Back of the Envelope

Welcome to the one hundred and fifth Storyblogging Carnival. This will be the last carnival hosted at this incarnation of Back of the Envelope. I'm afraid that my blog provider, Powerblogs, will be shutting down at the end of November, and I'm going to have to move. Fortunately, I still have the Blogger version of Back of the Envelope, and I've downloaded the archives. I'll be moving back there for the time being, but I won't be hosting a Storyblogging Carnival for a month or two while I get settled. If anyone else would like to volunteer, let me know. For now, enjoy the carnival.

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Just Desserts
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A less than 100 word brief story rated PG-13.

Two stories of over-indulgence in verse form.

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Imam Return
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 117 word brief story rated PG.

A dark turn in 20th century history.

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Remember, remember the fifth of November
by Mark A. Rayner of The Skwib
A 484 word brief story rated PG.

An alternate history in which Thomas Cadwell remembers the gunpowder plot, and what happened after the Parliament buildings exploded.

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Romero is a Pain
by Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium
A 907 word brief story rated PG-13.

The subject line of an e-mail to the Sage.

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The Last Sugar Cookie
by Susan of Patchwork Reflections
A 437 word brief story rated G.

A poem on sugar cookies.

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This concludes the one hundred and fifth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

The next Storyblogging Carnival will be the one hundred and fifth. It will be hosted here, at Back of the Envelope, and going up on Monday, November 2nd. If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, October 31st. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

Welcome to the one hundred and fourth Storyblogging Carnival. There aren't as many people as there were last time, but we've still got a good number of stories. Enjoy!

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Happy Birthday to Me
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Political Madness
A less than 150 word brief story rated PG.

The story (in verse) of how I celebrated one of those traumatic ends-with-zero birthdays.

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Resignation
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 157 word brief story rated PG.
An historical moment in American history

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The Blue Light, 2011
by Mark A. Rayner of The Skwib
A 330 word brief story rated PG.

A modern retelling of the Grimm story, The Blue Light.

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The Day the Oranges Gave Their All
by Amber Davis of Classicly Amber Blogs
A 332 word brief story rated G.

This is a G-rated story about some regular 'ole kitchen oranges and how they one day decided to make something of themselves.

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Legends of modern man: Alms
by Afaque Khan of Afaq - the endless ether
A 487 word brief story rated G.

A story about how a modern common man tries to please God but Alas!

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Brush with the law
by Dana of A Very Nearly Tea
A 546 word brief story rated G.

Celebrating the art of the informal story, like the kind you tell a friend over coffee. Or tea, as the case may be.

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The History of the Domini Part VIII: The Domini (The Whole Story)
by Donald Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope
The next 756 words of a 4,963 word story in progress rated PG.

Randall Aurelius explains the origins of the Domini.

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Nick's International Adventures Recap: Posts 2-6
by Nick Pardini of Common Sense Magazine
A 3,621 word brief story rated PG.


This is the first episode of my story studying abroad in Italy and traveling throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Americas. Twenty-four episodes have been published so far so check out the whole "Nick's International Adventures" series.

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This concludes the one hundred and fourth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

The Rest of the Story: The rest of The History of the Domini can be found here.

This is another chapter of Randall Aurelius's History of the Domini. In this part, Randall reveals the origins of those who call themselves Domini. The name, and the society it represents, was a relatively late development in our history.

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The History of the Domini
by Randall Aurelius

Part VIII: The Domini

The term “Domini” was ascribed to the Shades by the First Legion. In the language which they spoke at the time, it meant “master” or “lord,” and was a term of respect and awe with which they addressed the powerful creatures who took them from their homeland. They had never encountered magic like ours where they came from, and regarded us almost as gods. While the awe faded eventually, the term remained, and continued to be the term used by the First Legion and their descendants for the Shades. These Legionaries founded a city they called Novaro, and thus came to call themselves the Novari. The Shades who settled in Novar lands adopted the name the Novari used for them. Considering its meaning, this may have been an act of hubris, but these early Domini were soon humbled by reality.

The Novari are, even to this days, not particularly strong in magic. Thus, while the Domini could recruit from the Novari, their numbers did not match those who found more fertile lands from which to harvest recruits. This led to a dilemma. They simply did not have the numbers to be tempted by power in the same way their brethren were. So instead, the Domini and the Novari learned to co-exist, in the sense of ignoring one another. Novar law did not attempt to govern the Domini in their domain, and the Domini returned the favor. This allowed the Domini to take boys for training without interference. Of course, some Domini attempted to take advantage of their immunity from Novar law, but the others quickly dealt with any Dominus whose actions threatened their understanding with the Novari. It was this need to govern their own members and keep the peace with the Novari which led to the founding of the Ordo Dominorum, the Order of the Domini. This central body was responsible for governing the individual Domini, and maintained control over sects spread throughout Novar lands. In imitation of the Novari from whom they had been recruited, they formed a Senate to govern themselves.

The Novari had an eye towards expansion. While they produced few with the talent for magic, they bred rapidly. At first, this posed little trouble, as there was a great deal of land and few humans occupying it. Eventually, however, the Novari bumped up against other human settlements. These encounters inevitably caused conflict, sometimes due to the Novari’s expansionism, and sometimes due to the expansionism of these other settlements. The Domini decided not to take part in these conflicts, although they were happy to recruit from any people the Novari conquered, not least because the conquered people usually had more latent magical ability than the Novari themselves. The Novari, despite their often unjust conquests, did apply their laws fairly where they ruled, and over time absorbed the conquered peoples as near equals in their system of governance.

It was inevitable that the Novari would eventually come into contact with lands ruled by some of the more aggressive sects of Shades, and this is where the Order’s rules of non-interference did not apply. The Order viewed its actions as consistent: no magic-user, either Dominus or Shade, was allowed to interfere in the affairs of the Novari. Thus, when the Novar legions came to a region ruled by a Shade sect, the Domini would not use magic to help the Novari conquer, but they also made certain that the other side did not use magic against the Novari.

