Slattery – Page 6 – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

Update: My Short Story “Bye-Bye” has been Accepted for Publication

My short story “Bye-Bye” has been accepted for publication at Fiction on the Web and will appear there on July 26. If you are interested in finding out more about them, follow this link to an Authors Publish review of their site. In their first paragraph, Authors Publish says this about Fiction on the Web:

“Fiction on the Web (FotW), was founded in 1996, which makes it one of the oldest online literary journals. In fact it is the oldest online journal that focuses solely on publishing short fiction. They have had hundreds of thousands of readers over the years…”

“Bye-bye” is a mainstream love story, which I feel is very poignant and says something about the better side of human nature. It is based on an actual event I witnessed, when I was in the Navy and our ship, the USS Enterprise, made a portcall in Toulon, France, in 1986. I never spoke with any of the characters involved and most of the story is fiction, but it has a kernel of truth at its core.

The story is unusual for a work of short fiction, because it uses footnotes to explain some of the Navy jargon. I felt I had to keep the jargon to keep the story realistic, though I tried to keep the footnotes to an absolute minimum, so as to interrupt the narrative flow as little as possible.

Please visit Fiction on the Web on July 26 and let me know what you think of the story. One excellent advantage of publishing on Fiction on the Web is that their stories normally receive a lot of good, constructive criticism from their readers. I find that very helpful in developing my art.

Update: June 8, 2019, 7:27 p.m. Marketing for The Man Who…

Working on “Shadows and Stars Lying Down” with hair thinning. May 24 or 25, 2019, in IHOP, Midland, TX

One issue I have struggled with is whether to publish The Man Who Escaped from Hell as one volume with two parts or as two volumes because of a distinct story line break. Part I is where the protagonist, Jake Brody, is in Hell remembering the past and then escapes, and the second part, Jake is on Earth again with new problems to face.

Looking at word count, part I has 54,000+ words. Therefore, I am now strongly considering publishing it as the first volume to be followed at some point soon by the second part, which currently has 30,000+ words.

The advantage of the two volume strategy is that it builds suspense for the release of the second volume and will hopefully increase sales. The disadvantage, of course, is that the second volume has to be superb in order to avoid being a disappointment and damaging my long range goals.

Update: June 8, 2019, 5:59 p.m. Publicity/Marketing

The post immediately before this one, gave me an idea/revelation (remember that I am still a novice at marketing).

Advertising my upcoming novels by updating the progress on them is like a TV mystery series with a definite but unpredictable conclusion somewhere in the future. Hopefully, it will likewise draw an ever-increasing audience as a TV mystery would.

At the moment, we are watching “Good Omens” (very entertaining) on Amazon, which stars Michael Sheen and David Tennant of “Broadchurch” and “Dr. Who”. The connection with the preceding paragraph is that the first season (at least) of “Broadchuch” is a good example of at TV mystery that intrigues the audience and draws them toward a inevitable but unpredictable conclusion.

There was another revelation associated with this, but I can’t recall it offhand. I have had little sleep over the past few days and my mind (or what’s left of it) isn’t functioning at full capacity..

Update: June 8, 2019, 4:48 p.m. “The Man Who Escaped from Hell”

One of my concepts of cover art for The Man Who Escaped from Hell using an alternate title. The locket is a significant detail in the overall story. The graphic is from the public domain, but it dovetails nicely with the story and provided inspiration for the inclusion of a locket.

After reviewing the word counts on my three novels in progress, I realize that I should be focusing on The Man Who Escaped from Hell (working title), which is by far the furthest along at 84,000+ words. I want it between 80,000 and 100,000. Shadows and Stars…, however, is at 54,000+ with the same goal of 80,000-100,000. Another, The Long-Pig Inquiry, (working title, sci-fi/horror), is at around 34,000+ with the same goal. I worked most recently on The Man Who… over the Fall and Winter, but the ideas would not flow, but ideas for Shadows and Stars… were coming constantly and still are. Ideas for The Long-Pig Inquiry come occasionally.

But with The Man Who… being closest to a complete first draft, I will take some time to review its status and see if I can stimulate enough ideas to bring it to a well-crafted conclusion. I do not want this to be some (pardon my French) half-assed hack work. I want it to be a true work of art. I will have to continue with Shadows and Stars… simultaneously, because the good ideas keep coming. It would be foolish to let them slip away.

By the way, “long pig” is a term cannibals of New Guinea reportedly use to refer to the flesh of humans, much as we use “pork” to refer to the flesh of swine. The taste is said to be similar to that of pork.

Of course, the subject of The Man Who… is a man who literally escapes from Hell, but there is a twist revealing that escaping from Hell is not as simple as one would think, not that escaping from Hell would be ever be simple.

One thing I have learned in writing these posts, is that it is fun to tease the audience with the superficial details of a mystery and this helps me learn how to hold an audience in suspense.

Update: June 7, 2019, 5:02 p.m. Word Count for “Shadows and Stars…”

For my sci-fi novel, Shadows and Stars Lying Down, I am shooting for a word count of between 80,000 to 100,000. I currently have a little over 54,000 words. I am past the point of no return. I have to finish this.

When I research word count for a novel, short story, or novella, I find a lot of varying answers. The most recent general consensus seems to be that to be accepted as a first novel by most publishers these days, the word count should be around 80,000-100,000. That may vary considerably by publisher (I have seen one that accepts 50,000 words as a first novel and another as 40,000, a more traditional count).

Other figures I have found for other formats for fiction are:

6-300 for micro-fiction

Up to 1,000 for flash fiction

1,000-21,000 for a short story (sometimes longer)

Around 10,000 for a novelette (a debatable category)

Circa 20,000-50,000 for a novella

Of course, there are lots of subcategories and nuanced categories that one might find, particularly under the flash fiction category. There is even a Twitter novel/story of what can fit into a single tweet.

For what it’s worth, I did a quick search of Duotrope, which I use for submitting short stories. In general, Duotrope considers 40,000+ words to be a novel. Granted that this is very small slice of novel publishers, but I found out the following, which may give an indication of generally accepted lengths for a novel (there are a whole lot of possible caveats here). I won’t list the publishing company names. Note the range of differences. Note also that some of these companies overlap the different pay rates. For example, a company might pay pro rates and semi-pro rates (though I tried to separate those here). In any case, this gives an idea of the range of opinions of the length a novel should be.

I have surpassed the 40,000+ point with my novel, but to tell the story as I think it should be, I will need at least 80,000 words anyway.

For a market paying Duotrope’s “pro rates” for a novel on any topic there were six matches. Here are the lengths considered novels:

40,000-45,000

40,000-75,000

40,000-80,000

80,000+ (two companies)

100,000-130,000

For a market paying Duotrope’s “semi-pro rates” for a novel on any topic there were six matches. Here are the lengths considered novels:

40,000+ (four companies)

60,000+

80,000+

For a market paying Duotrope’s “token rates” for a novel on any topic there were six matches. Here are the lengths considered novels:

40,000+ (four companies)

40,000-90,000

80,000+

Let me know you opinion of these lengths and nuanced categories/formats you find interesting.

Update: June 6, 2019, 4:08 a.m.

Occasionally, I have issues with sleeping. Tonight is one of those nights.

I typed some notes I made recently into Shadows and Stars... earlier this evening, watched a little TV, and then tried to get to sleep around 2:00 with no success. So I played a video game until just now and I will try to sleep.

Shadows and Stars… is gradually taking shape. I had a couple of ideas for it while watching TV earlier. Some ideas about society and life as a whole seem to be taking shape as the novel progresses. I suppose it’s because I am thinking along different lines, because Shadows and Stars… involves an alien world (not like the “grays” though; more like Earth people with a few differences) and I have to think about what an alien society would be like. I want to make it different enough to be intriguing, but yet similar enough that readers can easily see the comparisons and contrasts with our world. The aliens also have to have an alien perspective on the universe and on life in general, so I am trying to develop some radical breaks with the way our society views things. I am starting to come to some realizations about our own world, things that we take for granted, but which might seem bizarre to an alien. As part of this approach, I am developing characters with radically different thinking and viewpoints than we have or admit to having on Earth. As an example, one of the alien characters is a reclusive monk named Sato, who lives alone in the deep forest. When two of the main characters come across his cabin in the forest, the main character, the protagonist, Daryn, notices several parchment scrolls of Sato’s meditations lying around. Sato allows Daryn to read part of one. Following are Sato’s observations. I may add more later. Note that Sato calls himself “mad”. He uses this sarcastically and ironically, because it is what the supposedly civilized people of his world call him, because he doesn’t fit in to their society. In reality, he is very astute, but no one recognizes this.

I came up with these in a variety of ways. Some are my own observations and conclusions. Some are derivative of philosophical principles, quotes, or statements or other stuff (for lack of a better term). I tried to make them mystical sounding and somewhat confusing, like something you would expect an alien recluse/philosopher to say when he is penning his thoughts in his primitive, remote cabin in the woods in the dark of night. Remember: I tried to write these from an alien perspective and these are only a few of his “musings”.

Let me know what you think.

