DTED: July 9, 2011

Part of the infuriating experience of writing a trilogy of novels (or any series that is planned out from the beginning and not just sort of drunkenly stumbled through) is that I’m always thinking ahead and going “man, this scene is going to be so cool, and this is going to be awesome, and though this scene that I’m writing right now is pretty neat as well, I really wish I was writing this one instead!”  And then I get really mad because I’m not writing those awesome scenes right now.

So.  I took a mini-break and wrote some short stories.

Part of the appeal of a short story is that they’re like fun-sized candy bars, in that you get the satisfaction of eating candy but it doesn’t take nearly as long.  Except some people get really uppity about fun-sized candy bars and how they’re not really all that “fun,” so maybe a good short story is more akin to stuffing a whole candy bar into your mouth at once.

And it works on both sides of the page as well.  I don’t have to complain that some nifty scene is a hundred pages away and you get a plot that only takes fifteen minutes or so to cruise through.  Seriously, let’s just stop writing novels entirely.  Nobody wants to read that mess anymore.

So I wrote two and brushed up a third that was rather juvenile.  The two are heading towards The Machine of Death which is one of the cooler projects dreamed up by a Tyrannosaurus.  I actually started writing a story the first time when calls for the original anthology were put out, but sadly that one did not really get off the ground.  Actually it’s probably not all that sad.  Perhaps even for the best.  But anyways, fingers crossed that at least one of those makes the final cut.  And if you want to submit your own stories, the deadline’s not until the 15th so there’s still time!

And because I have a camera and like traipsing out my poor handwriting and spastic arrow-drawing ability, here’s a shot of my plotline for TRYING TO DESTROY THE MACHINE:

Trust me, it all makes sense.  Somehow.