Polite Smiles

In which I talk of catharsis. How pretentious, huh?

2011-03-18T08:27:00.003-04:00

Writing is a truly cathartic experience. It allows us to revisit the past, to alter scenarios and outcomes, and ultimately (thankfully) to let things go. As you get older you become more self-possessed. You know more what you want in life, and especially what you don't. It's this self-awareness that defines our character.

In the same sense writing allows us to examine human behavior on a micro scale. To examine emotions we don't particularly understand and human foibles we're blessed enough to lack. I am a singularly determined person; and some people are not, they're capricious. Maybe that's not a fault, to be able to move on to the next thing as soon as it presents itself. But in writing I can understand the motivation behind it.

That's also the curse of being a writer: you spend so much time creating personalities and sussing out the genesis of human behavior, that people often--not always--fail to surprise you. It almost gives you a cynical interpretation of the world.

It's made me a much more self-aware person. The people I love in this world, I love. Because of, not in spite of, their faults. It's also taught me what I don't want in my life. This is the hardest thing to accomplish: letting something go completely. Because of my long association with designing human fallacy, I have no place for it in my life.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to writing my story about a martian freeloader!

-WK

P.S. Updating bibliography soon, hopefully.

At Long Last

2010-12-11T19:00:00.002-05:00

Quick update. A number of stories have recently been published, in Necrotic Tissue, Ghostlight, and Encounters. Check 'em out. I've also got another story short listed for an anthology, so I hope that goes through. Fingers crossed.

Pill Hill Press

2010-08-04T16:34:00.002-04:00

Pill Hill Press has accepted my story "Through the Trees" for publication in their Daily Bites of Flesh anthology. Look forward to seeing it in print.

Lightspeed

2010-07-25T09:44:00.002-04:00

Sadly not an acceptance from this shiny new awesomeness, but I did get a personal rejection from uber-editor John Joseph Adams. How cool!
He liked my story!

Short-Story.Me

2010-07-21T02:02:00.002-04:00

New story up at Short-Story.Me: The Brokenhearted Leper. Check it out.

http://www.short-story.me/horror-stories/227-the-brokenhearted-leper.html

Encounters

2010-07-09T18:26:00.001-04:00

Sold my story The Curator's Dilemma to Encounters Magazine. Great news, considering the rejections had been piling up of late.

The Lorelei Signal

2010-07-09T18:24:00.001-04:00

Check my new story out over at The Lorelei Signal!

http://www.loreleisignal.com/Immutable.html

Thanks!

Necrotic Tissue

2010-05-16T14:54:00.002-04:00

Just sold a story over at Necrotic Tissue. It'll be out in October. A horror story "Mr. Lean's Price." Glad to be published over there.

Where did all the titles go?

2010-05-13T17:38:00.003-04:00

The writing's coming along easy the past few weeks, and yet titles are still coming at a premium. What the hell? If you've read my past few posts, then you'll see that my recent titles aren't exactly inspired.
The title can be hard, though. You want something that's going to attract an editors attention, but still to be pertinent to the story at hand, and not come across as excessively prosaic or pretentious.
I wonder how much emphasis editors place on a story's title. I got to imagine a cliched title will get you bounced pretty fast.
By the way, my favorite story title of all time? From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7 by Nnedi Okorafor.

Another Story

2010-05-12T23:45:00.003-04:00

New story written, called "A Noble Quest." Polished and ready to go. Fantasy flash.

Anthology Update

2010-05-10T14:46:00.002-04:00

Making good headway in the anthology department. Three stories finished and two near completion.
Finished "A Press of Darkness" a 2800 word horror story.
Working on "A Sad Day for the Baobabs." A sf story about weather control. A fascinating subject, non-anthology related.
Also working on two stories that as of yet have no titles. All in all the writings coming along fluidly.
Still have my eye on a time travel anthology, have the idea and plot laid out, but I don't know if I'll have time to write it before the deadline.
One deadline is in three days, so I better get cracking!

Feathertop

2010-05-05T11:56:00.004-04:00

Finished My Dear Plastic Man, a science-fiction retelling of the Feathertop fable by Nathaniel Hawthorne. One of my favorite fables of all time. Took a while to write.

Fiction Sale

2010-05-03T20:35:00.001-04:00

New sale to Short-Story.Me. The Brokenhearted Leper. Glad to see this one sell.

Anthologies

2010-04-12T19:13:00.003-04:00

Working on several short stories for anthologies. Far from being restricting, I find it refreshing to write a story with specific guidelines in mind. Also, in addition to payment, anthologies usually send you a free copy, so it's great to get some free literature! Lots of great anthos coming up. I got my sights set on five of them. Then it's back to trying to crack a pro sale.
Also, I've added a link to my Facebook page on the left. I never thought I'd have on of those, but it's a great way to connect with fellow writers and to get the freshest news in the biz! If you don't have one, you should definitely set one up.

Read Electric Smiles!