By this point, the Domini had grown in numbers. Although the ratio of Domini to Novar subjects was small, the number of people owing allegiance to Novaro was vast. The Domini had the numbers to surpass most of the other Shade sects, but those numbers were widely dispersed over Novar lands. When gathered into one place, though, the Domini could easily neutralize the Shades while the Novari either conquered or liberated, depending on one’s viewpoint, the mundane subjects of the Shades. Rather than destroy the defeated Shades, the Domini most often offered amnesty to any who were willing to join the Order and follow its rules. This was not a hard and fast policy, and at times they utterly destroyed sects whose practices they found repulsive.

However, the Domini’s wide dispersion made it more and more difficult to bring their members together for any kind of offensive. The entire Order may have become too unwieldy to not only fight other Shade sects, but to even govern itself effectively, if not for the invention of the Doorways.

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This has been the latest 756 words of a 4,963 word story in progress.

Mike Duran is writing about writing about conversion experiences. No, that wasn't a typo. Here's a little of what he has to say:

The hardest thing about writing a “conversion scene” is that conversions usually aren’t “scenes,” they are processes. Often long, messy ones, at that.

One of the consistent raps against Christian fiction and Christian film is the inclusion of the “obligatory conversion scene” (see: Fireproof). But while a character’s conversion to Christ may rally the troops, for most religious outsiders these scenes usually smack of propaganda and predictability, of a conveniently scripted resolution to whatever dilemma is facing the protag. However one might assess the current state of Christian fiction, there is still an unspoken expectation that conversion components, in part, are what makes our fiction “Christian.”

I avoided a conversion scene in The Eyes of the Shadow for numerous reasons. Reason number one was that the story didn't naturally lead to a conversion scene. It would have felt tacked on and extraneous. Reason number two was that it didn't fit Ryan's character to convert given the events of the story. Two days of really creepy events does not make a believer out of a cynic. That said, I have written a "Ryan conversion story." I even submitted it to the contest Mike mentions (it didn't make finalist, like his did). Looking back, there were several problems with that story. The first is that the reader doesn't know the characters like I do. I'm not sure it would have made the story really work, but it would have been better if the reader knew their backgrounds and saw more than the final moments. Another is that I ended the story with a cliffhanger--hey, it's what I do. When I finished it, I saw it as the beginning of the story, not the end (maybe book 4 of my Ryan and Emily novels, of which I've only written the first). Finally, I'm not sure it was primarily a conversion story. I wanted a hint of the miraculous, but I think that hint came to dominate the story, so in the end it was about that, not whatever conversion came of it.

So what does it take to successfully write a conversion scene? I'm not sure yet, which is why I'm reading the other posts in Mike's series.

The next Storyblogging Carnival wil be the one hundred and fourth. It will be hosted here, at Back of the Envelope, and going up on Monday, October 5th. If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, October 3rd. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

The latest Writing Excuses podcast is the anti-Mary Sue edition. What's a Mary Sue, you ask? Well, in this podcast, a Mary Sue is defined as an author self-insertion in a story--a character who is based primarily on the author. This is a simplification, and doesn't really capture the problems of a Mary Sue character. As it's an Internet term, precise definitions are going to be hard to come by, though you might try Wikipedia or TV Tropes. In its original usage, a Mary Sue was an idealized author-avatar original character in a fan fiction (a character who wasn't in the original canon), who dominated the plot of the story to the detriment of the canonical characters by displaying an unrealistic level of skill and ability. It is very rare that you'll see a character displaying all of these qualities, so usually when you hear the term 'Mary Sue,' the speaker is referring to some combination of these aspects:

• An author avatar (a character that clearly represents the author)


• An idealized character (a flawless, or perfect, character)


• An original character in a fanfiction


• A character who is the constant center of attention to the detriment of the others


• A character who is unrealistically skilled


• A character who has unrealistic abilities

As I said, the podcast defined a Mary Sue purely as an author-avatar, and then pounded home the point that it's a bad idea to make a character too much like you.

I disagree. I don't think any of these things is necessarily bad writing in and of itself. An author avatar may be perfectly appropriate for what you're writing. You may be writing a fictionalized autobiography. Your author avatar may serve as a framing device (William Goldman in The Princess Bride--the introduction and foreward and afterward take up half the book, and it's entirely fictional). He may have a role in the story (Stephen King in his Dark Tower series). If he's well written and interesting, I don't have a problem with him.

Characters with unrealistic skills or abilities are a staple of fantasy fiction. Idealized characters are also a staple, though you do need to be careful with them--typically by keeping them from becoming central characters. Original characters in fanfictions are mostly irrelevant for writers wanting to publish, but these can be done well too. The only one that may be bad in and of itself is the constant center of attention problem, but that's mostly a matter of degree. We all do it: it's called the main character.

What's dangerous is when you start combining these aspects--that's when it starts to become harder and harder to write a good character. An idealized author avatar is the most egregious, because it's the easiest mistake an amateur writer can make. It's easy to write about yourself, and you tend to make the character based on you more perfect than you really are. After all, people tend to idealize themselves, and it's hard not to take your own side in arguments. So your avatar is always in the right, always wins his arguments, and always makes the correct decisions. Of course, if you start making him skilled in ways you're not (expert at martial arts, or starship engine repair) or give him special abilities (see in the dark), then you're really in trouble.

I have written a story where I did three of these things. I had a character strongly based on myself (he's not really an author avatar, as he's different in some pretty significant ways), who is the main character in the story (which is 3rd person limited, so everything is from his point of view). I even gave him a minor special ability. By all rights, it should have been a dreadful story. It actually turned out pretty well, largely because I avoided the other two: he is not at all idealized, and he's not very skilled at anything that matters. The thing is, this character worked not despite of how much he resembles me, but because of it. Because of the resemblance, I was able to give him a strong voice that was easy for me to write and which works for this story.

Now, if I were a better writer, I probably could give just as strong a voice to someone with a much different personality (though I'm not sure I could find another voice that worked as well with the story as his self-deprecating, skeptical cynicism). But then, if I were a worse writer, I would have made the character more irritating than interesting.

