I’ve been on break from school since beginning of November, so I took the opportunity to brush up on mechanics. Specifically, I took a much-needed browse through the old Elements of Style. Good little book. But, I wanted more. So, I found a more contemporary take on style, Sin and Syntax, by Constance Hale. It’s longer than Elements. There’s plenty of praise for the book out in the wild; I’ll say I’m glad I took the time to read it as well. How do I know? Some of my writing from as recent as a year ago makes me cringe. [sigh] Shortly after I finished, I set about some serious revision work on a few older short stories.
I just started reading Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi, the reading selection for my January writer’s residency. I’ve not decided if I’ll do any journal posts or not on it, since it’s not Horror. First impressions [2 chapters]: Scalzi makes good use of the CDF contract as a framing device for providing background information to the reader; he does an equally good job of slipping in a space elevator explanation during casual conversation. Those are just the first two things that came to mind; I am enjoying it as well.
Finally, I’ve started work on new short story based on the name of a character that I’ve carried around for a few years. I didn’t mean for it to be a zombie story – already tried my hand at zombies once – but… it’s a zombie story.
BTW - Beware the Krampus!