And that neatly segues to my reason for posting today. I was very honoured when Angel McCoy, the power behind Wily Writers, asked me to guest edit a themed month for their podcast. The theme of my month was Post-Apocalypse/Dystopia. I read a lot of really good stories and it was hard to pick the two winners. I’ll blog a bit later on about the process of reading, judging and editing for that, and my thoughts on the subject. Hopefully it’ll help both myself and other readers here when we submit our own fiction to any publication.

In the meantime, I did select two winning stories. I wanted strong stories, with good ideas, powerful characters and a tangible sense of place. But I also wanted two stories very different from each other, to explore the theme as fully as possible.

The first story is up now:

Bloodstone by R.B. Payne

Even horror writer J.P. Bloodstone is unprepared for the actual end of the world. Stranded in Beverly Hills, he discovers something far worse than decomposing zombies, vampiric aliens, or infected mutant motorcycle-riding killers.

As I wrote on the Wily Writers site about this story:

I really like the voice of “Bloodstone.” It evokes all kinds of classic writerly angst, like the misanthropic Hunter S. Thompson. Imagine someone like that on their own in a post-apocalyptic world, and you’ve got the start of this story. Couple that with a classic bit of writer/reviewer animosity, and the bones of the story are in place.

This piece is well written with a strong character and an excellent description of the post-apocalyptic world. It also cleverly uses the character to explore possible reactions to an apocalypse, while the reality in this case is a lot less exciting. There’s humour here as well, in the character and the situation.

All Wily Writers stories are published on the site in text as well as podcast, so whatever your preferred format, the option is there. Bloodstone is a great story, read by the excellent Philip Pickard (who also did a great job reading Declan’s Plan for me).

Find the story here.

I’ll post about this again when the other winning story goes up, then I’ll post about the process of judging and editing after that.

And thanks again to Angel McCoy for inviting me to be a part of this. As a writer, it was fun to be on the other side of the fence for a change.

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“It was a dark and stormy night;”

Yep. You know him. But did you know just how bad he was? Here’s the rest of that line, from Paul Clifford (1830):

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

Holy crap.

It’s writing like that which gave rise to the contest. During his studies Professor Scott Rice of the English Department at San Jose State University unearthed the source of that famous line, “It was a dark and stormy night”, as being the opening of the Edward George Bulwer-Lytton novel, Paul Clifford. And it is a very famous line. After all, Snoopy uses it all the time and that Beagle knows his shit.

For all his hideous writing skills, Lytton coined some phrases we all know well. Among them “the pen is mightier than the sword”, “the great unwashed”, and “the almighty dollar”. He’s had an impact, has Bulwer-Lytton.

So Professor Rice, with the help of San Jose State University, has, since 1982, put together the contest which seeks the worst opening lines to the worst of all novels. You can learn all about the contest here: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

Meanwhile, the 2011 results are in. The winner this year is the shortest entry to ever win the contest. It comes from Sue Fondrie of Oshkosh, WI. (Yeah, I thought that was a children’s clothing line for people with more money than sense, but apparently it’s a place too.) Here’s the winning line:

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

Top work, Sue. Congratulations.

Rodney Reed of Ooltewah, TN takes out the runner-up prize with this one:

As I stood among the ransacked ruin that had been my home, surveying the aftermath of the senseless horrors and atrocities that had been perpetrated on my family and everything I hold dear, I swore to myself that no matter where I had to go, no matter what I had to do or endure, I would find the man who did this . . . and when I did, when I did, oh, there would be words.

There are other winners in several categories (Adventure, Crime, Sci-Fi, Vile Puns, etc.) and they’re all listed on the contest site here. Go and have a read. They’re hilarious.

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So if you’re interested in reading a fantastic tome packed with 33 stories about vampires in Australia, it’s as easy as this: Leave me a comment, telling me something interesting about vampires, and the one I find the most interesting by the end of the week will win the book. Hint: your interesting “facts” about vampires don’t have to be true. They can be, but I’m open to anything, so get commenting.