The Associate Pastor at my church, Daniel Harrell, has a book out about evolution and the Christian faith. His question is not whether evolution is true or not, but rather if evolution is true, what does that mean for the Christian faith? From his blog post at belief.net:

I recently led a seminar on faith and science at a large Christian music festival (of all places) in rural Illinois. While the reception was gracious (befitting Midwestern hospitality), there were those for whom any allowance of evolutionary thinking amounted to theological heresy of the highest order. One pugilistic gentleman bulldogged me all week, insisting that geologists and biologists were misguided and mistaken. And yet as I listened to his harangue, it struck me that... his real concern was Biblical authority. If the world was not created by God in six days (like the Bible says) and people were not made in God's image (like the Bible says) according to divine purpose (like the Bible says), then why should he believe that Jesus rose from the dead for his sins (like the Bible says)? If evolution is right, then the Bible is wrong―about everything.

But what if, instead of the Bible, it is our reading of the Bible that is incorrect? What if the realities of nature mean we need to rethink the way we understand Scripture? Now I know that just because a particular theory makes sense of the way something could have happened doesn't necessarily mean that it actually happened that way. But if evolution provides an accurate description of life on earth, how might we rethink what the Bible says? To rethink what we think about the Bible is not to rewrite Scripture, nor is it to capitulate to Christianity's detractors. Instead, rethinking and reworking our theology in light of accurate scientific data results in a more dependable and resilient theology. To be a serious Christian is to seek truth and find it as revealed by God both in Scripture and in nature. If God is the maker of heaven and earth, as we believe, then the heavens and earth, as science describes them, have something to say about God. Natural selection need not imply godless selection. To be reliable witnesses of creation can't help but make us more reliable witnesses to the Creator.

As interpretive human endeavors, science (which interprets nature) and theology (which interprets Scripture) are unavoidably limited and prone to error. Humility is required to do both. And yet, when interpretation gets it right, we should expect science and theology to concur inasmuch as nature and Scripture both come from God.

It's an interesting question, and worthy of consideration.

So I've decided to resurrect this blog. Not that the blog has ever really died, but it's been on life support, with me posting once every other week or so (mainly to keep the Storyblogging Carnival going). I'd like to bring it back, with substantive posts at least three times a week. What do I mean by substantive? That's a good question. Mostly I've been talking about writing, so I'll probably keep doing that. I may also talk about religion, but I doubt I'll get into a lot of politics. It's draining to talk about politics, and it requires me to follow the news in a lot more details than I really have time for right now. I'll leave that to other bloggers.

Meanwhile, expect to see more of me.

I don't outline. Or more accurately, I don't consistently outline in detail. I guess I need to explain with examples.

The Eyes of the Shadow - On the surface, this is the anti-outline story. Every two weeks, like clockwork, I would write and revise a chapter and show off the finished product. Then I would say, "Okay, so what's the next chapter about?" For most of the story, I had no idea what I was going to do next. I was also determined to avoid a Deus ex Machina, so if I got my characters into a situation that I couldn't get them out of (and I was always ending the chapter with a cliff-hanger), then I would end the story in a tragedy. It was scary and a challenge, but also a lot of fun. I liked what I came up with, but it wasn't complete. So ultimately, once I finished the story, I took it and used it as a basis to write a book. It became, in essence, the outline to that book.

The War of the Elementals - For this one, I have the outline in my head. It's been there for years. I know how the story ends, and what the characters will have to accomplish in order to reach that end. That said, it's not a complete and detailed outline. It's pretty vague, and the story surprises me sometimes. That said, for Part 3, Air, I sat down and decided what the story was about. It was less of an outline than a brainstorm, where I wrote things along the lines as "Well, Aulus has to do this. Maybe if he got involved with that, it would help. Nah. I guess I could try these instead, etc." It's less of a detailed chapter by chapter outline than a list of things I want the characters to accomplish, and how they may go about doing it. Or may not--I won't know until I actually write it.

The Air model is what I've more or less settled on. I brainstorm, which means listing ideas, deciding which ones are good ones, and figuring out the basic conflicts of the story, a few things that have to happen, and maybe deciding how I want things to end up. Maybe not--it depends on the story. This takes a page or two to do, no matter whether its an 8,000 word short story, a 35,000 word novella, or a 90,000 word novel.

So how do you write? Do you brainstorm? Outline? Just start writing?

Yesterday, I was listening to the 3/16/2009 podcast of Writing Excuses (yes, I'm six months behind), a writing podcast featuring Howard Taylor of Schlock Mercenary, Brandon Sanderson, who's writing the last few novels of the Wheel of Time, and horror writer Dan Wells. The podcast was on clichés, and the subject came up of how to keep characters of a different gender than the writer from being clichéd. When I first started writing seriously, I was very reluctant to write a scene from a female POV. I just didn't think I knew how to pull it off. This held until I was writing Fire, and I reached the third chapter and realized that it really had to be told from the point of view of Lucia, who is not only female, she's a teenage girl--fourteen at the time of that chapter. I agonized over it a bit, but ultimately bit the bullet and started writing. It was hardly perfect in the first draft (or the second or third, for that matter), but when my writing group finally got around to reading it, they thought I had done a pretty good job of telling the story from a teenage girl's perspective.

So what's the secret? Or is there a secret? Well, here are the things that helped me:

1. I have two younger sisters. Okay, this is one of those things you can't really emulate--you either have siblings of the opposite sex or you don't. It was quite a boon for me, as I was an eyewitness to two girls growing up. That one was a year and a half younger than me, and thus roughly in my age group, and the other was seven years younger, so I could take more of an outsider's view, was also helpful. Even if you don't have sisters (or brothers, if you're a woman), you can still learn directly from members of the opposite sex. Friends, girlfriends, wives, and daughters can all help you to learn more, if you're willing to listen to them. That said, I'm not sure anything else is quite as helpful in understanding the opposite sex as growing up with them.


