This is an open call for submissions for my ongoing micro-workshop for worldbuilders and language/culture designers. I select a maximum of one entry per week to engage with in depth and discuss on the blog.
So, you're interested in workshopping with me and having your work looked at by my readers?
Please submit an excerpt of no more than five hundred words from your work in progress (novel length or shorter story length), with a sentence or two telling me what kind of feedback you're looking for. If the excerpt is the opening of your work, and you want feedback on your world-entry, don't tell me anything else. If the excerpt is from the middle of your work, you may add an additional sentence or two to give me some basic previous context. Entries totaling over 1000 words of text and explanation cannot be considered, so please be concise.
Please submit your excerpts in the comments space below this post, or email in the body of the email only to info at juliettewade dot com. Attachments are prohibitively difficult to work with. If you're leaving a comment below and would like email confirmation that you've been selected, please include an email address with your excerpt.
Thanks!
Juliette
Chegilson@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteExcerpt from Ambriel for Wednesday World Building Workshop
Ambriel
By
Che Gilson
5th Machidiel, Boath
Dear Betta,
I found this journal in the bottom of a trunk under an old rag doll I haven’t seen since I was eleven. I was cleaning up and putting my affairs in order (sounds final doesn’t it?). The journal was in good shape and apparently abandoned after only a month of entries. If I recall correctly it was a gift from Aunt Letha for my eighth birthday.
Journal keeping is not my strong suit apparently. Or maybe at the age of eight I simply had little to record. I tore out the month of entries, which amounted to five pages, without reading them and slipped the book into my luggage.
It seems now I am doomed to have something to record. For you see Betta, I’m off to my new life blood bonded to a vampire.
Maybe I flatter myself to think you’ll one day read these pages. I sincerely doubt it. You probably wouldn’t remember me even if you did. We only had the one summer together and you were two years older than me. But you were my heroine. Standing up to the Aseph boys like that. You were even nice enough to let me follow you around like a puppy the rest of the summer. I missed you when I got back home. We wrote for awhile but then the letters got further between and finally ceased.
So my correspondence resumes! One sided though it is. It helps to have someone to talk to and saves me from the insipid “Dear Diary,” as if I were some love struck school girl! Although, I suppose that’s exactly what I should be. It’s what I wish I were. Instead I’m on this train heading south in through the mountains. In another two days we reach the sea and then Hecolath.
But that’s skipping ahead isn’t it? I need to go back a week. That was when the Taster came.
I don’t know what the Taster is like in your district but ours is very old. He must be 2,000 at least. It’s a wonder to me that every year in Barchiel during the last days of the month he arrives. Every year since I was a child I’ve been expecting a new Taster to come. But there he is the same as ever.
His name is Xathaniel Sursh. When I was little he seemed so tall to me and terribly frightening. Now that I’ve grown he’s actually quite short. His back is bent and he walks with the aid of a cane. Deep wrinkles cut his blue white skin across the forehead and down each cheek, curving around a thin lipped bloodless mouth. So thin is his skin that you can see the blue traceries of veins beneath. I doubt he was ever very great looking for he has a large hooked nose. Once upon a time he had hair I suppose but not in my lifetime. Not even eyebrows.
Two questions:
ReplyDelete1) could you add this to the classics and series links on the sidebar?
2) do you also take nonSFF examples for this? ;)
(I have a friend that might like this)
Megs,
ReplyDelete1. Sure. I could either move it, or I could duplicate it. Which would you prefer?
2. Sure! I have one of those in the basket right now, and would certainly not mind another.
It might also be a good idea to have an e-mail to send it to as well, specifically for feedback and also so you can notify people if they wish when they are up or not.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion, Rachel! I've added it to the post above.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your stance on profanity/adult themes in entries?
ReplyDeleteHm, I suppose I might sound like I'm about to spring something on you that would make a hardened marine weep, and that's not actually the case. I'm just being aware that while I don't mind a cuss here or there when used in text intelligently, others might mind very much. Having a signpost or rule would be good, even if it's "If you have to ask, don't submit".
Thanks!
Wow, Domini, that's a new kind of question. I think cuss words could be starred, for sensitive readers...? I'm not sure about adult themes, per se. I don't want anything graphic, sexual or ultra-violent. I hope that helps.
ReplyDelete