Short Story Day!

Hey Everyone!

Today is the big day... the day when my short story retelling of "Swan Lake" goes live on Wattpad! It is the eleventh entry in @_Once_Upon's "30 Tales of Spring" Anthology. We've already seen some really amazing stories from ten other authors, and there are still more to come between now and the end of the month. I have been very impressed with the creativity that has been on display in these spring-themed retellings, and I think you will be too.

In other news, I have recently decided to give Wattpad's new TapChat app a try, and boy, is it fun! For those who haven't heard about apps like this before, here is a quick breakdown. Writers create stories that are told exclusively in chat format. Text, IMs, that kind of chatting. They can keep everything in one scene, or break it up into multiple scenes that indicate location or character changes, or even just the passage of time between one part of a conversation to the next. Readers then "tap" through the story, following the conversation as though it were happening in real time.

I've got two stories up on my Tap account so far. The first is a bonus scene called "Damage Control: A 'Princess of the Peas' Moment," featuring Henry and Alice and their damage control plans after Kate learns that she is still competing in the culinary competition after believing she had been eliminated. It's short, sweet, and is meant to give a little insight into the characters while readers wait for the next chapter update.

The second story is one I've been trying to find a way to tell for a long time. It's called "Sergeant Hood: Operation Retold." Of course it is a modern-day Robin Hood retelling, starring Sergeant Robert Hood, a modern-day member of the American military who comes home from deployment to find that the government has been drastically undermining American liberties while he was overseas. I've gone over a zillion ways to tell this story, but haven't found the right tone yet. With Tap, however, I have a perfect venue to start working out some of the more basic elements of the idea. Pairing the whole thing down to just conversations and characterizations has been a fascinating and enlightening experience. I'm definitely looking forward to working more with Tap in the future.

Check out all of these new stories at the links provided above!

Happy Reading!