Flash Fiction, Halloween, Zombie story time!

Zombies, really?

You'll have to read it to believe it.

http://www.everydayfiction.com/halloween-ohungering-by-dustin-adams/

Comment if you can, they are the fuel that keeps publications' volunteers' fires burning.

1st & Starlight: a Sci-fi/Fantasy anthology. And I'm in it!

So, you've been wanting to read one of my longer stories?
Well, here's your chance! In fact, you can read 14 stories from Writers of the Future finalist-level authors. That's right, every story is by a high-caliber author. (Wait, I'm high-caliber?)

My finalist story from 2011, "The Factory Amidst the Stars" is included:

Awesome cover!

So if you want to read my story: (click the pic to) Buy the book.
If you want to read a bunch of GREAT short fiction. Buy the book:
If you want to support me, Buy the book!

Little Writing Tip 3 - IT

It.
Let's talk about it.

Someone once wrote, "What does IT refer to here?" on a MS of mine. This has been seriously bugging me ever since. What the heck did IT refer to in that sentence?

When we speak, we start all kinds of sentences with IT without leading them in properly.
So, naturally when we write - we do the same thing.

"I looked at the fence. It was very tall." OK. IT refers to the fence.
"It was all I could do not to climb that fence, tall as it was." Not OK. The IT here has no meaning. (the first it, not the second one.)

I'd say check your MS over for this oddity. What I did on my latest was a search for . It   (that's period, space, It, space) That showed me each time I'd started a sentence with IT. Most of them needed to be reworded and replaced because IT referred to nothing!

Little Writing Tip 2 - Don't jump the gun

This morning I finished a 5000 word story. I started it Monday morning.

I totally want to send it to everyone I know and ask them what they think. After all, it's absolutely perfect right now. And that's what our first drafts are, perfect, because before they see another pair of eyes, (including your own upon first edit) the story is exactly as you created it to be.

However, as we know, once you review your story, it loses some luster. Maybe there's a sentence or two you can't believe you yourself wrote. (Like that last one)

Then you send it to a trusted reader and they point out all kinds of other mistakes. Like that time you wrote the word light three times in three sentences. (True story)

So, I write this blog in an effort to suggest you don't send a story out shortly after you finish it. In fact, don't even edit the story shortly after you finish it. Give it some distance. The longer the story, the greater the distance. Orson Scott Card says a novel should sit unread for one year to give it proper distance.

My short story? Probably a week. It's killing me to wait as I am most excited about it right this minute, but I know that's best.

Now you do to.

Little Writing Tip 1

And – Then

I often confuse the words AND and THEN. It’s only upon editing that I catch this particularly annoying mistake.
I’m here to shed some light on it, and maybe burn it into my brain a bit.

“Joe ran forward and picked up the fallen sword.”
“Joe ran forward then picked up the fallen sword.”

9 times out of 10 I’m going to write the first sentence, yet, it’s not correct. One can not be running forward while simultaneously picking up a sword. Well, technically it’s possible, it’s not likely and creates an odd image in the mind while reading. (And we don’t want a break in the immersion.)

Rule: If a character is doing one thing, then does another, use THEN.
If a character is doing two things at once, use AND.

“Joe chewed his gum and rubbed his belly.”