J.D. Rice

Flash Forward

I am pleased to announce that my first flash fiction anthology has officially begun development. The anthology is entitled Flash Forward and will feature many of my published science fiction stories, as well as a few new and previously unpublished stories. I hope that this project will help lead me to being able to support myself financially with my writing. In order to pursue that goal, I’ve launched a small Kickstarter project, which can be found at the link below. Any donations would be appreciated, although I would appreciate even simply spreading the word about the project.

Flash Forward (Science Fiction Anthology) on Kickstarter

So far, the project is 10% funded and on track to meet the final deadline. More updates to come!

Recently on Wattpad…

Just a quick update for today. My life has been a bundle of changes these past few months, but it seems to finally be stabilizing. I’ve got steady hours at work and finally the peace of mind to write consistently again. I’ve started updating my pages on Wattpad again, first, with new stories with commentary added to “Science Fiction Tales.” Second, I’ve started uploading some of my romantic writings into a collection titled “Romance Stories, Sketches, and Vignettes.” Finally, I’ve added the third chapter of my serial novel, Biosphere 12.

Check these stories out on my Wattpad profile. More updates coming soon.

Writing is Hard Work

If I have learned nothing else since decided to pursue a writing career, it is that the word “career” isn’t just semantics. Making it a career means working hard. Not just a story here or there, but actual, daily writing and editing, taking time to expand your horizons and set realistic goals. It’s difficult. It’s stressful. But it is also quite rewarding. Every time I see my name attached to a story, I know that someone out there thought my work was good enough to share with the world. I feel incredible each time it happens.

Despite my satisfaction with my continued flash fiction work, there is still another part of my dream that is left unfinished. I have yet to publish a novel. I have yet to even finish a novel. Biosphere 12 sits half done, Europa still needs a lot of work, and The Hive has stalled out in the past week due to… apprehension can be the only word for it. My confidence in the story is faltering as I give in to my inner editor who says, “This is boring” and “This just isn’t good enough.”

I read through my blog and through my own writing and realize something. I am not a novelist yet.

Since I published my first story in August of last year, I’ve watched a good friend of mine turn an idea he’s had for years into a three part fantasy series. He’s found an agent who thinks his work is good enough and is now shopping around for publishers. All of this happened in the span of about six months.

I know that if I want to be more than just an aspiring novelist, I will have to put in that kind of hard work. I have to write every day, and I have to set realistic goals for myself. If I can do that, then maybe one of these days I’ll have a “buy my book” section on this blog rather than a few meaningless progress bars.

Europa Cover Art!

I’ve pleased to announce that I’ve designed some preliminary cover art for my in-progress novel, Europa. It’s a pretty basic design, but I think it comes off pretty elegantly.

Review Day 6 Update: I’ve gotten about a third of the way through what I’ve written so far and have found a treasure trove of amazing (and horrible) passages. I think editing Europa through the second draft is going to be a painstaking, though rewarding process. I’m working hard to keep this a review, not a drafting project. I can bother editing everything when the novel is done. Turning off that inner editor is crucial at this stage.

More updates coming soon.

- J.D.

In the Works: The Hive

Inspiration has struck, and I know what my NaNoWriMo 2011 project will be. I’ve been trying to think of something short, within the range of 50k words, that I can knock out that month and that month only. I’d rather not repeat the issues I’ve had with my last two NaNovels, having them lay unfinished all year once November is over. If I manage to do as I plan this year, I’ll have a nice, short first draft ready for alpha readers by December 1st.

So what is my idea? It will be a continuation of sorts from my first flash fiction story, “Sacrifice.” The book will pick up several months after “Sacrifice” ends, dealing with the repercussions of the incident the story describes. Expect the novel to be a kind of science fiction/thriller hybrid. I’ve got the plot all laid out in my head, with a few key scenes planned, and I can’t wait to get started.

Want a sneak peak? Read “Sacrifice” at 365 Tomorrows.

Look for more updates on The Hive as November approaches.

- J.D.

Europa Read Through – Day 1

Today, in order to get myself back into the swing of things, I began a full reread and review of what I have written so far in my second novel, Europa. I also did a bit of work on the latest chapter, which has been sitting unfinished for several months. I hate the idea of leaving a project undone, so I’m hoping to get a solid draft of Europa wrapped up and neatly packaged before NaNoWriMo 2011 rolls around.

So what have I accomplished? First of all, in trying to finish that last chapter, I began reading through the last few I had written before it. I started to hear my characters’ voices in my head again, but I still couldn’t get a feel of where exactly the plot was. I jumped to reading the second chapter of the book, loved every second of it, and realized that if I could follow the story from front to back, I’d be better equipped and much more motivated to just get it done.

So I jumped back to chapter 1 (previously the prologue), a chapter that I always felt needed reworking. I ended up rewriting most of it, as well as getting some proofreading done on the aforementioned chapter 2. They are both now pretty solid chapters. I plan to continue on this way, jumping from read through to new content, until I’ve got the book done in late October.

