Short Fiction Blog

The January Short Story Contest on the Accentuate Writers Forum has been extended. The new deadline to have entries in by is Valentine’s Day.

If anybody out there was thinking of entering, but just didn’t have time, you are in luck! Get those creative juices flowing and whip a story up.

Here is the blog post about the extension. You can find a link there to the forum for more information.

All you authors out there really should enter the contest. We have fun encouraging each other and waiting with baited breath to hear the winners announced when it’s all over.

The prizes are nothing to sneeze at either! Go and check it out!

I have decided to dedicate this blog to my passion for fiction writing. I am into flash fiction and poetry at the moment. I love receiving feedback and comments on my stories and poems. Knowing what others think helps me grow as a writer. I can handle constructive criticism, but please don’t be nasty about it.

I hope it’s ok to change the direction of my blog. It’s still very much about my life, because writing has taken over every aspect of it! I write non-fiction articles to make an income, and fiction to feed my soul. I’m writing something or other all the time. Writing Is My Life!

I’m also sure there will be times when something else related to my life is thrown in the mix. Just to shake things up a bit, you know…he he.

I will be posting the first fiction piece tomorrow. I hope you enjoy my work!

Are you a writer? Are you a member of the Accentuate Writers Forum? If you answered yes to the first question, then you should have answered yes to the second. Michelle L. Devon (Michy) runs the Accentuate Writers Forum. She is a published author and editor. Michy believes in helping others succeed, especially writers.

The Accentuate Writers Forum offers invaluable information and friendship to authors in every phase of their career. It’s free to join so you have nothing to lose! Here are some things you can find on the forum:

• Paid writing leads that Michy has researched and knows are legitimate.
• Help with grammar and punctuation.
•  Contests
• Support from other authors
•  Writing prompts
• Start a story/finish a story
• Information about scams
• Critique and feedback

These are just a few of the things you’ll find on the forum. The best part is the support and friendship from other authors. It offers a safe place for authors to fine tune their craft. Michy and everyone else are very helpful and do everything in their power to help other authors achieve their writing goals.

Go check the forum out. You won’t be disappointed!

I wrote a story for a prompt the other day that got quite a few comments. We were all talking about the way people respect and treat each other. In the story the man would get very upset, sometimes to the point of violence, if anyone so much as looked at his girlfriend. Some of the comments were about why women would stay with a guy like that, and others were about women who actually like overprotective guys. It’s sad to say that both scenarios are true.

I am going to put the story here for y’all to read and then let me know what you think. Do you know anyone in a relationship like the one depicted? How would you recommend a woman get out of such a situation? Do you think women who want to be treated that way are crazy? (I personally do. They shouldn’t want a guy to fight over them, it’s just not right.)

Let me know your thoughts, please.

Forbidden

She walked into the room and every head turned. They all knew she was taken. Charlie made sure everyone know just who she belonged to. If he caught them looking there’d be hell to pay. But it was so hard not to stare at something that perfect.

Long legs and flowing blonde hair combined with a smile that could knock your socks off. What man could resist that? Charlie knew everyone looked. He just didn’t like seeing them when they did it. He sure liked it when they talked about how lucky he was though.

Too bad Johnny was new to town and didn’t know all this.Johnny almost fell off his bar stool when April walked into the room. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. When he saw her sit down, he got up and ambled over. You could have heard a pin drop when he pulled out a chair and sat down.

April was so shocked that she didn’t even think to stop him. She just sat gaping.

The next thing anybody knew, Johnny was flying across the floor and Charlie was screaming bloody murder. Johnny lay stunned for a few minutes, long enough for the second blow to land squarely upside his jaw. After this he realized he better get up and try to figure out what was going on.

“Wait a minute, fella,” he said as Charlie came in for another blow.

“What’s going on here?”

“You were messing with my woman is what’s going on here,” Charlie replied before kicking Johnny in the knee.

“Damnit, will you stop!” Johnny pleaded.

“Stop? I’ve just got started. Nobody messes with my woman and gets away with it. You think you can just waltz in and steal her away from me, don’t ya pretty boy? Well it ain’t gonna happen,” Charlie sneered.

“I wasn’t stealing anything. I was just going to talk to her. I didn’t know she belonged to anybody,” Johnny cried as he blocked the next blow.

“Well now you know. And so nobody else makes the mistake of thinking otherwise, I’m gonna make an example out of you.”