2010-04-10T09:11:00.002-04:00

My story Electric Smiles is up over at Every Day Fiction. Check it out!

www.everydayfiction.com/electric-smiles-by-william-knight/

Thanks! Feel free to vote, unless of course you don't like it, then, uh...feel free not to ;)

Another story done

2010-04-05T20:25:00.002-04:00

Finished "A Requiem for Tarsenesia" a music-themed fantasy story, with pseudo werewolves. 4400 words.
I'll post again if it sells.

WWI Short Story

2010-03-30T16:21:00.003-04:00

Finally completed a WWI story. Called Sons of Flanders, coming in at 7000 words. It's a murder mystery/historical drama that takes place in the trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the 3rd Battle of Ypres. A few books were real instrumental in my research, including primary sources Some Desperate Glory by Edwin Campion Vaughan, The Winding Road Unfolds by T.S. Hope, and Somme Harvest by Giles E.M. Eyre, as well as Leon Wolff's much lauded secondary account In Flanders Fields. Another useful book for research on Langemarck, an ancillary battle of 3rd Ypres, was VCs of The First World War: Passchendaele by Stephen Snelling. World War One continues to fascinate me, and with only three survivors of the conflict remaining, it is perilously close to falling out of living memory.
The next WWI story I would like to write will take place at Gallipoli, and feature Albert Jacka as a secondary character. The only problem is, Jacka is an Australian national hero, comparable with Audie Murphy here in the states, so I'd have to represent him historically as well as faithfully. I'll only write the story, if I know I can do it justice.

The Soulless City

2010-03-26T17:50:00.003-04:00

New story finished: The Soulless City. 4500 words.
Hard to write. I hope I did it justice, as the idea was one of my favorites.

New Story Sale

2010-03-20T10:39:00.002-04:00

Electric Smiles to Every Day Fiction.

A big thank you to Elissa Vann Struth and Camille Gooderham Campbell for their kind words.

It's a flash fiction piece about a companion-droid. Not an original concept, but I think the story worked really well and I loved the ending. I'll post the link when it becomes available.

I Said COFFEE!

2010-03-17T19:23:00.004-04:00

Sorry about the title to this post. If you don't know what movie it's from, then you are beyond my help :)

I decided to go ahead and finish Shakespeare Innate. Came in at 2100 words.

Finished writing Adsville, as well. 4500 words. Probably my favorite story yet.

New Stories

2010-03-15T02:21:00.002-04:00

I've actually decided to put the last four stories I mentioned on the back-burner. I'm writing two different ones. That's the way writing works for me. If I don't feel it, I can't write it.

Adsville-San Francisco is reimagined as dystopian metropolis.

A Sad Day for the Moonmen-hard to describe. Post-apocalyptic works about as well as anything, though. Hopefully it turns out as good as I imagine it in my head. Not always the case.

I've fully committed to scrapping Reinventing the Wheel, maybe I'll post it here. I liked the idea, but it didn't really flow as a compelling story. You have a limited amount of time in a short story to grab a readers' attention, and this one just didn't have what it takes.

Zombie Preserve I'm definitely going to write, just working out the logistics. Going to be a humor piece, for the most part.

Space & Time

2010-03-13T22:04:00.002-05:00

My story The Distillation of Albert Penny will be appearing in Space & Time Magazine. Many thanks to Mr. Houarner and Ms. Silverman for this great news! I posted earlier about this story, it took a long time to write, but was well worth it! This is the first Sci-Fi story I've sold. First of many, hopefully.

The Lorelei Signal

2010-03-10T14:28:00.004-05:00

Real pleased to announce that my story "Immutable" will be appearing in the July issue of The Lorelei Signal as well as the August print issue Mystic Signals. Thanks to Carol Hightshoe, the editor of both. I'm real proud of this one, as the magazine seeks stories that present women outside of familiar fantasy tropes. If you're a writer, you should definitely support this endeavour and send her your best work!

WIP's

2010-03-04T00:45:00.000-05:00

Currently trying to work through four stories:

Zombie Preserve--really a played out genre, but I love zombies.

Lies in the Sagebrush--futuristic planet destroyers.

Reinventing the Wheel--eugenics program goes haywire. Imagine that!

Shakespeare Innate--dystopian future view. How original. But the title's pretty cool.

I think I'm gonna have to can the third one on the list, as it's just too strange. Four sci-fi stories in the works.

The Ideas of March

2010-03-02T15:40:00.000-05:00

Couple new stories.

The King's Golden Soldiers-8100 word fantasy story. Finally finished, formatted and sent out for rejection.

Mr. Lean's Price-modern fantasy/horror--4400 words.

Couple others are percolating in the ol' brain. I think I'll be working on finishing the three Sci/Fi stories I started. I'm going to try to finish them this month. Then I got another fantasy story in the pipe.

Sometimes I wonder if its worth writing all these short stories. I've heard different opinions about them. Some people say they're a good way to break into publishing, but others think the opposite. I enjoy writing, so I guess that's all that matters, but my ultimate goal is to write novels. I already wrote one, and keep planning to start another.

