Category: Stories

A #PetsOfWonder Photo Contest!

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hi Folks!

Long time no blog. I’d say I promise to do this more, but that’s not really the point of this post. The point of this post is… puppies!

img_7722 Well, puppies, and kitties, and snecks, and more importantly, books. Or, one book in particular. Right at a month ago, your not-so-humble narrator got himself published in a little anthology known as Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger: Stories of Airships, Pirates, and Wizards.

This book has it all. Excitement! Adventure! Magic! Romance! Werewolves! More werewolves! Thirteen stories by twelve really great authors and one me-who-might-be-really-great-too.

To celebrate our one month book birthday, I’ve decided to do a twitter photo contest that I thought would be fun. I present to you: #PetsOfWonder.

The rules are pretty simple:

  1. Aquire a copy (e-book or paperback) of Skies Of Wonder
  2. Own a pet (stuffed animals and pet rocks totally count)
  3. Take a picture of your pet reading Skies of Wonder
  4. Post that picture to Twitter with the hashtag #PetsOfWonder by Wednesday 25 July 2018, 11:59PM US/Central

On Thursday the 26th, I’ll randomly draw a winner, who will have their choice of either:

  • A print of our awesome cover art!
  • A stylish Skies of Wonder bookmark
  • A paperback copy of the book, signed by myself

That’s it! If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I hope to see your glorious #petsOfWonder this week!

Advertisements

SnarkWrites: “Killing the Gods Within Us” – Drafts 1-3

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hi Folks! So, for the past few weeks, I’ve been testing out using Twitch to broadcast writing streams as Snark_Runner. Since I’m not sure how that works with first rights issues, I’ve decided that these stories will live on the blog, and anyone interested can see the evolution of the story within drafts. Last night I finished up draft 3 of this story, so here we go. (Draft 3 will be first, with the other drafts following for anyone who wants to see how it started.

The prompt is from Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds, and was just two words: New Life. After a few passes, this is what I came up with:

Continue reading “SnarkWrites: “Killing the Gods Within Us” – Drafts 1-3″ →

Viable Paradise: One Year Later

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

As most of you know, almost exactly a year ago I attended the 20th Viable Paradise Workshop (VPXX), and despite my best efforts, I never quite got around to putting my feelings about that week into a coherent blog post. With the new class about to board the ferry and start their week of adventure, I figure now is as good a time as any to put my thoughts on page about that week and the year that has followed.

[Author’s note: my memory is not great, so this is told to the best of my recollection. The details may be a little off, but the big things are true.]

Continue reading “Viable Paradise: One Year Later” →

DFWCon (& The Boy That Cried Coconut)

~ Fred G. Yost ~ 2 Comments

This weekend I got to hang out at the Dallas Fort Worth Writer’s Conference which will hear by be shortened to DFWCon.

This was the first time I’d gone to a writing conference as opposed to a writing convention (or writing workshop, I promise I’ll get my VP blog up someday). “What’s the difference?”, you might be asking.  Near as I can tell, a convention focuses on celebrating the fandom of the thing, with a couple of panels for aspiring creators and the chance to hear industry experts speak. Armadillocon (a great con that I highly recommend) averages about 50/50 fan/creator. The entire focus of the conference is craft and the business. There’s pitch sessions, there’s one-on-one editing sessions, and there’s a whole lot of wonderful panels.

Continue reading “DFWCon (& The Boy That Cried Coconut)” →

On Social Expectations and Sushi

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

This tale, like most, requires a bit of backstory. Thanks to my ongoing eye struggles, I spent the day working from home instead of in the office. Also thanks to my ongoing eye struggles, I’ve accumulated a bit of social debt to my roommate who’s been kind enough to ferry my visually impaired self around so I’m not often behind the wheel of a car. In order to pay off this debt and satisfy my craving for bulgalbi, I decide to take him to lunch at a local Korean restaurant.

A few minutes after ordering our meal, one of the waitstaff drops off a set of sushi rolls. The words “Sorry, we didn’t order this” die on my lips, because they’ve been known to drop off the occasional complimentary roll, even if it is usually the kind of thing that goes to a larger table. Especially two rolls worth. The waitress walks away. This is officially a TABLE GIFT.

Continue reading “On Social Expectations and Sushi” →

A Series of Unfortunate Eyevents

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Another update on my post surgical condition. Left eye is healing slowly, but steadily. It’s got enough recovered that I’m able to basically function, though reading text can be hard so I’m still not terribly active on slack or twitter yet.

Right eye is being troublesome. It’s mostly healed, but it’s inflamed. This latest follow-up, the doc said fun things like sub-corneal clouding, and needing a post-op epi removal so that they can treat the inflammation if they can confirm it’s been healed over.

On one hand, big kudos to the dedication of the team for working with me on this. On the other hand, I’m anxiously awaiting putting this all behind me.

More to come, helpfully something good.

Typing into the void

~ Fred G. Yost ~ Leave a comment

Hey everyone!

Quick update here. As most of you know, I went in for laser eye surgery on Thursday, so have been offline as far as any type of text communication. The particular brand of surgery I got was ASA (advanced surface ablation) which is an updated version of PRK. While everything seems to be healing ok, I’m still not at 100% eyesight yet (so excuse any typos) but I am alive and well and seem to be through the worst of the side effects. I’ll have a better update in a day or two once things fully return to normal. That’l also be when I can see any of your comments.

Turns out I get really bored without any text communication in my life, or TV or video games. Hope y’all are having a great weekend and a good day. Eyes are getting pretty tired now, so I think I’m going to wrap it up here.

Peace,

FGY