Short Fiction

When does an outlaw become a hero? When the law is written and upheld by those who serve themselves and not the people it is written for. In my Coffee with David blog, I discussed my exploration into the Space Western. This blog is dedicated to the first short story that I have been working on in that subgenre. I have the story idea and have begun to plot it. The only thing I am missing right now is the title. This is unusual for me as I normally come up with the title first and the story pours from that fountain.

Here is the rough story idea: Herne travels to a planet where a friend has settled after the Great War in a peaceful valley raising livestock and a family. Herne is in need of rest from his travels and he is on the run from bounty hunters from his own world—who are out to chase down the Voyageurs (a bread of renegade scouts/rangers). When he arrives at the town nearest his friend’s homestead, Herne can smell trouble. He finds the homestead raided and burned, his friend killed with his wife, their livestock gone, their children missing—perhaps wandering the wilderness on their own, if they managed to escape at all —and enough evidence to point to the warriors of the planet’s indigenous race being responsible for the slaughter. Herne realizes that what he sees is not a true picture and sets off to find his friend’s children and determined to make the real murderers face justice, even if that is a plasma bolt from his gun.

I plan to have this story ready for submission in the spring. If, as the concept looks large, it doesn’t work as a short story—it may turn into a novel.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the blogs, stories, poems, and articles I write.

Growing up as a writer—through the classes I took in high school and college, articles and books, I do not remember ever running across a truth about short fiction writing. In defense of all of those professors and the authors of those books and articles, the subject matter was short story writing and thus must have seemed obvious. After all, if the story is shorter, the plots are less cumbersome and the writing must be tighter than in a novel, it should have appeared to be obvious that the mindset of the author is also different.

I have spent most of my life writing long fiction, only writing short stories for classes during my student days. My mind develops complex (i.e. novel length) plots as second nature. Creating short story plots, keeping the framework so tight is difficult with a novelist mindset. I have wanted to take the story to a point that the style of fiction writing will not support. As a result, my short story writing has been stumbling along like a man who has left a bar after far too many drinks. Sometimes, as with the drunken man, I get lucky and bring the story home. More often, it is on the side of the road sleeping amongst the dumpsters.

As I have been exploring a new sub-genre (see my Coffee With David posting titled “An Argument for the Space Cowboy”) I have been pealing away at the layers of how to write short stories in that genre. The epiphany that should have come more than 20 years ago finally mounted the peak of my stubborn muse and raised a flag declaring “change your mindset.” A short story is a quick story. Get in, get out AND DON’T LOSE the quality of the story.

With this mindset change, I will be conquering new stories and rewriting unpublished ones—taking them to “I will not be a novel anonymous”—and hopefully have more success in this style of writing.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the blogs, stories, poems, and articles I write.

As the novel, The Guardians, begins to wind to a close on the first draft I start to look at the short fiction that is on my plate to write and rewrite. I have written before about many of the stories that need to be worked. I intend to write or rewrite four short stories before tackling the next draft of the other novel, Dark Medicine.

Why not just swing from novel to novel ? Two reasons come instantly to mind. One is to give the novels a break to become fresh for when I tackle them again. The other reason is to get some of my writing out the door and hope for publication credits. The other reasons that have not been expressed is it also allows me to explore the possible universes that novels may take place in or to write a piece that is not so overarching as a novel is required to be.

I will keep you up to date as I start those projects.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on blogs, poems and stories I write.

2009 had been an interesting year for me in and outside of my writing life. When the year began, I had thought that I would be able to produce a short story a month as well as work on a novel and produce other writing. Things got into the way of that accomplishment, but the stories I started or collected notes on have not died. One of these is the Dance of Death.

As a reminder to some and an introduction to others, Dance of Death is a modern fantasy of a young teenage boy who is faced with crime and the death of someone he loves. In his grief, he is given a present. The present doesn’t look like much, but what is inside . . .a guardian spirit that transforms the boy and his life. The Dance of Death is a story of a victim finding empowerment and a story of that victim coming face to face with the decision to wreck vengeance or control over his actions and emotions.
I had started work on this story, but it remained unfinished due to other obligations. Over the next several weeks, I will be returning to this story and hopefully soon have it either sent to a publisher or posted on my own site for you to read.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on blogs, stories , articles, and poems that I write.

This weekend I plan to have the Last Friend prepared for submission. But to submit to where? As one of my commenters (is that a real world) pointed out, there is still a market for short stories. The commenter posted one possible market. Other markets can be found by a lot of research on the web. This research can be hit and miss, but it does give the short story writer many options. Other resources are various groups on yahoo or on various social sites.

Other resources are the classical sources such as The Writers Digest Magazine, The Writer Magazine, Poet and Writer Magazine and other similar magazines, including those that are genre specific. Many of these magazines also have access to a database of markets with their subscription. On top of this is the writers’ submission bible known as The Writers Market.

It is to these sources that I am turning as I prepare some final drafts…should they not publish out there, then on here for you.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the stories and blogs I write.