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The Management
"Still tired, dreaming out against and overboard..." - Coheed & Cambria, "Hearshot Kid Disaster"
"I believe that we owe it to each other to tell stories," - Neil Gaiman, "Fragile Things"
So, you've stumbled across my account. I'd thank my muse if I could find her, but she's usually on hiatus. I guess this'll have to do. Thanks for visiting my profile. Feel free to read the stories below, and to post whatever thoughts you might have about them. As a rule, I accept any form of critique. I write for a million, billion different reasons, but one of them is to improve my style. If you think I'm not doing that, drop me a review.
Still reading this, eh? I don't have any more important information, but I'll give you some random data about me:
I'm a college student, and I'm male. It's always been my opinion that fictionpress is dominated by highschool females, but I'm slowly being proven wrong on that. I guess one of the rules of ficpress is that things posted on my profile will eventually be contradicted.
I write fantasy, along with 20,000 or so other fictionpress writers. This is sometimes disappointing. It's a goal of mine to stretch the boundaries of fantasy, and that's a little hard to do with so many other authors dedicated to the genre. I won't hold it against them. They write well. All the same, I'd like my writing to stand apart from the mass. Maybe this is why I play around with stereotypes so much. I think there's still a lot of unmapped space in some of the big ones.
My inspirations are everyone I've ever met, and everything I've ever seen, smelled, heard, or discussed. I don't pretend to be the disciple of any one writer or artist. I'd rather be a student of all of them. However, I will point a graceful nod towards a few specific people. Without them, I would be substantially less than who I am as a writer. Terry Pratchett, Charles DeLint, Orson Scott Card, and Douglas Adams are the big names, I suppose. Then there's Patricia C Wrede, Matthew L DeAndrea, Lloyd Alexander, and Phillip Pullman, who's writings inspired me to start this craziness in the first place. My contemporaries (okay, that sounds arrogant) are SteelKitsune, Sabraeal, Locus, and Gathering Crows, without whom so many of my ideas would lie unshaped.
I'm a dedicated reviewer, and I love stories. If you leave me a review, I'll be more than happy to read your writing. Just don't expect me to be thrilled if you write romance. I'll review it, but I'll probably complain. Vociferously. That word isn't used nearly enough.
My pen name comes from Native American lore. I like contradictions, so I won't try and explain why a trickster figure would be serious. There is a reason, but I'll leave that for you to figure out.
Solemn Coyote's rules of literature:
1) This rule, or any of the rules below it, may be disregarded at any time.
2) Fantasy isn't elves, exactly.
3) Urban fantasy is more than just elves with Toyotas.
4) Sci-fi fantasy is more than just elves with lasers in space.
5) If there's a problem in a work, you have two options: change it, or shape the story to allow it.
6) Logic has its place in fantasy.
7) So does illogic. It's the balance between the two that makes writing interesting.
8) Never assume that I know all the rules.
Current Projects (newest stuff at the bottom):
-"Project: Bestiary". Status: Suspended. I like the story, but I'm not entirely sure where to take it. I'll brood over it for a while, and if I come up with another chapter, I'll post it.
-"The Only God on the Windowsill". Status: Complete, kinda. I'm not completely happy with it, but very rarely am I completely happy with a story I've written.
-"A Scrapbook of Autumn". Status: Finished, sorta. Every once in a which my fractal thoughts arrange themselves into something like a poem. When this happens, I post them. "A Scrapbook of Autumn" is meant as a collection, but it really doesn't have any unifying theme.
Note: the ten or so poems after the first one are probably not my finest work, so it might be worthwhile to read the first one, then start at the end and read backwards. Or you can be a rebel and read them in the order they were written. It's your call.
-"Dustbin of the Soul". Status: Complete. I'm a little hesitant about posting my old work. It certainly doesn't showcase the best of my ability. Still, it's important to who I am as a writer. Who knows, maybe you'll enjoy reading them.
-"Hatchling". Status: Complete. As with any of my stories, I don't know what to think about it. So I'll let you do the thinking. I will say, though, that it was spurred by reading Neil Gaiman's "Chivalry" and digging into some of my oldest memories. Not that it's a true story. But it's true-ish. Let me know if you don't like it.
-"Older Than Dead". Status: Complete. In a previous life, this story was material for a co-write between Locus and I. Unfortunately, as I am the kiss of death to co-writes, it has been relocated to my profile. Also, it's been re-titled from it's original "Ghost." Quality-wise, this is a little bit rougher than my usual writing. I was experimenting with narration and I'm not really sure what it did for the story besides cause problems. If you see anything you like here, please let me know.
-"I Do Believe In Faeries". Status: Complete. A cynical, mundane fairy tale. I'm not really sure I like it, but I did write it. I guess that means I have to post it.
-"Faustus...Well, Not Exactly". Status: Complete. This story was literally four months in the writing. It started as a short idea sketch, and then mutated uncontrollably. I think I'm actually kinda pleased with the result, but maybe that was because I was channeling Terry Pratchett the entire time I was writing it.
-"The Rose of Whitekeep." Status: Complete. Started as a tribute to my friend and fellow author, Sabrael, this story eventually mutated into a 42 page beast. It even has a plot arc of sorts. Be forewarned, however. RoW is intended as a parody of fanfic and as such obeys many of the cliches of the genre. Elves, magical teenage girls, best friends forever, and dresses abound.
-"Stop the Press". Status: ongoing. I can't take credit for this one, but if you really want to see more of my writing, check out 'Stop the Press'. It's a monthly newsletter for writers run by fictionpress' very own Burnt Bread. It offers facts, articles, writing tips, and such. It also welcomes submissions of all sorts. Or, at least, of the sorts I mentioned before. If you're bored, go ahead and check it out. It's linked in my favorite author's list.
-"Ashes to Emily." Status: Complete. Don't read into this one. It just is what it is. My influences were "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "The Omen", consumed over about a two-week period. They mixed with a weird conversation with a friend, some thoughts about home, turned a brackish color, and became this. I dunno why it's not scary. I guess everyone else does grand, world-ending cataclysms, so I kinda wanted to see what the opposite would be like.
-"Opening Winter's Box" Status: Intermittent updates. Another collection of poetry, mostly inspired by my year-long stay in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Less concept based and more emotional than "A Scrapbook of Autumn." Hopefully not in a painful way.
-"Scheherazade". Status: complete. I dunno where this one came from, but I sorta wrote it by accident one day. The title does come from somewhere, though. I didn't just slap syllables together.
-"Getting Heated." Status: complete. Let's just call this one a scratch-write, shall we? Of course, I do have to assign credit where it's due. A lot of the concepts worked into this story were inspired or borrowed from a friend of mine, who's working on his own pen and paper RPG: Kallisti. The RPG itself is pretty spiffy. Any writing-glitches here are my own fault.
-"The Beast in Ellison." Status: complete. This is an experiment in semi-lovecraftian, point-and-click-adventure style horror inspired by a recording of a playthrough of Harlan Ellison's computer game "I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream." Yeah. It's at least a little weird for all of that. All the same, I kinda like the way its written. Lemme know if it's actually scary.
-"Bogglemann." Status: complete. Scared me while I was writing it. Later, when I went back and re-read it, it didn't even phase me. It's a lot more decompressed than TBiE, but it also wanders a little. Changes focus two or three times. And the ending is iffy, to boot. At least it's complete.
Notes and other important data: currently working on Dig (sci-fi, fantasy), Aerie (fantasy, romance), and MUD (fantasy, humor.) Two of those are sequels.
FictionPress.com - let the words flow
