I love the Story Shack, Martin does a ton of great work there. Every story has an illustration created for it, which I think is an awesome idea. I forgot to announce the acceptance last month, however “Lost My Signal” went live today! Delilah Buckle created the wonderful illustration.
After work (and dinner) we had a leisurely sunset hike around Seven Springs trail. At the summit we found a Chick Tract, which was hilarious. I presume it was placed trollishly.
On our way back a ranger stopped us for a fifteen minute survey. The Open Space Preserves deserve more money. That’s my feedback.
Lots of wildlife–well, lots of deer, anyway. They frolic in the fields, not seeming to mind the humans much.
EveryTrail — Find the best Hiking in California
The prompt is here:
http://storyaday.org/writing-prompt-lets-get-started/
I decided to use a couple characters I’m playing with for a science fiction story I want to write.
I thought it was a signal. It had to be. “Can’t you see the pattern? I want to send a probe.”
Feela didn’t respond immediately–odd for an AI. But odd was normal for Feela, whose personality seemed more befitting an imaginary friend than a computer. “Vieno,” it said. “It’s just another gas giant.”
I nodded, but didn’t feel right. The radio waves had a clear pattern to them. Or was that another manifestation of my–
“It’s only a manifestation of your anxiety,” Feela said.
For all I knew, I might be the last human alive in the Universe. Of course I would see intent behind every pattern.
I was lonely.
“It’s only natural to feel lonely,” Feela said, as if it were capable of reading my thoughts.
“OK,” I said, letting it go. It was just another gas giant.
That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was loving this story until Part V — Carter Weston’s story.
I enjoyed Daniel’s and Jack’s stories and loved William’s. Once the story progressed to telling Captain Gray’s story, however, I felt things became a bit rushed. Like, “the fun stories are over now, let’s just get to the end.”
I did not find the final encounter as terrifying as the previous stories. To me, it felt rushed and not entirely thought out.
For example, I find myself contriving wild mind control stories as to why the captain gave Carter the book at the end–only to show up as a hero the next day? I get that Lovecraftian horrors work in mysterious ways–but this didn’t seem so much mysterious as just plot happening for plot’s sake.
That said, this book is well worth reading for the tavern stories alone.
I still feel like yesterday was August. Busy as I’ve been with work, other work, and hobbies, I haven’t found the time to post as much as I would have liked.
I managed to read a bit during those months, however.
Speed Dating with the Dead by Scott Nicholson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked it. The story was solid and put together well, and I quite enjoyed the characters. Nothing really stood out as special or unique, but it was a enjoyable read.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Honestly, seemed to go into less detail than Wikipedia.
Good writing, though. Fast paced; a bit short.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As I was reading this, I was certain I would be rating it a five. This story has everything I love in a book. Freeman is awesome, and in many ways reminded me of Killua (who is quite possibly my favorite fictional character.) The setting and atmosphere were great, and the plot did its job.
After I finished and looked back, however, I started to see the scaffolding, and a couple things didn’t really seem to click right in my head. Most of all, however, I just didn’t find Freeman’s relationship with Vicky to be genuine. It seemed forced. Maybe I’m grasping at straws–in the end, maybe I just can’t justify a five-star rating because with so much potential, I think this story could have been even better than it was.
I wish I could rate it 4.5 stars.
Regardless, Scott Nicholson has significantly impressed me. I do believe some of his other books will be finding their way to my shelf shortly.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really enjoy Hugh’s writing, and he delivers exceptional prose here. I am glad I purchased this book, and will gladly buy anything else Hugh Howey writes in the future.
However, I did not like this book overall, hence the low review. There were some stellar things to it, however:
1. The premise is absolutely wonderful.
2. The book opens grand. First couple introduction chapters are lovely.
3. The book isn’t “really” about Zombies. In the same way most good Zombie books aren’t really about Zombies.
4. Hugh writes wonderfully unflinching horror. Some really depraved scenes in this one, and I love that.
If this were a novella or short story, I think it would be grand. As a novel, however, it didn’t work for me. It was a chore for me to read, and it took me significant time to finish.
