Today I'd like to welcome Lin Holmes to my blog. Lin is a MuseItUp author who is also a warm and loving person. As well as visiting my blog, I have reviewed her book Forever With You on my review blogspot - Sue Book Reviews
Over to you Lin...
Over to you Lin...
I want to begin by thanking Sue for inviting me to come and visit here with her. It is always an honor and a joy to spend time with my fellow Muse Authors.
Sue, you know that I am busy promoting the book of mine that just released from the Muse It Hot side of Muse Publication, Inc.I want to explain why it was released from the Hot side as opposed to the Mainstream side. There is one dream sequence that is a bit…intense. That is the only portion of this very short story that would make it worthy of the Hot side of Muse.
My book is called FOREVER WITH YOU, but I am not going to talk about that. I will leave it to your readers to decide if they want to check it out via the Muse It Up Website at www.museituppublishing.com
No, I would rather talk about the process of writing…at least for me, really short stories.
Recently I was asked why I prefer writing short stories. Because of time limits and the need to address about 20 questions, I just skimmed over the subject of writing short stories, but I’d like to avail myself of the opportunity to expand upon it here.
I am a storyteller. I will see something and a story will form in my mind. It is easier to develop characters over a period of many chapters, but it is much more challenging, for me, to create characters my readers will know and care about in a more limited time-frame.
For instance, I once saw a Japanese rock garden highlighted in one of the magazines every one checks out for landscaping ideas. (My son was into landscaping at the time.) Living in an apartment, creating a rock garden with the kinds of accessories resplendently displayed in the photos, didn’t grab me…but my funny bone did react.
What, I wondered, would someone who took the idea of creating a rock garden at face value do? Naturally I wrote a very short story that told of the process a person who really expects to GROW a rock garden would employ.
First, they would have to scour their surroundings for the RIGHT, seed-sized pebbles to plant. Next would come tilling the ground and plunging spade into ground to receive each pebble-seedpod. Watering would HAVE to be a part of the process. What seed can grow without a healthy drink?
I follow our intrepid gardener as (s)he checks the garden every day armed with a ruler eagerly anticipating growth…growth that does not manifest.
Still certain the pebbles will grow into glorious boulders, our gardener checks out those rock gardens in that magazine again with a critical eye, and determines perhaps his/her rocks are not getting enough shade. Japanese people swear by their rice parasols, so our gardener meticulously places one parasol per pebble-seedpod certain the pebbles will now grow.
The next day, there is still no change. No shoots are erupting from the pebbles; the parasols are still graciously protecting the poor seedpods from the harsh rays of the sun, but they remain, dormant.
Heat…maybe they need radiant heat from inside the soil. Isn’t mulch supposed to act like compost and heat up the ground?
You see how in just a few short words, you get a feeling for the determination, whether justified or not, in our hero’s quest? You feel the frustration and the problem solving process the hero employs and even as we shake our heads, we also feel empathy for the disappointment our hero faces each day.
Will the garden be successful? We’re talking rocks here. Still we leave our hero saddened the pebbles have not grown but still certain they will…tomorrow.
This example is just one of my quirkier spins through storytelling. FOREVER WITH YOU is a short story that is woven so tightly, you feel entrenched in the heroine’s dilemma, and you won’t see the surprise ending coming…a surprise ending that you will remember long after you have finished the 4,128th word.
My Name is L.J. Holmes and I write books; two have been released from both sides of Muse Publishing, Inc. I have ten more being released during 2011 and 2012, so far.
I hope you will check out my stories.
My main blog, where I talk about things that will let you get to know ME, Lin, who writes as L.J. Holmes is
I do cover blogs…think of them as “Stationary Book Trailers” for the Muse It Up Side at
I also do cover blogs for the HOT side at
And finally I do cover blogs for the Muse YA releases at
I am also available via e-mail at
Thank you for having me visit with you, Sue and share my thoughts on writing short stories with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment