Illustration by Rex Queems

At some point today I think I will finish a story from the celebrated and sometimes laughter-inducing land of Fledge.

This one will be for the October edition of West Virginia South. This is significant largely for one reason, that being that this will mark my one-year anniversary with West Virginia South publishing my Fledge serial.

I am really thankful for the chance Audrey Stanton, the fine editor of this fantastomag, has given me. Since it’s been a year, I think I can express some gratitude without being accused of kissing up.

Fledge was born in my imagination at some point, and I wrote the first story (not thinking much beyond it). It was called “A Very Bad Sign.” I was surprised at how much I liked it, and assumed I could never write anything like it again. But I did write another story “The Lion, the Bridge, and the Wardrobe Malfunction,” sometime later. I thought this one was better, and was still pretty sure I couldn’t do it again, but my confidence in my lack of confidence was wavering a bit.

It was in this state of swirling self-doubt and imaginational hope that it came to me that maybe I should see about getting one of these things published in the magazine in my hands -West Virginia South.

I let myself imagine this for a while, even venturing to consider the possibility of a serial. Months later I got up the nerve to stop by the offices of WVS and speak to the editor.

I was nervous. From the start Audrey was very receptive and listened to my idea and my lame description of what I had in mind. I left with a dose of cautious optimism and an e-mail address.

Continue reading

I found this link to a fascinating interview with the late, great humorist when he was in his early nineties. I found his advice to people writing humorous stories very valuable and several of his suggestions challenge my current approach. So I am encouraged by the opportunity for growth.

Here’s a small portion taken from the website of AbeBooks. The interview they have posted was from a 1975 interview in The Paris Review.

“INTERVIEWER:

If you were asked to give advice to somebody who wanted to write humorous fiction, what would you tell him?

WODEHOUSE:

I’d give him practical advice, and that is always get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a great slab of prose at the start. I think the success of every novel – if it’s a novel of action – depends on the high spots. The thing to do is to say to yourself, “What are my big scenes?” and then get every drop of juice out of them.

The principle I always go on in writing a novel is to think of the characters in terms of actors in a play. I say to myself, if a big name were playing this part, and if he found that after a strong first act he had practically nothing to do in the second act, he would walk out. Now, then, can I twist the story so as to give him plenty to do all the way through? I believe the only way a writer can keep himself up to the mark is by examining each story quite coldly before he starts writing it and asking himself it is all right as a story.

I mean, once you go saying to yourself, “This is a pretty weak plot as it stands, but if I’m such a hell of a writer that my magic touch will make it okay,” you’re sunk. If they aren’t in interesting situations, characters can’t be major characters, not even if you have the rest of the troop talk their heads off about them.

INTERVIEWER:

What do you think makes a story funny?

WODEHOUSE:

I think character mostly. You know instinctively what’s funny and what isn’t if you’re a humorous writer. I don’t think a man can deliberately sit down to write a funny story unless he has got a sort of slant on life that leads to funny stories. If you take life fairly easily, then you take a humorous view of things. It’s probably because you were born that way. Lord Emsworth and his pig – I know they’re funny.”

Never read PGW? This is the first of his novels I read. Try it out out and just you try not to laugh.

A friend of mine, Jodi, recently asked if I would use a pseudonym/pen name if my book is ever published. OK, so my name is boring. Samuel Smith is my name, along with, according to the N.A.M.E. (Naming Association of Maladroit Educationists) four and two-thirds trillion other people (in Japan alone).
So she suggested S.D. Smith. D is my middle initial, and yes, I was named after a woman named Dale. It’s not a problem; I’m half-woman on my mother’s side anyway. I thought “S.D. Smith” sounded a little pretentious (like the picture that my wife gently insisted that I add), but others like it, and I’m coming around to it.

N.D. Wilson uses initials as an homage to his favorite authors, who happen also to be some of mine (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, P.G. Wodehouse, G.K. Chesterton). And yes, if you don’t know what C.S.L.’s real name is, and what he went by, as well as what the J.R.R. stands for, and what P.G. stands for, then you are D.U.M.B.

O.K., so I don’t know what P.G. stands for. But I do know he was known as “Plum.”

While we’re on the subject of initials, do you know what O.K. stands for? From what I’ve heard (on NPR), it’s short for “All Correct.” Don’t ask me how that happened. “I’m A.C, you’re A.C.”

Jodi’s father (a minor folk-hero, and elder in my church) Kim Buttram, chimed in with characteristic suggestions, for both pen names and book titles.

“A Hole in the Ice” by S.K Moe

“A Walk in the Jungle” by L.E. Phant

“The Little Brick House” by B.B. Wolf

S.D. Smith is sounding better all the time, though B.B. Wolf is not bad.

More fun facts:

Did you know that J.K. Rowling is sort of invented? She is just Joanna Rowling, and has no middle initial, or name to go with it. The K is invented. She was afraid little boys wouldn’t buy a book about a boy if it was written by a lady, so hence the J.K. And I am not “jk.” lol (Who else hates that e-lingo?) lol…ugh.

Also, I had a friend in college whose first name was JB. It was not an initial, either. His last name? Seay. Pronounced “C.” His name was (and is, presumably) JB Seay. Cool huh? Sounds like: JBC. What school did we go to? ABC. And yes, I lettered in basketball and soccer. But I was, at best, a grade “C” player.

Let’s apply this sermon to our hearts

I think I need to stop, because this could go on forever. But you go on without me. Feel free to chime in (in the comments) with suggestions for a pen name, more funny acronym/initial stuff, and recipes for chicken pot pie. Or just comment so I don’t feel so terribly, terribly alone. *Sniff*.

T.T.F.N.

“What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful ’sub-creator’. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.”

-John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

I am happy to announce, to the zero people who read this blog, that I completed the first draft of my first novel on this day in history.

I have wanted to do this for a long time, and it is nice to have finally finished my book, at least in a manner of speaking.

Now…on to revisions, corrections etc.