I was sitting on top of a grassy hill that stood taller than all the other hills, high enough that it nearly touched the depths of the heavens. I looked out over the city of Fairview. A city that wasn’t what people imagined it to be. No skyscrapers, no busied traffic, no flashy suits or crowded sidewalks. It was a small city that rested between the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It was early in the morning. Clouds gathered up behind the mountains at this time and then bled out extraordinary storms in the afternoon. The lightning was the worst, but that was just my opinion, I had a terrible fear of it. I turned each page of my tattered notebook… Continue >>
Highways, factories, automobiles, noises, people, sirens, traffic lights, smog, smells, crowds, streetcorners, bars, beggars, factoryworkers, crackheads, officeworkers, blacks, whites, hookers, drunks, immigrants, yourmother, and more highrises and more automobiles, and more people and more noises and – And the smell of carbon monoxide everywhere; from the highways, the streets, the intersections – brown, spewing clouds of auto – exhaust engulfing the city. Monstrously multiplying office towers P-U-S-H-I-N-G Up into the sky – these concrete and steel monsters so hideously ugly and monotonous as to make the skin C-R-A-W-L. In ghettos street gangs with guns – pop! pop! pop! tat! tat! tat! blam! blam! blam! – splattered blood upon concrete – And everywhere the silent m-O-a-n-ing of fornification – Yes! –… Continue >>
Ever realized that the writing on the page is nowhere near as good as the idea in your head? You’re not alone…
pjmorledge.com is having a short story competition. Check it out.
Bob Jacobs has been the administrator and member of many successful online writing, creative writing and short story forums (fora??) and has written a great couple of articles about how you too can make it through the forest of critique and encouragement… Bob has previously had this short story featured on Backhand Stories.
I found a great little site that forces you to just… write. You are given a random word, and then sixty seconds to write whatever comes into your head. It’s a great little writing exercise. oneword.com Martin
I’ve had the pleasure of publishing a few pieces from members of Write Words, a great writing community based in the UK. They asked me to tell them a little more about Backhand Stories, so they’ve published a short interview with me about the site. You can read it here. Martin
I just stumbled upon this list of sites for writers to submit their work: http://socialmediatrader.com/resource-list-40-sites-for-writers/ Enjoy! Martin.