Medusa

[miriam_e]

I have made a few small corrections to my Medusa story and added a quick illustration. I have to admit I rushed the drawing a bit and should make the time to fix it soon -- it has a few problems that bug me every time I look at it.
http://werple.net.au/~miriam/Medusa.html

The story, with picture, is in issue 16 of Diverse Universe. Geoff and I worked till late last night to finish the issue.

If anybody else feels like having stories, reviews, pictures, etc published in Diverse Universe, or our annual anthology, Solar Spectrum, then please give me a yell. Of course "we" are Spaced Out.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:)
Thanks Jean. I don't think I write very well, but I wanted to get this out there. I have thought about the Medusa story for a long time -- more than a decade.

I am probably a little out in time for the library at Alexandria. It came very much later than Medusa's time. But there is still the great possibility that records going back hundreds of years might have been kept from surrounding lands, and Medusa's land was very close to the library. I included the library to give an additional locating point to fix it in position for people, and to remind the reader of how irrational and destructive hate can be.

As to Medusa telling the kids how they are seen by Greeks: I needed to explain the legends without a so-called expository lump in the story. I think I handled it a bit clumsily, but I couldn't come up with a better way. :)

The death scene: I needed to smack the reader between the eyes; make it short, quick, undignified, and ugly. I don't think I quite succeeded the way I wanted... I might have to go back and rewrite that part (and the rest of the whole damn story!) one day.

I curse the fact that I am more a technical writer than a writer of beautiful and affecting prose. I have no style. But at least I got it out there, and that is something -- it does no good at all locked away in this skull. :)

[jrosestar.livejournal.com]

You don't give yourself enough credit. You think you have no style, but you do. It's just different than what most fiction writers use. You write like a "story teller" of olden times.

For this particular story, I think the "story teller" style fits perfectly.