short story meme

[swan_tower]

You know what? I think my short-story-producing brain needs a kick in the rump. So I'm going to meme for the first time in a while, with something I picked up by way of yhlee and mrissa.

Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got submitted to magazines, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

(Incorporated Mris' edit -- the original phrasing had to do with "posting" stories, because it seems to have started among fanficcers. Also, as per Mris, I make no promises that these won't turn into real stories. In fact, I'm kind of hoping they will.)

Comments

[srallen.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite of your short stories was "While You Were Out". I mean, I'm fairly jaded when it comes to "modern" fantasy (too much de Lint when I was younger, I guess) but this was a breath of fresh air to me, and so familiar. Merging the fantastic with a temp job without being too clever or heavy-handed? Brilliant! It was obviously self-contained but it really left me wanting more.

[janni.livejournal.com]

That one about the elves from way back when, from way before you were writing novels with the fae ... I know you've said you think of it as juvenalia and not up to the standards of your later work, and so you never even gave it a title, let alone submitted it ... but I always was secretly fond of the snippets you posted online, and I suspect I wasn't alone in this.

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

I must say, The Turn of the Card had me mesmerized. The whole meta line - is this a real game of solitaire or did she decide the story and then determine which cards would come up in the stacks - distracted me the first time I read it. The second and third times, I was able to get away from that, mostly because of the hot romance between the Queen of Diamonds and the Jack of Clubs.

[kleenestar.livejournal.com]

My favorite was "Stewart and Love." I really liked the way you handled the magical elements of the story - on the cusp between the mundane and the miraculous, without ever feeling like you had to over-explain. It's one of the few longer pieces that I felt drew a lot from the poetic elements of your flash fiction, which was pretty cool too.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

"What Lies Underneath" - it was to do with Faery, but not your Onyx Court set-up, something quite different, and quite dark, all about choices and dealing with the fallout of same, and you're so GOOD at that...

(And I am going to steal this meme...)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"The Octopus Tenors" made me laugh and laugh.

[scribblemyname]

I fell head over heels in love with "In the Hand of the Goddess." It was such an enthralling read to discover how someone so human could have to deal with such vastly important decisions for her people at such a young age because of the powers she inherited through faery blood. A truly fascinating read.

[zunger.livejournal.com]

I was always fond of "Lord Wensley's Cudgel." The contrast between Lord Wensley's inner crudeness and violence, and the seeming refinement of his outward behavior and the behavior of everyone in the court, really brought out how deadly a thing 17th-century politics could be. He makes for a good antihero.

And of course, there's something lovely about watching a pompous fae making all his social intrigues and schemes, and suddenly realizing that they could all be brought to a halt with a simple blow to the head. Really, more fae politickers ought to end up that way. :)

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I liked "Tulipifera" first because of my Plant A&P class, but also because it kind of tied into the metabook where I read the research entries and sort of know you and that's cool. On a story level, dude, just look at it. Tulip smugglers! In space!

(wait a second I might have to write this now)