Today is listed as the last day of the Short Story Craft Workshop and all the lectures are now done (more on those below) but the workshop continues through tomorrow.

I turned in my third short story today, a contemporary romance titled “Hot Turtle Sex,” which is loosely based on a friend of mine who I call Turtle Man. Some of you know who I am referring to. He always seemed like someone who deserved an epic story of derring-do. He didn’t get that in this story, but he did get a sweet romance. Once again, he is loosely based on the real Turtle Man and I’ve combined other traits with his to make him truly fictional. The one part that is absolutely true is that he is an incredibly sweet guy who rescues turtles.

The final sets of lectures were on how to sell short fiction and how to make a living writing short fiction. They were exhaustive, totalling 17 videos in all.

Kris Rusch also went over two more of the books we read highlighting techniques we should keep in mind. She picked my very favorite story in one of them to highlight and now I’m excited to try the techniques in that story.

Yesterday Kris gave feedback on our science fiction/fantasy stories. What she said about mine is: I need more depth, which is basically sensual description. I needed to work on the auditory sound of the prose so that I gave the impression of a ship on water. And that the story felt more like an outline. But she says that the story itself is good. What I need to do is redraft it. Her comments on all these stories have been so incisive that getting feedback of what I did wrong is almost as exciting than hearing that what I did right.

In other news, I heard back from Writers of the Future. The story I sent in for the Quarter 1 contest earned another Honorable Mention. That makes three Honorable Mentions this year. I am very glad to be doing so well, but I hope next time I can level up to a Silver Honorable Mention. At this point I am going to add a page to my website listing my Honorable Mentions, because why not?

I hope your week is filled with success!

Be well, friends!