Wednesday, August 25, 2010

WIP Wednesday: Like a Dog

The pseudo-horror, magically real (I hope), The Things They Carried inspired WIP has a working title. I'm not sure mentioned it before, but for the record I'm calling it We're All Liars Here. Until I can work "Saints" into the title, that is...

As I finish stories, I'm going to try and sell a few individually. Some won't work out of context of the book, but others should fare just fine.

So far, I've written part (or all) of the following (about 20K):

"We're All Liars Here"
"The Second Death of Elroy Jantz"
"BJ is Seventeen"
"Mutiny"
"The First Girl I Loved"
"The Ground Plan of Hell"

And I'm having a helluva good time along the way. I hope to share the journey in its entirety someday, but for now...

Tony Manning was a liar. He usually lied about little things, like when he stole beer from his father on the night Bobby killed Elroy Jantz. Tony lied so well his old man never imagined a single can went missing. The big lies he reserved for special occasions, but all of them--big or small--came from his lips with a silver of magic.

How's your WIP coming along?

11 comments:

K.C. Shaw said...

I love those story titles, and I especially love the 'We're All Liars Here' title. Intriguing and evocative! Good luck with it.

Aaron Polson said...

I have to admit, "Mutiny" and "The Ground Plan of Hell" were lifted from a Birthday Party song (Nick Cave's band before the Bad Seeds). The song title, "Mutiny in Heaven", is just too good.

Alan W. Davidson said...

What a busy guy you are...and that last line is fantastic.

"...came from his lips with a silver of magic."

Fox Lee said...

Very intriguing : )

Anonymous said...

Great idea to sell the stories as stand-alones. Stephen V. Ramey is doing the same thing, and so far he's had good luck with it: one's at Everyday Weirdness and another is at Short-Story.Me! I'm attempting something similar with four stories revolving around the same character/storyline. A couple short-lists from two editors, but no takers yet...

Cate Gardner said...

I love that title and yes I do think I remember you mentioning it before.

Should I say this sounds like something I'd like to read or shall we just take that as read now. :D

Aaron Polson said...

Alan - More magic than he knows. (it catches him later)

Natalie - I hope so...

Milo - It's been fun so far, a nice blend of longer, novel-type writing and short stories (which I prefer). Best of luck.

Cate - Hopefully you'll have the opportunity. I'd like to say "yes" you will, but the fates haven't decided.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a really cool idea. I'm thinking about trying to sell the first little section of my WIP. Wasn't sure how that works, though, rights-wise.

Katey said...

Oooh, nice! Rather enjoyed that snippet, I must say. The list of titles makes me think this is something I need, as well, in particular the overarching "We're All Liars Here".

I mean, we are, aren't we?

Danielle Birch said...

I always love a good liar story.

Bobbie Metevier said...

This sounds wonderful! I wish I had the gift of titles. It takes me ages!