Tag Archives: Drabblecast

Earth Music

Posted on June 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

I am happy and relieved to announce my weird and (I hope) humorous story, “Earth Music” is up on the Drabblecast website today, read by the amazing Mat Weller.

The story is part of a “trifecta” – three stories with a related theme. In this case the theme is: Change of heart. The other two stories are “Golden Age of the Paleozoic” by Ken Liu and “Weekend with the Owl God” by Frank Key. I’m pretty much thrilled beyond words to share a table of contents with those guys.

Drawing of bagpipes held in tentacled arms

Tentacles and Bagpipes (sounds like the name of a pub)

I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this story to appear. I submitted “Earth Music” to the Drabblecast two years ago, and they sent me a contract eighteen months ago.

Back in June of 2012 I was worried the story might be offensive to pipers, so at the 2012 Seattle fèis I spoke with Barry Shears, the bagpipes instructor at the fèis that year who is also an expert on the history of bagpipes. He promptly rattled off a joke that involved bagpipes and an amorous octopus. So I was reassured that not only do pipers have excellent (and tolerant) senses of humor, but there is some precedence for stories like this one.

In my submission I included a line of Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) at the end.
The line was:
Cha d’rinneadh cròn air pìob sam bith ri sgrìobhadh na sgeulachd seo.
(“No bagpipes were harmed in the writing of this story.”)

I didn’t get an opportunity to edit this story since I wrote it two years ago. (Which is why according to my bio the Urban Green Man anthology is forthcoming.) In some ways the story is a snapshot of where I was as a writer back then. But “Earth Music” still appeals to my strange sense of humor.

So, yay. I’m quite pleased “Earth Music” has been produced by The Drabblecast. The podcast sounds fantastic. Worth the wait.

Happy writing,
Miriah

Twabble Up

Posted on May 29, 2014 | Leave a comment

Last week Drabblecast.org chose one of my “twabbles” – an exactly 100 character micro story – to go with their podcast. Here it is:

At the hike’s end we found seal skins scattered all over that beach. “Let’s go,” I said. “But first, let me take a Selkie.”

I think I got lucky with this one, because the feature story is about jackalopes who, like selkies, shed their skins and become human. My twabble is at the very, very end of the podcast. I really enjoyed the featured story. Go listen to it or download to listen in the car or whatever. Do it now!

Happy Writing.

The J.P. Patches statue in Freemont

Year in Review: 2012

Posted on December 28, 2012 | 6 comments

Bliadhna mhath ùr a-huile duine! Happy New Year everyone!

Tentacles and Bagpipes (sounds like the name of a pub)

First of all, my big news is that The Drabblecast accepted my “Earth Music” story!!! I am truly thrilled. This is a story I’ve previously blogged about writing and editing (also known as my alien and bagpipes story). It began about a year ago on 1 January 2012, whilst I was attending a “First Footing” event and thinking about a writing prompt from Cat Rambo’s SF&F class.

If you aren’t familiar with Drabblecast.org, you should be! Check out their short story podcasts – it’s free and awesome! They really live up to their byline, “strange stories written by strange authors for strange listeners”. To be perfectly honest, not all of the stories appeal to my personal taste (I suppose my strangeness is not fully developed), but all of them are beautifully produced. I am honored that they accepted my story, and I can’t wait to listen to it (so far I don’t know when that will be).

Miriah Hetherington learning to use a bow

Miriah in (beginning) Archery Class

A little over a year ago I sent in my first story submission – and got my first rejection from Daily Science Fiction on 20 December 2012! The email print-out is prominently displayed over my desk, next to a framed copy of my first acceptance.

My stats for the past year:

Acceptances: 2

Rejections: 12

Pending: 1

Number of different stories submitted: 5

(Writing-rpg posts: a little over 100)

I will resist (sort of) the temptation to make a list of New Year’s resolutions about writing. “Resolution” seems like one of those ill-fated words. A word destined to result in failure, a word that weighs you down with its negative subtext.

Instead I’m going to declare some writing Intentions for the New Year. These are my personal goals, subject to change and in effect only for so long as they motivate me in a positive way!

Writing Intentions (NOT resolutions) for 2013

1. Write AND submit ten new short stories (goal: one a month)

2. Finish the first draft of my novel (goal: 2,000 words per week)

3. Blog more frequently (goal: weekly)

What writing intentions/goals have you set for yourself in 2013?

Happy Writing!

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Posted in Writing Path

Tagged alien, bagpipes, Drabblecast, publish, rpg, writing

Nano Excuses

Posted on December 5, 2012 | 2 comments

Well, here it is December already. I would like to say that I skipped posting to my blog for the entire month of November because I was busily plugging away at my NaNoWriMo novel. That’s what I’d like to say. But the truth is that I stopped nano-ing about a week-and-a-half in. It wasn’t a complete loss. I wrote about 7,500 words of the novel I had in mind, and about 6,000 words of the pre-quell novella that I also had in mind. So I didn’t come close to “winning” Nano. But – the way I look at it – it’s more than I had before.

I have some resolutions for the next Nano…

1) Get my family on board with supporting me. In advance.

2) Make sure that if there are any submission deadlines coming up at the end of November, I will finish that story before Nano starts.

3) Complete the detailed outline for my Nano-novel before NaNoWriMo starts.

Hmm. I see a pattern here…

: This Green Woman is on the wall over my desk;-)

One thing I DID accomplish in November was writing and submitting a story for an “Urban Green Man” anthology. It had been two months since the last time I submitted a story, so it felt really good to send one out.

Another thing I did in November – that I’m counting as an accomplishment, but was really more like a fun distraction – was post two “Drabbles” (stories of exactly 100 words), and three “Twabbles” (exactly 100 characters each) in the Drabblecast.org forums. I’ve created a new page – Fiction in a Flash – here on my blog to share them.

I’m still First-Reading for Strange Horizons. It’s a volunteer gig that can be somewhat time consuming, but I feel that I am learning SO much.

Happy Writing!

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