twcrone

Last year, I let my career slip a little as I focused on writing. Now, as I consider things, I’ve decided to put my job back in front of things and spend less time writing.

I’ve enjoyed software development in the past and I have another decade before I can likely retire, so time to skill up and focus back on what pays the bills and treat writing as a hobby. It really is just that. It will never pay the bills and the feedback I am getting, tells me that I have a ways to go before anyone of significance witll publish my work.

That said, I was accepted for a flash piece this morning by the “Academy of the Heart and Mind.” This is a nice online publication that is friendly to new writers. They accepted a small story I really liked, “Is Anyone Out There?”

Recently discovered BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/twcrone.bsky.social and LinkTree https://linktr.ee/twcrone.

https://www.scifishorts.co/authors/t-w-crone

This is not for general posting, but another one of my flash pieces just got posted to “Horror Sleaze Trash.” Don’t share indiscriminately. It’s a bit…well, trashy. https://horrorsleazetrash.com/2024/11/02/t-w-crone/

A year and half of writing classes and over 250k written words, I finally got someone to publish < 1000 word story I wrote.

https://ift.tt/Gh0cDUm

Wrapping up September with CDF, we finished Bird Box and turned in our first short stories of the class. I ended up revising “Frick” and felt pretty good about it, but after reading two of the other student stories, I realized I was outclassed.

Which is a good thing, I suppose, but a little intimidating. My instructor, Richard Thomas, has a book just published that appears to be doing well and got a nice nod from some important magazine I don’t read. I bought it and read the prologue, and really liked it

Well, I just deleted a bunch of small comments I made about a new way to label the genre as “Literary Xxx.” My short answer is that it’s a way to say the author got an MFA. The long answer is way more petty.

Regardless, it is good for me because I enjoy a wide variety of stuff. Most wouldn’t be labeled as “literary.” That is not how people talk or tell stories in real life, but what do I know.

I’m four weeks into Richard Thomas’s “Contemporary Dark Fiction” class that will take me to the end of the year. The first couple weeks were rough but this week has been great. I feel like we are hitting our stride and the short story this week is the best we have read yet IMO. It’s honest. Too much of the “literary” stuff is trying too hard to be meaningful and artificial.

I’ve rewritten one of my first short stories, “Frick,” and feel good about it moving forward. My favorite Redbud teacher has looked at “Nan” and I’m editing it to submit at the end of October.

Good times. Good reading. Good writes.

I’m starting Richard Thomas’s “Contemporary Dark Fiction” class next week and read his LitReactor essay on “Setting” this morning. Excellent stuff! I’m already feeling good vibes about this journey. I like that it talks about using broad strokes with some specific details. I probably lean to the left and don’t provide enough solid information to latch onto.

The next four months are going to be crazy. I’m so excited!

I finished Maeve Fly by CJ Leede, and it was beautiful. The main character is a very regular, edgy gal that ends up losing her shit and starts murdering people.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/maeve-fly/37375215/#isbn=1250857856