2009 had been an interesting year for me in and outside of my writing life. When the year began, I had thought that I would be able to produce a short story a month as well as work on a novel and produce other writing. Things got into the way of that accomplishment, but the stories I started or collected notes on have not died. One of these is the Dance of Death.

As a reminder to some and an introduction to others, Dance of Death is a modern fantasy of a young teenage boy who is faced with crime and the death of someone he loves. In his grief, he is given a present. The present doesn’t look like much, but what is inside . . .a guardian spirit that transforms the boy and his life. The Dance of Death is a story of a victim finding empowerment and a story of that victim coming face to face with the decision to wreck vengeance or control over his actions and emotions.
I had started work on this story, but it remained unfinished due to other obligations. Over the next several weeks, I will be returning to this story and hopefully soon have it either sent to a publisher or posted on my own site for you to read.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on blogs, stories , articles, and poems that I write.

This weekend I plan to have the Last Friend prepared for submission. But to submit to where? As one of my commenters (is that a real world) pointed out, there is still a market for short stories. The commenter posted one possible market. Other markets can be found by a lot of research on the web. This research can be hit and miss, but it does give the short story writer many options. Other resources are various groups on yahoo or on various social sites.

Other resources are the classical sources such as The Writers Digest Magazine, The Writer Magazine, Poet and Writer Magazine and other similar magazines, including those that are genre specific. Many of these magazines also have access to a database of markets with their subscription. On top of this is the writers’ submission bible known as The Writers Market.

It is to these sources that I am turning as I prepare some final drafts…should they not publish out there, then on here for you.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the stories and blogs I write.

Every story we write shows the writer where he or she needs to improve. The short story, The Last Friend, has been sitting in the tomb (my writing drawer) for several months. While the reader of this blog could page back and find information on this story, let me save you some time by sharing a brief synopsis here. The story centers on two characters: One is an African American woman who has signed a major recording contract and is about to leave The Lou (St. Louis) behind. The other character is a man who goes by the initials of AZ and has kept a secret from her. He is the angel of death and he has been tasked with taking her life before she leaves. The story is written in first person with two points of view, which alternate back and forth.

The challenge I was and am faced with is making the voices of these two characters distinct. What I want, and what a writer should be able to do, is have the dialogue read without having to say who is saying what. This does not always work as I remember reading some works where I would get lost in the dialogue and have to spend time figuring out who is who and who said what. Never the less, that is a goal and it has proven to be quite daunting as of late. I hope to have this story out sometime soon, but I need to work on making these voices clearer .

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates to blogs and stories that I write.

Some who will read the title of this blog would immediately say, if not comment, yes to the question. Maybe they are right. I mentioned in a previous blog that I was considering posting my short fiction on my website regardless of and acknowledging the fact that the story will not be eligible to be published in a lit magazine or eligible for most contests. After a lot of thought, I have decided to take a different track. Here is what led up to this decision.

I had been exploring blog casting audio dramas, but I don’t believe I have the necessary resources to tap into at this time. With that in mind it was not a far leap to posting serialized blogs…so starting sometime next year (early, if I can do it) I will begin posting four stories in 12 episodes. Each month will come with a new episode in each story. One week will be crime drama, another, horror, a third will be fantasy, and the fourth will be in science fiction.

I will keep this blog up to date with this idea and watch for four new blogs that will be connected with this site.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on my stories, blogs and events.