Wrote a story...

I spent most of yesterday writing a piece of fiction. It's not the first thing I have written, but it is coming along a whole lot more smoothly than anything else I have done. (I guess that's why I have so many unwritten short stories.)

Alas, this one may not see the light of day. I'll have to give it some serious thought.

One of the reason it is going so well is that I am using the same voice that I use here on my blog, in email, and on the newsgroups. It goes well because it's my voice.

But that isn't the whole story.

The concept is one that I have been kicking around in my mind, and that I have seen elsewhere from time to time. In effect, something rather embarrassing happens to the main character. No, I'm not going to give any details beyond that.

Also, to give the cast room, I made the setting a rural one. I need a setting where the POV (point of view) character can test his physical strength, and where he can get away from time to time without driving. I decided to involve a horse, too, for reasons that will become clear if you ever get to read this thing.

Also, because of the way the characters will be interacting, I decided that the kids of this couple need to be all boys. The fact that I am intimately familiar with what goes on in an all boy (plus one mommy) family helps.

So, in the end, the whole story looks like I wrote myself into it.

I guess that happens a lot. An author's POV character starts to look a lot like the author because it's more natural to make the character do what you would do, rather than try to figure out how a different personality is going to work. After all, we only get to see ourselves from the inside. Everyone else is seen from the outside.

In the end, it may not matter. There is a lot of good stuff explored in this little tale, but there is plenty explored in the other ones.

One is set on a space station. The POV character is the head ecological engineer (a new discipline made necessary by the closed ecology of a large space habitat). This one is done in close third person.

The other explores some new reproductive technology that may spell the end of certain unsavory practices that are currently perpetrated in our society. I made that one in a form of a letter, so it is in first person. I actually finished it, but the passion died about half way through. It is in bad need of a rewrite.

But anyhow, that's what I did yesterday. I also did the usual animal stuff, and put up a fence around the soon to be redneck strawberry pyramid. We need to plant the strawberries soon. The fence will keep the chickens from digging the plants back up now, or maybe eating the berries later.


The gratuitous picture of the day is for those who live below the equator. I am not in the mood for fall. Not even a little bit. Those down under are enjoying fall weather right now, though.

Anyhow, it is kind of pretty. It was taken at my parents' cottage. I have a whole lot more, but I think I'll wait a few months before using them.