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A lot of these stories are really short, flash fiction pieces capturing a vibe or an event and searing a single scene onto the reader’s brain with uncomfortable clarity. Some of the tales are longer, exploring all manner of things from Creation to madness.

Newman writes with a tight turn of phrase, many a well placed word and an eye for place and setting that makes all these tales of urban unease extremely convincing. She inhabits her characters, their distinctive personalities entrancing. Newman explores the speculative with ease; gods, demons and angels inhabit these pages as much at home as the cheating spouses, spurned lovers and ugly, foul-mouthed orphans.

Some of the stories have a bit of fun to them, some a touch of the absurd or the surreal, all an edge of darkness that plays nicely with our boundaries of comfort.

Emma Newman is a powerful emerging voice in dark fiction and From Dark Places is an excellent selection of her work. I’ll be watching out for more of her stuff. You should too.

You can get a signed copy of the book directly from Emma at her website here. Or you can order from Amazon here. Follow Emma on Twitter at @EmApocalyptic.

But before you do that, I’ve got a copy to give away to one lucky reader. Leave a comment with your idea of a dark place. The one that creeps me out the most gets the book.

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Reading through all the entries was good fun and it was tough to pick winners. But I had to, so I did. Bear in mind that these winners are purely based on my own taste. I refer you to the tagline of this blog, under The Word in the header image above. When judging the entries I was mainly looking for a few key things:

* A exciting, rapid pace, giving a good, visceral sense of the fight;

* Not too much clinical detail, slowing down the action;

* A strong sense of character and place.

I said there would be three winners and I’d publish them here, so here we go. Second and third place each score a free copy of Write The Fight Right in whatever format they prefer. First place gets that and a signed copy of RealmShift.

I’ll list the winners in reverse order, with their fight scene followed by a few words about why I picked it.

In 3rd place, there’s this piece by Alex Stoiche:

Steve bumped past the man, taking his wallet at the point of impact. He raised his hand over his shoulder in apology and continued to walk. He heard the man’s footsteps stop, then break into a run. Steve sighed and shifted his weight to push hard off his right foot. His shoe slipped on the damp cobblestone, sending his body flying forward. He hadn’t fallen. The man was holding him upright by the neck of his jacket.

Steve spun around, throwing his left arm over the man’s extended arm. Using his momentum, he swung his right arm into the ribs of his captor. He felt a satisfying crunch as his punch hit home. The man’s body twisted in pain. Still controlling the man’s left arm, Steve threw another punch at his exposed side. The man roared in pain as his ribs fractured. Steve sneered as he shoved the man away.

The man’s breathing came in short, pained bursts. Steve snickered. He stood just outside arm’s reach of his victim, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Steve threw a punch to his victim’s rib. The man threw his arms out to cover his injury. Grinning, Steve jabbed to the man’s unprotected face. He bounced again. He threw another body punch, only to sting the man again. The man’s eyes started to tear up as the throbbing sensation in his face increased. Steve faked again, the man threw a half-hearted block. He feigned a jab and the man quickly lifted both arms to block. Steve hissed a laugh. He swung his right hand in a vicious hooking punch to the man’s unguarded ribs. Steve took delight in the man’s agonised scream. His opponent doubled over in pain.

Steve stretched his arms high. The man snorted the air from his nose. Steve saw a dark blur speeding towards him as the man’s backhand strike slammed into his jaw. His felt his head twist sharply, his body went numb. His vision blurred as he staggered backward. The man stood up straight and started walking towards him. Steve desperately fought the urge to close his eyes. Through his distorted perception he could make out the man getting closer. A blinding light flashed in Steve’s eyes. It faded, only to be replaced by a crimson haze. The red tinged alley slowly twisted and warped around him. He fell to the ground, unable to maintain equilibrium.

Steve felt himself being pulled to his feet, his body limp and lifeless. He felt the air rush past him. Pain stabbed through his mind as the back of his skull cracked against the wall. His body slumped to the ground, leaving a slick blood trail down the brickwork. The man lifted his front leg, curling back his boot to expose the heel.

