2012 will always be the year I first started writing, but not my first full year of writing. I only started about half way through the year (I have one short story from before that. It was only late spring of 2012 that I started wondering if I could really make a go of it with writing) and barely wrote at all in the last two months of the year. Given that I have to say I’m really proud of what I accomplished in my first half-year of writing.
Author Archives: Jeff Xilon
Back to It!
Well well well. It’s been quite some time since I posted here (though I have two recent flash pieces up here and here). November and December turned out to be lost months for my writing, blogging and studying. Looking back I think the problem was that I had not yet made those things regular enough habits that they could withstand the turmoil going on around here at the end of last year. Along with everything going on with my wife’s cancer (things continue to look very good on that front!) it was the end of semester at work and that always brings a lot of extra work and of course there were holidays to think about. With all of that going on I guess it’s only natural that some things suffered. Still, if I have one simple goal for 2013 it is that I want to make writing (including blogging and studying) such an integral part of my daily life that even in the hard times I don’t stop. My personal motto for the year is: If you treat it like a hobby then it’ll never be a job. Or a career. I didn’t stop doing my job when life got hard and going forward I don’t want to stop my writing either.
January has been a much better month and after taking a couple of weeks to enjoy something of an at-home holiday (and a wee bit more paperwork for the job) I’ve used the free time I have right now to help get these things back on track. Here at the blog the first thing I’m going to do is a series of looking back/where things stand posts. I know these are usually done in late December or early January, but I make the rules around here and I say that as long as I get them done in January then it’s all good. The first of these will probably be out later today with more coming daily. So how was your end of 2012? And how has 2013 treated you so far?
Flash Fiction Challenge: Inspiration From Unreal Looking Real Places
Ok, so this is another piece of flash fiction written for a challenge put up at Chuck Wendig’s blog terribleminds. I decided to get this one done early instead of last minute. This week’s challenge was to pick a photo from among this amazing set of 24 that you should definitely check out to be the inspiration of our bits of flash. These photos were all of real places that look fantastical and I think I could write a flash piece for each one. I just might eventually. For this challenge though I picked the photo of Mt. Roraima, Venezuela. I immediately thought – awesome place for a Korean-influenced wuxia battle with a hint of Lovecraft. Yeah my brain’s a bit weird, but to be fair – I’ve been thinking of combining these elements for awhile now – this challenge and that picture just gave me the push to actually do it.
The Story (Currently Untitled)
Mists and clouds surrounded the flat peak like an island in the sky. Only one figure rose higher than the moss and lichen on the barren mountaintop. Choi Eunae stood at the peak’s edge reflecting.
Keeping a hand on her sword’s hilt she strode purposefully forward until she stood in its center. The winds rose loud around her and whipped her long, straight black hair free of it’s simple tie to fly wildly about her. Eunae ignored the wind, and her hair, and the brilliant glare of sunlight reflected off the tops of clouds. Bowing her head, she said a quiet prayer and drew her sword. She held it with her left hand, resting point down in a patch of moss, and pulled the first small pouch out of her robe with her right.
Flash Fiction Challenge: More Random Elements
It’s been awhile but here is a flash piece for today’s terribleminds challenge. I’m getting it in about ten minutes or so late, but it’ll have to do.
Breaking Point
Captain Daniel Jones cursed the bedlam that was keeping him from cracking Lord Foghill’s safe. Even with the ear coverings and soundscope he’d been provided he could not make out the tiny clicks of the tumblers with racket being raised by the city. He couldn’t blame the people, the bombardment of the cannons and the assault on the walls was ratcheting up to an intensity that could only mean the Prince’s forces were pushing to break the siege and smash the city once and for all.
A Good Week On The Flash Fiction Circuit
When I can I like to take part in some of the weekly flash fiction (micro fiction in some cases really) competitions and challenges that are out on ye olde ‘net. Like most of my writing though my participation has been very limited over the last 5 weeks or so. Happily I managed to write something for two of the challenges this week.
A Little Micro Fiction
This is an entry for a flash fiction challenge put on at The Latinum Vault called Monday Mixer. There are quite a few rules but the important ones for you to know are I had to use exactly 150 words and had to choose a setting, object and adjective to use in the story. So, here it is: