The Soda Shop Message Boards

Ameraka, I've read your stuff (on the fanfiction front at least), and believe me when I say that you're very talented. You really know how to tell a story. Don't let internalized negativity keep you from pursuing your dream.

I enjoy writing quite a bit. I'm an avid reader, so writing seems to follow, for me, at least.

I tried writing a story about 5 years ago... It didn't turn out well I tried to write the sequel before finishing the original. It was a mess xD

Then, two years ago, I finally attempted to write something again. It was November of 2012, and many ToOers were doing NaNoWriMo. I asked them about it, and they told me to think of an idea and join in, . But alas, inspiration refused to show its face. Until December 16, that is, when I sent this plot idea to Joy:

So, this boy(about 13, maybe 14) moves to a small, seemingly peaceful, town. His father is an undercover government agent sent to this town to investigate a mysterious pattern of events and their possible connections to a mad scientist imprisoned inside a local observatory. The boy tries to get used to the new setting, and learn his way around town, and make some friends. He knows of his father's position, but doesn't know why they came to this town, or what his father is here to investigate. The boy finds himself in the middle of the mystery, not sure who to trust, with even his own father under suspicion. Ultimately, he has to decide who he can trust and who he can't, and stop the people he can't trust.

This idea later became my first book, Point A to Point B, which some of you may have read Three days later, I began writing. It wasn't finished until nearly nine months later, and a certain Limerick didn't finish editing until mid-November of 2013. Finally, after a long year, I self-published my very first story at nearly midnight on November 26(Which is, not so coincidentally, Samantha14's birthday. And it's tomorrow, so I'll be celebrating for two reasons .). It clocked in at just over 27,000 words. Certainly not worthy of NaNo, but not bad for a beginner.

Shortly after publishing Point A to Point B, I began writing a sequel to it(which I consider to be better than the original.) This one took a much shorter time to complete, since I set a goal to finish it in six months. And finish it I did It was published on July 20, 2014(another friends birthday.) It made it to 35,000 words.

And now I'm busy preparing for the third and final book of this series(called The Impossible) by writing a series of short stories set in the same world, called Impossible Origins, concerning the backgrounds of several different characters from the series.

If you made it through this entire post, and want to learn more about my work, you can check out my website at http://www.jeremiahlangbooks.weebly.com



@Ameraka: I've read some of your fanfiction, and it's very well-written. I'd be very upset if you quit now, I think you're a fantastic writer

ArnoldtheRubberDucky wrote:
I don't really see your point about posting it on here. I don't think it would be "like it's already published" at all.

I suppose no one can read it that doesn't have an account here. It'd be different if it was just on the Internet without a password. Then there'd be no point in publishing it in a magazine.
There are a lot of potential readers on here though. Would they buy the magazine with the story in it if they could read it here? Would the magazine frown on that?

I have sent it in to another magazine.

TigerShadow wrote:Ameraka, I've read your stuff (on the fanfiction front at least), and believe me when I say that you're very talented. You really know how to tell a story. Don't let internalized negativity keep you from pursuing your dream.

Thank you! Your words of encouragement always mean a lot to me.

Woody wrote:

@Ameraka: I've read some of your fanfiction, and it's very well-written. I'd be very upset if you quit now, I think you're a fantastic writer

Thank you! I don't think I'll quit writing...I don't know if that's possible. I just get discouraged sometimes, but eventually recover.

I need to read your next book! I bought the first one.

I've also self-published a book. It's pretty cool that you can bypass traditional publishers (although I may want to go that route too at some point).

I'm working on sequel, but can't quite get it going for some reason. It seems to be taking form a little bit more now....Just wrote a bunch of "journal" for my main character.

Ameraka wrote:I've also self-published a book. It's pretty cool that you can bypass traditional publishers (although I may want to go that route too at some point).

Oh yeah! I still need to read that *adds it to his long list of books to read*

My book Justice Lost is free for 5 days only on Amazon Kindle, so if you want to read it, now would be a good time!

Here's the link where you can download it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JM1XFCI

Neat, thanks!

I have wanted to write a Christian novel for a while, but apparently, nobody (here at least) would like it.

Mr. Yorp wrote:Neat, thanks!

I have wanted to write a Christian novel for a while, but apparently, nobody (here at least) would like it.

Why wouldn't they like it?

*Coughs*
I lost all my work on my book minus the little I have online. *sobs*. I hate you acer!!!!

Oooooh, yay! *gets book*

Hmm... sounds like Connie in "The Chosen One".

I now have a little laptop without Internet up in my room so I can write any time I want. I finished a sort of "black comedy" short story on it that I'm hoping to post here soon...

Blitz wrote:*Coughs*
I lost all my work on my book minus the little I have online. *sobs*. I hate you acer!!!!

THAT'S TERRIBLE!!!! A writer's worst nightmare.