He drove his boot into Steve’s face, crushing his skull against the wall behind him.

He wiped his boots on the dead man’s pants.

The man looked around. He picked up his wallet and left the alley.

What I liked about this piece was firstly the decent description of the fight itself, with enough detail to know what’s happening without the thing being slowed down by description. The pickpocket playing with his victim is well done. The PoV is a bit clumsy and the piece could have been written with a clearer third person perspective in play, but that’s a small gripe. The thing I like best, however, is the realism and the sudden turnaround. The pickpocket is over-confident and showy and he pays a dear price for it. This is a good lesson in fighting.

In 2nd place, there’s this piece by Jason Fischer. Jason is a friend of mine, so there might be cries of nepotism here, but so what? It’s my contest, I’ll pick who I like.

(from A Blind Pig for the Juggler-King)

‘We’re done talking,’ Raoul growled, snatching at the Juggler-King’s ruffled collar. Almost quicker than sight, the sorcerer darted out of his reach, but not before giving the minotaur a stout rap across the nose.

Enraged, Raoul swung his fists, his limbs unfolding so fast that they created miniature sonic booms, the glasses on the tables shaking, light bulbs rattling overhead in their fixtures. His foe narrowly avoided this onslaught, but turned his exertions into a comical dance, a tango complete with the rose that he suddenly clenched between his teeth.

‘You dance beautifully, little bull,’ he said, bowing and narrowly ducking a supersonic haymaker. ‘Still, I prefer if I lead.’

Hand darting forward, the Juggler-King caught a corner of Raoul’s skin, pulled it taut between thumb and forefinger. Opening his mouth, a split second cacophony resembling church bells and breaking pottery emerged, a word of power no mortal could hope to emulate. The disguise melted and came away in the Juggler-King’s hand, a furious minotaur emerging from the tear in the skin. With a whipping motion the sorceror flicked the deflated man-shape away, held it in a matador pose as if it were a cape.

‘Toro!’ he cried, flicking the saggy skin as Raoul charged into him, a sickening blur of fists and horns and stomping feet. Driving a stack of furniture into splinters, the minotaur realised that the Juggler-King was already elsewhere.

‘A little help?’ Imogen called out, and Raoul extricated himself from the wreckage to see her fending off the Juggler-King and several of his followers. She was flailing around blindly with a set of aether-encrusted nunchucks. Her free hand was contorted into a protective mudrā, thus far keeping the blank-faced constructs at bay.

The sorcerer was attempting to sing apart her disguise, spreading cracks already beginning to show on the sides of her arms and legs. She willingly dropped the flapper facade, not missing a beat as she emerged her usual tom-boy self, cracking godlings in the ribs with more enthusiasm than art.

Attempting to goose Imogen, the Juggler-King miscalculated, putting his fingers into the path of the nunchucks, the shards of aether tearing his skin and bruising bone. Wincing, he sucked on his knuckles, and a moment later Raoul had blasted through the group of brawling drunks, barrelling into the god and bearing him into the ground.

‘Try something tricky, I dare you,’ the minotaur snarled, holding the points of his horns against the Juggler-King’s throat. The sorcerer offered a weak smile, swallowed nervously.

I’m sure you can see why I picked this one now, right? It’s brilliantly written, but we all know that Jason is a great writer. More to the point, it’s a great example of developing a fight scene where the combatants are more than human, with powers and weapons of extreme power. Yet the fight stays visceral and realistic nonetheless. This is a good lesson in writing fight scenes in fantasy or other genre fiction where the players are all very powerful. The fighting needs to be ramped up to match.

And now, the Winner! Congratulations to Bryce Beattie, taking out the contest with this piece:

He lunged at Key.

Most other men would have been caught unawares by the shameless blindside. Key, however, had half expected it. He spun, parried the strike, and slid to the side.

“That was fairly dishonorable for a captain of the guard.”

“It might be if I had an honorable opponent.”

Key exploded at the captain.

Blades flashed and clanged with frightening speed.

