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Basic Science or the Work of The Devil? A new story that explores this question. I would be happy to get any comments or reviews. Just under 2000 words.
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A Plug for A WDC Colleague One of our colleagues has gone all in for the world of writing and publishing. Beyond just writing, editing, and seeking commercial traditional publication. He has become a publisher working with a group of real-world colleagues of his. Amazing. This is a plug for Max Griffin 🏳️🌈   if you haven’t seen his newsfeed posting "Note: The Spring 2025 issue of Tales from the Crosstimbe...". The cover here below of his upcoming release. I have no hidden agenda or motives for plugging this issue. Nothing hidden. |
| Get Short Story Collection Free Before Publisher's Launch Would you like to be an Advanced Reader Copy for an upcoming Horror Anthology? Get the book for free and give the publisher your unbiased review with atleast 30 days to read and review. I have read one of the stories, I think it is quite good. I might not be unbiased. If you send me a message with your real-world name and an email by Feb 28, I will provide your contact information to the publisher. |
Racey Nixon Slogan, Fake or Real? Recently I was watching an episode of the X-files, I can’t remember which season. I think it was one of the reboot seasons. There was a vintage-looking Nixon poster on the wall with a saying: They Can’t Lick Our Nickname for Richard I’m sure you can guess which nickname, a limericky match for lick. I didn’t want to repeat it explicitly on the Newsfeed. My immediate thought is that it was a prop, created for the show. Then I started searching on the Internet. You can buy buttons and posters with the phrase, some say they are authentic memorabilia from the late sixties or early seventies. There are claims they were sponsored by the campaign or tacitly endorsed as an informally used slogan. A few sites claim these were created years after Nixon resigned from office as a sort of satirical jab. This seems to be one of those quirky things that is difficult to prove to someone who believes differently. What do you think, modern satire or presidential memorabilia? |
| A version of that seems to be true: The 7 most awkward campaign songs used by US presidential candidates  |
Anyone Use Pubshare for Recieving Payment I came across an anthology call for submissions. It requires signing up for Pubshare to get paid and is supposedly free. I don't have any experience with the platform and soem basic research it seems to be legitimate but I can't be sure. Anyone use the site as an author? Do you have to give credit card information? Is it really free? |
Elite Eight What do these eight countries have in common? Hint, think rule of law and principles of justice. United States China India Israel North Korea Pakistan Russia Syria Come on, they are so obviously aligned by common values, right? You got it now, right. These eight countries are not one of the 125 signatories to the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. No other commentary, it’s just a list. |
Homophone or Homonym? I cannot bear the sensation of my bare skin touching the bear skin rug. Which is which? bear;bare bear;bear |
Allan Charles 🐾  - heteronym and homonym, I was taught, are synonyms. Oh, and you said a homonym has the same spelling or pronunciation? Same pronunciation and different spelling is a homophone. So, yeah, anyway, I think the issue with me chiming in is US English is different to UK English. I didn't realise this was a difference. Sorry. |
S 🤦  - Yeh, probably just a difference. And no worries, I could have my info mixed up too. Those words get confusing to me after looking at them for a minute. |
| I posted this "Good Mourning Whirled" in "PromptMaster !" recently. I used sixty-nine homophones in this silly poem. It's a little challenging to read. |
Approaching the Winter? Are you approaching the winter of your life? I am, and it is hard to believe. One of our colleagues, Joey says, Love's on the Loose  , has written a touching and finely crafted first-person story about the feelings you might be feeling. Give it a read, you will enjoy it.
