December Poll Results

Hello Writes Readers,

The vote for the December Short Story closed yesterday and with 75% of the vote I will be writing:

A newt called Eunice lives in Rural England. There is some kind of newt vs human (are they all bad?) sort of dilemma. Eunice encounters several different people from various walks of life. It is impossible to tell a male newt from a female newt until they are young adults.

as the December short story.

I hope to get this and the delayed November story to you by the end of the year.

– Andrew

 

Thursday Thoughts: I’ve Been A Bit Rubbish

Hello there Writes Readers,

You may have noticed that I have been a bit silent on the blog recently, I promise that this was not intentional and I’m going to have to sort of explain my life a bit to get across what’s been going on.

I said from the start that I didn’t want this blog to be about my life and how much toast I have eaten, but my life has changed a lot this year and this goes to explain why I’ve been AWOL this month. I’ve not been well at all this year, spending the first 8 months of it in and out of hospital for tests. Then in the summer I lost my job. Which in some ways was a blessing as it forced me to evaluate my life and priorities. My number one priority for the remainder of 2013 was to look after myself. I started writing They’re Here and I created this blog, both of which have really helped in balancing my life. Since shortly before losing my job I started a course of medication, which helped but in recent months the side effects started to really get to me. Last month my doctor and I decided to see how I would be without medication for a month. Short version is that I’ve felt much better for it, I have a lot more energy and as such have been spending more time out of the house (I also started  a new job) and less time at the computer. So, while I’m being a terrible blogist for not keeping up with my writing and posts, what I’m making up for in feeling happy is very important to me.

My doctor is pleased with how I’m getting on, and while I feel the best I have felt all year, I’m still far from feeling perfectly well. There is a fog of illness that I feel on the cusp of all the time and I am very conscious that I need to take care of myself.

I’m not stopping the blog, and I hope you will be happy to continue to read what I’m writing. The December short story vote is up (https://ardavidsonwrites.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/short-story-voting-december/), so please go and vote for one of those very Newt-centric stories.  The voting will be up until Boxing Day and I aim to have the November and December stories up by the end of the year.

So that’s me. Happy but absent. I think there’ll be a post on Monday and then that might be it for 2013 until I post the short stories.

I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.

– Andrew

December Short Story Submission

Welcome to December’s Interactive Short Story submission post.

I’ve been a little busy and will hopefully publish November’s short story by the end of this week, I hope you are looking forward to it.
But time waits for no writer, and it is time for a new story and I need your short story ideas!

What I Need From You

• Character(s) – Protagonist, Antagonist, love interest, etc. Anyone you feel is important. (names optional)
• Setting – Where does the story take place?
• What happens – eg. Orange moves into the Fruit Bowl.
• Inciting incident – what changes? eg. Orange is a bit old and starts to go mouldy, the rest of the fruit in the Fruit Bowl try to work out a plan to get Orange out.
  
• A small detail – something you want me to work in to the story. (optional)

You don’t have to include all of those details, though the more detail the better. If there’s something you want to add that you feel is important please do. Try and think of something that would, how shall we say, make it tricky for me. I dare you.

Try and put your idea into a short sentence or two, remembering that these submissions will go to vote, keep it snappy.

Submissions will go to reader vote on December 14th 2013 and will be open until midday on December 21st 2013.

I will write your idea as a short story for publishing on this blog.

Thank you for submitting an idea. Without you this blog won’t work.
I look forward to reading your ideas.

– Andrew

Rules

• Please do not use existing works in your submission.
• Only submissions made in the comment section of this post will be counted, submissions made anywhere else will not be included.
• I have final say on which 5 story ideas go to the vote, apologies if yours is not chosen.
• Submissions made after 10.00pm GTM on Friday 13th December will not be eligible for voting.
• By submitting a short story suggestion you waive all rights to that story. The copyright to the completed short story will be mine exclusively. By submitting a suggestion you are agreeing to this.