Flash Fiction: Better Left Unfound

Better Left Unfound

After four days the snow thawed, and Barry finally found Whiskers.

With his head caved in and paws singed to blackened stubs, Barry felt that it might have been better if Whiskers had stayed missing.

4 More Ways That Knitting Is Like Writing

bc obviously u didn't get enough the first time

1.  Surprise patterns

If you’re knitting with multiple colors, there will probably come a time where you mess up (it’s difficult to juggle multiple strings without a mistake or two), and sometimes it takes a while for you to figure it out.  Sometimes that results in surprise patterns, which can be surprisingly beautiful and make you decide to change the direction of your current project, or can be horrifyingly ugly and make you want to burn everything everywhere forever.

Writing a book is the same; in the course of writing your story, you’ll find things happening that you didn’t expect.  New plot complications will arrive, new side stories will unravel, new characters will reveal themselves from betwixt the luminous petaled asscheeks of a flower man; sometimes these little things will add up to make great new structures within your novel that you never expected and cherish all the more for it!  Other times it’ll take you down the windy road to tangent city, and you’ll need to take a bulldozer to the mountain pass.  

2.  You usually want a tight knit, sometimes tighter than others

When you knit a blanket or scarf or what-have-you, you want the knit to be tight, to keep the water or snow or just general elements out, to keep body-heat in, and to keep the thing from falling apart.  Sometimes the knit needs to be tighter than others, depending on what you’re making and for what kind of weather it was made for.  You wouldn’t want to be caught in a snowstorm with a summer t-shirt!  

Likewise, the weave of your story needs to be tight, to prevent plot from spilling out or characters being inappropriately exposed.  When you read a story, the flow should appear seamless, as if every last word is inextricable, and to remove a single one would be like removing a keystone from a jenga tower.  

Sometimes, depending on your genre and tone, the knit can be a little more breathable than others--to pull from television, no one asks why Bugs Bunny can pull a carrot from nowhere, or how Brian Griffin could possibly have a human son older than he is, because it’s just accepted that that’s how that world works; once the structure is set up, you can safely function within those parameters.

You also need to beware of going too tight, leaving yourself no leeway with which to make the next stitch.  You need to leave yourself room to breathe, or you’ll inevitably reach an impasse and have to go back.

3.  Pattern or no--everyone has a way to get the job done

Some people can only work with a pattern; some people absolutely CANNOT work with a pattern; and some people bounce between the two, or go half-and-half.  

But whether you start out with an outline, or just go by the seat of your pants, in knitting or writing, all that matters is that you get it done.  Whatever gets you there best, that’s the way you take the journey.  

4.  It may turn into something else, and that’s okay

Sometimes a scarf becomes a shirt; sometimes a dress becomes a blanket, or a blanket becomes a snuggie.

Sometimes you start out with a novel, and end up with a screenplay, or a podcast, or a musical, or a webcomic, or an experimental new artform that can’t quite be described.  

And that’s fine.  No, in fact, it’s better than fine, it’s GREAT!  Some of the best plot twists and turns come about organically, or else blindside you while you’re taking a nap, the same way that some of the best patterns you develop in your knitting could be the result of a screw-up; the failure of one project can be the success of another.

Follow new leads; let them take you where they want, and don’t be afraid to explore alternative routes.  Sometimes you need to take the mega super highway, but other times the scenic backroute, while longer, is just better.  Even if you do fall into a couple bear traps on the way.

Story or tapestry, you’ll be happy you took the risk.

The Rajaqweet: Up and Kicking!

     As of last week, as promised, The Rajaqweet is up!  


















A proper banner will be crafted as soon as I can get to it, but in the meantime there's this.  As mentioned before, The Rajaqweet is a thrice-weekly-updating webcomic about immortal universe-hopping aliens, the species they've conquered, and what happens when those species revolt.
     The greater comic that is The Rajaqweet is composed of the three following arcs:

Hail To The Noose:  Updating Mondays, Hail To The Noose follows a Rajaqweet enforcer of the law of His Badass Glorification as she seeks to bring order to an unruly newly-conquered planet called Ceril, and to dispose of any traitorous scum she might come across while there.

Hiding Heinrik:  Updating Wednesdays, Hiding Heinrik is about Mav, Mave, Desna, Fera, and X, a bunch of queer kids (where 'kids' is a relative term, seeing as they're all in their twenties) who somehow find themselves harboring an alien refugee from both shady government agencies and the Rajaqweet  he was running from to begin with.  Hijinks ensue.

Shithouse Maggots:  Updating Fridays, Shithouse Maggots begins with Sklor, a Rajaqweet Conqueror, being put on a new assignment a little earlier than she expected, much to her distaste.  It's a crummy little planet called Earth, and it shouldn't take too long to grind it beneath her heel--except that her Enabler is the worst in the world, and he's making her infiltrate the planet from the ground up.  Oh yeah, and those little tiny humans, the ones that are squishy and don't have all their teeth yet?  She now has two.
     Thanks Fearlobe.

The Rajaqweet can be found on both Tumblr and on Tapastic.

Bloody, Bold, Irresolute: Late, But Live!