2. I've read books by women with a female POV. That is, after all, what I'm trying to capture, a POV that seems natural. Stories in my own genre are best, but other genres can be helpful as well. It might help if I had more patience for Romance or Chick Lit, but I do have some limits.


3. I have women in my writing group. In fact, I've pretty much always had more women than men in my writing group. Thus I have people to tell me what doesn't work, and what doesn't seem natural. If you don't have a writing group, or if by some quirk of fate they're all your gender, you can still have female friends read your story, and tell you what works and what doesn't. Understand, though, that it's rare to get really good criticism if the reader is not a serious writer.


4. I make sure there's a person behind the stereotype. I'll admit, I'm not above using stereotypes. I wrote Lucia as a stereotypical teenage girl, before I brought her face to face with real tragedy to see how she'd deal with it (hint: not shoe shopping). I've done the flighty girl and the school marm, and gave one of them visions and made the other rescue her son from evil wizards. Stereotypes are useful when conceptualizing characters, but mostly what they tell you is how other people perceive them. What's really going on inside of them, how they respond to crises--the two things that you need to describe whenever you write a story from their POV--never really fit the stereotype. You can use stereotypes, but make sure you dig deeper.


5. I usually don't try too hard. I'll admit, I tried really hard to get Lucia's early POVs right. It may be that teenage girls are a special case, though. Or I just lacked confidence. I haven't tried as hard with my other female POVs. Women are, after all, people: I'm not trying to write about an alien race. There are differences, but I think where a lot of writers get it wrong is dwelling on those differences, rather than focusing on the person and on the story. Generally, if you can get the motivations right (where a lot of those differences do come up), the rest will flow naturally from that.

So that's what helps me write a female POV. How about you? What helps you write from the perspective of the opposite gender?

Welcome to the one hundred and third Storyblogging Carnival. There are a lot of new participants this time, along with a lot of old timers who haven't participated in a while, and that adds up to a lot of stories. Enjoy!

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Rivals
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A less than 100 word brief story rated PG.

Workplace tale in limerick form.

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Shaken
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 179 word brief story rated PG.

An updated scene from I Henry IV by William Shakespeare

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The Summer Goddess?
by Toni of What's your story?
A 222 word brief story rated G.

Enjoying one last summer before growing up.

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Magic Pea Myth
by Kara Jones of Mother Henna
A 500 word brief story rated PG.

Came purely from a nighttime dream, written up in the style of a myth telling the story of the archetype Moon.

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Hootin' & Hollerin' in Valhalla
by Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium
A 620 word brief story rated PG.

Where Rednecks really go when they die

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Maybe This Time
by Lena of The Colors Magazine
A 707 word brief story rated G.

A story about running away from happiness in the search of unknown.

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The History of the Domini Part VII: The Necromancers (The Whole Story)
by Donald Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope
The next 814 words of a 4,207 word story in progress rated PG.

Randall Aurelius explains the origins of the Necromancers.

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No Radar in PA
by Jason Small of New Pennasota
A 979 word brief story rated G.

The story of a dog, with pictures.

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Supermarket Miracle
by Prior Adams of Prior Adams
A 1,069 word short story rated G.

A short story about two people that have the exact same eight items in their shopping cart at the grocery store

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Scott Speicher's Body Was Never Missing, and Other Musings Over the Dead
by Greg Laden of Quiche Moraine
A 1,102 word short story rated PG.

A story of traditional burial rites and asking the right questions.

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A Face in the Shadow: Part 1: Chapter 1
by Tiffany Colter of Tiffany Colter's Fiction
A 1,223 word excerpt of a 76,500 word novel rated PG-13.

Someone is killing young women in Woodhaven. And now he has his eyes on Rachel.

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Dreaming of Charlie
by goemagog of This Space for Sublet
A 2,085 word short story rated PG.

Charlie doesn't know anybody, but everybody starts knowing Charlie.

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The Seafarers
by Jeremiah Lewis of Fringe Blog
A 2,772 word short story rated R.

A group of five people are stranded on the open sea. An abstract allegory on the nature of humankind, politics, and the breakdown of civilization.

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This concludes the one hundred and third Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

The Rest of the Story: The rest of The History of the Domini can be found here.

This is another chapter of Randall Aurelius's History of the Domini. No history of the Domini would be complete without a disccussion of the Necromancers. The Necromancers were the last descendent of the Shades who remained independent of the Domini, and by far the most dangerous.

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The History of the Domini
by Randall Aurelius

Part VII: The Necromancers

To say that the Necromancers predated the Domini or vice versa would require an assumption that simply is not true: that either the Necromancers or the Domini have a meaningful founding date. There were, to be sure, Shades called Domini long before anyone used the term Necromancer, as the term “Dominus” was first given the Shades by the First Legions. But the desire behind Necromancy predates even the time when we were first called Shades. Ultimately, Necromancy is the search for immortality.

While little is known about the Malwer, and barely more is known about the Amaranthine, all the legends agree on one truth: both of these races are immortal. It may be that the Amaranthine’s cousins, the Kawyr, are immortal as well, but that is a debate I leave to others. Neither the Malwer nor the Amaranthine age or die of old age. (They can, of course, be killed, and illness and injury take many of them over their long lives.) When humans first discovered that they could perform magic like their masters, they doubtless wondered if they too would achieve their immortality. We can only imagine their disappointment when they discovered that they lived no longer than ordinary humans. Some simply accepted this as the way of things: they were mortal, while the Malwer and the Amaranthine were not. Others believed that it was their magic that made the Malwer and Amaranthine immortal, and as humans had learned magic as well, they too would be immortal if they could merely learn the how of it. That Malwer magic was utterly different than human magic, and that only the wizards among the Amaranthine possessed any magic at all, and it too bore little resemblance to the magic the Shades practiced, did little to persuade them.