Charlie worked on Johnny for a good thirty minutes. By the time he was through the whole bar was a mess. He’d owe Chuck a pretty penny this time for sure. When he finally got too tired to fight any longer he sat down at the table with April.

Looking down at Johnny he said, “Do you understand now, son? You don’t go messing with another man’s woman. You should find out if the lady’s taken before you try to pick her up. I know my April’s something special, luscious and sweet. But this here is forbidden fruit, son. Nobody gets a taste but me.” 

I posted a story on my blog in response to the prompt from the Weekend Wordsmith. So far all the feedback has been positive. I love it when people actually like one of my stories! It’s also nice getting critiques that help me become a better writer. I got one of those for the story and made a few changes. Luckily, I hadn’t done too much wrong. I’m still learning, but I am getting better.Here’s the story in case any of you would like to read it and let me know what you think: 

Just one little drop, that’s all it would take to end my problems. It wouldn’t hurt much. Well, wouldn’t hurt me much anyway. I guess Harry would think differently. But after all the pain he’s put me though I don’t much care for his opinion.

He never cared when he hurt me. All the beatings…it’s a wonder I’m still alive. Not that I call this living. Stuck in this chair for the rest of my life. Oh how he enjoys the sympathy from friends! It makes my skin crawl when he talks about taking care of me. He takes care of me alright, every night. Takes care that I don’t scream too loud and wake the neighbors.

He should never have left the bottle sitting on the kitchen counter. He seems to think I can’t do anything in this chair, but I can. I reached the bottle for instance, and I’ve kept it hidden ever since. Just one little drop, and I’ll be free. Free to do what I’m not quite sure; but free from him, though, is the important thing. Maybe two little drops would be better.

Here he comes now, stomping up the stairs. Better get in the living room.

“What are you looking at, you little cripple?” he snarls as he walks in.

I know better than to say anything back. Don’t want the beatings to start too early.

“I guess you’ve been sitting here watching TV all day while I’ve been working. You’re useless,” he says as he’s pulling his work boots off, leaving his dirty, smelly socks lying on the floor.

“After I get me a beer and clean up, we’ll see if we can’t find a use for you,” he says with a smirk.

We’ll see about that, Harry. This time things are going to be different. I’m not taking any more of this crap. I’m tired of it. I’m just tired period.

“Damn that’s good,” he says after the first swig of beer.

“I won’t be long, and then we can have some fun,” he throws back on his way to the bathroom.

Just one little drop. Wonder how the beer will taste now. He is kinda big, better use two drops. There, all done. Just in time too, here he comes.

“What are you looking at?” he snarls. “After I finish this beer I’ll teach you some respect.”

“What the hell? What’s going on here? Argh…” he says grabbing his chest and falling to the floor. “What have you done, you little snot?”

This is very interesting. He’s actually twitching. I thought people only did that on TV. He’s turning blue too. I hope it will be over soon.

“Carmen, baby, call 911. You can’t let me die like this! You know I love you. I’m sorry. I won’t hurt you anymore. Please, baby, call someone!” he pleads.

“Sorry, Dad, remember I can’t reach the phone anymore. You wouldn’t lower it on the wall.”

Do any of you know any good writing prompt sites? I’m having fun with my new blog that I’m putting my writing on. I’m using writing prompts to work from. So far I’m using Weekend Wordsmith, Simply Snickers, 100 Words, and 1000 Word Meme. I like all of them, but would love to find some more.

Have you tried writing a poem or story from a writing prompt? It’s pretty cool. The prompts are either one or two words, a sentence or quote, or a picture. That’s all you get. You write whatever you want off of it. Some of the sites have guidelines, such as the 100 words site. You have to use exactly 100 words, no more, no less. It could be challenging. The 1000 word meme doesn’t have a limit. Its name is off of a picture being worth a thousand words.

If you haven’t tried writing from prompts you should have a go at it. It’s fun. If any of you use the one’s I’ve mentioned please let me know. I try to go back and read all the entries each week. If you’d like to see some of my writing you can find the blog in my links. It’s called Angel Sharum’s Story Board.

If you know of any good writing prompt sites please leave me a comment!

I am a freelance writer. I have a bio up on different sites, but I’m not completely happy with it. It just doesn’t have that special something that makes me love it, know what I mean?

