A great first day for our Weird Wild West anthology Kickstarter!

​Well howdy pardners,

I'm not sure how you could have missed the news by now: I'm co-editing an anthology of short stories, with the speculative fiction theme "Weird Wild West", along with Misty Massey and Emily Leverett.

Hitch a ride on a covered wagon or a stagecoach to the stars, as the Great Unknown and the Wild Frontier collide in The Weird Wild West with stories by R S Belcher (Six-Gun Tarot), Tonia Brown (Railroad!), Diana Pharoah Francis (Trace of Magic), John Hartness (Bubba the Monster Hunter), Jonathan Maberry (Code Zero), Gail Martin (Deadly Curiosities), Misty Massey (Mad Kestrel), and James Tuck (Blood and Bullets). It will also have a minimum of four open submission slots. Check out the great extras and stretch goals planned for the project, including stories by David Sherman (Starfist) and Robert E. Waters (The Wayward Eight) and additional open submission slots. Our publisher is Danielle Ackley-McPhail, through eSpec Books.

These are the kinds of stories that fire the imagination. Westerns of the past. Westerns in space. Westerns in alternate realities that don't look quite like the Wild West ever looked, but have a familiar, gritty feel. 

But to get this sweet antho of fabulous frontier fantasy, you'll need to pony up at least 5 bucks for the Kickstarter--and in the first day of the campaign, we've already reached 15% of our goal and been named a Staff Pick! 

So what are you waiting for? Saddle up, pilgrim. It's about to get interesting. Find out more and fund here: http://kck.st/1udizgM

Straight shooting: So here's my request
Will you please help us 1) fund this project and 2) find authors to submit new stories?

Of course, I would love it if you will back this project! A mere $5 will buy you the ebook. Every backer in any amount helps us to meet our stretch goal. But to tell you the truth, I won't know if you do - only the publisher will know.

Equally important is this: will you please help spread the word?  Share this blog post (via the buttons below), or connect with me on your social media of choice:

• This Blog: www.WritersSpark.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Margaret.S.McGraw.Author.Editor.Blogger
• Twitter: @MargaretSMcGraw
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/MargaretSMcGraw
• Tumblr: http://margaretsmcgraw.tumblr.com/ 

Will you help make this project the success I believe it deserves?

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love: 

The light of the universe that shines within me 
recognizes 
the light of the universe that shines within you.

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A Project Comes to Life: Sneak Peek of Kickstarter for Weird Wild West Anthology

I can finally share my Big Sekrit Project!

It still feels a bit unreal to me. This summer, at Congregate in Winston-Salem, I stood in the hall with Misty Massey and Emily Lavin Leveritt. "Wouldn't it be great if...?"

Which one of us said that? It doesn't really matter. We kicked the idea down the hall and around email, and, because none of us have enough to do (*snerk*), we started talking to a couple of author friends. And a couple of publisher friends...

And here we are.

eSpec Books is Kickstarting our anthology, a collection of western-themed speculative fiction, with commitments from several great authors and artists...check it out! One of the premier titles from this brand new press, the collection already boasts such contributors as R S Belcher (Six-Gun Tarot), Tonia Brown (Railroad!), Diana Pharoah Francis (Trace of Magic), John Hartness (Bubba the Monster Hunter), Jonathan Maberry (Code Zero), Gail Martin (Deadly Curiosities), Misty Massey (Mad Kestrel), and James Tuck (Blood and Bullets). It will also have a minimum of four open submission slots.

You noticed the open submissions? Yes, there's a call for submissions -- check out the Kickstarter Sneak Peek! 

The project will be funded via a Kickstarter campaign beginning December 9, 2014 and among the stretch goals planned for the project are stories by David Sherman (Starfist) and Robert E. Waters (The Wayward Eight) and additional open submission slots. 


I know you want a sneak peek of the Kickstarter! You know I want you to help fund us! 


This is gonna be epic!

 

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love: 
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes 
the light of the universe that shines within you.

#

#WeirdWildWest, #specfic, #anthology, #MistyMassey, #EmilyLavinLeveritt, #RSBelcher, #ToniaBrown, #DianaPharoahFrancis, #JohnHartness, #JonathanMaberry, #GailMartin, #JamesTuck, #eSpecBooks, #DanielleAckley-McPhail, #MikeMcPhail, #BryanPrindiville

Prompt: Walking in the Aftermath

We’d been two hours on the road when I saw the first sign. It was one of those big green signs that used to hang over the highways, but this one was torn in half and crumpled like paper, dangling from a bent support pole, with one corner digging into the torn up ground beneath it.

