Author Archives: fictionalpenguin

My conundrum of wanting to write versus being able to write

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts

Or “I promised myself I would do a little writing every day, and I refuse to break that promise” with a dash of “I resigned myself to not being productive tonight, so I had to prove myself wrong somehow or another.”

I need to write. It’s a compulsion, bordering on a requirement for my very survival (careful, I’m already getting all dramatic about writing and it’s only one line in, because the sub-title doesn’t actually count). If I don’t give my worlds a stage, or my characters the proper chance to have voices, who will? I mean, yes, you could argue that there are only so many, or so few, actual stories, and everything just reworks them to some degree or another, and I would agree to some extent. It’s all in the presentation, I say in such a powerful statement of the obvious that people pointing out how the sky is blue seem to have discovered a brave, new world full of awe-inspiring truths. That sentence was probably a lot more fun to write than it is to read, I imagine. Continue reading →

Good riddance to a bad molar

Posted on by under Posts of a Rant-like Nature

Or “I’ve had one hell of a history with dentists, and it’s mostly not that favorable.”

Friday, around 1p.m. or so, I had a molar pulled. It was an emergency extraction, and the molar was barely even a proper tooth anymore at this point. It had a long, very frustrating history, but I now have an odd hole in the back of my mouth. If this sort of thing bothers you, you may want to find different reading material. Continue reading →

Shameless shilling, because comics and whatnot

Posted on by under Shameless Shilling

Point of clarity: I have no affiliation with, nor any hand in the creation of, Zoophobia, so this is really just shameless shilling of the highest order, and I’m not even a little sorry. Also, I feel a bit disappointed I’ve skipped sub-titling my last couple posts, but can’t justify doing so for them. This ended up being a sort of sub-title anyway, so I guess the joke’s on me. Moving along…

I’m a sucker for fun comics. Something that has a lighter story, while still engaging the reader. Strong characters. Really, I could list different qualities for the duration of the post, but I think just saying “fun comics” gets the point across well enough.

Maybe it’s because I can’t draw to save my life (hello, inconsistent stick figures; I see you’re all looking very, er, something that isn’t really human), but I’m also hugely fond of almost every drawing style ever. I honestly just phrased it that way because I couldn’t deal with the fact I almost said “fun drawing styles”; this is why I’m not actually doing any serious business, sit-down-at-MS-Word-and-focus writing tonight, by the way (my brain’s too soupy).

The short of this is as follows: I just binge-read all of Zoophobia. That’s a link, obviously, and it merits visiting. So much visiting. It’s probably the reason I’m using the word “fun” so damn much, actually, because that’s precisely what it is. Page one onward is a beautifully drawn, highly entertaining adventure for the eyes. I can honestly say I had to set my laptop aside and walk away in frustration upon reaching the last page currently available, because I was genuinely disappointed I’d run out of comics to read (for now, anyway). There are some grammatical issues here and there (and if anyone involved in this magnificent comic sees this, I’m sorry but I had to at least nit-pick a little or I’d have ended up saying Zoophobia is perfect).

I don’t really think I could do this comic justice, description-wise, in my mush-brain state, so I strongly suggest checking it out. The art is beautiful, and the story is both engaging and entertaining. It’s like the comic equivalent of Netflix binging your favorite show; it’s amazing, and suddenly there’s that feeling of emptiness once you’ve run out of episodes.

PS: I’m so sorry I’m so bad at tags. Good god. Anyway, go check out Zoophobia! I even linked a second time so there’s no excuse to not give it a chance, obviously. Read it, enjoy it, and then spread the addiction, because it is brilliant, fun, fantastic stuff.

The Forgotten Side to a Fairytale

Posted on by under Short Stories

I’ve been writing for a fair number of years now, and one thing I’ve never been able to work up the nerve to do is ask someone if I could write something inspired by something they created. There have been plenty of times I’ve really considered it, but never quite had the nerve or motivation to ask. 

One day, relatively recently, a four-line story crossed my Dashboard (let’s just gloss over the fact I was on Tumblr, please). I did what I typically would do: liked it, reblogged it, and moved along. And then it stuck with me. Those four lines rattled around in my brain, a frequent distraction.

So, after a bit of debating on the matter, I messaged caliginosity (who originally posted “the stories fairytales don’t tell”) and asked if I could write a short story based around, and inspired by, their post. Here’s the source material, which can be viewed in its original state here: 

The prince fought valiantly.
He slayed the dragon.
The princess cried for days.
She loved that dragon.

— The stories fairytales don’t tell
The short story it inspired ended up a little over nine pages. I’m hoping it did the source material justice. Special thanks, again, to caliginosity for letting me write this (so long as I credited the original work and author, of course). Anyway, without further introduction, here’s “The Forgotten Side to a Fairytale.”