     Due to some unforeseen technical errors (namely, the internet connection in V101 is the absolute worst), I was unable to post the first episode of Bloody, Bold, Irresolute last night, as I had promised.
     The good news is, it's up now!
     You can listen to it on soundcloud for now, and it will soon also be available on the Bloody, Bold, Irresolute Tumblr.
     In case you missed it, this was the summary for the Bloody, Bold, Irresolute podcast:


​     Wintergreen is legally dead.  And illegally living in what used to be a carpet warehouse within what is now Eastern Deserted Daylark with her best friend and caretaker, Aiden, and the many Droids she's built over the years.  She's a Scorpio; an albino; a genius with technology that's out of this world.
     And she's also the first superhero the world has thus far seen.
     Taking to the crime-infested streets of Daylark, New York, Wintergreen spends her days kicking ass, inventing, maintaining those inventions, and attempting to unravel time and space itself with whatever meager (and subpar) materials she can scrounge up from the nearest dump.  For the time being, she's perfectly content to be Daylark's dirty little secret; it's easier to stay dead that way.  Sure, everyone in Daylark recognizes her, knows what she does, but the people of Daylark also don't ask many questions concerning the past.
     But then enters The Labrynth (who refuses to allow his name to be spelled any other way):  He's also legally dead, but unlike Wintergreen, isn't content to blend into the background of a ramshackle town for the rest of his days on Earth.  Aided by Hydra, his tigress companion, The Labrynth has big plans to lay the world at their feet and polish it until it shines--plans which happen to involve a lot of stealing and murder and, well, what the people of the twenty-first century would have called "terrorism."  
     When he makes his debut in Daylark, Wintergreen is, of course, thrilled at the prospect of a challenge, and the two quickly strike up a bitter rivalry.  
     But with the challenge comes a level of public recognition Wintergreen had neither wanted nor planned for, and with that, a slew of villains and heroes she never could have anticipated, none of whom even comes close to usurping her in the public's eye--you never forget your first, after all.  
     Will Wintergreen ever be able to fade back into the anonymity she prefers?  Will she be able to kill The Labrynth before he kills her?  And who is this "Delude" figure that's the new talk of the criminal underground?  
     Aiden, at least, hopes that Wintergreen will be around long enough to find out.

5 Reasons Your Story Isn't Working

     Sometimes a story just doesn't work.  You're typing along, lalala, story story story, and then suddenly, BAM you hit a wall!  Then it's goodbye story, hell-llo writer's block!
     The first step in getting your story back on track is to figure out why you're stuck.  Here are five reasons you may be having difficulties.

1.  You've lost your passion

     Sometimes the spark just goes away.  You lose interest in whatever gave you the idea for this story in the first place, you realize you don't really want to work with these characters anymore, you start to hate the genre it's in--whatever the reason, you lose the will to keep pushing forward.  When you just plain lose interest, it's hard to reignite it.  You could try reacquainting yourself with your story, reworking the plot, throwing in new characters--or you could put it away for a while and see if it calls out to you again later on.  It may have potential, but maybe your gut is trying to tell you something.

2.  You're using the wrong medium

     Some books are made for a Word document, some for pencil and paper, and some for carving into the cliffside with a rusty spoon.
     Different mediums create different actions, different motions, different moods, all of which affect the way you think about your story.  A slow-paced urban fantasy written in heavy dialect might call for longhand, but a fast-paced passionate science fiction tale might need to be hammered into a keyboard.  Try experimenting with different mediums and see if there's something that clicks.

3.  You're using the wrong narrator

     Your narrator should be in the best position to tell the story--they need not necessarily be the coolest character, the most powerful character, the character who ultimately wins, or even a character at all, but they do need to be in the best place to describe the happenings of tale, which means that if they are a character, they need to be in the thick of the action, or in a position to see the story as it needs to be relayed.  If your narrator is off in the background of the story you really want to tell, you should consider either bringing them closer to the action, or making another character the narrator.
     At the same time, if you need to hold certain information outside of the audience's reach, you need to put the story in the hands of a narrator who will either not know this, or have a good reason for keeping it out of the narrative.

4.  You don't yet have the tools or skills you need

      Sometimes there are more complicated maneuvers that a story necessitates which we don't yet have the experience or finesse to pull off, and that inexperience can drag at the story, sometimes causing the tires to blow or bouncing up to break the windshield.  You might be able to get yourself to the point you need to reach through simply pushing yourself through this story, researching what you need to and putting yourself through writing exercises, but sometimes you need to stop, put this manuscript aside, and let it stew while you build your skill level.

5.  You're not telling the right story

     Sometimes there's a really amazing story embedded in a manuscript--"this galactic war is so fascinating," the reader says, "so why are we spending only three pages looking into it while eight hundred are wasted on a forced and cliched romance?"
     If your story doesn't seem to be working, look it over again.  Is there something more interesting, more enthralling happening behind the scenes?  Does some of your world's history or a character's backstory jump out at you as a better read?  Maybe you need to expand upon that, instead.
     Or maybe there's a completely different story out there, waiting for you to come and claim it.

Short Story: One Wish Left

    You turned sixteen yesterday. Your father gave you those new boots you wanted, your mother got you a car, and your favorite uncle sent a dusty old lamp. Dissappointed at first, you had rubbed away the grime before school only to find a genie living within.

     It was the best birthday present ever.

     You've used up two wishes already--one was used ridding you of your allergies, the other to grant you all the wealth you could ever need. Unlike in the movies, there have been no adverse side-effects. No consequences.  Just joy.

     You're on your way to true happiness.

     "One more wish," the genie reminds you, and there's only one more thing you want.

     You close your eyes and bow your head.

     "I wish I was beautiful," you whisper.

     "So it is done," the genie promises with the clap of his hands. There's a chill gust of wind and the lights go out in the bathroom. You stand there in silent darkness for a long time before finally opening your eyes and turning your face upward to the mirror.

     You blink. Reach up and touch your face. Blink again. You can't believe it. You're on the verge of tears.

     You had wished that you were beautiful; the genie had said was done.

     And not a single thing has changed.