Short Story Up: The Flesh Trader

Hey peoples of the interwebz.

My award winning short story "The Flesh Trader" is in this week's Las Vegas Citylife Magazine.

(Page 13, wonderfully)

You can read the e-version here: http://lasvegascitylife.com/e-edition.php?i=2012/11/01#?page=13

Booya!

Mercedes Yardley BEAUTIFUL SORROWS Blog Tour

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing (once again) my dear friend and member of my crazy writer's group: Mercedes M. Yardley.

Knives and other weapons not shown

First of all, let me say a hearty congratulations to you! Your first collection, Beautiful Sorrows, just came out from Shock Totem Publications and I have to say that the title describes the contents perfectly.

Which leads me to my first question...


Mercedes, you’ve really perfected the art of beautiful sorrow, or as you once put it to me “whimsical horror”. How did you develop your unique “ethereal, yet horrific” voice?

It was a lot of trial and error. You’ve read some of my old pieces, and you can see tiny slivers of this voice emerging, but it really wasn’t until I wrote the novel my agent is currently shopping that I felt it come out in full force.  My writing was always a touch dark, but also fairly pretty.  That’s how I’d explain it.  Prettily horrific.

And you’ve always written?
Always.

When did you first have the inkling that other people might want to read your work?
I wrote a lot as a kid, and my third grade teacher asked me to read some of my stories aloud to the class.  It was scary, but cool, and it just seemed like the thing to do, you know?  Write something and share it. Then I was in a couple of great magazines and anthologies, and I figured that people were buying them because of the other authors in there. I was just along for the ride, and loving every minute of it.  But now that Beautiful Sorrows has come out, I’m just floored that people are buying it. I mean, it’s my book, a book of just me, and people are still choosing to spend their money on it.  It’s extremely humbling, but so delightful! I’m so excited.

What was the tipping point for you to stop just “dabbling” as a writer and start submitting things for publication?

I was quite literally going mad. We had just moved to Las Vegas, my husband was gone all of the time with a new job, and I had a baby boy at home.  It was too hot to go outside and we were trapped inside of the apartment. I thought, “This isn’t the life that I want for myself!”  I was so lonely and so desperate for a creative outlet.  I joined up with the local NaNoWriMo group, wrote my first novel, and loved it. It was daunting to start submitting short stories and poems to magazines, but that was my next step.  I always wanted to be a writer, but I lacked the motivation and confidence.  I was intimidated.  But I grit my teeth and started forward.

You’re in a writers’ group with me. Admit it.

The Illiterati. We are a very serious writers group.

No comment, lest I incriminate myself.

Our writer’s group is pretty hardcore, but I can’t tell you how much I’ve grown as a writer because of being in a group with you, Mercedes. I think we’re awesome! Have all of your writers’ group experiences been as awesome?

The Illiterati is unique because we like each other, in and outside of the group as well.  We’re all creative, we have a great work ethic, and especially in the case of you and I, we spur each other on with friendly but gritty competition.

That reminds me. Congratulations on beating my measly 4th place in the Las Vegas Valley Flash Fiction contest! I owe you a video extolling your virtues.

That’s right, I won 1st place! I’m looking forward to that video. Bwahaha! And thank you for spurring me to write with excellence. I ascribe my win to our Illiterati power. But what works for us might not work for everyone. Would you recommend finding a writers’ group to others, and do you have any tips for finding the right one?

I think everybody needs some type of group. Even if it’s a loose collection of betas who only read your stuff once.  In our case, we’re an uber-intensive, three hours a week writer’s group where we tear each other’s work to shreds. But that’s because we respect each other and we’ve earned that respect.

I’d say that if you don’t jive with a person, you’re not going to respect what they have to say about your work. And if you don’t value their opinion, they shouldn’t be looking at your work anyway.  It’s just a waste of everybody’s time.  And time is such a precious commodity.

Ok, random question: I hear you had something to do with the sinking of the Titanic.

Let’s just say that [James Cameron’s TITANIC] movie portrayal of [First Officer] William McMaster Murdoch as a money-grubbing murderer has been contested by friends and family.  Apparently somebody involved with the movie ending up paying the family for defamation of character, or whatnot.

Let me also add that Murdock Luck is a real thing.  You definitely don’t want to stand next to me in a lightning storm.

What energizes you as a writer?

Goals.  Making strides. The success of another writer that I enjoy. Illiterati meetings.  I love the rush of moving forward, even when it’s difficult. But then, it seems that it’s always difficult.  One or another of us is always slogging through the literary mud.  It helps to hold hands and run together.

What would you like to see more or less of in fiction?

I’m done with zombies. Totally done. I’d like to see more ghost stories, but that’s because I love them so much.  Ooh, and more voodoo stories!  You can’t have enough ghost and voodoo stories.

Thank you Mercedes for stopping by my little corner of the universe. Any parting shots?

You may have won this contest round, but I’ll get you next time, Gadget! Can’t wait to see you on Tuesday to shoot the literary breeze.  I’m sure we’ll go head to head on something, as usual.

Sounds like a challenge! Accepted. :)

Make sure you pick up a copy of BEAUTIFUL SORROWS from Shock Totem or Amazon.com

I Won! Mercedes Won! We Won!