Michelle L. Devon has a wonderful bio about her writing career and. If you don’t know Michelle, you should check her blog out, especially if you are thinking of a freelancing career. You can find a link to the blog in my blog roll. It’s called Freelancing. Anyway, I want a bio that sounds good like that.

The problem is, I can’t come up with anything. I have tweaked my bio so many times it isn’t funny, and it’s still lacking something. I know if I ever win any contests or get a short story published, I’ll have more credentials to add to the bio, but I should be able to make a good one with the accomplishments I have already.

I’m sure I’ll get it the way I like it one of these days. Here’s what I have so far. Please tell me what you think.

Angel Sharum is a freelance writer. She writes non-fiction articles on topics ranging from self-help to hiking, and fiction in the form of short stories. She loves sharing her views and opinions with others through her articles, and enjoys letting people into her imagination through her short stories.

There, that’s it. Something’s just not right! Any suggestions?

Are you addicted to blogging?

I was talking with a friend last night and she asked me how many blogs I have now. I looked, and I have 12 active blogs. I have one other one that still needs work before it goes live. All of them are about different things, with some overlap every now and then. It wasn’t long ago that I had no blogs. It’s certainly been a big change in my life.

I am enjoying doing all of them. I do wish I got more comments. I’m working on drawing more people to the blogs. Hopefully they’ll all pick up soon. I try to write interesting stuff, but my topics aren’t things that everyone is interested in. I have no money making or sex blogs for instance; just blogs about writing, my life, health, photography, and outdoor activities. Things I’m interested in myself that I know something about and can write on.

I guess if I really wanted to make money blogging I’d do some about the popular topics. But sometimes it seems there are so many of those around that people will eventually get tired of them. I don’t know, just my opinion.

So, how many blogs do you have? Do you keep them updated? I try to update my blogger blogs every few days, and I have been doing my today blogs every day. I have to do this in between my freelance writing and general life. It’s not easy all the time!

Blogging is fun though, so I’m sure I’ll keep it up for a while. My newest blog features some of my flash fiction, poetry, and a few cartoons with stories. I think I’m going to enjoy doing it the best!

If you have a favorite blog tell me about it so I can check it out!

Are you doing what you want with life? Something you really enjoy doing? Is your profession your dream job?

I am happy to say that I am living my dream. It’s a fairly recent thing, only for the last six months or so, but it’s been great so far.

You see, I always loved writing. I used to think up stories but never write them down because I didn’t think they’d be any good. I did write some of my poetry down and a few people liked it. But I wasn’t really doing anything as far as writing went. Then life stepped in.

We hit some bad times financially and I was fixing to have to go back to work at McDonald’s. I worked there for a year and every day was torture because of some health problems I have. I was not looking forward to going back. One day a friend of mine suggested I try writing articles for online publications. She’d been doing it for a few years and was making decent money. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but figured it was worth a shot.

Turns out I’m not that bad at it! I have been paid for writing articles. I couldn’t believe it at first, and still can’t sometimes. Someone actually liked my stuff good enough to pay real money for it. That was the beginning.

Then I joined the Accentuate Writers Forum and found out that people would actually read my stories too! I have a lot to learn still about dialog and grammar, but the stories aren’t too bad. This really made me happy!

I have now entered a few contests and I’m writing quite a few stories. It’s fun! I don’t know if I’ll ever make it big, but at least I’m getting to do something I love. There’s a lot to be said for that!

If you can find a way to incorporate a dream into your profession, go for it. You’ll never regret it!

I entered my second story in Xomba’s, spooky/scary/suspenseful contest. This is only the fourth story I’ve entered in a contest. I actually think I might be in the running for this one. There aren’t that many entries yet, and I believe mine has a good shot. I think my story is just as good as all the rest on there so far. If lots of really talented writers put stories up at the last minute, we’ll all be up the creek without a paddle.

I have found that I really enjoy writing flash fiction. Short stories are good too, but flash fiction appeals more to my writing style because I like getting the story out there and over with quickly. You still have to include good characters, a plot, and story elements in flash fiction. You just have to make the story very compact while still getting the point across. It is something of a challenge. I think that’s one of the reasons I like it so well.

I would be honored if some of you would read my stories and let me know what you think. You can find them by going to Xomba’s site and typing in Youth and Beauty, or Taking a Stand.  If you do read them please come back and let me know, or leave a comment there.

I’d like to know if the story felt complete. Did it make sense to you? I’d also love just general impressions about the writing.

Thanks to anyone who actually looks at the stories!