I pointed, and Darren nodded. “Stone trolls?” I asked quietly. He shrugged. I sighed and stared at the sign as our horses walked steadily past it. He was right. It probably was. It didn’t really matter. We’d deal with whatever we found. We had to, until we could find Karina and put an end to this.

I wasn’t ready to face what that might mean. I’d killed humans and monsters since the Rending. I wasn’t sure I could kill my twin. Even if she’d taken my heart’s wish for magic in the world and done…this…

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

#

Dogs in House	Houdini
Time writing	15 minutes
November word count	Too low :(

Prompt: I will remember you

Frank knew he was dying. The biosuit was still doing its job, protecting him from the acrylamide atmosphere, recycling his fluids and stabilizing his body temp. It couldn’t do anything about the lack of feeling in his legs. Or movement. Or the console that crushed his hips and legs.

He heard Bhiteri’s chittered greeting, rasping in his ear and behind his sinuses as the four-foot arthropod slid into the ruined cockpit. The acrylamide didn’t affect his chitinous plates or feathery antennae. Frank tapped his fingers against the console in IMC, the patterns so similar to the American Standard Morse Code he had learned as a boy. Still here.

Bhiteri’s feet scratched the smooth wall, now the floor under Frank. He wound around the console and pulled a makeshift leaf pouch full of cave water. Frank closed his eyes, irritated at his momentary squeamishness over the silk Bhiteri used to seal the water. If it weren’t for the Bug—and Frank used the derogatory word with full awareness of the irony—he would have died at least four times by now. Maybe five. All the Bug’s effort would be for nought if Frank died before the cavalry arrived. Frank tapped TX as Bhiteri held the water pouch to his lips.

When Bhiteri rested the empty pouch on the floor, he curled up, outlining Frank’s torso and leaning his head against the console so they could see each other in the dim light. He drummed his feet in a soothing pattern for awhile, and Frank dozed. When he woke, he could see this godforsaken planet’s second moon reflected in Bhiteri’s eyes.

The Bug tapped slowly. I can save you.

Frank’s brows knit together. What was the Bug talking about? He’d tried to move the console, but it was much too heavy, even with a lever. It had been nine days, and Frank knew his time was running out. The rescue team would likely only have one to take home. No. You tried. It’s OK.

Bhiteri looked away, then back at Frank. Among my people, when the body dies, the nahl lives on. In another.

Nahl? What was that? Oh. Soul? Spirit? Frank asked. Um…inner self? Mind?

Self. Bhiteri agreed. I can save your self.

Now Frank’s eyebrows arched up, and he could feel his dehydrated forehead wrinkling. Funny how sensitive every movement becomes.

How? He tapped, studying what Bhiteri had said. How can my self live on? In you?

Bhiteri chittered for a moment, as if forgetting, then he tapped. Yes. I will remember you.

Remember? I know you will. This wasn’t something the Bug was likely to forget. But that’s not the same thing. Frank closed his eyes, feeling a rush of disappointment that surprised him. He wasn’t religious. Didn’t believe in an afterlife. Did he believe in a soul? How could his soul live in Bhiteri? What the hell…

How? He tapped again. He must have dozed off. There was no moonlight on the Bug’s face now.

Bhiteri chittered once more, then stopped. I do not know the words. My people call it the nahl-kupa. It is common to remember family. Sometimes friends. We take the name of each nahl as our own.

You have done this? Frank asked. He’d never heard of this nahl-kupa. Was Bhiteri letting him in on some big Bug secret because he was dying and couldn’t reveal it anyway?

Bhiteri nodded with a chitter that sounded distinctly amused. Oh yes. Many times.

Frank’s eyes narrowed. And you carry all the names? What are they?

Bhiteri straightened and tapped as he chittered slowly and distinctly. I am Almada Ghodew Hishap Kawnte Jorhsi Dunlesh Xaintap Bhiteri.

Frank thought about those names for awhile. All those people? Those selves? In Bhiteri?

And you remember all those people?

As you remember your own life.

Frank’s eyes closed, too heavy to hold open. His head rolled to the side. His mouth was dry, and he tried to make some spit to swallow. The biosuit had nothing more for him.