As some of you know I entered a writing contest put on by the City of Las Vegas for the 2010 Vegas Valley Book Festival being held downtown on Nov 3-7.

In fact, almost our whole writers group, The Illiterati, signed up to dominate the competition. And dominate we did.

The indomitable Mercedes M. Yardley and I tied for the $250 2nd place prize. (1st place winner was a guy we had all hit it off with before the contest, Kurt Rice so it feels like we kept the winneryness in the family.)

The judges were Andrew Kiraly of KNPR’s Desert Companion, Scott Dickensheets of the Las Vegas Sun, UNLV writing instructor and Schaeffer Fellow Alissa Nutting, and CityLife’s Mike Prevatt. Prizes were provided by the Vegas Valley Book Festival (thank you!) and my story “The Immortal Art of the Deal” will be published in Las Vegas CityLife magazine. (W00t!)

In addition I’ll be doing a reading of my story at the Vegas Valley Book Festival on Nov 6th at around 10:30am in the courtyard. I know you want to be there. I’m going to wear a cape. And add a few Bollywood dance scenes. It’ll be awesome.

But don’t forget, my fellow Illiterati critique partner, Mercedes M. Yardley also won. I decided to interview her, because every time I tried to interview myself I kept getting into fistfights and suing myself.

In order to get an interview with Mercedes I disguised myself as an intrepid journalist and caught her as she was walking into the Las Vegas Machine Gun store.

##

Intrepid Journalist: “Excuse me, Mercedes M. Yardley?”

Mercedes: “How did you find me? Where's my Mace? Security!”

*After the Mace has run its course and the interviewer’s eyes have stopped burning.*

Intrepid Journalist: “Ok, so Mercedes, I wanted to ask you a few questions about your surprise win at the Flash Fiction contest—and your surprise near defeat at the hands of Mason.”

Mercedes: “Well, it wasn’t near defeat. We tied. Which is awesome.”

Intrepid Mason: “Well, right. Ok. Let’s talk about you. This was a FLASH FICTION contest, limited to 500 words. I understand you have loads of experience with writing flash fiction. About how many pieces have you published?

Mercedes: “About 50 pieces. Fiction. Poetry. Nonfiction.”

Insipid Journalist: “Poetry. Like haikus?”

Mercedes *with a sharp look that threatens more Mace*: “No.” *A brief uncomfortable pause. Somewhere a dog barks, or something.* “Mason, seriously, what are you doing in that ridiculous outfit—?”

Incisor Jumblist: “Never mind that. What did you feel when we walked into the 5th street school auditorium where they were holding the contest? I felt, I mean… Mason reported that he felt like he was there to take the SAT’s all over again. Were you scared that Mason would lay the smackdown?”

Mercedes: “I was excited. Nothing gets my blood pumping like a challenge, and I was totally digging on the competitive vibe. And as for Mason? Have you seen his spindly arms? Sure, that guy can shred the guitar better than anybody I've seen, but you don't want that pantywaist to move your furniture. I wasn't afraid.”

Invader Jugglist, *looking down at his pants.* “So that’s why these underwear are so uncomfortable.”

Mercedes: “Oh, but you mean writing-wise? Maybe a little.”

*A brief interlude as Mason, I mean, interviewer does a little victory dance that involves the Pee-Wee Herman move repeated far too many times.*

Investigative Jabba-the-Huttist: “So, how much preparation did you undergo for the tie-breaker dance battle in the parkinglot?

Mercedes: “Well, I was pretty warmed up from jumping around the room and screaming, "Yeah! Finished! Booya!" after the writing contest was done. Besides that, I'd been singing "Eye of the Tiger" in my head during the entire competition, so I was pretty stoked. And who can beat this?”

*awesome dance move*

*Mason, I mean, journalist stares with wonder at the power and fractal nature of Mercedes’ dance moves.*

Implacable Burbleist: “It’s a wonder we didn’t open a time-warp nexus with our awesome dance skills. Well, back to the interview: What are some of the challenges and advantages of writing flash fic?”

Mercedes: “The challenges are that it's difficult to condense your story down to its very essence. It takes discipline to make every word count. Also, a lot of people don't take it seriously as an art form.

“But the advantages rock. Flash is great because you get to explore an idea quickly. It's satisfying to write something start-to-finish without it taking months or even years, like a novel. And it's great from a magazine's perspective because sometimes we need something short and sweet to take up a little space in the mag, and flash fits the bill. It's very versatile."

Insensitive Chupacabralist: “Wow, well there you have it. I want to thank you for taking the time to—“

Mercedes: “Hey, is that a giant wombat behind you?”

*Mason turns to look. Mercedes runs away*

[[end transmission]]


A HUGE thank you to Brian Rouff at Imagine Marketing for hosting the contest and providing a wealth of information for this blog post.

The Vegas Valley Book Festival - the largest literary event in Las Vegas - will take place Nov. 3-7. More than 100 authors participate in festival events, which include literary and art panel discussions, readings, book signings, workshops, poetry readings, spoken word performances, exhibitions and other special programs. Most events are free and open to the public.

The Vegas Valley Book Festival is produced by the City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, Las Vegas Review-Journal, the local chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design; and Nevada Humanities, a festival founder.

For more information about the Vegas Valley Book Festival, call 702-229-5431 or visit www.vegasvalleybookfestival.org.