Tell me when you write more! Your style is so fun to read.

No, the cosmic powers come with the itty bitty living space.

No genie lamp, no genie powers. Hit 'im with the de-genie-izer ray!

Fell out of the chair laughing. Thank you! Loved this.

What a rollercoaster!

Good luck on this year being better!

Yeah, getting ideas to the length they need to be is challenging. I've still never written anything novel-length myself, but I've written some longer works. Here's an old post that helped me!

Don't make me cry like that.

The Curtain of The Sun

Dilemma on the table: Should you trust the evidence or your loved one?

A terrible crime is committed. Someone had stolen the golden curtain on Lady Sun’s palanquin.

Rumors spread among the Heavenly Court and investigation is held. After going back and forth, all traces and fingers pointed at Lady Moon, Lady Sun’s sister. The younger goddess is devastated, protesting her innocence, but the Heavenly Court hears none of her pleas.

Oh Lady Sun, the bright and righteous goddess, the all-seeing. Would you choose the firm accusation or your dearest sister? And how would you seek the truth to save her from a wrathful punishment?

There is one single truth behind the curtain, if you dare to lift it.

Congrats on selling your story!

And you’re absolutely right. It can be disorienting to switch POV within a scene. I’m paying a lot more attention to that now, but I didn’t in the past. I have to remind myself where the camera is, and it can create some flow issues when you don’t stick with a POV.

Tense shifting is the nemesis in which I regularly do battle, but I’ve cut down on a lot of those issues by maintaining a POV.

Rewriting in itself probably helped a lot too. Even without focusing on the POV, a rewrite can make a world of difference!

Listening to music as a coping mechanism

A sliver of paper written by my deceased Grandfather. Very sappy and emotional but I feel like it also opens up a lot of opportunity for writing.

“How about ‘Robin’?”

So...

Richard - Sloth

Vince - Gluttony

Lily - Lust

Hailey - Pride

Tyler - Envy

Robert - Wrath

Ulysses - Greed

Right?

Yeah looking back on early stuff I've written is a bit cringe. There are a few ideas where I really wish I could have expanded on, but don't know where to take them.

I have so many ideas and yet I don't know that any of them could support a novel length story -- even one of 200 pages, when everything seems to be 300 or more plus sequels.

And I my writing is improving, I'm realizing that some just how bad some of those earlier attempts were. I posted a longer story on Archive of Our Own, but I laugh at it. And cringe, too.

I attribute a rejection for one story with getting a different story published in a different market. It was a flash story, third person. I switched POV characters in the middle for a scene and switched back. It gave the editor whiplash. I didn't realize that this was such a no-no in short fiction. I thought it was one of the benefits of using third person instead of first. (It is not.)

Anyway, I rewrote my Portrait of a Lady Vampire twice, once making the artist the POV person before realizing, Nope, it's the Lady Vampire's story and wrote it again. Daily Science Fiction bought it. They wouldn't have if I hadn't fixed it.

It's an updated remake, "I Dream of Gene".

This is an easier question for my answer!

Backstory #1 (feel free to skip): I had my first story published in 1988 in Autoduel Quarterly (Steve Jackson Games). This led to a couple of gaming articles and a fiction fanize, ending with cowriting GURPS Autoduel 2nd edtion.... And then Life happens: kids, out of work, new profession, schools, starting everything over.

I didn't realize how well I had it before then. Skip ahead a few years...

Backstory #2 (feel free to skip): for many years, I used to go to Lunacon in Rye, NY, which was New York's longest running SF con (over 50 years, and I was at 25+ of them). I "knew" many people up there but not as well as I should have after this time. A writer named C. J. Henderson passed away and there was a memorial/party in his honor at his house. His wife hope for a big showing... He lived a mile from my house, so I went. Talked to people, fanboyed a little... Talked to an editor

TL/DR: I checked the editor's website and there was a flash fiction contest. I entered it and tied for first place (won a free ebook). That got me going again, and over the next year or so, I won a couple more times. My one setback was finding out that one month toward the end, I was the only entrant, but she would've canceled if she didn't like it.

This snowballed into my getting a flash fiction collection published by them. At the same time, I started doing quite a few more prompts here, which may or may not, get turned into another book of stories by the same editor.

Either way, I'm moving forward. I have a bunch of stories circulating, and a couple have gotten an extra sentence or two in the rejection letter. But sadly, mostly rejection letters.

Last year (2022) was a down year for me, and I want to pick it up again this year.

-- If you're still reading, please check out some of my stories on r/xwhy, and leave any feedback (there, here, wherever).

Tim and Gene?

My lungs

The Secret of the Silver Fox

“I’ll become a human if you want! I can do anything! I can be your slave, your playmate, or your handmaiden like I used to. Just let me be with you again. Please.”

When love transcends through time, place, and mythology. A bittersweet romance inspired by the tale of Tamamizu, a fox who fell in love with a woman.

Akari grew up in the countryside of Japan, where wild foxes are often seen prowling freely. One day, she followed them into the woods, ventured deeper than ever before, and made it to the other side. There, she saw a silver fox sitting patiently under a maple tree, as if waiting for her for thousands of years.

I look forward to writing about Bill. They sound like a lovely person. Hopefully, I'll get a story for you tomorrow (I'm going to sleep now, I was more tired than I thought)

?

Can't wish for more wishes? Just wish for more genies!

The palace office is empty, all the guards and all the maids are enjoying their day off as i ruminate on the laughable situation I have found myself in. I have spent my youth fighting tooth and nail to secure my power over the nation of Tropico but now as I grow old, no longer fit to be a ruler I have found I cannot even give this position away.

I spoke to my Ministry, my advisors, my military and my navy, and not a single one of them will even engage with the idea of becoming Presidente, avoiding giving the impression they covet my power. I tried to hold an election, only to find the only citizen to run against me had dropped out after receiving anonymous threats. My spy academy couldn't find any records of our agents doing it, and I know I never ordered it. I tried to turn the ministry into a parliament, and it was interrupted by a protest of all things, people stormed the building and shouted down any proposals they thought I'd oppose, even assaulting the speaker who was to lay out our new constitution. Yesterday, I held a speech on the palace grounds and to my surprise, people actually started throwing things at my balcony when I told them we were cutting back on surveillance, policing, and mandatory labor programs.

For the first time in my life, I've started to fear my own people not because of their lack of faith, but due to their total devotion. They've listened to me so faithfully all my life, and helped me build this beautiful nation, but even served on a golden platter they refuse to take it back. I sigh, grab a cigar, and continue work on my next draft, knowing it will be met with fury, just like the last. It is so hard to be El Presidente.

i love a good "freed genie" story!! and i really loved the shoulder pat callback. such a small thing, but it really warmed my heart!!