All its children, sweep and prince
Jan 16, 2025 1:31 pm
Where among the desert sands
Some deserted city stands,
All its children, sweep and prince,
Grown to manhood ages since,
Not a foot in street or house,
Not a stir of child or mouse,
And when kindly falls the night,
In all the town no spark of light.
There I’ll come when I’m a man
With a camel caravan;
--Excerpt from "Travel" by Robert Louis Stevenson
I've renewed my passport, so I'm travel eligible, a lonesome traveler in search of a destination.
I'm waiting on some favorable news on a novella and a short story. Word on the latter will come in ten days. I have no idea when I'll get news on the novella. Speaking of novellas, I may try Bugs in The System with a brand new publisher, instead of self-publishing it as I had intended. Maybe there's a good reason I haven't pulled that trigger.
As for my new works, I've spent a week or more thinking about and doing research for a short story. Realization came today that most of my research was unnecessary because my setting isn't going to be the one I had contemplated. It will involve the same characters--I've used them in a short story that got high praise while being rejected as outside the scope of the magazine to which I submitted it--but the story will take place about two years earlier and at a different location--some twelve or thirteen years after the first story. When I wrote the earlier tale I anticipated a whole series of stories based around them. I'll write the new one, aimed at the specific call, and if it doesn't get selected, I'll still have another complete tale to add to that series.
Here's some writing advice I while rifling my surroundings for inspiration. It's a ramble about my writing buddies and their significance in the process.
Reading continues on Lincoln's Last Trial. I expected to be finished by now, but the author insists on wandering away from the trial to provide commentary and other information. I want to read the trial transcript without veering away to plow up trivia during the witness testimony or to insert tiresome chapters between witnesses. My initial enthusiasm has waned. Nevertheless, I press on.
In the Fun Fact category: In 1129, Baldwin rode out with a sizeable force to take the city of Damascus. Camping at a place called The Wooden Bridge, the crusaders sent out the knights to forage. These divided into small parties to cover more ground. Buri of Damascus saw his opportunity and sent out forces to engage the knights. They found a contingent of crusaders at al-Buraq and slaughtered them with a great slaughter. When the Franks regrouped to mount a counter attack, fog, rain, thunder, and lightning combined against them to prevent the attack. Baldwin was forced to retreat, having lost half his knights and much of his baggage. The citizens of Damascus rejoiced at the divine intervention in their behalf.
Don't forget I'm having another flash fiction contest in February: not to exceed 350 words and featuring a space alien in the USA on Valentine's Day or Groundhog Day. Get your entries to me by February 15.
Meanwhile, enjoy these large selections:
Freebies of all genres in the January Book Bash
