bookkeeping

[truepenny]

"The Hostage Crisis on the Derelict Mistral Freighter D35-692N-C, Queen of Liverpool," 3rd draft: 8,000 words

I am noticing something, namely that when my brain has some technical writing issue it wants to worry at like an old sock, it tends to come out in science fiction. My very few science fiction stories (none of 'em published, some of them aggressively unfinished) are all also the ones that have given me the most technical spasms in terms of trying to figure out HOW to TELL the STORY. This is a different problem than the endless slow wrangle with voice that is the ongoing saga of Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador, and Scardown Summerdown. [There's a Freudian slip that effs the ineffable, let me tell ya. --Ed.] This is a matter of, if I have events x, y, and z; characters Abel, Baker, and Charlie; and the particular narrative mode I've been saddled with, how do I put them together in such a way that they will make a compelling story?

The Queen of Liverpool, you will be glad to know, has not let down the side.

But I got closer this time, anyway.