Well, it's almost the end of May, which means that the deadline for my initial submission to the Terry Pratchett memorial anthology is coming due. Instead of working through the Writing Excuses Master Class, this week I'm going to be working on my submission. It requires a brief author bio, a two-line synopsis, and a 500-word writing sample.
I'm planning to use some of my edited Nano work as my writing sample, so below is the draft of my bio and synopsis. I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys can give me on this - just remember I have to send this off by Sunday!
Author bio:
Stephanie Wood Franklin has been telling people she'll be an author since she was eight. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two step-cats
Synopsis:
Julia needs to fill the gaps in her memory. She encounters Dr. Evans, a psychiatrist with a unique treatment for memory issues, and ends up travelling the labrynthian halls of her mind, finding out why some doors should remain locked.
Showing posts with label anthology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anthology. Show all posts
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Monday, July 28, 2014
Book review - Help Fund My Robot Army!!!
I thought it might be nice to try something new this week. If you watch my Goodreads profile, you'll see that I tend to read a lot of different kinds of books. Of late, I've become hooked on short story anthologies, as they give me such a broad range of stories and styles in one convenient package. The best anthology I've read recently is John Joseph Adams' Help Fund My Robot Army!!!
The premise of the anthology is that each story is told as though it were a project page on a crowdfunding site such as Kickstarter or Indigogo. The format is pretty well restrained, as the author is limited to essentially a sales pitch, different levels for backers, updates, and occasionally some conversation through backer comments.
Even with these restrictions, the authors who wrote the stories that make up this anthology are able to use every little bit to create characters and worlds that feel completely fleshed out. For example, Jake Kerr's story "A Memorial to the Patriots" gives us a United States in which terrorist attacks have led to a severe reduction in any kind of communication (and shows us how futile that can be), while Carmen Maria Machado's story "Help Me Follow My Sister Into the Land of the Dead" manages to give an in-depth view of a family that's falling apart.
There are some silly projects, too, since that makes up a good number of the projects actually available on Kickstarter. Even these, however, have far more depth than I expected in such a small amount of space. As a reader, I'm enchanted by how many different worlds and how many unique voices the authors are able to create. As a writer, I wish to learn exactly how they managed to pull this off.
Overall, five stars, would definitely read again.
The premise of the anthology is that each story is told as though it were a project page on a crowdfunding site such as Kickstarter or Indigogo. The format is pretty well restrained, as the author is limited to essentially a sales pitch, different levels for backers, updates, and occasionally some conversation through backer comments.
Even with these restrictions, the authors who wrote the stories that make up this anthology are able to use every little bit to create characters and worlds that feel completely fleshed out. For example, Jake Kerr's story "A Memorial to the Patriots" gives us a United States in which terrorist attacks have led to a severe reduction in any kind of communication (and shows us how futile that can be), while Carmen Maria Machado's story "Help Me Follow My Sister Into the Land of the Dead" manages to give an in-depth view of a family that's falling apart.
There are some silly projects, too, since that makes up a good number of the projects actually available on Kickstarter. Even these, however, have far more depth than I expected in such a small amount of space. As a reader, I'm enchanted by how many different worlds and how many unique voices the authors are able to create. As a writer, I wish to learn exactly how they managed to pull this off.
Overall, five stars, would definitely read again.
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