The Paul Dean Anderson "method" for writing great short stories - try it!

Some peple believe that formatted poems (sonnets or sestinas) are too
limiting.
I think that part of their art is to write poems within the restrictions
of the form. I think the same is possible for short stories.

It would be interesting to read stories written using the following
form. It was created by a noted writer, Paul Dean Anderson.

---

How to Write a Short Story that Will Grip Your
Readers!

This is a paraphrase of an informal lecture given by Paul Dean
Anderson
at the January 1993 meeting of the Rockford Writer's Guild in Rockford,
Illinois. Mr. Anderson is a well known writer and co-editor of "2
AM Magazine". This magazine is published in Rockford and focuses
on Science Fiction, Fantasy and poetry of the horror genre.

Mr. Anderson preaches having interior problems for your lead
characters
vice external problems.

FIRST PARAGRAPH: Give your character a
threat
that everyone can identify with. It can be a life threat or a spiritual
threat.

SECOND PARAGRAPH: Develop the character and show the
character's
reaction to the threat. This shows a lot about the
character.

THIRD PARAGRAPH: Throw in a prop. i.e. "the gun on the
mantle",
the stuff that the character is wearing or has in his/her pocket, a
vehicle,
suitcase, etc.

FOURTH PARAGRAPH: The second paragraph action did not overcome
the threat. The character "feels down, wants to give up and end it
all".

FIFTH PARAGRAPH: The threat becomes more specific to the
character
or to someone the character cares about. This is the "do or die
moment".
The character now refuses to "take it anymore".

SIXTH PARAGRAPH: The character acts intuitively and in
character
but fails to overcome the obstacle. He doesn't save the world (as it
were).

SEVENTH PARAGRAPH: Character realizes that he must make a
conscious
change to solve the problem. The character must grow and
change
to face his challenge. The Character must make an
out-of-character
decision. i.e. The selfish must do a selfless act, the claustrophobe
must go into a cave or sewer, the person scared of arguments must
confront
an obnoxious verbal bully.

EIGHTH PARAGRAPH: The character must take the out-of-character
decision and combine it with the prop (see THIRD PARAGRAPH) to produce
action in the resolution.

The resolution can be one sentence (as Mr. Anderson is fond of
using).
The resolution can be as long as you need.

Mr. Anderson challenged the Rockford Writer's Guild to write 500 word
stories that would embody this ad-hoc outline above. He later stated
that
perhaps as much as 2000 words he later stated. Mr. Anderson hinted that
these "rules" were somewhat ad-hoc but they flowed forth from him so
easily
that I had the feeling that they were something he had thought about for
a long time!

I am reading a rather interesting novel by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson called The Hero.

This book is set in the same "universe" as Ringo's Posleen series ("A Hymn Before Battle", "Gust Front", "When the Devil Dances" and "Hell's Faire") but a thousand years after the end of "When the Devil Dances".

The premise is that the humans have killed all Posleen invaders remaining on Earth, Earth was then screwed by the Darhel in the reconstruction of Earth (the Darhel had been running earth for 8,000 years before they vectored the Posleen attack fleets against Earth) and then the humans had killed a significant number of Darhel. But, this is just prelude to the story and much better told by messieurs Ringo and Wiliamson.

On to the story!

The story opens a thousand years in our future. On a fringe world (once destroyed by the Posleen), a Deep Reconnaissance Team (DRT) has been tasked with checking out a world occupied by an alien race called "The Blob". Said alien race was moving towards the human (etc.) worlds and investigations need to be done. The DRT has an alien added (a Darhel empath) who is to help study the "Blobs". The Darhel is far stronger and far faster than humans and should be the superior killed; however, the Darhel had been genetically modified so they could not kill. (Hence, their behind the scenes manipulation of humans into becoming the chosen weapons against the Posleen.)

The DRT has some very quirkly young warriors on it. Early in the book, they find an artifact, thousands of years old and incredibly valuable. So, the DRT needs to return this artifact to the human military command. Also, the finders fee would amount to well over a hundred millions credits for each team member and that would be worth killing for!

OK, that was a bit of a spoiler as murders happen among the team members, the surviving team members seemingly forget about the "Blob" menence they were sent to investigate and a chase is on for one of them to acquire the artifact, make it to their retrieval pod and get off planet.

Ringo and Williamson did a wonderful job in creating their characters, revealing their personalities and made this a psychological thriller and not just a bang, bang "shoot them up" story.

I haven't finished the book and am looking forward to seeing how it ends! I strongly recommend anyone (actually) reading this review to go out and Buy This Book, Read This Book and Tell Your Friends To Do The Same!.

Urrr, this is not a paid endorsement; Ringo and Williamson have never heard from me and very likely never will! This is just an enthusiastic fan review.

So, you thought you knew the truth about the "Scope's Monkey Trial? Here is Bucky Cat to "tell you the truth" and you don't even have to read history to learn it! (Well, it is funny.)

I've just finished reading "The Advertures of Myhr" by P.N. already.

This is a story featuring the part-man/part-cat named "Myhr", who travels with a human wizard named Terrin. The premise is that Myhr showed up at the door to Terrin's Magic Shop; no one knows who or what created him or his past. Terrin is an interesting and "twisted wizard". The basic premise is that Terrin blotched a "transport spell" and now the two are bouncing between the universes trying to get back home. (Terrin wants his techno-raves and young women who think he is cute.)

The boys have ended up on a world that is a combination of late 1800s tech and a social structure that sounds something like England of the late middle ages. (The author is a Brit so I suppose she is writing about the history she was taught in school.)

On to the plot:

Transportation between the worlds involved using rechargable jewels or jewels which are destroyed by the transport spells (i.e. "regular" diamonds and "regular" rubies.) The heros discover that something has gone seriously wrong on this world, meet the priniciples and decide to try fixing things. They end up going to hell or being forced to go to hell. I thought the book had a happy ending and Myhr certainly was in a situation begging a sequal! (But, why spoil the fun? Buy the book and read it!)

This book is certainly worth reading and since I don't think Ms. Elrod wants to end the fun anytime soon, I think I can look forward to a number of sequals!

(It has been many, many years since I had to write a book review for an English teacher. I find it not as bad as I had remembered. I guess the knowledge that I won't be getting a grade on this and that my parents won't be reading it has a certain liberating effect! I might even ask a friend of mine - a Liberian who also teached English! - for some hints on this "writing book reviews business...)