All posts by Phil

Fiction

Elemental Flash Fiction

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The Clarity of Night Contest, “Elemental,” has all the stories it’s going to get now, 102 in all. Styles, skill, and genres vary. Mine is #62, but here are my favorites of what I’ve read of the others.

There are other good ones too, so feel free to scan the list and bad mouth the authors here where they probably won’t read it. No, don’t do that. I’m shocked you would even think about it.

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Civility Online

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The Art of Manliness makes good points on “How to Be More Civil Online.” Brett & Kate write, “Being a gentleman online simply involves the application of common sense. But anyone who leaves their home each day knows how uncommon common sense can be.”

Creative Writing

Clarity of Night Contest Entry

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My short-short for The Clarity of Night contest, “Elemental,” has been posted. It’s called “Wilruf the Plunderer.” Feel free to comment either here or there. I’d love your feedback. Contest parameters and a list of entries are here.

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Writer Hashtags

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There are a number of hashtags for writers and book publishing fans on Twitter, and the Christian Science Monitor has a good list of them. A hashtag, btw, is a Twitter tag for the thoughts written there, e.g. #nowyouknow.

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Short Story Contest: "Elemental"

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Jason Evans is calling for 250-word stories inspired by an image. Deadline in a few days. Prizes are Amazon gift cards. Evans explains how he will judge.

I award up to 45 possible points for the following elements:

Pacing…10 points

Entertainment Value…10 points

Technical Use of Language…10 points

Storytelling…10 points

Voice…5 points

It’s a bit like Iron Chef without Alton Brown. There are already 30 entries.

Authors, Non-fiction

Discovering the Diary of Anne Frank

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Mike Williams has the story on how Judith Jones, who became a famous senior editor and vice president at Knopf, pulled the French translation of The Diary of a Young Girl off of the reject pile and urged her boss to send it to New York for consideration.

Creative Writing

Flash Fiction: Katie J.

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SMART KEYClouds bully the sun trying to rise over her head. Growling thunder leans heavy on the trees across the street. She walks to her car, ruminating on her mistakes until she doesn’t find her keys. Did she leave them in the car—on her desk? Did Jerry—take them? She’ll lose her job, if she loses her keys.

Like a black eye, the sun pierces through ugly clouds as she wilts.

“Dear Jesus—when does it end—what if I—help me. Help me.”

The keys lie in the grass behind her. She grabs them and stumbles to her car.

Authors

Shakespeare Wasn't Shakespeare As Such

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Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge has an interesting show on Shakespeare, modern poetry, and language here. Of note, Arthur Phillips talks about imitating Shakespeare by writing in a Shakespearean style. He says he didn’t think Shakespeare was thought to be the greatest English playwright during his lifetime or even many years afterward. He said he may have been thought to be about as good as another playwright whose work we’ve lost entirely.