Wednesday, February 3, 2010

WIP Wednesday: I Can't Handle the Truth

Why do I get so worked up about the cost of books? (see the previous two posts) It's not like I have some major book deal and stand to gain/lose.

But I do love stories. I've written about that before, right?

Stories have life which stretches beyond the now. Stories can have life which stretches far beyond an author's. Stories are often the casualties of money grabs, even though words don't really belong to anyone or any business entity. Go ahead and fleece writers and readers. I have to believe they will find a way without you.

Okay, enough of that esoteric BS for now. I'm still stuck in short story mode despite the YA novel idea that has been knocking around in my skull like a marble in a metal can for the past few months. I hope to use short story mode to my advantage, buidling background for the novel by writing a flash story for each of the first tier characters. We shall see how that works. Maybe I can shift in March and make this novel happen.

For now, I give you a moment from "The Ghosts of Old Milford":

The others backed away—McHenry back to his loader to carry away the debris, but Nathan moved closer to the hole, remembering. His boots cracked fragments of glass and shards of wood as he stepped on the old floorboards. He counted back in his memory. Thirteen years. He was seven then, when they found the hole for the first time. Seven. He was seven when the men came back, looking for the opening under the floor, and they couldn’t find it. He wanted to look away, but the memory held him: the last time he saw Bobby Talbot’s face, white like a plastic mask at the craft shop, slipping into the black square as his fingers burned and ached and dropped the rope.

I also have a post up at Flash Fiction Chronicles today, more of me rambling about publishing ideas: Self-Publishing in the Era of Self-Publishing.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Good, good stuff, Aaron. When I was a kid, I never trusted anybody to hold the rope, or the ladder, or anything that I climbed.

Elana Johnson said...

Excellent story! I'm a lover of stories too. :)

Katey said...

Mmm yeah, delicious snippet.

I get worked up about it too-- pricing is the lifeblood of any market, right? (Or do I feel that way because my husband is a pricing consultant... oh dear.) We want the market in which we exist to facilitate things for both authors and readers, and of course resent the middle-man who feeds off that.

Cate Gardner said...

Nice excerpt. I hope the shorts inspire you - taken out of context, that sounds very wrong.

Alan W. Davidson said...

It doesn't matter (to us) that you're stuck in short story mode. You know that we're gonna read it anyway...great excerpt, sir!

Aaron Polson said...

Jeremy - You couldn't even get me on the ladder if somebody else was within 20 feet.

Elana - I know you are. Good thing, too.

Katey - I think you just know more about it because your husband is a pricing consultant. And the middle-men? As long as they control distribution, they'll hold the power.

Cate - Good thing I have a solid sense of context. ;)

Alan - Thanks.

Jamie Eyberg said...

I have rather enjoyed your previous ramblings. I am also a person that enjoys talking politics at family functions and haggling over the price of a used car.

Fox Lee said...

A chilling story moment. I am now very wary of ropes!

Anonymous said...

It may not affect many of us at the moment, but eventually we're all going to deal with the ownership/rights/electronic/whatever stuff. That's right. Because we're brilliant, driven, creative people who are going to succeed. I said it.

-Mercedes

Danielle Birch said...

I'm the opposite at the moment - I need to get back into short story mode. And I like your rants :)

K.C. Shaw said...

Book pricing is important because you'll have books under contract soon enough. Besides, none of us want to screw over fellow authors!

Aaron Polson said...

Jamie - I probably won't stop (rambling that is).

Natalie - Ropes are not our friends.

Mercedes - You're brilliant. ;)

Danielle - Don't tell anyone, but I like to rant.

K.C. - I don't want any author to be screwed. I don't want any "content creator" to be screwed. At the risk of sounding like a pinko commie, I don't want any producer to be screwed.