Shotgun Honey - a brief review

I'm not sure how I found the Shotgun Honey website, but I'm glad I did. I suspect that I found a link for it on Paul D. Brazill's or Chris F. Holm's blog. It's regularly updated and features a variety of noir, crime and hardboiled stories of 700 words or less. It's a mixed bag and I confess that most of the authors are unfamiliar to me, that said, the quality is impressive.

At the time of writing this a story by Chris Rhatigan (Somnambulist) featured on the site. It's worth the few minutes it will take to read the 609 words and is a good representation of what the site has to offer. There's a pretty large archive as well, much of which I've delved into. I'm reading for enjoyment, because they are, well enjoyable but I'm also reading for research purposes as I want to get one of my stories published on the site. I've read the submission guidelines and am on the third draft of my first attempt. 

I'd love to have the confidence and arrogance to think it will be immediately accepted and that I will be heralded as a new player on the hardboiled scene, but I fully expect a rejection. What I hope beyond hope is that the rejection might come with some advice, some guidance that can help me with my second effort. That's where I've gone wrong over the last few years. I've not submitted my work or for that matter redrafted anything. While Shotgun Honey doesn't pay for stories, the mere act of putting my work 'out there', putting it up to be judged, criticised or potentially laughed at is for me a very exciting prospect and certainly feels like the right thing to do. 

I'll submit my story before the end of the month and am already working on some concepts for some other sub 700 word offerings. 

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If you like the combination of Flash Fiction and Noir/Hardboiled get yourself over to ShotgunHoney.net on a regular basis - you won't be disappointed. 

Writing goals and readers

I had a plan. It was a cunning plan. I was going to write a collection of short stories and self-publish them. There would be no editor. Friends and family would buy it and hey presto I am an author. A published author. That would be easy. That would be cheating.

So I'm going to listen to my friend Alan and take the more challenging route. I'm going to try to get someone to publish one of my stories. I think that's the only way to know if I have any kind of talent. I know I'll get quite familiar with the word 'no thanks'. I also know though that with rejection will come in some cases advice. Advice that I can use to make myself a better writer. I started this process this week and gave my very critical and analytical friend an early draft of a very short I have written that I plan to submit to Shotgun Honey, the home of short noir / hardboiled on the web. I love so many of the stories on there and have been introduced to some brilliant writers. Writers that I confess I'd never heard of before.

The initial advice I received from Alan was positive but with some brilliant advice. He picked up on an over use of a specific word that I had become completely blind to even though it was pretty bloody obvious. He also suggested I start the story later on in the piece to give me more scope to build the tension. I've now rewritten the piece twice, trying slightly different approaches. I have no doubt I'll try a few more before I am satisfied enough to submit it. Before I do though I'll once again send it to Alan for any further feedback.

I've read before about having a group of readers that can test early drafts and offer honest critical advice but to be frank I wasn't sure at first. I can't explain why but I think it has something to do with fear of being crucified and shattering the illusion that I could be a published writer. However my embryonic experience with my first reader (Alan) has convinced me that this will form a key part of my writing process.

I have another couple of readers in mind and it will be interesting to hear the different feedback I get from them.

Introducing KJ Emslie

I've been writing short stories on and off for the last two years without any direction or ambition. I don't as a rule believe in new year resolutions but I want 2012 to be the year where I finally pull my finger out and get more serious about my writing. As part of that I needed a new identity. You see my real name is Kevin James Anderson. However there is a very talented and successful author called Kevin J. Anderson and the world is not big enough for us both. I clearly would have ended the career of the 'other' Kevin J. Anderson (and yes his 'J' also stands for James), so I decided today to do the honourable thing and come up with a new writing identity.

My mum's middle name is Emslie, which was her own mothers maiden name. I've checked the name out and there doesn't appear to be any other authors called KJ Emslie out on the world wide internet web. I sought and was given the blessing of my mum. It's quite a weird feeling if I'm honest, but it is the right thing to do. It also feels like a completely fresh start, a blank canvas if you will.