This quest for immortality is not in itself what makes a Shade a Necromancer. It is, rather, the method. Many of the Shades, having failed to learn anything useful from the Amaranthine, who were remarkably generous with their magical teaching, began to study death itself. They sought to discover the difference between a living person and a dead person, and to determine when the soul departed from the body and how to prevent it from doing so. They eventually discovered a means to bind a soul to this world, so it does not depart when a person dies. This typically worked by binding the soul to an inanimate object, so that the soul persisted as a wraith. It is speculated that the ultimate goal of Necromancy was immortality by binding the soul to its own body so that it could not die. However, the majority of Shades were horrified by this practice, seeing it as an affront to Eän to prevent the soul from departing the world. When the Amaranthine were similarly repulsed, the practice fell into disfavor. It did not cease to be used, however, and many Shades worked in secret to perfect this Soul Binding technique.

It is this practice of Soul Binding that makes a magic-user a Necromancer. The reanimation of bodies as automatons, though ghoulish, is not strictly Forbidden, despite its long association with Necromancy. It is likely that the Necromancers, seeking to learn the secrets of the body in the hunt for immortality, were the first to develop these techniques for reanimation, and they are among the few who spurn the Order’s and the rest of society’s norms sufficiently to take up the practice even into the recent past.

When the Shades went their separate ways, those who had continued to practice Necromancy in secret began to practice openly, and many who sought the secret of immortality joined their ranks. It is not meaningful to talk of them as a single society of Necromancers at this point, as there were dozens of Necromantic sects in operation, and they cooperated no better than the other Shade sects did. It should be said that the Necromancers were not usually expansionist, being insular and focused on their eternal quest. They did, however, require bodies on which to perform their experiments, and many were not particular as to whether the bodies were dead or alive to begin with. In fact, those without scruples found living bodies and their attendant souls much more useful to their research, and their improved progress had many who would have balked at the notion losing their scruples in the name of catching up. Some of the expansionist sects of Shades conflicted with the Necromancers, sometimes seeing their campaign as a holy crusade against the practitioners of death magic, but they had little success. A wraith is nearly unstoppable, and Necromantic sects usually had dozens if not hundreds at their disposal.

Shades began to fear conflict with Necromancers, and likely the Necromancers would have continued in their strongholds to this day if not for the rise of the Domini.

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This has been the latest 814 words of a 4,207 word story in progress.

The War of the Elementals is the name for a series of books I'm writing. It's a good name, and I'm happy with it. Each part is named after a classical element: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. There are two others, but I'm keeping their names as a surprise. As I intend it to be a trilogy, I've combined two parts for each book and called book one Fire and Water and book two Air and Earth. This doesn't work so well. After some consideration, I've decided to change the names of the first two books to:

Trials by Fire and Water
Battles in Air and Earth

This way I keep the element as part of the title, and play with the words some. The phrase "trial by fire" is a well-known idiom, and "trial by water" isn't unheard of (and actually has the same origin, in trials by ordeal). "Trials" works partly because I have literal trials as part of the climaxes for both parts, but it also works for the various difficulties I put my characters through. Battles in Air and Earth is a bit more abstract. "Battles in air" refers to espionage and counter-espionage, deceit, stealth, and trickery. I haven't finished writing Air yet, but this is ultimately the major theme of that book. "Battles in earth" is the one I'm not completely satisfied with, as it refers to the physical conflict between nations. But calling it "battles in earth" makes it sound like it's underground. I suppose I could call it Battles on Air and Earth, but then the air allusion doesn't work as well. I'll have to think about it.

So some of you may have noticed that I'm not blogging as much as I used to. So what have I been doing with myself? I've been writing. More specifically, I've been writing to be published. I've had some success with my short stories, and even with my not-so-short stories. I'd really like to publish my novels, however, which is what I'm focusing on. Of course, before publishing novels, I first have to write them, so I've been doing a fair bit of writing. Of course, the things I'd like to get published can't go on this blog (well, they can, but that tends to make things harder), so I can't post the fruits of my labor for you. I do, however, want to talk a bit more about my writing, so what I've done is posted a progress bar on my sidebar. Take a look, I'll wait.

All right, seen it? It has very small, hard to read print, so it's all right if you couldn't make heads or tells of it. Let me explain. There are two projects I'm currently working on. One, Phoenix II, is the sequel to A Phoenix in Darkness. I've finished the rough draft and started the first revision on that one. The second, Air, is the third in the sequence that starts with Fire, and continues through Water. I'm only about halfway through the first draft of Air. So the title in bold is the project, and the bar directly underneath is the total progress, the next title is the phase I'm working on, and then the bar below it shows how far along I am with that phase. All clear?

The fun part is determining how much each phase contributes to the total progress. For example, I somewhat arbitrarily call the first draft 50% of the total project. I'm not sure how accurate that is in terms of total time, as I've never clocked it, but I know that a story feels halfway done once I finish the first draft. Then the first revision, where I go through the draft and fill in holes, and fix major difficulties in the story, accounts for the next 12%. After that, I show the story to my writing group and incorporate and/or ignore their feedback. That's the second revision, and accounts for another 12%. Then I print out the whole story, read it aloud while making corrections in pen, and revise the electronic version based on those corrections. This third revision is 20% of the total project. Finally I read through it one more time, fixing any grammatical and spelling errors left, or introduced by the third revision. The fourth revision is 6% of the total project. After completing the four revision process, the story is ready for submission. (It used to be a three revision process, before I got a writing group.)

The next Storyblogging Carnival wil be the one hundred and third. It will be hosted here, at Back of the Envelope, and going up on Monday, September 7th. If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, September 5th. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

I should have done this a long time ago, but I wanted to read through the entire anthology first. The problem is that I've loaned out my last copy, so I still haven't read the last couple of stories. That said, I figured it was time I said something, so here goes.

First off, this is not a review. I'd love to review Coach's Midnight Diner, but as I have a story published in this edition of the Diner, there's a conflict of interest. I will say that the story I have in this anthology, "The Office of Second Chances," is probably my favorite of the stories I've published so far. It's a parody of heroic adventure fiction that asks what happens when the hero fails to save the world. So if you want to read my best story, buy the Diner. Use the link above and I get a cut, too (the Diner doesn't pay royalties, so the only money I get is through Amazon's system).

