Great news … I decided it was high time I designed the book cover for In The Foothills, the collection of short stories and poetry I'm planning to published next February. I think it came out great (see the topic bar on the right). I'd love to get YOUR feedback, though, so please comment or email me with your thoughts.
American Chronicle
I wrote two articles for AC this week. The first one is called "No Conflict Here," a piece where I defend that one can both be against the war in Iraq and still support the troops. Without presenting my entire premise here, the two concepts are definitely mutually exclusive. The other article, entitled "PC or Not PC - The Scourge of Political Correctness," is fairly self-explanatory.
I enjoy writing for American Chronicle and hope to be able to keep up my level of production with them in consideration of my other projects.
In Verse
I completed three poems this week, but have not published them yet. My self-imposed retreat from uploading work to EditRED continues. As long as I have all these writing commitments, I have no spare time to critique others' writing. No new uploads, no critiques are needed. Also, I'm still waiting to find out if my story "Gennaro's Son" won the City Smells competition (or my other pieces will be published in either of their anthologies).
Short Fiction
I temporarily put aside "Dylan's Prayer" and instead, I've been working on two other pieces. One, called "Macdougal Street" is a story that takes place in NYC. The other, called "Tiny Treasures," is a flash fiction piece based on a challenge I put out to the other EditRED writers. Here it is:
"Here is a flash fiction challenge that may be a bit unique for some of you.
A "MacGuffin" is a plot device that was first cited by Alfred Hitchcock that his studio used to create storylines. It's a person / object / information / place of crucial importance to characters in the work (and often for different reasons). The item isn't important so much as what the characters will do to get the item (different motivations, desires, etc.)
Example: the falcon in The Maltese Falcon.
Challenge: 500 words or less where the MacGuffin is an old toy car made of tin. You must have a minimum of two characters. To make the story interesting, they should want the tin car for different reasons, preferably in contrast with the other(s). Whether any one of them ends up with the car isn't important, but what they do to get it (and the underlying reason why they want it) is.
Anyone interested?"
Unfortunately, it wasn't one that caught the imagination of too many people. Maybe when I post mine …
Screenplay
I'm back to editing A Perfect Tenant and it seems it was a good thing I took time away from it, too. In the pages I reviewed so far, I found errors I can't believe I didn't see in the first round of edits. The experts are right … sometimes you need to put the work away for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. My goal is to get the second third draft ready for review early this week.
Reading
I'm back on Chris Vogel's book, The Writer's Journey, which I had set aside for a while.
Other
In my real life, I completed an article and submitted it for publication. My editor only made a few changes and it will be in the June edition of the magazine. As has been my custom, I'm keeping that part of my writing separate from this one (Michael C. Cordell is my pseudonym). Someday, the real me will reveal the fake me, but that won't be until I have commercial success with the latter and I'm ready to retire from the former's career.
That's all for this week. Thank you for your feedback and encouragement, as always.
Michael
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