Writing – Page 3 – Cindy Young-Turner

Flash fiction challenge: Ain’t Good

This past week I entered the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge, a weekly flash fiction contest. I didn’t win, but it was fun to write. Here’s the writing prompt, and my entry appears below. I’m hoping to do more of these, if inspiration hits me.

Ain’t Good

“Don’t look now, Lenore, but I see fresh meat a’coming.”

Lenore ruffled her feathers and moved to the edge of the branch for a clearer look. Sure enough, two more of the humans in their orange clothes were approaching the tree. “Is it feeding time again, dear?”

Edgar, her mate, cawed to their dozens of children. The large birds flapped their wings and hopped excitedly. “I’d say they’re hungry, all right.”

“One of these days it will be time for them to leave us,” Lenore said. Little had the two ravens known that when they picked this tree for their new home, they’d become foster parents to a nest of abandoned baby vultures. How could she say no to the helpless little ones? At least the humans made it easy to take care of their brood.

“Oh, don’t say that. They’ve got everything they need right here. You know you’d miss them.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Lenore watched with pride as several of their children took flight and began circling the approaching figures.

“If the damned humans hadn’t built that prison over yonder, I don’t know what we’d do,” Edgar added.

“Edgar!” she scolded. “Language, dear.”

He hung his head. “Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.”

But the children had already taken up the cry. “Damned humans! Damned humans!” Within moments, they swooped down on the terrified men, beaks and claws ripping and tearing.

“Our babies,” Lenore said with a proud sigh as she watched them feed.

Snowzilla and a progress update

Well, here in Maryland we have survived Snowzilla, the blizzard of 2016, with close to 32 inches in my backyard. I’m from Massachusetts and I love snow, but even this is a bit much all at once! It’s hard to say when we will be completely dug out–and more importantly, when the kids will be back in school! I hope I’ll be able to enjoy the snow once I rest up from all of the shoveling.

I’m also excited to share a bit of a writing update. In my last post I mentioned that I have finally broken the writer’s block that plagued me for much of last year. And I can proudly say that progress is continuing! I’m still in rewriting mode, which is rewriting with quite a few additions. I just finished working on a chapter that I had wanted to revise for ages and it never seemed to turn out right. This time I feel like it worked. Next up is a key chapter featuring the new character I’ve added. It feels really good to be writing again. Maybe soon I’ll share some excerpts.

Stay warm and dry out there!

Happy New Year’s Eve!

It’s almost time to say good-bye to 2015. There were good things and bad things this year. In terms of writing, it was a bit of a struggle. The year started off positive on the heels of my self-publishing debut and I had fully intended to finish Thief of Destiny and get it out there for the public. But sometimes things happen for a reason, and after months of spinning my wheels and spiraling into the despair of not writing, I think I see the light. I finally put out a call for help to my wonderful critique group and decided to sit down and write an actual outline. Well, more of a summary because yes, I’m still twitchy about outlines. My writer friends encouraged me to think outside the box and that’s what I did. And I came up with a new approach that was an idea I had a while back but didn’t think it should be in this book. Surprise! I believe it’s going to work and I’m easing back into retooling what I’ve written so I can get to the end. I’m making a promise to myself that I WILL finish the book in 2016, hopefully sooner rather than later. With any luck it will be worth the wait!

More importantly, the events of this year have taught us that we are a global community and more than ever we need to find compassion and understanding. Hug your loved ones. Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Learn about someone whose culture you don’t understand. We’re all in this together.

Oh, and go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was like an early Christmas present for this Star Wars fan.

Here’s to 2016. Follow your dreams!

Introducing Gray Corbie Press (that’s me!)

There are so many things to think about when you decide to self-publish–cover design, formatting, pricing–and add into the mix the question of should you create an imprint name. Amazon and CreateSpace offer the option of using an imprint name when you self-publish with them. I have several indie author friends who have done that and have created a logo for the imprint that appears on their books just as you would see with a traditional publisher. Very professional looking. I have several other indie author friends who used their own name as their publisher in their Amazon listing–equally professional because as self-pubbed authors we should be proud of our accomplishments. I did some research online and found both options to be fairly prevalent. The big no-no is creating an imprint with the intention of fooling people that you have a publisher, as if you are ashamed to be self-published. A quick Google search will tell you if that’s the case if you really want to know, but who cares these days? While there may be some lingering bias against self-published authors (to me it seems more like a bias against bad books, and sadly there are a lot of poorly edited and formatted books out there), self-pubbed authors are selling an awful lot of books and giving the traditional publishers a run for their money.

I went back and forth a bit and ultimately decided I would create an imprint. It seemed like a good branding opportunity because the goal is to publish more books and if someday I decide to write in another genre, at least all of my books with have this in common. I had a lot of fun coming up with a name and a design. Why Gray Corbie Press? (Because all of the other names I thought of were already taken? LOL) Corbie is a Scottish word for raven and I have a fondness for ravens. I like the result and can’t wait to use it in future books!

Sunday snippet

Happy spring and happy Easter to those who celebrate! It is finally starting to feel like spring around here. The trees are getting close to blooming and today the sun is shining and I have the windows open. Plus I am finally getting back to writing after what seems like a long hiatus. Here is a brief snippet from Thief of Destiny, the currently in-progress sequel to Thief of Hope. And since I’m still writing it, take this with a grain of salt because who knows what the final version might look like. Enjoy!

Thief of Destiny snippet:

Sydney leaned forward. “But it’s not over. The Guild is still out there. This is more important than me or Last Hope. It’s the future of the whole kingdom. Willem’s fighting for a better life for all of us. I have to help him if I can.”

“What is it you believe in, Syd? What he’s fighting for or what he’s fighting against?” Anaria paused to take a long swallow from her tankard. “Willem seems like a decent man. I’ll give him that. But when all’s said and done, if he defeats the Guild, he’ll be our king. Don’t expect our lives to change that much. The nobles ain’t much better than the Guild. Or how about them rich bastards like Gavin who think they own this town?”

“Willem is different,” Sydney insisted. “You just said so. You met him yourself.”

“He’s a decent man is what I said. Maybe he’ll be a good king—I expect he will, but he’ll still be a king. You and me, we’ll still be who we are.” Anaria reached for Sydney’s hand. “Don’t matter how much you fight for him. Some things you can’t change.”

Sydney looked away. She had wondered about those things herself. Willem had said he wanted to improve the lives of the commoners, but could he really accomplish that? She had to believe it was possible. Willem made her believe it was possible.