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Damon Nomad  T . When I started, I had almost no idea what to write or where to look for inspiration. So I went out to water my garden... (I live in Florida, so there is no snow) But while tending to my roses, the neighbor's grands played in the yard with my pal Loy. They played soccer, and my muse decided to inspire me then and there. And from that brief moment this piece came to life. Yes, therein lay a good bit of self-reflection, but I swear it had to be someone else whispering in my muse's ear. This one was way better than most of the stuff in my port. I even think the 1,000 word limit was a plus, else it would be too long. |
Which Nonadjective Label Would You Like as a Writer Poet Artist Scribe Wordsmith Storyteller Chronicler Laureate Something else? For me . . . Storyteller. Hopefully with a positive adjective. |
Pretentious or Poetic; Plain Spoken or Simplistic I occasionally come across something written that I cannot finish reading because of the flowery and elaborate language. Why do people write in such a pretentious fashion? I think to myself as I look for something else to read and comment on or review. I have been questioning my own attitude about fiction. I enjoy reading popular genre fiction with plain language, and interesting and engaging plots and characters. In my journey as a writer, I want to entertain and engage with plain-spoken and clear language. I seek to measure my development as a writer and storyteller in traditionally published commercial fiction. So that has become the lens through which I see writing, sticking with fiction. I realize that it is pretentious of me to judge other writers' work through my personal bias. There most certainly must be readers who search out elegant literature and would be appalled by my simplistic style. So, to each his own in this regard and recognize your own biases when looking at the work of others. |
My Brilliant Failures in 2024 Writing Goal for Short Stories In January I posted about the one-hundred rejection goal suggested by some writing ‘gurus’. "Note: Success Through Failure Rejection thera..." The main point of the exercise is based on rejection therapy, learn to accept rejection and move on. How close did I come and was I successful? Regarding the goal's metric, I was a miserable failure. I did not even come close to a hundred submissions., much less that many rejections. But rejections come much easier now. Here are my numbers. Seventy-seven submissions and sixty rejections. Eleven are still pending, having been submitted in the last few months. On the upside, I have three short stories that have been published and three more with signed contracts for anthologies that should be out in the early part of this year. So, being generous to myself, I had an acceptance rate of 6 out of 66 or nine percent. One of my most noteworthy experiences was a rejection, a highly competitive anthology with more than 350 submissions. I got emails twice about making it through progressive rounds to the final shortlist. Then a rejection email, but a thoughtful and detailed critique from two editors on what they liked and where they thought the story came up short. A hugely valuable source for areas of improvement. I found the intense competition of commercial short stories, of the pulp fiction variety, to be an excellent way to improve my writing as well as get an unbiased and objective measure of how my writing stacks up. Just this week I got an email from a publisher for an anthology call that will be coming out soon, giving me a heads up and hoping that I submit. A first for me. For 2025, I will continue to increase the number of submissions. My goal for this year is to see if I can land a story in one of the big publications: Asimov, Clarkes World, Hitchcock, or Ellery Queen. Honestly, I expect to fail at this level. Like a semi-pro baseball player trying out for a major league team. All they can do is reject me, and that’s a success. I want to thank all of the writers on WDC who have read, commented, and reviewed my stories here. I want to particularly thank S 🤦 for his thoughts and advice on commercial fiction submissions and story writing. |
A Great Quote About Grammar for Fiction Writers “Perfect grammar has nothing to do with great writing.” Jane Friedman in Writers Digest June 2010 Friedman goes on to say, “The worry you invest in grammar is energy diverted away from the meat of the writing. Grammar is a surface-level issue that should be taken care of separately, near the end of the writing process, and can even be corrected or polished by someone else.” This is exactly how I feel about grammar in my writing. I only have so much time to dedicate to improving my writing craft. I could spend the rest of my life improving the mechanics of effective and entertaining storytelling. I’m not going to try and perfect my grammar. Which is not the same as saying I will not try and improve. In fact, I am nearly finished with a month-long online course dedicated to grammar and punctuation. The vast majority of fiction readers expect clarity and understanding, not mastery of the rules of grammar. Except of course the grammarians, oh well you can’t please everyone. Source article link https://www.writersdigest.com/general/why-i-dont-care-about-grammar-and-why-you-... Vigorously Disagree? Make your case. |
