I'm done with my story about the undead sharks, although since there's only one shark, it's just an undead shark story. The working title was "Bad Sushi" but I've changed it to "Red Teeth, Red Sails." The story takes place on a sailfishing trip.
I suspect it's horrible and completely unscary. The character stuff I included feels forced. The ending wobbles around before just stopping. I made up almost every single fact I used, except for a quick browse through some sailfishing charter trip websites. But then, that's how I write all my stories.
I haven't sent the story off to the Dead Bait anthology yet--I'm hoping that sitting on it a day or two will help me pinpoint and fix (if possible) the story's myriad flaws. Unfortunately, the main flaw is that I'm just not a horror writer. Hanging out with all you horror guys and gals makes me feel like I'm running with the big dogs, but after this story it seems pretty obvious that I should probably stay on the porch writing about, you know, elves.
14 comments:
Undead elves? HA!
Just kidding. I love elves. Somewhere in me I have an epic fantasy bursting to get out. Fantasy was always my first literary love, and the bigger in scope they are, the more I want to read them.
I loathe epic fantasy, but I love the kind of fantasy that has all kinds of various intelligent species. It's hard to find one without the other, though. I used to read a lot of epic fantasy when I was younger, but whenever I come across one now it just seems to be atrociously badly written. Even the so-called good ones.
Yeah, the market seems saturated with these big, bloated "epics" that keeping churning out volume after volume. I like epic tales, but somewhere along the line it seemed somebody decided that all fantasies had to be sprawling monstrosities. There is something to be said for a stand-alone story that doesn't revolve around a cast of thousands.
Ooh, I totally agree! The bookstores are full of the junk, though. It's much easier to find good fantasies online.
Also, I totally want to read about undead elves now. :)
Elves are scary. Sharks are scary.
...and you are the resident undead shark expert.
I hope your story gets in because I really want to read it. Have you ever read "Meg" by Steve Alton? Not an undead shark but a brute who creates a lot of havoc on the local populations.
Aaron--Elves are scary? Well, some elves are. Pratchett's elves are freakin horrific.
Jamie--I'll have to look up the "Meg" story. Sounds iiiinteresting.
I just reread my undead shark story and it's not as horrible as I was thinking. It holds together. Maybe I'll go ahead and send it, although I bet I regret my decision.
Well, the deed is done. I went ahead and submitted the story to Dead Bait. Cross your fingers!
fingers crossed for you as well. I still have to write my story for that one. Still working on 2012 and it is science fiction-ish.
Cool, I hope your story is going well! I'm not even going to try to get into the 2012 antho, unless I come up with a killer (heh) idea. The end of the world seems more your thing than mine. :)
It is a pretty cool feeling to knock off 9 billion people in one fell swoop.
Lol, I can see why that would be a little addictive.
Ever seen the animated Tom Hanks X-Mas movie Polar Express? My kids watched that a couple of weeks ago...elves are once again scary. Like Uruk-hai scary.
I haven't been able to bring myself to watch that thing. I'm an animation snob and the animation...well, let's just say the animation itself is scary. As in, you know, frighteningly bad. Maybe I'll catch the scary elves part on TV one of these holidays.
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