The Musings of Sato the Mad

Lies are truths wrapped in shadows; truths are lies drenched in sunlight.
The beast that eats me is evil, but I am evil to the beast I eat.
A man believes not what he needs to believe, but what he desires to be true.
More gods dance in the night than roam in the daylight.
As with man, there are fewer gods on mountaintops than in valleys.
Just as corpses are nectar to maggots, so are lies to despots.
All hearts are red.
Does a lizard need to remember yesterday?
The gods I trust loiter beyond the trees pelting me with flies and hornets.
Perhaps there was a day when the sun did not rise, but I do not remember it.
Spirits of the dead and candleflames of the past loiter with the gods beyond the trees.
Mud gives us something from which to raise ourselves.
The spiritual man is a warrior, and, in the city, like a warrior, he is too engaged in battling his enemies to engage in thought.
Unlike man, insects do not kill those of their own species for pleasure.
Healthy animals kill only out of need.
To a dying man, diamonds are only pretty stones.
Some insects live twenty years underground as grubworms, before emerging into the daylight as flies only to live just long enough to spawn then die. Men think of this as the mature stage in the life of the fly, but to the fly is it not death? His life has been underground. Perhaps a man’s life is only the death stage of his existence and his actual life, much longer, sadly forgotten, was before birth. Many would like to believe this is the grub stage of our existence and we will be flies in the next.
If I am reborn into another life, will that life be in the future? Could it be in the past? Could I be my own ancestor? If I am reborn into the future, I could be my own descendant. Could I be reborn as someone in the present on the other side of this world whom I will never meet? Perhaps I have already been reborn as someone I met yesterday or whom I will meet tomorrow. Perhaps I will be reborn as a brother sperm who never made it to my mother’s egg.
Wicked, wicked Sato, whose thoughts flow like a raging river through the kingdoms of past, present, and future to swirl through the ocean’s depths to envelop the monsters of the soul!
To rule nations, ply the leaders’ minds with the wine of lies they desire.

Update: June 5, 2019 5:22 p.m.

I didn’t get any writing done yesterday, though I had a couple of ideas. Too tired from a busy workweek so far. I am hoping to get something done this evening. My conscience is weighing upon me. I feel guilty when not writing. Anymore, writing is the most exciting thing I do.

I am experimenting occasionally with different ways to stimulate ideas as well as my writing. One is to make the writing more realistic not only by writing about past experiences and expanding on them (like Hemingway), but by trying to live the story as much as possible. For one work-in-progress (WIP), I set part of it in Farmington, so that I could go to the places I mention and see and experience what the characters would see and experience at the time described in the book. Parts of Shadows and Stars… is set in desert or plains areas like those around where I live in the Four Corners area. Come to think of it, there are mountains north of here around Durango, CO. I should set some of the book in the mountains in areas similar to where I have hiked.

I have been toying with the new website format. I haven’t received any submissions yet. I enjoyed being an editor, when I was working at it more diligently than I have in a long time.

I have already programmed The Saturday Night Special out to August and much advertising of my works through the end of June.

I am listening to the CD “The Best of Cusco” (1997) right now as I take a brief break. I really enjoy this album. In 1997, I was just out of the Navy and trying to establish myself as a photographer and a writer (I meandered off that career path sometime back to my regret). That was in the age of film cameras and I was doing some work for a small magazine in Kentucky among other things. I had my own dark room set up in my sister’s house. I loved working there and I played this album a lot. Anytime I listen to it now, I can visualize the red darkroom light and the mingled smells of developer, stop bath, and rinse. I loved the creative process of photography. Watch a photo form in the developer was always like magic. I never tired of it. Digital photography, which was just coming onto the scene then, took all that away.

Update: May 31, 2019

I didn’t make any substantial progress with the novel last night. I did manage to type up about a thousand words. I have found that once I get into my creative zone (which wasn’t last night), I really don’t want to stop writing down new ideas and plot lines.

In the novel, I have a alien scientist named Mikash on a planet called Zaigosh. Mikash needs an assistant, so that they can have a dialogue to reveal Mikash’s thoughts and plans. I have named this assistant Psotto, but I have yet to develop him at all in terms of character, which I want to do. I need to examine what the plot demands of him.

Yesterday, a former colleague/acquaintance was showing me and some other his new Tesla, which has a computer screen vs. a dashboard. This was a mind-blower for me in a couple of ways. On Zaigosh, the cars are all magnetic levitation driven with computer screens instead of dashboards. I thought I was being very forward thinking in coming up with this idea, only to find out that Elon Musk has already done it. Am I so far behind the times that my ideas of the future are already part of the present?

My Poetry Collection “Nocturne” is Free on Saturday, April 13

My Poetry Collection “Nocturne” is Free on Saturday, April 13

https://philslatteryart.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/my-poetry-collection-nocturne-is-free-on-saturday-april-13/
— Read on philslatteryart.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/my-poetry-collection-nocturne-is-free-on-saturday-april-13/

Get yours while you can!

http://www.amazon.com/author/philslattery

Thank You to Fans of “Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night…”

Thank you to everyone who is showing interest in Nocturne… and helping to make it more popular. I found out about 10:00 a.m. (Mountain Standard Time) this morning that it is for now within the top 25 poetry anthologies among Kindle e-books. These stats are updated hourly, so the rating will change one way or the other by day’s end. For those of you who don’t have Kindle, don’t forget that there is also a print version available. Here are the ratings as posted on Amazon:

#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Anthologies & Literature Collections > Poetry

#32 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > American

#1704 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > United States

Here is a link to it for those of you who want to investigate it and my other works:

amazon.com/author/philslattery

If you enjoy Nocturne and introspective love stories in general, check out my short story collection The Scent and Other Stories.