He’d thought he had made peace with dying out here. Away from Earth. Alone. But given the chance, he didn’t want to. He thought he was nodding his head. When Bhiteri didn’t answer, he tapped out slowly. Y…e…s…

Bhiteri stood on the ruins of the pod and watched the rescue ship descend through the yellow atmosphere. It reminded him of the mining ships landing on Mars, and he chittered at the new memory. As the ship’s thrusters burned the acrylamide atmosphere, he chittered a greeting, and a farewell, “I am Franklin Almada Ghodew Hishap Kawnte Jorhsi Dunlesh Xaintap Bhiteri. I will remember you…”

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

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Dogs in House	Houdini, Brindle
Music Playing	Sarah McLachlan, “I Will Remember You”
Time writing	30 minutes
November word count	4,938

Prompt: Exploding the small moments

One of my daughter’s earliest writing lessons was about “exploding the small moments.” Rather than simply saying “I went to the beach,” for instance, how about describing the experience of standing in the sand while the waves bury your feet, the cold water washing over them, the gritty feel of the sand and shells, the disorienting feeling of your fete settling deeper as the sand shifts under and around them. The wind blowing your hair in your eyes, the seagulls flying and calling, the pelicans coasting barely above the water, a cormorant diving under the water and popping up like a bath toy, bouncing on the waves. The smell of salt water and maybe fish – the tang against the back of your throat.

Sharing all of these sensory experiences through your characters POV can draw your reader in, as they imagine the scene for themselves, perhaps remembering their own similar experience.

Even in an action sequence such as a fight scene, for instance, you might think such detail would slow it down, bog down the action. And you certainly don’t want to stop in the middle for extended navel-gazing. But including brief descriptions of the senses – pain across the knuckles with a punch, or the sound of a nose breaking, or the bitter taste of blood in the mouth, all of these can contribute to the immediate real-ness of a fight scene.

Can you take a mundane experience, such as grocery shopping, and explode the small moment, such as admiring the variety of produce, wondering how and where it’s grown, or missing something out of season? Choose your own “small moment” and “explode” it into an exploration of the senses!

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

#

Dogs in House	Houdini
Music Playing	Panera musak
Time writing	15 minutes
November word count	4,166

Prompt: Arguing with yourself—or someone else—or, writing conflict or emotion

Have you ever faced a difficult decision? Maybe one where you didn’t like your choices? Or you didn’t like the choice it seemed like you *should* make? It’s agonizing! Thought, time, and energy consuming. If you’re sharing your indecision with friends or family, it’s likely all you talk about. It can also be very emotional—if it were an easy decision, it probably wouldn’t take you such a long time to make.

One thing I sometimes do is argue with myself, trying to lay out all the points and figure out my course of action. I don’t always keep this silently in my head, but I usually refrain from having such conversations with myself when others are present.

How about a disagreement, or a fight, with someone else? Whether the person or the issue is dear to your heart, that can also be stressful and consuming. How do you feel physically? Does your heart pound? Do your temples feel tight? Do you get a headache behind your eye, or your ear?

Or maybe it gets your blood pumping and you feel energized? Charges, excited, vibrant? Do you feel energy rushing through your fingers? Like you’ve got a little buzz? Do you thrive, not feeling like it’s conflict to be avoided, but animated debate to be relished?

I recently dealt with a strong personal grief. I blogged about it in August, and it is the root of my closing lines about Namaste and my personal credo of Love More. And in the middle of it, I wrote about how I felt—the physical effects of crying, the ache in my chest, the tumultuous emotions of grief, anger, guilt, love. And I’m going to incorporate some of what I wrote in my novel WIP, as some of my characters face old loss and new.

At first I felt a little…odd…about that. Like I was “using” the experience in a bad way. But I decided three things: 1) I will use it in honor and memory of family and friends gone from my life; 2) I accept the gift of powerful experience and depth of emotion with gratitude; and 3) it will make my writing all the more powerful, because it will *feel* real to anyone who has experienced similar emotion.

As your characters deal with conflict – whether it’s internal or external – remember to share with your reader the emotions that compel them to make the choices they make, to fight, to change, to live their lives.

And if you can write about how that really feels for yourself, then you may find some powerful material to incorporate into your writing that will connect your readers and draw them deeper into your story.

So, my challenge to you is to think of an emotional experience that you’ve *recently* had. Or consciously capture the next one. Think about your conscious thoughts, your rational self, your physical responses, your emotions. Write it all out – slapdash, messy, stream-of-consciousness is fine. Get it all out on paper. Maybe you need to set it aside for a little bit, until you’ve handled the situation. Come back and take a look. Can you pull out elements that will give depth to one of your current characters? Or tuck it away, and see if some future story doesn’t present a situation where you think of this emotional exercise, et voila.

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

#

Dogs in House	Houdini
Time writing	25 minutes
November word count	2050