Imaginary Friend Story

Hello,

It's been a good week. I made my deadline and managed to finish my short story for the Imaginary Friends anthology for DAW Books. I sent it off to my editor tonight, before I went to work. It turned out to be 9,500 words, about 33 pages double spaced. It's called, "Greg and Eli." It's about a six year old boy named Greg and his imaginary friend, Eli. There is quite a bit of autobiographical stuff in the story, but I've changed quite a few things to be sure. The reality of my childhood was worse in some ways to what happens to Greg, but better in others. Its a tough story, with lots of bad things happening to a little kid.

Anyway, my goal was to make the reader cry at the end. I read it to Tammy, my wife, and she cried. So I'm one for one so far. The story turned out well, but it needed a good rewrite after my friends Pat and Brad read it and gave me suggestions. I had such a short deadline (about two weeks to write it) that I had to push it out quick, in about two weeks, but I think it came out pretty well.

I had three short story deadlines this month and I'm happy to say that I met them all. Now I'm going to write another short story--this one for the Catopolis anthology--and it should be pretty funny. Then I can focus on my current novel, Medusa's Daughter.

The next big thing for me is a signing at the biggest Barnes & Noble in Salt Lake, the Sugarhouse branch, on Friday September 14, from 6:00 PM to 9:oo PM. It's going to be great and I'm going to be doing some pre-promotion for my novel, The Golden Cord.

Then on September 21-23, I'll be a guest at Mountain-Con III, a convention here in Salt Lake. I'm doing a bunch of panels and it's going to be so fun.

Well, life is good for me--though I feel very behind with my reading list--not to mention my novel. Writing all the short stories has slowed me down, but I've sold eight short stories now, five to major publishers and three to a small press publisher.

I'm looking forward to this coming week and I hope you're all doing great.

Paul