Posted by Nicky Drayden on Feb 20, 2010 in
Announcements My short story “With Good Intentions” (first published in Necrotic Tissue) will be one of four stories to be anthologized and adapted into a play by internationally award winning playwright Roy C. Booth.
From Roy’s Blog:
Stygian Publications will be publishing a collection/anthology of four previously published horror/comedy short stories from their flagship publication, NECROTIC TISSUE, all to be adapted into play script form by yours truly.
Adapted works will include riveting tales by poet/novelist Steve Barber of Ann Arbor, MI; short story writer Eric R. Lowther of “Northeastern Ohio;” writer Nicky Drayden of Austin, TX; and a piece by Justin Pilon, a Canadian ESL teacher in Tainan City, Taiwan, and, as always, various media productions for certain scripts are already under discussion. Scripts will run in size from 10-Minute to possibly Full Length.
No set release date, but we’re shooting for the book launching to take place at either Convergence, Diversicon, or Arcana, where we also plan to do a short production of one of the plays in question. The plays will then be immediately available for royalty performance as well.
Pretty exciting! Congrats to my anthology mates as well.
Posted by Nicky Drayden on Feb 3, 2010 in
Announcements Now that I’ve got a month of blogging under my belt, I think I’m ready to cut into the meat (or meat substitute, if you like) of storytelling. This month that focus will be on how to snag readers, including slush readers, from the beginning of the story. I plan to delve into the opening paragraphs and the initial setup of each story, with attention to establishing characterization, setting, genre, and tone.
But don’t think I’m trying to get off easily this month by just reading the first thousand words of each story and letting the middle and end fall by the wayside. I’ll be addressing how the beginning meshes with the rest of the story, too. After all, you can’t really get an appreciation for how a leg works by slicing it off the rest of the body.
Enough talk.
Let’s get February started.
Posted by Nicky Drayden on Jan 7, 2010 in
Announcements I’m a novelist at heart. I’m not going to lie. But after a few years of dabbling in short stories, I think I’m finally starting to understand what makes them work. Now I’m ready to take my craft to the next level, which means a lot of reading and writing. So here I go, declaring before the world that for the year 2010, I’ll commit to writing 100,000 words worth of short stories, and getting them out to market as soon as possible.
I’ll also be reviewing 100 published short stories and reporting on why they work. Hopefully this will provide a bit of insight into what editors are looking for, as well as give me a chance to get to know the markets I want to pester, I mean submit to.
Seems like a good challenge and a way to keep sane in what promises to be a year of heavy novel editing. Wish me luck!
