In Which I Request A Beta

Hi all!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? We pretty much just sat around and played video games. Which was awesome, of course.

Also I did a bit of a blog cleanup so there's now a few more pages to visit if you're interested (and yes I know I've received more blog awards than that. I had them saved in a blog post draft which then accidentally got erased. Le sigh)

I didn't get much work done on Foxfire, but I did, however, get tons of revisions done on a favorite short story of mine, Hole Ridden.

It needed one more large-ish rewrite (well I thought it would be large but it turned out to be really easy). It had to be retyped because somewhere along the way I lost the digital copy (this was before I started using Dropbox). Good thing I still had a printed version. So I typed it up, gave it another line edit (since I've clearly grown a lot since the last line edit) did the rewrite, ran it through Wordle (genius, btw. Does anyone know how to save your Wordle word cloud? Mine looked so ominous that I wanted to keep it...) and then saved it.

So now, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in beta-ing it for me? Both Teebore and Palindrome have read it multiple times before, and though I'll probably shove it their way again (haha! Surprise!) I was hoping maybe someone who hasn't seen it before would be interested in taking a look at it?

I'd be mostly looking for a high level crit, mostly what works and what doesn't (though if you want to do a bit of line editing, I certainly wouldn't turn it down.I just don't want you to feel obligated).

It's not too long, just a bit over 2500 words, and you could certainly take your time.

Also it's in the Horror genre (as most of my short stories tend to be), though it's not gory or anything like that.

no vampires this time, promise.

So if you're interested, let me know either in the comments or via email.

Can you believe we're already into June? I can tell already the summer is going to go too fast.

In Which I Share My Love Of Palindromes

Over at Musings of a Palindrome, Hannah is having her first ever contest. It's an awesome contest with many books to be handed out as prizes. You should check it out.

Why, you ask?

Well for the aforementioned prizes of course.

But also because Hannah has an awesome blog.

Let me tell you about some awesome things about Hannah.


She loves her Snuggie.

She loves the same TV shows as I do (except Bones, though I'm still trying to convert her. DAVID BOREANAZ...need I say more?)

totally got more attractive now that he's older.

Also, I owe her FOREVER for introducing me to the mangst that is Supernatural. FOREVER

She likes dark-haired men (though I prefer blondes)

Dr. Daniel Jackson FTW?

Or the man who's bringing vampire sexy back?

She likes food (mmmmmm...food...)

Holy hell... I need to eat all of this food, like, right now...

She reads a lot. A. Lot.
She enjoys awesome movies

Anyone who hasn't seen this movie needs to rectify that immediately

She writes the best metaphors (for reals. I don't know anyone better)
Her blog is fun and funny and has a lot of pictures.


So seriously, if you haven't checked out her blog yet, head on over there and become a follower, not only for the chance at free books, but also for a good time.

In Which I Entered Another Contest

I entered something in Natalie Whipple's Dark and Stormy Contest. I actually wrote a little flash fiction piece. Of course, once I finally got it down to 250 words is when I realized I forgot to open with the weather.

Yeah, I left out the whole point of the contest. Smooth Sarah...

So anyway, I was able to delete a few more words (and it was hard, I had already cut out 150 words, which is a lot for a short piece) and stick in my weather reference.

I was pretty sure I had no chance because I didn't weave the weather throughout, and I was correct.

But still, I kinda liked it, so here it is for everyone to read.

*******

On a sunny afternoon, Jim left Jena with a bellyful of baby for some trollop. Still, Jena sometimes missed him. After all, Jim had made her a mommy.

Clara was the perfect baby, Jena’s soul mate, the reason she allowed Jim back in their lives. Surely some good existed in him since he was partially responsible for the exquisite Clara. And more than anything, Jena loved Clara.

Which is why, when Jena first noticed the fangs, she wasn’t scared.

The two fangs were a shiny white, no bigger than grains of rice. They responded with Clara’s mood: happy meant no fangs, hungry or angry meant the delicate fangs would pop out.

Jena became anemic. But it wasn’t Clara’s fault. Jena loved every inch of Clara, even the inches that drew blood.

So she stopped breastfeeding and tried formula, but Clara lost all interest in food. Her nightly cries kept Jena awake and nothing soothed. Finally, when it became too much, Jena called Jim.

It didn’t take much to convince him to come over: the promise of liquor, maybe a little amorous fun.

“Say hello to the baby,” Jena said and thrust Clara into her daddy’s arms.


Jim held Clara to his shoulder and rubbed her back. He wasn’t, after all, a bad father.

Clara nudged her daddy’s neck. Her tiny fangs erupted and slid into Jim’s skin.
Jena was there to catch Clara when Jim collapsed. After all, she was a mommy, and would do anything for Clara.

*****

I know. Vampires again? Yeah. But it's a vampire baby. Anyway it's not like that's how I intended for it to go, but what can you do?



I might possibly like to stretch this out a bit, add a couple hundred words, so I can do less telling and really weave more of a theme throughout. But we'll see.

I've got bigger projects that need editing first.



Anyone else enter a piece in the contest?

Alphabet Of Awesomeness

H/T to Teebore over at Gentlemen of Leisure Blog for passing on this great idea.

What idea, you ask? Why the idea of the ABCs OF AWESOME that's what! (and yes, it needs to be all caps...)

I tried to keep mine writing or book related, but you'll see I was only semi-successful (though I can make an argument about a lot of them that they're what I like to write about... )

A is for Assassins

B is for Books

C is for Cartoons

D is for Daydreaming

E is for Editing

F is for Falen! Nah I'm just kidding - can you imagine?! F is for Foodstuff

G is for Games

H is for Horror

I is for illustrations

J is for Journals

K is for Karin Lowachee

L is for Lolcats

M is for Mists of Avalon

N is for Ninjas!

O is for Onomatopoeia

P is for Pens

Q is for Queries

R is for Reading

S is for Sirius Black

T is for Trees

U is for Undead

V is for Vampires

W is for Writing (dur!)

X is for XBox 360

Y is for Yarn (as in telling one)

Z is for Zeppelins

There were some hard letters and letters that had just too many great ones (it nearly broke my heart to leave out apocalypse) but overall I'm mostly pleased with my list.