So, aside from my story (which is of course totally worth the price of the Diner by itself), what else do you get? The Diner advertises itself as Genre Fiction with a Christian Slant. The "Christian" is important, but most of these stories aren't what people consider Christian fiction. These aren't morality tales, and they ask questions rather than preach answers. The stories themselves cover a range of genres and styles: some are heavy on the realism, while others are not even close. A lot of them are very dark, and happy endings aren't too common in this book.

Some of the stories impressed me more than others. Of the Editor's Choices, my favorite was Daniel G. Keohane "The Box." It is the first story in the book, and not for the faint of heart, not least because it's heavy on the realism and reality can be pretty horrible, but it ends on a note of hope that I found touching. Greg Mitchell's "Flowers for Shelly" was probably my favorite out of all the stories. It's a zombie love story, and very dark, but powerful in the telling. Another of my favorites was Maggie Stiefvater's "The Denial," which was a demonic love story. Hmm, I'm sensing a pattern here. Okay, time to break it with one that's not a love story of any kind, Marianne Halbert's "The House of Abandoned Characters." This is one of the few that's similar in tone to mine, and examines what happens to those characters who just don't make it into an author's stories. It's a free will vs. pre-destination argument for literary characters.

Those, I think, are the standout stories. I'm not saying that the others are bad, just that they didn't appeal to me the way these did. Of course, if you buy the book yourself, you can tell me which stories you think are the best.

Welcome to the one hundred and second Storyblogging Carnival. Not many entries this time, but some good ones. And rather than talk, how about we get right to it.

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Trash Day
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A less than 100 word brief story rated PG.

A tale in limerick form about throwing out a tv.

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Day of Atonement
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 136 word brief story rated PG.

An historical day in Israel is tied to one of her sins.

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A Story Idea
by Donald Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope
The 184 word brief story rated G.

The start of a modern day fairy-tale.

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The Little Boy-Goddess
by Surbhi Bhatia of The Viewspaper
A 1,069 word short story rated PG.

A union of mortal and divine

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New Series: How to Have Tourette's
by Josh Hanagarne of World's Strongest Librarian
A 1,567 word short story rated PG.

Tourette's Syndrome is a weird disorder with strange symptoms. I've fought it for 20 years and won more than I've lost. The series "How To Have Tourette's" is my attempt to come to terms with my condition, the reasons we tell stories, and the difficulties in reconstructing reliable stories about great pain.

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Part I: A City of Death and Misery
by Greg Laden of Greg Laden's Blog
A 1,840 word short story rated PG.

A true ghost story.

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This concludes the one hundredth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

I'm not quite sure what to do with this yet:

To say that he was uninterested in her in a particular way would be unfair. He was, in fact, uninterested in all pretty women as a general rule. Show him a woman with straight white teeth, long golden hair as soft as silk, snow white skin and rose red lips and all the other clichés of fairy-tale beauty, and he would enjoy looking at her, have no doubt. He was, after all, a young man, and young men enjoy looking at beautiful women. They can’t help it—it is an instinct programmed into their genetic code, like watching sports or making crude jokes. But he would cross to the other side of the street rather than wait for her to open her mouth. For once she did, she would inevitably demonstrate that she was conceited, or vain, or stupid, or shallow, or silly. Any beautiful woman would without fail have an ugly personality—she couldn’t help it, it came with the genes for beauty, in his opinion. Thus, the women he was interested in would have to be at least a little bit ugly.

I woke up with the first two sentences fully-formed in my mind this morning. I think it comes from having been reading The Princess Bride the last couple of days. The idea doesn't really come from The Princess Bride, but the style of writing does. I wrote the rest while getting lunch today. I think this is sort of a fairy-tale story, written in third person omniscient with occasional (but not overdone) "dear reader" asides. So far, I don't have a plot, just an concept, spelled out in the first two sentences: a pretty girl, trying to get the attention of a young man more interested in not-so-pretty girls--a reverse Cinderella, perhaps. I'll see what turns up, when I'm not working on the sequel to Phoenix.

The next Storyblogging Carnival wil be the one hundredth and second. It will be hosted here, at Back of the Envelope, and going up on Monday, August 3rd. If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, August 1st. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

Welcome to the one hundred and first Storyblogging Carnival. Again, I apologize for the delay, but I've had a very busy week. But rather than make excuses, let's get on with the stories.

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Harried Spouse
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A less than 100 word brief story rated PG.

Family spat limerick.

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Let It Be
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 133 word brief story rated PG.

A man jumps to an embarrassing conclusion

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Tied up Revolution
by Kuna of What a madhouse! - or the mental hospital in one post communist country
A 264 word brief story rated PG-13.

A story from the mental hospital in a post communist country...

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Catnip Pete and the Case of the Naruto Blanco
by Shaun Duke of The World in the Satin Bag
A 289 word brief story rated PG.

A two-fer: a short piece of fiction and a writing prompt!

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Brian and Rose Plus 7, 470 Chickens, 8 Pigs, Etc.
by Rose of Learning at Home
A 600 word brief story rated G.

Big family, hundreds of animals....the making of a reality show (does anyone really want to see me do my laundry?)

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Madness, just needs a small push!
by Ilavaluthy of Ila, trying to find a place in the world.
A 999 word brief story rated R.

"The mission was on. Omar was a part of it. He has been training for this over three years now. He has been grieving for 6 years."

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Empty Cookie
by Marisabel of Life on Canvas
A 1,000 word short story rated PG.

"I found this website which I liked more than the rest: http://www.1000wordsmeme.com/They use a picture and you have to write whatever you want about it."

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Naxal shadow in forest India
by Ram Raghavan of ramraghav.com
A 1,594 word short story rated PG.

A fictional account of life in an Indian village under the sway of Marxist insurgents.

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Another Cinderella Story
by Surbhi Bhatia of The Viewspaper
A 1,599 word short story rated PG.