ArnoldtheRubberDucky wrote:
I now have a little laptop without Internet up in my room so I can write any time I want. I finished a sort of "black comedy" short story on it that I'm hoping to post here soon...

Yay! I'd like to read it.


The short story I mentioned earlier--I just found out this morning that it will be published!

A magazine will be publishing it in February. The magazine is called Frostfire Worlds and the story is "Desert Rescue" in case anyone wants to check it out.

Congratulations. I submitted my black comedy short story to a magazine. I haven't got a reply yet, but I doubt it will get published, since I wasn't really sure what the procedure was for submission, and I didn't feel it was my best work anyway. How exactly did you approach the magazine? I mean, what did you say in your query?

ArnoldtheRubberDucky wrote:Congratulations. I submitted my black comedy short story to a magazine. I haven't got a reply yet, but I doubt it will get published, since I wasn't really sure what the procedure was for submission, and I didn't feel it was my best work anyway. How exactly did you approach the magazine? I mean, what did you say in your query?

Thanks! What magazine did you send it to?

I did a writing course which focused on targeting the right magazine for your story or article. The first requirement is that it fits what kinds of stories the magazine wants to publish. If a magazine doesn't publish science fiction, for example, and yours is, it won't publish your story no matter how good it is. How did you approach the magazine? Did you look on their web site for guidelines?

Here's my cover letter:

Dear Alban Lake:
As an orphan the Academy of Magic took in, Fralenn longs to have magic of her own. One day, she rides into the desert with a group from her school to find a wizard who can control fire. But after she leaves the group, a desert tribe takes her classmates as slaves, and she has to find a way to rescue them without magic.
I would like to submit “Desert Rescue” for your consideration.
I have published short stories in Catalyst and Spaceports and Spidersilk. and I eagerly await your response concerning my story.
[signed]

I sent it to an obscure literary magazine called "The Gathering of the Tribes". I sent it to them because they specifically said they were looking for more humorous stories. I think I might of screwed it up with my query, though... I'm going under the pen name Felix Gonzales.

ArnoldtheRubberDucky wrote:I sent it to an obscure literary magazine called "The Gathering of the Tribes". I sent it to them because they specifically said they were looking for more humorous stories. I think I might of screwed it up with my query, though... I'm going under the pen name Felix Gonzales.

I hope it gets published! If it does, I'll get the magazine and read the story.

Sometimes the more obscure ones are the ones to go with because they might be more likely to publish your story than the more widely-known ones that get more submissions.

What do you think you did wrong with the query? (or cover letter--queries are letters you send in first, usually with articles, not short stories)

Well... here it is:

Greetings,

I have a written a (roughly) 2000-word short story that I was hoping you would consider for publication in your magazine "A Gathering of the Tribes". The short story is very simple in nature, following a pompous, ambitious artist on his quest to paint a beautiful mountain and achieve artistic epiphany. The pretentious description is intended to be humorous in nature, reflecting the pretentiousness of the narrator. If you like the story, I would be thrilled to hear any suggestions you might have to make it more attractive to your readers. Should you choose to include it in your magazine at any time, please publish it under the name "Felix Gonzales". I do not require any financial compensation whatsoever. Here is the story:

(P.S. "Painting A Mountain" is a stupid title. You may call it whatever you please.)

Yes, I really am bored...
I've gotten to over 18000 words in my first book, 14000 in my next, and around 4000 in my other two. My mom decided to limit me to writing one which has helped me to write around 1000 words per day in my first book. I completely rewrote the first 10,000 word or so of the first book because I lost most of it. I improved it greatly by rewriting it though.

I used to enjoy writing stories with people I knew in them as a kid in some of my journals, I also enjoy making up stories in my head, so I started to try writing some of them using the characters I made up not real people I know. I also read some of Ameraka's fan fiction, which was fun, I didn't know she wrote an actual book, now I want to read Justice Lost.

I suppose I am a writer still. I used to write a lot more. However, about a year ago, my laptop that had all my work on it conked out and I hadn't backed up anything from it in about two years. So I lost about two years of work, which was pretty discouraging. But I'm trying to get back into it. I normally write about kids and their adventures with dogs and horses. And of course, occasionally some AIO fanfiction.

I've always loved writing and wanted to be an author, though it's just me a few years to get around to it. I've known about fan made stories for a few years but never really knew about fanfiction until a few years ago. I started writing a couple just to see if I could do better than some rather badly written ones I'd read, but then I found it was helping my other work, so I've continued writing a few scenes/lines now and then, slowly putting together a few ideas, one being 'my dog has fleas'. I've found that I now listen to odyssey from a writing point of view, rather then solely enjoying it like a regular fan might. There's not many fictional series I know of that have built such a complex world as Odyssey has, and fewer still where the characters are so well written that almost anyone can write original stories/series based on them that they feel canon to the original source. I've also been rewriting a lot of what I wrote as it doesn't feel like it's 'in character", both in my own work and my fanfiction.