In this slim anthology, I explore the dark, sometimes violent, sometimes twisted, sometimes

Cover of the Kindle edition
(500 pixels wide)

touching side of love, the side kept not only from public view, but sometimes from our mates. Set in the modern era, these stories range from regretting losing a lover to forbidden interracial love in the hills of 1970’s Kentucky to a mother’s deathbed confession in present-day New Mexico to debating pursuing a hateful man’s wife to the callous manipulation of a lover in Texas.

This small collection of short stories is perfect for those who have only short breaks to escape their world and explore how lives can intertwine with sometimes disastrous results.

The Scent and Other Stories is available in print as well.

Reviews Needed

I am seeking people to review my works and who post their reviews to markets in the US, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. I offer my Kindle e-books for free periodically according to Amazon policy. You can find my works on my Amazon author’s page. Let me know which you would like to review and I will let you know when it available for free or set up a date that you can have it for fee. I am most interested in having reviewed either my short horror (A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror), my collected poetry (Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover), my short fiction on relationships (The Scent and Other Stories), or my action-adventure novelette (Click). The other two works are contained in A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror.

My posts are now on Google+ and LinkedIn

Writing at Hasting's Hardback Café, October, 2015 — Writing at Hasting’s Hardback Café, October, 2015

My WordPress posts are now being disseminated to my Google+ profile and to LinkedIn in addition to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Path. Watch for them there.

Weblog Update

Inside OG2 Slattery — With Iced Tea, Farmington, New Mexico, March 20, 2015

How does everyone like the new look for the weblog? I have shortened the name and made it a more accurate reflection of the content, though I may be changing that even more soon. I have reorganized the tabs, so that readers can find the new magazine and information on the Farmington Writers Circle more easily. Most of the old pages still exist, but they are now under “The Chamber Magazine” page. I have also reorganized the sidebar, keeping most of what was there previously, and maybe adding one or two new items and omitting one or two old ones. I will also be adding a page for each of my works published on Amazon under the “Published Works” heading. That might be a day or two more before those are up.

If you have suggestions to make the site more user friendly or to facilitate finding information, please let me know via e-mail, comment, or through one of my social media (which I will also be increasing).

Here’s a story idea for whoever wants it: the Chicxulub Virus

Phil Slattery hiking in the Bisti Wilderness near Farmington, NM, circa 2013

Tonight I have been working on the final draft of the paperback version of “A Tale of Hell and other Works of Horror”. I took a break to talk with the fiancée (over the phone), have dinner, and watch one of my favorite episodes of House entitled “A Pox on our House” involving a suspected case of smallpox. Somehow I hit upon the idea what if it wasn’t a meteor/asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, but a virus? The story could be called “The Chicxulub Virus” after the Mexican location where the meteor/asteroid struck in the current Bay of Campeche. The virus could have been brought to Earth by the meteor/asteroid, spread quickly by air in the particulate cloud that the meteor/asteroid generated, and which encircled the Earth. A few mammals and other critters survived for whatever reason, to evolve into the species we have today or the virus could have started the evolution that created today’s species. Now, in a sort of Jurassic Park stimulus, instead of scientists finding “dino DNA” in amber, they unleash the virus and race to prevent it from spreading (reminiscent of The Andromeda Strain) or they struggle to fight its spread once it is airborne. This could be a very complex work even for a good sci-fi writer.

This is just a very rough idea and I haven’t worked out anymore details than you see here.

I have a long list of things to write and so I recognize that I will never write this. Therefore, I offer it out there to whoever wants it at no cost. If you do use it, and if you would be so kind, I would like to be listed in the acknowledgements as the originator of the basic idea.

Comments? Suggestions?

“A Good Man” Has Been Published at Fiction on the Web

Today, my short story, “A Good Man”, was published at http://www.fictionontheweb.co.uk. Many thanks to Charlie Fish at Fiction on the Web for publishing this, one of my best stories. “A Good Man” is not horror, but a modern crime drama. Mr. Fish describes the story thus: “On the day before her death from lung cancer, Christopher’s mother tells him a secret about his father that may change his perception of his parents forever…” Doug Hawley, in the first comment on the story notes: “Lots of detail examining an old question of how do you judge a person’s life. It left me wondering.”

Please drop by Fiction on the Web any time and check out “A Good Man”.