The two masters whirled and spun, their bodies and blades locked in a gruesome dance. The duel flew about the platform, many times close to the edge, but never did a combatant seem off balance or likely to fall from its edge. These master swordsmen were in top form, focused and furious.

The crowd grew silent in awe of the savage battle. No one present had ever seen a match as passionate and precise as this, nor is it likely they ever would get a chance to see one again.

The grunts of physical exertion and the clanging of steel filled the air. For a time it appeared that neither fighter could gain an advantage. After several minutes of unmatched fury, the captain began to tire.

Key controlled more and more of the movement on the platform. It was only a matter of time now, and he knew it.

The captain knew it, too, and so he decided to try for a final, desperate lunge. Even in his tiredness the captain was faster than most.

Key brought his sword left and parried just enough.

The captain’s weight carried him forward.

Key dug in with his heel put all of his might into an elbow strike.

The blow landed hard on the captain’s chest, whose feet came out from under him. He crashed backward to the platform and his sword clanged from his grip.

Key stepped back. “Do you surrender?”

The captain rolled backwards onto his feet, scooping up the fallen blade in the process. “No need of surrender.”

The traveler took a step forward and stopped.

The captain stood, sword held at guard in his right hand and left hand extended. The stance was strangely open, especially for a master.

Something wasn’t right.

Key paused and wondered what the captain had up his sleeve.

The captain’s left hand grew dark. A floating shadow gathered around it.

Key’s eyes widened.

The captain muttered a bizarre incantation and the ball of shadow grew larger.

Only one chance, thought Key. He dove forward with an necessarily unguarded thrust.

The captain was too focused on his spell to react.

Key’s blade pierced the darkness and the hand.

The darkness dissipated.

The captain screamed in pain and dropped to his knees. His sword again clattered to the platform.

Key lowered his sword. “Your magic is even worse than your skill with a sword.” He backed toward the edge of the platform. It wouldn’t matter now how many times the captain could stand.

I picked this fight scene as the winner as it manages to fulfill all the main criteria. We get a very definite and clear sense of place, there’s a distinct style to the piece. The combatants are clearly drawn very quickly and we know all we need to about them to appreciate this scene. The fight itself is fast-paced and full of action, without too much detail slowing things down. I also liked how the captain tried to change things up by using magic when he realised his sword skills were outclassed and that proved to be a bad mistake. A good lesson in fighting that the fancy and powerful stuff isn’t always very usable – if takes a long time, be it a fancy kick or a spell, it’s harder to pull off than a simple, powerful, straight technique.

It was really hard to choose from all the entries. Everyone that entered should be proud, as every scene I read had a lot going for it. But congratulations to Alex, Jason and Bryce for making the final cut.

What do you think? Do you like the scenes I chose and do you agree with my reasoning?

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It’s very simple – you go to this page: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html and click through to the Voting Page. All the blogs are listed alphabetically, so click through to the Ts for The Word (which is this blog, obviously), and check the box. Add your name and email address at the end and job done.

I’d be very grateful.

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Firstly, there’s my Write The Fight Right giveaway happening. All the details here – basically, send me a fight scene up to 500 words, the best three get published right here. 1st place gets a free Write The Fight Right ebook and a signed copy of RealmShift, 2nd & 3rd place get copies of Write The Fight Right ebook.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been interviewed over at Friday Flash Dot Org, and there’s a chance to win a copy of RealmShift there too.

Next up, Fangbooks is giving away several copies of Trent Jamieson’s awesome urban fantasy thrillers, Death Most Definite and Managing Death. All you have to do is comment. All those details here.

And finally, there’s a massive giveaway over at the Writer Goes On A Journey website, for Aussie Author Month. Yeah, that’s right. We get a month. Want to make something of it? There’s all kinds of sweet books by people like Jason Fischer, Tara Moss, Trudi Canavan, Lisa L Hannett, Trent Jamieson, Jennifer Fallon, Kirstyn McDermott and me. A variety of ways to enter, deadline is April 30th. All the details here.

Get to it. Enter, win books, read!

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I reckon that would be fun. So it begins here.