Continue reading →

Warpt Factor, installment five

Posted on by under Warpt Factor

Or “I’m totally trying to compensate for slacking off in my down-and-gloomy moods by churning out more new content, plus I’m back to being all excited about writing.”

I’m queuing this post, but it’s essentially being made the same day as installment four. I know no shame. There may be some minor editing glitches, despite me looking it over a couple times, because my mind is presently focused on a presently top-secret project inspired by a Tumblr post (please remember, I know no shame). That should make an appearance soonish. Anyway, back to Warpt Factor!

Continue reading →

A rather sad changing of the guard

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff, Misadventures in Non-Fiction

Or “I have a dozen other things to be doing, but this is a mental health day and I’m making my way through it on my own damn terms.”

Yesterday was not a particularly good day for me, and I’ll spare the details because this is where I write about writing, and sometimes other artsy things that catch my eye. Maybe other odds and ends here and there. I will say that I am woefully behind where I’d like to be with Warpt Factor, and I largely blame the dreary gloom that’s settled in both in terms of weather and my moods. I apologize for that much because it’s been fun to write, and I certainly hope it’s been fun to read so far.

My Dell Studio laptop, named Satellite 5 (because Doctor Who, of course), blue-screened on me a couple times recently. Upon rebooting my nearly four-year-old laptop, it gave a different reason for the fatal errors, but none of them were particularly good or easily fixable. This is all particularly upsetting because Satellite 5 has been my trusty companion through much of my most difficult academic writing, as well as some of the hardest, best work I’ve done on my fiction. It’s what I used to make many–most, in fact–of the posts on Misadventures In Fiction, and it’s the computer from which this site was started. Needless to say, it’s with a heavy heart that I’ve decided it’s time to give Satellite 5 some much-needed rest. It’ll certainly see use, still, but not so much with its nearly useless battery, its replaced charger, and so on. Continue reading →

New (and maybe improved?) header image

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff

Or “I wanted to make something neat to go with the new layout, but I’m not particularly talented at taking pictures and also only have my phone for such things.”

I’m a bit iffy on how I feel about it, but I figured notebooks would be the way to go (and I also have a billion of the damn things in all shapes and sizes). I added in one of my pocket watches and a paper crane I made for kicks and giggles, and I’m relatively happy with how it turned out overall.

The only real pain in the ass I ran into was the white text, and the sizing of the sub-title’s font. Beyond that, I’m going to make a note here: huge success (as well as a Portal reference successfully thrown in there for good measure). Thoughts?

Also, I ended up taking pictures of Meowiarty, too, because he seems to think he’s a model.

Edit/Update:

Here’s a fun bit of mostly-worthless knowledge: I’ve got mostly Moleskine notebooks. I blame one particular Edinboro English professor for this. They are, and remain, my favorite brand of notebook, if only because I’m very fond of the travel-sized ones.

Why whimsy in my writing?

Posted on by under General Writing-Related Posts, Posts of a Rant-like Nature

Or “Sorry that I’m not sorry for getting up on my soapbox about writing, because this is my blog about writing (which is something, or so I’m told, I’m relatively good at.” Also, this may end up being on long-ass post. I’m still not sorry. Lastly: confetti and shit! This is totally my hundredth post on Misadventures in Fiction, and that’s really damn exciting for me.

I may have woken up with a touch of a hangover, and a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. My sister, her boyfriend, another friend of hers, and I went to Butcher and the Rye (a restaurant/whiskey bar in Pittsburgh, that was rather nice) last night, and I enjoyed three interesting mixed drinks. I swear this detail is relevant, and it’s not just a small reminder to myself on the matter of being more cautious with what liquors I mix (their blood and sand is delightful, by the way). Stepping back after finishing this post, I can honestly say it was just a framing device with the bitter taste, and a not entirely necessary mention of how I’ve grown fond of scotch in the past year. Hindsight and so on.

Moving along. I have been writing a good deal of fantasy since the start of this year, and I’ve recently returned to writing science fiction (with a humorous slant, of course, because I can’t take myself too seriously, and I expect not many other people can either). One result of this (ignoring the rather horrifying page counts I’ve produced) is I’ve found myself thinking back to a comment made in regards to my writing a while back. It obviously struck a nerve to some extent, and I’m sure that a few people who have heard me rant about this before will be wagging their fingers in my general direction later on (should they read this) for letting it gnaw at me now and again. I’ve mentioned it in other posts. The comment in question was part of a rejection, passed along by word of mouth, about how the piece I submitted was well-written. It was rejected because fantasy and science fiction are such antiquated genres. Continue reading →