Fiction By Marcus Carab & Friends
Editor’s Note: You may have noticed I recently added a Verse section to Stranger Than Truth. One of the main reasons for this was to highlight awesome pieces of rhythmic fiction by Tasty Yumyum like this one about a great musical triumph.
I wrote this for a children’s book that my friends and I put together as a present for a newborn. Continue reading “Spadonkadonk”
Hello again, fellow Stranger Than Truthers. I have an update for you on this glorious first Saturday of National Novel Writing Month. I’m now up to 16,033 words, and not all of them are terrible. I confess I’ve had some trouble getting a good flow going during the work week, but weekends seem to agree with me. It helps that I’m putting off chores by writing.
Anyway, I didn’t think I’d have Chapter Two ready to share any time soon, but I stitched together several faltering attempts I’ve made over the last week, and I’m not totally unhappy with how it hangs together, considering it’s an unedited first draft. I even remembered to insert in a little foreshadowing and reoccuring tropes and themes I want to pick up and use later. Unfortunately, the entry of my backpacker has now been pushed to Chapter Three, but we’ve got some great establishing plot for the narrator in place. If anyone wants to take a look, you’re welcome to it. If you’d prefer to wait, I plan to pubish the full edited manuscript on my own blog sometime in December. Cheers!
Editor’s Note: This is an extremely awesome and quite long chapter, so I’ve split it into two parts. Get ready for part two, coming tomorrow. Also, if you haven’t read Chapter One, make sure you do that first!
Continue reading “Life Loves Death, Chapter Two (Unedited First Draft)”
Awaiting the first pages of my novel The Kleptocracy to present themselves, I have faith in these two poems:
Her!
She is as a scroll of fervent Thuluth.
Not adorned but is ornamentation
Of Life; flitting through perilous existence.
A Minaret scene through and above the spandrels,
Gilt and wondrous!
—Marilyn.
Things have taken a strange turn for me here in Dawson City. I had to move outta my trailer and into the BO GO MO (Bonanza Gold Motel). It’s been a good first night. The temperature was consistent, the bed was soft, and there was room for my clothes to not be on me while I slept. I spent last night writing, and then went to breakfast at 7 am. Our days are getting shorter and shorter, which means I have more time to write. However, the internet connection here is phenomenally crappy. My original story idea was completely tossed aside and I began a new story loosely based on my life when I was in Toronto. You might notice yourself appearing in my story. I do not apologize. Anyway, I plan for my character to take a dramatic turn into crime or at least arson. I’ll be holed up in my room for the next 15 days with nothing but pizza, beer, granola bars and my new mac book pro running text edit and dictionary. I’m behind on my words per day at the moment, but I have ideas coming. Hopefully this story isn’t the worst ever, but I won’t be heart broken if it is. More later from our main character: Sean Steven. And maybe even a chapter for the leading lady: Sophie Smith. Or maybe even a chapter from our buddy across the bridge: Dillinger. Hope to read some more of everyone else’s endeavors as well.
I got an email earlier today from our benevolent dictator of an editor, asking for more copy on this blog to keep giving our readers fresh content. I’m not prepared to put up my next addition to my NaNoWriMo novel yet, but I do have something from my own blog that I’d like to share over here.
This was the first story I ever posted, and it was quickly buried in my backlog where no one ever read it. I always felt it deserved a wider audience. It may be fiction: I cannot say that this actually happened, but I suspect strongly it did. For a couple of summers I worked in a factory that cooked steel, and I heard this from a co-worker of mine who rarely spoke at great length, and never demonstrated having enough imagination to come up with this out of the blue.
Whatever truth there is to it, I’m sure I have embroidering the tale some, but that is the prerogative of a storyteller. It’s my story now, and I’ll tell it to you just as I would across a table, over a beer, in the back of my local watering hole.
This is the story of a party, a great party, and that party’s ending makes it one for the ages.
Continue reading “The least likely ending to a party, ever.”
Editor’s Note: Liz brings us a second tantalizing excerpt from her NaNoWriMo project Grindstone Baby. If you missed the first one, check it out too.
Waking up in a cluster of your own vomit on the orange shag carpet of some dude named Brian’s house was nothing compared to the rude awakening that my protagonist faces on a lovely April morning, some 7000 words into Grindstone Baby. The next several chapters turn into a macabre mash-up between The Hangover and Blue Velvet. But instead of a puppy-faced Kyle Maclaughlan, we have a sassy Toronto lesbian with a great German name to live vicariously through. Hope you like it! Continue reading “And you thought last Sunday morning was rough?”
Editor’s Note: The fast-developing saga of Dear Fiend: The Letters of Stoves & Yumyum continues with this rightfully bitter screed from 1975. It would seem that the first meeting between Tasty & Halton did not go well (to put it mildly), and the former felt the need to air certain grievances and commit the surreality of the occasion to permanence.
If you need catching up on this epic for the ages, start with the Editor’s Note and proceed to Tasty’s innocent introduction, followed by Halton’s seemingly innocuous reply.
I’m up to 6050 words, which isn’t a bad sum for two days of writing. That said, a lot of them need to be in a different order before I’d call them good.
I ran out of steam before I finished my chapter, but I like the direction it’s heading. Anyone ever read about a coup d’etat following a mammoth hunt?
You will soon…
Yesterday was my second worst NaNoWriMo opening day EVER. 802 mostly uninteresting words. Not a good way to start off. Luckily, it’s a long month.
And today, I read my first “NaNoWriMo is bad” blog post of the season. This one wasn’t an unreasonable criticism, though I have to admit that I got bored and didn’t actually finish reading. If you click the link, I apologize for linking to Salon.com. Their advertising is generally on the high end of obnoxious.
The general criticism of NaNoWriMo is that it plays up the fun part of writing, and glosses over the fact that you need do a lot of editing to end up with something that people really want to read. The vast majority of Nanoers will agree with this—you don’t go from November 30th to publication without a lot of work in between.
I know the NaNoWriMo website doesn’t like to bring this up. Who would take part if they kept reminding you that, even in the best case scenario, you’re looking at six to 12 more months of hard work before you get something that anyone might want to publish? So, instead, they promote the fun parts. The camaraderie, the excitement at finishing, the feeling of holding the printed manuscript in your hands for the first time…
But is publication really what NaNo is about? I’d argue that it isn’t, and never has been, and it’s nevertheless very worthwhile. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo criticism misses the point”
Against all medical advice, common sense, and concern for my well-being, I’ve decided to go ahead with the NaNoWriMo iPhone Challenge.
I didn’t feel like writing yesterday though, so instead I wrote a bunch of fake reviews to put on my book jacket when it gets published. Does this go towards my word count? Someone consult the official NaNo rules.
Anyways, here’s what I did instead of work on my novel: Continue reading “Day One: Fake Reviews”