Send in a fight scene you’ve written, or write one specially for the contest. Absolutely maximum of 500 words, but if you can make a tight scene in 200 or 300 words I’ll be even more impressed. There doesn’t have to be any context or setup, we just want the fight – but make it real. Give us some description of the surroundings, let us know your characters just a little bit in the process. Try to make the fight scene as visceral and intense as you can.

Make it interesting. Your characters don’t have to be human. They can be magical or mundane, on a spaceship or in a garden shed, set in 1603 or 2533. It can be one on one, one on many or many on many. Hand-to-hand or weapons. Mix it up and make it fun.

Send your entry to me at alan(@)alanbaxteronline(.)com – (take out the ( ) obviously). Put “FIGHT WRITING CONTEST” in the subject line. I’ll use my completely unbiased judgement to decide which are the best scenes and there’ll be prizes.

1st place gets a copy of my Write The Fight Right ebook in the format of their choice and a signed copy of RealmShift.

2nd and 3rd place get copies of Write The Fight Right in whatever format they prefer.

I’ll post the three winning fight scenes here with links back to the authors once the decision is made.

All clear? Good.

FIGHT!

EDIT – A commenter asked about a deadline, which is a very relevant point. So, the deadline is midnight Australian EST, this Sunday, April 17th. I’m off to Perth for Swancon on Thursday next, so better that the contest doesn’t run into next week. And I’ll need a day or two to read the entries and pick a winner.

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Id love to see his thoughts on writing for art or self satisfaction versus writing for a market. Obviously its a fine line and its crucial to please the audience to some extent, but Id like to hear an opinion on where it may go too far or about writers that have such conviction they won’t compromise.

I chose this suggestion because it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

There are innumerable markets out there, with more cropping up all the time while others whither and die. The publishing industry is in a state of constant flux and part of the job of being a writer is staying aware of who’s doing what. There are the “big 6″ publishers and all their subsidiary imprints that are fairly solid and not going anywhere fast. They certainly follow trends but, contrary to the views of some disenfranchised newbie writers, they’re not averse to new voices and styles. Orbiting those big names are millions of smaller publishers, for novel length and short story work, all trying to carve out their niche in a bloated industry.

With that in mind, it’s tempting to try to follow or predict trends. Marketers and editors are doing that all the time, but they’re also doing their best to ignore that and create new trends. You can imagine, for example, the inundation of wizard school books on publishers desks after the success of Harry Potter. I’m sure editors are still drowning in a papery sea of awful vampire romance after the inexplicable success of the Twilight series. People will always leap onto a bandwagon and try to whip some more mileage out of it. I think this is a fool’s path.

The same goes for short fiction. I love short stories – I love reading them and writing them. It’s tempting, with the plethora of short story markets out there, to try to emulate the style or subject of the more popular ones. You can look at Clarkesworld, for example, and see that there’s a distinctly literary bent to the spec fic they publish. Or you study any market you’d like to be published in and try to see the pattern, figure out what it is those particular editors are moved by. Indeed, most submission guidelines for these places will say something along the lines of: “If you really want to know what sort of thing we publish, it’s best that you buy and read a few issues of our magazine.” This is quite reasonable. It’s also a great way to generate some extra sales, because the magazine is suggesting that by reading lots of issues you’ll deduce some magic formula that’ll get you published there. It’s not really true. Sure, you should never send a vampire romance story to a science fiction magazine, but that’s just common sense. Then again, if your vampire romance takes place on a colony ship heading to Alpha Centauri, you might be in with a chance. I really doubt it, but you know what I mean.

The truth is, if you know a market buys a certain style and genre of story, that’s enough. Apex buys dark science fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies buys otherworld fantasy, Black Static buys horror and so on. A good solid read of these things will certainly give you a bit of a clue towards the tastes of the editors, but that probably won’t help you.

You see, the thing is that you can’t necessarily write like someone else. If you try to emulate a style, it comes across as amateur. The reason for that is simple – your heart and soul aren’t in it. You’re trying to co-opt someone else’s heart and soul. Personally, I want to write excellent Alan Baxter stories, not stories like those of [insert author here] written by Alan Baxter. The difference, to me, is enormous.