| Damon Nomad - In tense, I would argue continuous past, pluperfect and future past are also useful for a writer. But, really, if you are writing straight-forward fiction, standard verb tense without too much passive voice and just being consistent tenses is all writers aim for (except capital-L Literature). But now we're getting into details. I mean, who labels tenses? For that matter, I have never had to diagram a sentence, and yet the USA insists kids do it. This is getting into things that do not matter when looking at punctuation and grammar. No editor is going to expect 100% perfection, but the closer you are, if it comes between you and someone else, the one that needs the less editing is going to get the place in the anthology. I am under no delusion that a number of my stories were only accepted because a minimum of editing was required, not because I am a particularly good writer. And I disagree. Punctuation really is simple. Commas, semi-colons, direct speech - it is all pretty simple. There's a lot, but it isn't difficult. |
H (from down under) raises. I try to use proper grammar and control the SPAG in my writing. Mostly, when there are missteps and errors in my efforts, they are my lazy oversights. One of the classic truths about writing is we, the authors, when reading our own works, see what is supposed to be on the page instead of what is actually written. But occasionally, I use bad grammar on purpose. When writing a scene with over three speakers, I often look for a way to distinguish one speaker from another without dialogue tags. Sometimes, I don’t let a character use contractions when they speak. This often gives the reader a sense of stilting/elitist tilt to the character. Other times, I use slang/other mispronounced words or improper/poor grammar to show a unique character's lack of sophistication or education. These minor grammar mistakes are useful in improving the flow and understanding of who is speaking in the scene. But these usages should always be on purpose, not because of a lack of good copyediting. |
| Joey says, Love's on the Loose - All good points. I would note, In the world of commercial fiction the publishers have the copy editors for that final polish before publication. When competing with a hundred or more writers and a deadline, I believe some misplaced commas will be tolerated if you have one of the most captivating stories. |
Strange Place for a Review I recently became aware that one of my short stories, published in a commerical anthology, had a review in an unusual spot. A whole web page on the site for just my story at the College of Charleston. Not the literature department but a site created by Professor Alex Kasman in the Department of Mathematics. He reviews movies, comic books, novels, TV shows and short stories. The site is titled Mathematical Fiction. He includes a link to the book, Arithmophobia, on Amazon. So what the heck, I'll take it. Here is a link to his review of my story. Eratosthenes’ Map by Damon Nomad |
| I got there by googling him and then, making a series of decisions I thought I would find it but didn't. I backtracked and made new decisions, finally gfinding it. I think it's your URL syntax, try https://kasmana.people.charleston.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf1649 |
Do You Pay Attention to PM? “Which PM might that be?” You ask.  Is there more than one? I shoot back.  “Post Master, particulate matter, provost marshal, post meridiem, promethium . . .” “Okay, fine. This is about writing. So obviously I’m referring to Pace and Mood.” If you are relatively new to writing fiction like me, you might not be paying enough attention to the pace and mood of your storytelling. The mechanics may be flawless with a clever plot and interesting characters, but your stories keep getting rejected by publishers or not winning contests. There are many reasons why stories get chosen, even good stories get rejected. Have you considered the pace and mood of your stories? These two elements help bring stories alive and give the reader an emotional experience. You’ve felt it when you watch a television show; the mood is often set by the lighting, music, and setting. Felt the pace through action and shifting scenes. As the writer you should be shaping the mood with the settings, dialog word choice, character behavior and body language, and weather. Some of the common tools at your disposal. Control the pace through action, sentence length, paragraph length, how quickly dialog bounces back and forth, how quickly you change scenes, and selective use of cliffhangers at the end of scenes or chapters. I’ve learned to go back to stories before a submission deadline with careful consideration to pace and mood. Several times, I have recognized my story is flat because I have not paid enough attention to PM. Best Wishes for the New Year |
| I'm six chapters into writing a witch story for Bren. I'm trying to stay constantly aware of its pace, and frankly, I don't think I'm doing well in that area. In these first chapters, I have to present a lot of backstory. If I tell it too quickly, critical details might be lost. If I let it develop, as I'm doing, it seems to drag. I think I'm doing a fair job of controlling the mood from chapter to chapter and overall. A few years back, I began a novel which I have largely abandoned after writing only one chapter. It was to have been a pretty-much serious novel, but I wanted it to be "Gripping from the first line!" So it began like this: "Denture adhesive!" Protagonist exclaimed aloud. "What will they want me to write about next?" Seriously. I did that. |
Give this finely crafted story of a Newbie a read. Clearly an experienced writer even if new to WDC.
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Interesting story; I can see why people would think that considering what they unleashed.
But there is no Devil; there is only humanity being humanity.
(I'll need to be more awake to review it properly for you.)