An reason to leave wish granting to the professionals.

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Dancing With Zebras
by Fiona Leonard of Year In America.
A 1,677 word short story rated PG.

Life and love in pre-Independence Zimbabwe

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The Terrible Day I Met Bruce Campbell
by Josh Hanagarne of World's Strongest Librarian
A 1,683 word short story rated PG.

I'm not one to get starstruck, especially not by B-movie actors. But the day I met Bruce Campbell was an unequivocal catastrophe. I fear I'll never know why I said the things I did.

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This concludes the one hundredth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

Sorry about the delay with the Storyblogging Carnival. I'm very busy this week, but I will get to it eventually.

The next Storyblogging Carnival wil be the one hundredth and first. It will be hosted here, at Back of the Envelope, and going up on Monday, July 5th. If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, July 4th. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

Welcome to the one hundredth Storyblogging Carnival! Exciting, huh? I'm not going to say a lot about the carnival right now--I'll save that for later this week. For now, let's get on with the entries.

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Doc Mockery
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A less than 100 word brief story rated PG.

Story limerick about a doctor/patient conversation.

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Kosher
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 159 word brief story rated PG.

An old woman comes to a new discovery

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The History of the Domini: Part VI (Whole story)
by Donald Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope
The next 549 words of a 3,393 word continuing story rated PG.

With the humans and Amaranthine victorious over the Malwer, the fragile alliance among the Shades quickly breaks down.

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Bruno the Escape Artist
by David Derrick of Wildlife Art of David G. Derrick Jr.
A 633 word brief story rated PG.

"Bruno the escape artist sounds like a great stage name for a Hungarian magician in a traveling circus. Bruno has thick flowing orange-red hair giving him a stage presence that would make even Houdini envious. Bruno, however, is not an actor or an escape artist in a traveling circus. He is an Orangutan but he is an escape artist."

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Void
by Myles O'Neill of Dreams In Vitro
A 864 word brief story rated PG.

Void is a short story about the philosophy of the cosmos. What will the end of the world be like?

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Greeting
by Kate Addict of The Ficticious Tales of Isis
A 936 word brief story rated NC-17.

Isis makes an appearance and gets more than she bargained for.

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When Your Field School Goes into the Toilet
by Greg Laden of Quiche Moraine
A 1,500 word short story rated PG.

A piece of scrap paper, international travel, advanced technology, and complexities of interpersonal relationships converge to produce the ultimate spit-take.

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Disquieting Postcards I’ve Recently Received from My Future Self
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
A 990 word brief story rated PG-13.

In which a future me sends me disturbing reports of what to expect, and how I mess with him ... me ... well, you get the picture.

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First Day of the New Dodge
by Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium
A 1,151 word short story rated PG.

Fresh from finishing the first draft to his next novel, Andrew decided to write this tongue-in-cheek tale about his first day should he be given "Dodge" cars to run.

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A Hole in the Sky: Part I
by Doc Rampage of Doc Rampage
A 1,524 word short story rated G.

Three people driving through northern Arizona in a 6-wheel drive all-terrain super-flex-fuel serial-hybrid amphibious military scout vehicle with custom luxury outfitting investigate an unusual weather phenomenon.

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An Autobiography of My Descent--Part I
by Asmoday of The Asmoday Experiment
A 3,773 word short story rated R.

Because of my adoption, and having to dig out my own roots like a self-archaeologist, I learned more about myself through my birth than most. I'd like to share the story with you here.

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Brains vs. Brawn
by Phronk of Phronk
A 3,893 word short story rated PG.

An autobiographical tale that grew out of describing my experience buying my first car, then realizing the story could use some spicing up. So I added in Bigfoot. It's still totally true, though.

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This concludes the one hundredth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

The Rest of the Story: The rest of The History of the Domini can be found here.

This is the first chapter of the second half of Randall Aurelius's History of the Domini. While the first half discusses the origins of the Domini, and their part in the great war to free humanity from enslavement, the second half discusses what happened once humanity was free. The Domini's role in shaping the world is often forgotten, but it was much larger than is usually acknowledged.

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The History of the Domini
by Randall Aurelius

Part VI: The Schism

With the Malwer imprisoned and the Amaranthine isolated, the humans began to make a life for themselves, and the Shades tried to find their place among them. There was little agreement among the Shades, and they quickly split into dozens of sects, maybe hundreds, each with its own objectives.

Some of the Shades thought that our main duty was to guard the imprisoned Malwer. They built a fortress named Overwatch near the prison, and called themselves the Watchers. They led an aesthetic life, isolated from the rest of humankind, using magic to make themselves self-sufficient. Others followed their path, seeking isolation and self-sufficiency, even if they refused the burden of the Watchers. These were among the most successful in finding a quiet life, but most of them died out within a generation. They had no means to reproduce, and most did not attempt to recruit. The Watchers were the longest lasting of these groups, since many Shades recruited and trained by the other sects were attracted by their sense of calling, and most of the sects would allow their members to make the pilgrimage to Overwatch and join them.

Others attempted to give up the black robe. It became apparent rather quickly that the mundanes, as we called humans without the magic, would not accept us into their fold. Any man who was known to have been a Shade found hatred and intolerance, and many were driven out of their communities or killed. Only those who hid their history could survive, but it is believed that many did successfully integrate themselves with mundane society, living and dying among them.

There were others who sought a middle ground, who tried to live apart from mundanes, yet not be entirely isolated. They recruited as they had before, taking young men secretly and without warning, so they could be trained in the magic. Occasionally, they traded with the mundanes, although this was difficult given how little they were trusted. Thus, they too had to seek self-sufficiency. But because they still recruited, they were able to survive while the completely isolated sects died out.

The last and worst were those who thought we should rightfully rule over the mundanes, using our magic to seek power over them. These groups would make themselves into a ruling class, recruiting others with magical ability and, by sharing power with them, perpetuate their power. But those seeking power are not easily appeased, and what one man can take another will covet. These groups went to war with each other and with the less aggressive sects, again and again, raising armies and wielding magic as a weapon. The Shade Wars lasted centuries, and by the end of it, only two groups were standing: the Domini and the Necromancers.