None of the characters were free to do anything, not even bat an eye. OK; I get why. But what makes me want to read on about them? I don’t care about their thoughts because they can’t influence their actions. I felt like a passive observer the entire time I was reading, and this made me feel bored.
Once I got past the first section, it was all much the same. Different stories, different people, different backgrounds–different specifics, but same theme, same story.
I enjoyed the characters before they turned, when they could still make decisions and act. But after the first section I got the helplessness of the zombies, understood their situation and plight.
I kept expecting the book to move past this. For something to happen and let me stop being a passive observer. But at the end, I feel like I could have stopped reading after the first section and not really missed much.
This is an ambitious book, to be sure. Like I said, the premise is golden.
I just need some kind of carrot to keep me interested and engaged. I hate to say this due to how much I love the Wool series, but this book just felt flat and a bit boring to me.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this. Some things didn’t completely tidy themselves up at the end, however I may have missed some subtly. I liked Finnegan much more than Gabriel; perhaps that was part of Sonya’s point.
First Shift — Legacy by Hugh Howey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I quite liked it, however I wanted more details. This is an intriguing world, and I hope there will be more.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this story quite a bit. I love how Carol didn’t take an easy path–the story is complicated at every layer. Much like the protagonists, I never really knew which side I was on, other than theirs.
This would be a confident five-star review for me, however the final quarter of the story felt a bit rushed to me, and not as satisfying as I was hoping for based on the awesome build-up in the earlier chapters. It is hard for me to give consistent singular star ratings.
Overall, however, a wonderful read. This is a unique, powerful POV that is well worth snuggling up with.
I’ve Been Deader by Adam Sifre
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed it.
Some of the beginning third frustrated me because it seemed irrelevant to the story, and I misattributed dialog beats to the wrong characters at times. I didn’t find all of the characters’ motivations believable, I never really attached emotionally to any of them, and found the lot to be pretty despicable people. (Intentionally, I think, but it was too thick for my taste–all of them?) Current event namedropping isn’t really my thing, so I’m obviously biased.
I liked Fred and Timmy–but the former kind of lost it for me at the end, and I didn’t buy the boy’s motivations post-tunnel.
Yet still… This had a remarkable charm to it. It kept a grin on my face most of the time, and it made me laugh. It was definitely an enjoyable read, and there were some very interesting moments. Glad I bought it.
Today I was informed “Love Me Tender” was chosen as the October Selection for Nailpolish Stories’ special “Best of 2012″ Issue. This is unexpected, very happy news. 
My flash story “Ivy Rose” is now available online at Daily Science Fiction! Check it out here.
Please don’t forget to subscribe to DSF. If you don’t like email stories, they sell excellent ebook anthologies as well.
““At Year’s End” is a great collection of brief fiction. My flash story “Gifted” is published here, so I’m biased, but I think this is a great collection of stories at the perfect length to read over a quick break.
Sorry for the delays on this, but I just got back from a hectic (but fun) trip to Death Valley. “Ivy Rose” will go out to Daily Science Fiction e-mail subscribers tomorrow, Tuesday, December 18th. I am very happy it will be out in time for the holidays.
If you’re not already a subscriber to DSF, I highly recommend it. Seriously, your lunch break will love you for it.
Has it actually been over a month? Jeez. Time sails by when you’re busy. I have lots of excuses–work, travel, computer issues, whatever–and they’re all valid. But not interesting.
A couple of weeks ago I received my contributor’s copies for Brian’s World. These are very nice. I wanted to photo these earlier, but the house was a mess and I didn’t have a table cleared to do so. I still don’t, so, you’ll have to settle with the books balanced on top of backpacking gear. 
We have a trip coming up shortly, so the gear has taken over much of our space.
I haven’t been able to read all the stories yet, but Queer Fish 2 is a great collection so far. The ebook is already av
ailable–a format I prefer to dead tree.
Dan Hart is a writer and systems engineer working, arguing, and hiking in Silicon Valley with his boyfriend. He believes in the power of fiction as a tool to solve real world problems.
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