Look for more updates soon!

- J.D.

Publication Update

Greetings, fair readers.

I wanted to go ahead and post a quick update about my most recent publication. “The Scarf,” a flash fiction story about a man, his daughter and his robot, was just published on 365 Tomorrows. You can read the story here and comment on the story here.

I’ve got another few flash fiction pieces in editing right now. Those should be getting submitted to 365 over the next week or two. Additionally, my first comedy story, “The Drink,” is currently sitting in the slush pile over at Every Day Fiction.

Look for more updates soon!

- J.D.

J.D. Rice – Now on Wattpad

I’m pleased to announce that you can now follow my work on Wattpad.

Wattpad is a creative writing community, commonly referred to as the Youtube for ebooks. Aspiring writers from across the world feature their works on the site, which can be viewed in browser or via their mobile app. Users can rate and review each work, chapter by chapter, and recommend books to others. Wattpad also works with various publishing houses and print-on-demand services to give successful authors a chance to publish their works professionally.

I’m currently running two projects on Wattpad. First is a flash fiction compilation, tentatively titled “Science Fiction Tales.” The project features both published and unpublished stories, as well as annotations from me about the development behind each piece.

The second project, Biosphere 12, revives my NaNoWriMo 2008 project in serial form. Read the memoir of Simon, a young boy who spent 50 years living in an isolated community. The novella is a science fiction take on the frontier narratives of the 1800s. New chapters will be posted every week.

Check out my Wattpad profile here.

- J.D.

“An Imperfect Moment”

The following romance story was recently rejected by Every Day Fiction, due to it being more a vignette than a piece of flash fiction. I place it here for your pleasure…

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In the back seat of a minivan, a boy sits quietly next to the girl he loves. She sleeps, her head resting against the window. He watches her, taking in her familiar features. She is plain, and yet he loves her. He wonders at this.

As his eyes gaze over her slumbering face, he realizes that she is more attractive now, asleep, than when awake. Her lines are less harsh. Her imperfections, less noticeable. In sleep, in that utmost state of relaxation, so many of her faults are smoothed away.

The unevenness of her eyes, that slight want for symmetry, masks itself behind her closed lids. The crook in her nose, the result of an old injury, seems to blur and fade into her sleeping countenance. Even that crooked tooth, which has bothered her since childhood, hides behind peacefully sealed lips. A thousand tiny imperfections are shrouded in her slumber. And yet, a thousand tiny imperfections remain.

She is not beautiful.

The minivan hits a bump, and she stirs.

“Where are we?” she asks.

“Just outside Wheeling,” he says gently, “Go back to sleep.”

She nods and shifts in the seat. Wrapping her arms around him, she slowly drifts back into dreaming. He rests his chin on her forehead. She is warm and soft.

Beautiful, yet not beautiful. Perfect, yet imperfect. She is his, and he would not change her for anything in the world.

- J.D.

Twist Endings

Many flash fiction stories rely on the sometime-cliche, sometime-effective literary trope: the twist ending. You see it in novels and short stories as well, but no literary form uses it more frequently, and more dangerously, than flash fiction. With only 600 words to tell an interesting story, many flash fiction writers rely on the twist, more than anything, to impress their readers. The quality of the twist, in many ways, can make or break your story. I know quite a few of my stories rely on the twist ending to give them impact, most notably the science fiction tale, “The Worst Part.”

Of course, being able to surprise your reader is immensely important in storytelling. If everything happened the way your reader predicted, they simply wouldn’t be entertained. Why read a story they could write themselves? The trick, in all forms and all genres, is to do something unexpected but not unforeseeable. Brandon Sanderson works this angle masterfully in his second standalone novel, Warbreaker, playing with his reader’s expectations on the alignment of his various “heroes” and “villains.” The sharp reader may know very well what Sanderson is planning early on, but for most it come as a pleasant surprise.

Of course, in flash fiction, it’s difficult to do the unexpected without using a twist ending. But my fear, both for myself and for other aspiring writers, is making yourself reliant on a definite twist. Sometimes doing the unexpected means doing something subtle. Sometimes it means allowing your reader to slowly discover what is wrong, or right, about the story they are being told.

This was what I attempted in my most recently published story, “Chatterbox.” Turning the central idea of this story into a “reveal” would have cheapened the experience. For one, the nature of the unexpected element I employed called for something my lengthy than a single sentence twist. And for two, my idea simply wasn’t dramatic enough to warrant such an approach. Instead, I focused on making this 300 word story a slow build, allowing my readers to discover the truth behind the narrator’s monologue themselves. Other stories I have written, such as the romance story “Questions,” have followed this model as well.

Ultimately, it is not my goal to do away with the twist ending. It is a useful tool, one that I hope to execute better and better as my writing career goes on. What I want to be careful of, however, is allowing on trope, any literary trope, from becoming my mainstay, my fallback, or my crutch.

Subtly can be a lot more fun anyways.

- J.D.