As a writer I’m constantly trying to improve my craft and refine my voice. The more I write, the more that happens. The more that happens, the more publishing success I get. There’s no secret formula to getting published. It’s all about getting good. Sure, there are those people out there that are really good craftsmen/women and can write to a style or requirement, but they took a long time getting good enough to do that. And they did that by writing their own stuff first.

I want to be recognised for my writing, my ideas, my style. When that stuff gets good enough, I’ll sell stories to the places that pay pro rates and have the big kudos attached. Hopefully I’m getting nearer to that all the time. If you constantly put aside what you want to write and try to churn out stuff that you think people want to read, it’s likely to be soulless and rather dull. And it probably won’t sell. If you do turn out to be good at it and it does sell, I’d wager that the sense of achievement will be rather tempered by the knowledge that it’s not really your thing. If that works for you, great. It doesn’t appeal to me.

For me, the best thing to keep in mind is that I should be writing the kind of stuff I want to read. If I look at a story of mine and, after reading it, think to myself, “That was a great story, I’m glad I read it” then I can certainly be pleased that I wrote it! I’m a voracious reader and I’d like to think that other people out there also want to read the kind of stuff that I do. Therefore, it makes sense for me to write the kind of stuff that I want to read.

I’m happy to take editorial advice. Whenever I’ve had an editor give me suggestions about a piece of work it’s invariably ended up a better story. I always try to run my stuff through crit groups or at least have a couple of trusted friends read over it and I pay close attention to their criticisms. This is how we avoid being precious about our stuff. If something I’ve written strikes me as being the dog’s bollocks and then a few people read it and say, “Nah, this isn’t working for me” then I’ll listen to them. But I’ll still try to apply my voice and style to any rewrites or edits. I want people to tell me what they like and don’t like, and why, but not tell me what I should write. There’s a big difference.

Compromise is always on the cards. If I have an editor say to me, “I’d like to buy this story, but I don’t like this aspect, can you change it?” then I’ll change that aspect in a flash. Even more so this becomes an important factor in novels. Selling a novel is bloody hard, so if I have to make some editorial changes to get one sold, I’ll do it. It would have to really affect my sense of my own art for me to refuse. There would certainly be some things that I’d be disinclined to do just to sell a story or novel, but not many. I can usually see the merit in editorial suggestions like these and it’s important to develop that ability to kill your darlings. As writers, we’re the worst critics of our own work. Of course we think it’s good – we wrote it and are trying to sell it, so we must think it has credit. Of course, if we really baulk against the advice then we have to ask ourselves this: Am I being really precious here, or is this publisher just not right for me? It’s most likely to be the first one, but you need to stay aware of what you’re trying to do with your art and only compromise within boundaries that you’re comfortable with.

I want to sell stories, get published and, in the process, get better as a writer. Usually, as I mentioned above, editorial advice always makes the story better. But I still want it to be an Alan Baxter story. I want it to be my art that’s got good enough for someone to step up and buy it and for other people to take the time to read it. And hopefully enjoy it. That’s always going to be my aim.

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There were some great suggestions and it was really hard to pick one. In the end I went with this suggestion from Alex Stoiche:

Id love to see his thoughts on writing for art or self satisfaction versus writing for a market. Obviously its a fine line and its crucial to please the audience to some extent, but Id like to hear an opinion on where it may go too far or about writers that have such conviction they won’t compromise.

I picked this one mainly because it’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and was considering blogging about anyway. Given that Alex’s thinking mirrored mine I decided to call that suggestion the winner. Given the number of other suggestions, I’m going to be using some of those for future posts as well, because lots of people came up with good ideas. Keep an eye on the blog here and your suggestion may crop up at some future date – I’ll be sure to credit the person whose idea it was as and when I get around to it. Don’t hold your breath, though. It’s a busy month for me and these things tend to get drawn out.

Thanks to everyone that got involved and big thanks to Book Lover’s Club for being such sterling supporters of books and authors.

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