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This has been the latest 549 words of a 3,393 word story in progress.

The next Storyblogging Carnival wil be the one hundredth. Wow, that sort of snuck up on me. Well, sure, I knew the last one was the 99th, and I knew that 100 came after 99, but I didn't really put those two facts together. I'm going to have to do something special. In the meanwhile, it will be hosted here, at Back of the Envelope. The carnival will be going up on Monday, June 1st.

If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, May 30th. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

Welcome to the ninety-ninth storyblogging carnival. Wow, that means the next one is number 100. I should probably do something special for it, huh?

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Greeting
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 168 word brief story rated PG.

A parent deals with the death of a child.

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Rumpole Creator, John Mortimer, Dead at 85
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A 500 word brief story rated PG.

"Excerpts from my profile (and interview) of the recently deceased John Mortimer."

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Night golfing X-files
by Faizal Ismail of Langkasuka
A 625 word brief story rated PG.

Things that cough in the night.

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Soulcrushing Fiction: Threads Pt. 4 (Part 1)
by softmelon of The Den of Psychosis
The final 645 words of a 1,800 word continuing story rated R.

The speculative story about a future where overcrowding causes society to regulate the hours in which senior citizens can be out in public.

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The Story of the Cat Who Did Things Differently
by Karen S Murphy of Polaris Rising
A 712 word brief story rated G.

A story about how living freely and from the heart has a ripple effect on society.

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Things to come? Redux...
by Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium
A 859 word brief story rated PG.

The slow fall of Britain.

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Twitterpocalypse
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
A 900 word brief story rated PG.

The end of the world, told through tweets.

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Bars and Ink on my Wrist
by Benjamin Himlan of Working the Line
A 909 word brief story rated R.

A new job.

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How to Pick a Lock
by KateAddict of The Fictitious Tales of Isis
A 1,178 word short story rated NC-17.

Natasha demonstrates some little known skills.

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Ashram Paradise
by Pandora Parker of Skirt Tales
A 1,327 word short story rated PG.

Ashley leaves New York for Paradise Island to escape. Her bikini gets ruffled after encountering a fellow vacationer with a dislike for New Yorkers

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Recovery, Relapse, Relationship
by Tim King of J. Timothy King's Stories
The first 6,256 words of a continuing story rated PG.

A sexual assault advocate faces a victim with a troubled marriage and ends up facing her own past.

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This concludes the ninety-eighth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.

Black Gate, a magazine for adventure fantasy, is now open for submissions until June 30th, after having been closed for a few years. It's the only magazine to which I subscribe, and they always have good stuff. They accept short stories in adventure fantasy (see their guidelines to see what that means), but they have a definition of short fiction which is considerably longer than most, up to 25,000 words, and if you ask first, they can look at even longer stuff.

I've submitted three stories to Black Gate over the years, and though they've yet to accept any of my stories, I'll be happy to send another one off to them. I've always gotten good feedback from their editor, John O'Neill. A word of warning though: they have a legendarily long response time. I don't think I've ever heard back from them in less than a year. I'm hoping this new limited open submissions period will help to shorten that time (they're currently saying two months), but it's still wise not to expect to be able to send your stories to anyone who doesn't accept simultaneous submissions for a while.

The next Storyblogging Carnival, the ninety-ninth, will be hosted here at Back of the Envelope. The carnival will be going up on Monday, May 4th.

If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, May 2nd. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

Welcome to the ninety-eighth storyblogging carnival. Rather than spend a lot of time talking about it, I'll just get on with the entries.

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Performance Art Gone Horribly Right
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
A 110 word brief story rated PG.

A performance artist takes on the financial meltdown.

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Physics of Physicality
by Mauzzie of One Post/One Person/Two Eyes
A 185 word brief story rated PG.

A slice of life, a glimpse of a few minutes from my everyday commute to work- looking at strangers that I'd probably never see after the journey.

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ten14 is a great place for a nap
by Aaron Rogier of Aaron Rogier
A 232 word brief story rated PG.

A story about everyone's favorite G-rated activity in a place it doesn't belong.

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Coronation
by Marco Kaufman of The Big Book of Grievances
A 237 word brief story rated G.

A brief piece of historical fiction.

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A Botox Tale
by Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium
A 344 word brief story rated PG.

A plot is uncovered by the Sage's friend.

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Trip to Tawang: Part 3: Seven Sisters waterfall, Cherrapunji and Tawang monastery, Tawang
by Pawan of Admirable India
A 568 word brief story rated G.

A travel log with some beautiful pictures.

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Henry's Shadow
by Goemagog of This space for sublet
A 645 word brief story rated PG.

Henry discovers that there is something out there.

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Our Most Unforgettable Corvette Adventure
by Susie Q of The Musings
A 833 word brief story rated PG.

A husband and wife drive from Alaska to Missouri--or try to, at least.

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Return of the Green Pickup
by Greg Laden of Greg Laden's Blog
A 1,251 word short story rated PG.

"Things had been quiet... But things were about to get a bit less quiet."

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Should have seen it coming
by softmelon of The Den of Psychosis
A 1,493 word short story rated PG-13.

This story pre-dates the movie "NEXT" starring N.Cage. In my story, the main character can see almost 30 minutes into the future.

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Soul crushing fiction: Threads
by softmelon of The Den of Psychosis
A 1,784 word short story rated PG-13.

The speculative story about a future where overcrowding causes society to regulate the hours in which senior citizens can be out in public

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The Consequences
by Jenn H. of Mixed Metaphor.net
A 2,531 short story rated PG.

A short story about the consequences of the life decisions made by two people who loved each other.

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The Lion, the Tent, and the Anthropologist
by Greg Laden of Greg Laden's Blog
A 3,721 word short story rated PG.

A true story of lions in the night.

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This concludes the ninety-eighth Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.