An Obscure Hobby

2010-02-26T15:11:00.001-05:00

I try not to collect anything. I hate clutter. The only thing I collect are WWI books. The Great War is my main focus, and one day I'd like to teach a class on it, as well as write books about the conflict. My goal is to publish a history of the Battle of Gallipoli in 2015, the 100th anniversary of the campaign. As for the books, I have about 200. Mostly they're all in boxes until I get my two story private library with a winding staircase. My dream home library will also have plush chairs, and I'll sit and read in my smoking jacket, whilst sipping sherry from a crystal goblet and drawing on a meerschaum pipe.

And All For What???

2010-02-26T15:07:00.000-05:00

Spent the last month tweaking this story, but finally I'm onto the third draft phase. Called The King's Golden Soldiers. I know, I know, I'm not a big fan of the title, either. 8100 words of pure fantasy goodness.

Favorite Markets

2010-02-23T12:18:00.000-05:00

My sister was asking me what venues I'd like to see my stories published in, and it got me thinking. Of course, I'd like to make a pro-sale, but to me the quality of some magazines is so high, that having my story appear there would be quite inspiring to me as a writer. These are some of the magazines where I'd like my stories to appear, by no means a complete list.
-Futurismic, perhaps my favorite e-zine. The stories are top notch and have featured some of my favorite writers, such as Lavie Tidhar, Genevieve Valentine, Eric del Carlo, and Jason Stoddard. (if you don't know who Lavie Tidhar is--shame! shame on you!)
-Sybil's Garage. A small print mag. Run by Matthew Kressel, an esteemed author in his own right.
-Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Love the stories here.
-And many, many more...

Distillation

2010-02-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

Finished another story, called The Distillation of Albert Penny. This one I would classify as Bizarro Sci-Fi. Sort of an experimental piece, but I enjoy pushing myself to write something outside my comfort zone. Took a real long time to write, and I probably went through a half-dozen drafts trying to get the right tone. At least I finished playing Mass Effect 2, so I have more time to focus on getting real world stuff done...

Nascence

2010-02-21T03:17:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a number of stories at the moment. One of the problems I run into, is I often switch between stories, which requires an even bigger leap between genres, while at the same time maintaining the necessary literary tone of each story, whether it be humorous, dark, or mundane. Sometimes this precipitates a curious amalgam of writing styles, as well as me referring to characters by the wrong name (i.e. taking my fantasy story knight, and throwing him into a world dominated by translucent, incorrigible aliens called Forkies). It's probably not the best habit, but if I get bored with one story, I have to leave it be, or else the plot progression becomes so banal I think of trunking the whole thing. I'm currently writing two stories, and figuring out a third in my head. The latter being my favorite, as I think my stories always work better in theory than in reality. I'm getting real acquainted with procrastination at the moment. I have to finish this story...but I think I'm going to play Mass Effect 2 instead.

Illusions of Lorelant

2010-02-19T01:00:00.001-05:00

Just received word that my short story Illusions of Lorelant will be published in the December, 2010 issue of Aofie's Kiss. Incredibly excited to hear that news. Many thanks to Tyree Campbell, the editor over at Sam's Dot Publishing. Illusions of Lorelant is a 7100 word fantasy story. One of those stories that wrote itself in only three days. Wish they were all that easy!

Parables & Princes

2010-01-16T01:42:00.000-05:00

Wrote another two stories:

Where Parables Go to Die, 3000 words.

I usually don't write humor stories or light fantasy, but this one was a lot of fun to write. Sort of a hard sell, though. Not really sure where to send it.

The Half Prince, 1000 words, flash.

Just a quick story about a deformed prince.

Beneath-Ceaseless Skies

2010-01-07T13:52:00.000-05:00

Beneath Ceaseless Skies just became an SFWA qualifying short-fiction market. Scott Andrews and the team over at BCS have been putting together some great fiction for a while now, so congratulations. Check out their forums. Mr. Andrews, the editor, often posts and provides great tips for authors. He still responds with personal feedback on nearly every story you submit, which is great, and unique, I think, amongst pro-paying markets.

Electric Velocipede

2010-01-05T01:10:00.001-05:00

I recently sold a story to Electric Velocipede. Thanks a lot to John Klima, and I look forward to seeing it in print. My friends and family are getting a little annoyed though, because my response to every question they ask lately is: "You can't ask me that, I'm a published author."

New Stories

2010-01-05T00:48:00.000-05:00

Wrote two stories so far this month.

Marksmanship in the Age of Sparrows--a sci-fi story, 4,000 words.

The Brokenhearted Leper--fantasy, 2,800 words.

Writing's a strange experience. Marksmanship took me a long time to write, and Brokenhearted Leper I wrote in only three days.

I'll update if I sell either of them. I think they're both pretty good. But I would think that, now wouldn't I?