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Genre: Other Genres
About montsamuLocation: Durham, NC, US, NA Home Region: Age:31 Website: http://montsamu.blogspot.com Favorite novels: Anathem, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Favorite writers: Neal Stephenson, Terry Bisson, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman Favorite music: silence; rain; crickets; wind. (I can't listen to lyricised music while I write, and Rachmaninoff sucks me in even more.) Non-noveling interests: programming, reading, music |
Joined: September 24, 2009 This Year: Official Participant NaNoWriMo History: NaNoWriMo posts: 0 NaNoWriMo buddies: 14
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Brief Author Bio: Grew up on a small family farm in Indiana; mechanical engineering -> biology -> creative writing -> finally settled on computer science at Purdue and now work as a software engineer and dabble at writing and music. Husband, father, son, brother, cousin, and friend. |
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Synopsis: The Damning of the Wokou and Other Stories
Not a true NaNoWriMo entry as (1) I doubt I will reach 50k words and (2) this is a collection of shorter stories, even some microfiction, of everything I write (or even spend a lot of time re-drafting or re-formatting) in November.
Part historical fiction set in feudal Japan, part dark fantasy or horror, "The Damning of the Wokou" tells of battles between ninja, samurai, pirates, and zombies, against the backdrop of one ninja's life of vengeance and remorse coming full circle. 4k words. In final drafts.
Part darkly whimsical holiday fancy ("what if there was this elf in Santa's workshop who couldn't help but make sharp-edged, demented toys?") and part "American Psycho" ("what if that elf was a sociopath?"), "Bad Elf" tells the short story of Leonard's sociopathic misadventure one fateful Christmas. 800 words.
The first poem I've written in years, "One Last Mission," tells the story of a soon to retire space miner's mission to examine and if necessary destroy a near-Earth asteroid. 475 words.
"The Man in the Mirror" (250 words) is a flash fiction which will appear in 52-Stitches' 2010 lineup and anthology.
"Leonard" is a children's story about a cowboy who rides a donkey instead of a horse. 150 words.
"The Heron and the Koi" is a 60-word story/poem.
"Entwined" is a western romance (yes... ubelievable) which is already at 2000 words and counting.
"The Spring of Fire-on-the-Water: An Aether Age story" at 7400 words.
Twitter stories:
* A Parent's Hallowe'en Lament (25 words)
* The Ice Lesson (25 words) (to be published late January 2010 from PicFic)
* Natural Predators (25 words)
* Metamorphosis From Five Perspectives (a serial in 5 parts) (75 words)
* Morning Sky Report 02009-11-05 (25 words)
* The Four Loves (25 words)
* City Slickers Deliverance (25 words)
* The Balloon Race (25 words)
* The Bones of the Mountains (25 words)
* The Importance of Appearing Earnest is a 20-word story/poem
* Winter's Fall is a 25-word story/poem.
The "Book Cover Art" here is a Creative Commons licensed file from wikimedia: WakouAttack.jpg
Excerpt: The Damning of the Wokou and Other Stories
(From: "The Damning of the Wokou")
My skin boils around a bite on my arm. I examine the wound with a detached, evaporating consciousness. It is odd to see the clearly human shape of the bite, from bicuspid to bicuspid, in a neat semicircle. The bite is my existence, my all-consuming reality.
That reality grows to include a thin scar on the palm of myl eft hand. It seems that it must be important, but I cannot place its meaning. So many things seem to have become lost and forgotten.
I have begun to forget me.
(From: "Bad Elf")
I tried to be a good elf. I really did. But everything turned out wrong. Sharp-edged toys. Jack-In-The-Box demons.That kind of thing. They tried to give me other jobs more suitable to my gifts, like reindeer euthanasia technician and pest exterminator. This helped.
But everything changed the year I cancelled Christmas.
(From: "The Man in the Mirror")
My sleep had been dreamless, timeless blackness.
I don't remember waking up or how I got there, only squinting in the bathroom as the fluorescent tube blinked to life, flickering. I kept my tired eyes downcast, on the sink, my mouth feeling dry, like bones and ashes. I yawned and ran my fingers over my scalp, turned on the faucet, splashed icy water into my mouth and onto my face, swallowing and then letting the cold drops fall into the sink a while before toweling dry.
Suddenly I felt I was being watched, and looked up to meet an unblinking stare.
(From: "Leonard")
Once upon a time there was a cowboy named Leonard.
He was an unusual cowboy, because he didn't ride a horse.
He rode a donkey.
The other cowboys would point and laugh when he would ride by:
"Leonard! Why don't you get yourself a horse like a _real_ cowboy!"
Leonard would just smile and shrug. "I like donkeys," he'd say.
(Other:)
The Heron and the Koi.
The Importance of Appearing Earnest.
Leaffall.
2x2-swords.
BULL SPEC content. (Sorry to include this, but it's a week of solid "writing.")
Long rambling mind-dump for "Entwined" a --shock-- western romance? Yes. It is.
(Twitter Stories:)
Natural Predators:
Be wary when standing near children with your knees locked; kids can sense this moment of weakness and will go after your ligaments.
Parent's Hallowe'en Lament:
There is not much like the cocktail of guilt, regret, and even a touch of sadness when you realize you've finished your kids' best candy.
Morning Sky Report 02009-11-05:
The waning gibbous moon was low in the west, lower still than the early morning sun in the east, framing an endless sky of unbroken blue.
Liars' League #llsatc entries:
The Balloon Race:
The rooftop seemed a perfect, private place for their rendezvous until the hot air balloonists flew overhead, a rainbow of colors.
City Slickers Deliverance:
The city slickers canoe and camping trip was going just fine until, rolling in over the hills, came the refrains of dueling banjos.
The Bones of the Mountain:
As they moved together against the bones of the mountain, she thought about how nice it was to get away from the city now and then.
montsamu's Writing Buddies
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