Bite-Sized Pieces
Below are a few fragments -- appetizers if you will -- of longer pieces that have appeared in previous publications, or just ones I've been hoarding until the right venue comes along.
Spark Originally published in Lorelei Signal e-zine, Jan-Mar issue, 2012.
I don’t have long – I can feel it. Ten years is too many to hope for. One year? Surely more than that.
‘Long’ is relative, I suppose. But I know I’m looking back at more than I can look forward to. What’s more worrying is that some days I can’t seem to care.
I can feel it, though, in the dull weight of my limbs and the aching of my joints. I can feel myself slowing. Mind, body, reaction, emotion – all of it sloughing off, dragging behind me like tangled, tired iron chain.
My colleagues haven’t noticed. They think I’ll live forever.
Sounds like a nice day chasing wrong-doers is just what somebody needs... read the rest here.
Genre-alizations Originally appeared online in Word: Canada's Magazine for Readers + Writers, September 2006.
As so often happens, the epiphany came while I was standing in a very long line.
On a hot day last summer, I was one of a hundreds of people waiting to get into Toronto's Comic, Science Fiction, Horror, Anime and Gaming Expo. A tourist family turned a corner, gaped at us, asked what the line was for, then hustled their children away. I realized it that it was a real-life illustration of the genre writers' dilemma. Call it the flee the strange people response.
It's the costumes. It's always the costumes.
That day in Toronto, costumes were everywhere: faux fur and foam rubber as far as the eye could see. Star Wars next to Sailor Moon beside Goth zombies and Trekkers. The writers' predicament isn't quite as conspicuous. Whether we call our field science fiction or fantasy, sf/f, speculative fiction or any of the other labels that have emerged in recent years, it's a tough market. There are several reasons for this, and they tangle together into formidable stumbling blocks for writers, particularly for those just beginning their careers.
I'm pleased to report that I wouldn't write this same article now... to read the full original, click here.
Nature Red Award-winner, from Dark Recesses e-zine, January 2006.
“This will hurt a little.”
Under the bright light, a row of teeth gleamed. The needle slid easily between them.
“Try not to move, and it’ll all be over soon. The last one freaked out, flailed all over the place like a, I don’t know, an epileptic octopus. She caught me just here, look, broke the skin and everything. That was not a good day, let me tell you. But you’re quiet enough. Hardly a peep out of you, is there? Just a little mouse. The last one shrieked like a banshee, thought she’d wake the dead. Isn’t that what a banshee does? Or is it warn the dead? Not the dead, but the people who are going to be dead. Doesn’t matter. Obviously it didn’t work.” To read the rest, click here.
Spark Originally published in Lorelei Signal e-zine, Jan-Mar issue, 2012.
I don’t have long – I can feel it. Ten years is too many to hope for. One year? Surely more than that.
‘Long’ is relative, I suppose. But I know I’m looking back at more than I can look forward to. What’s more worrying is that some days I can’t seem to care.
I can feel it, though, in the dull weight of my limbs and the aching of my joints. I can feel myself slowing. Mind, body, reaction, emotion – all of it sloughing off, dragging behind me like tangled, tired iron chain.
My colleagues haven’t noticed. They think I’ll live forever.
Sounds like a nice day chasing wrong-doers is just what somebody needs... read the rest here.
Genre-alizations Originally appeared online in Word: Canada's Magazine for Readers + Writers, September 2006.
As so often happens, the epiphany came while I was standing in a very long line.
On a hot day last summer, I was one of a hundreds of people waiting to get into Toronto's Comic, Science Fiction, Horror, Anime and Gaming Expo. A tourist family turned a corner, gaped at us, asked what the line was for, then hustled their children away. I realized it that it was a real-life illustration of the genre writers' dilemma. Call it the flee the strange people response.
It's the costumes. It's always the costumes.
That day in Toronto, costumes were everywhere: faux fur and foam rubber as far as the eye could see. Star Wars next to Sailor Moon beside Goth zombies and Trekkers. The writers' predicament isn't quite as conspicuous. Whether we call our field science fiction or fantasy, sf/f, speculative fiction or any of the other labels that have emerged in recent years, it's a tough market. There are several reasons for this, and they tangle together into formidable stumbling blocks for writers, particularly for those just beginning their careers.
I'm pleased to report that I wouldn't write this same article now... to read the full original, click here.
Nature Red Award-winner, from Dark Recesses e-zine, January 2006.
“This will hurt a little.”
Under the bright light, a row of teeth gleamed. The needle slid easily between them.
“Try not to move, and it’ll all be over soon. The last one freaked out, flailed all over the place like a, I don’t know, an epileptic octopus. She caught me just here, look, broke the skin and everything. That was not a good day, let me tell you. But you’re quiet enough. Hardly a peep out of you, is there? Just a little mouse. The last one shrieked like a banshee, thought she’d wake the dead. Isn’t that what a banshee does? Or is it warn the dead? Not the dead, but the people who are going to be dead. Doesn’t matter. Obviously it didn’t work.” To read the rest, click here.
