{"id":2758,"date":"2012-11-27T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T08:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=2758"},"modified":"2012-12-04T16:22:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T00:22:19","slug":"shades-of-darkling-nights-and-other-colorful-metaphors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2012\/11\/27\/shades-of-darkling-nights-and-other-colorful-metaphors\/","title":{"rendered":"Shades of Darkling Nights and Other Colorful Metaphors"},"content":{"rendered":"

What follows is the first few paragraphs of another of my short stories, published long ago in a small press magazine that no longer exists<\/a>. Like the magazine that published Timewinder<\/em><\/a>, my first story for which I actually received payment, this publication also disappeared not long after my story appeared upon its pages. And I don’t think, despite the evidence of a pattern, that my story had anything to do with this magazine’s demise, either. I’m putting this short story, and the previously mentioned Timewinder<\/em> up on Amazon for the Kindle. This is what the covers will look like, I think (unless I change my mind):<\/p>\n

\"Shades<\/a>

\"Timewinder\"<\/a>

Concept cover art for the Kindle ebook.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

I’m hoping to put them up on Amazon within the next couple of weeks. This is my first foray into “indie publishing.” I was encouraged to take this route by Sarah A. Hoyt<\/a>, an award winning science fiction author. Her next book is appearing in December, from Baen: Darkship Renegades<\/em><\/a>. It is the sequel to her book, Darkship Thieves<\/em><\/a> which won the Prometheus Award<\/a> last year. She’s in the process of putting up several of her works as ebooks (do a search on her name on Amazon; thus far, it’s mostly short stories. Occasionally she’ll offer one for free); as she points out, your otherwise unpublished stuff isn’t making money sitting in a drawer. Why not put it out there; you might make a little bit. And if you’re lucky, you might make a lot. In either case, its free, you’ll make more than the nothing you’re making now, so why not?<\/p>\n

After these two short stories go up, I’m planning to turn several of my other thus otherwise unpublished novels into ebooks on Amazon (and other platforms) over the next year or so. I’ve got help coming on future cover designs, though these two I put together myself (using GIMP<\/a> and bits from multiple public domain pictures that I combined and altered).<\/p>\n

So let me know what you think of my attempts at the covers for Shades of Darkling Nights and Other Colorful Metaphors<\/em> and Timewinder<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

And finally, the beginning of the story:<\/p>\n

Shades of Darkling Nights and Other Colorful Metaphors<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

Maurice Bolder was just the sort of man to start imagining things. His parents, his teachers, his wife, his children, his editor, his analyst\u2014all were in absolute agreement on this singular and important point.<\/p>\n

Therefore, when he announced one day that a tiny monster had appeared in the window air conditioner of his study, no one felt the least bit surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother short story you\u2019re writing?\u201d his wife asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds dumb,\u201d exclaimed his twelve-and-a-half-year-old son, his face glued to a blaring television.<\/p>\n

That would teach him to get into the super glue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you have a little monster?\u201d asked his seventeen-year-old daughter, who was convinced she knew everything\u2014and perhaps very nearly did. Her high-school counselor had informed them her IQ was just over 200. \u201cIsn\u2019t \u2018little monster\u2019 an oxymoron?\u201d She was busy turning the lights on one by one in the living room.<\/p>\n

Not an easy task for such a homely girl.<\/p>\n

Maurice shrugged. \u201cHe\u2019s a very small, exceptionally ugly person\u2014 about six inches tall. What else would I call such an ugly thing but a monster?\u201d<\/p>\n

His over-brained daughter smiled condescendingly. \u201cCall him a demon, or an imp, or one of the wee people.<\/p>\n

But monster just doesn\u2019t work for something so small; monster means big!\u201d<\/p>\n

He shrugged again. \u201cPerhaps you\u2019re right\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019m right.\u201d She glanced at her mother who smiled approvingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you go back and finish your story,\u201d said his wife. You know the car insurance is coming due this month.. .\u201d<\/p>\n

Maurice just smiled calmly and went back to his study….<\/p>\n

Read the rest when it appears on Amazon for the Kindle.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What follows is the first few paragraphs of another of my short stories, published long ago in a small press magazine that no longer exists. Like the magazine that published Timewinder, my first story for which I actually received payment, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[19,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2758"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2760,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}