a really good publication, and it used to be edited by Stephen Theaker, who published my story Bird Talk in Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction. Worth a try I think!

Todays Plan: 1st December 2008

Great a Monday! I’m up early to do some writing. In the shower I remembered that I actually have a short story that is not working a market – i.e. I have had a rejection for it, but I haven’t sent it out anywhere yet. I had some very good and detailed feedback on it from Stephen Theaker at Dark Horizons, so I really should act on the feedback, see if I can make some edits and send it out. That will by my first priority today.

I also need to work on the development of the characters for my “War Veteran” story (this is the working title at the moment). I now have the historical background traced out enough for me to get into the meat of the story. I am sure I’ll need to go back and work out some elements further, but I have enough to be going on for now. First up I think I need to give names to all the main characters. I find that if I don’t do this I will end up writing some notes on the main character and have to refer to other characters he interacts with as person X, or The Wife, which although this is perfectly helpful, does dispel the aura of the story somewhat. As the writer, even I need to suspend disbelief, so filling in some of these details early really helps.

I have also synchronised files across my home PC and laptop.

I’m hoping to do a bit more now before work and then continue at lunchtime and then maybe this evening. Time is always a problem!