Bettie’s Free Reads

Updated Oct 2, 2011

Ember

Cinderella was always my least favorite fairy tale. Aside from all the usual feminist issues you’d expect me to have with a story about some pretty, passive chick cleaning house until a prince comes along and rewards her doormat-y-ness by marrying her, I never got why the prince was such a prize. Why did everyone want him? Why was it assumed that any woman he wanted to marry would say yes? That’s how Ember started. Two pages of the narrator talking about this stupid prince. And then it sat on my hard drive for a while. I didn’t think there was more than 9k-12k words in the story, and wanted to concentrate on a longer first-person fairy tale.

When I put up my web site, decided to write a free story to make up for the pathetic lack of content. About the same time, Dionne Galace asked if I had a free story I wanted to share on her fabulous site. Ember seemed to fit the bill for both projects, so I pulled it out, dusted it off and got to work. I had so much fun writing Ember that it got a little out of hand–instead of a 9-12,000 word short story, it ended up as a 30,000-word novella. It was the first story I wrote without worrying about what would sell. It was, and still is, the most fun I’ve had writing.

Some writers say, “Write like your hair is on fire!” but what Ember taught me is that you should write like the story is free–no worries, no concerns, no stress. Though you can buy it if you want from Amazon or B&N, it is still free here on my site. Enjoy.

Experiments

Updated Oct 2, 2011
I took a creative writing class, and wrote a few short stories. I post them on my blog when I run out of content. I’ll post them here when they’ve finished their run on Sharp Words.

Terra Obscura

Here be monsters
2800 words. First-person. Fantasy. c. Bettie Sharpe, 2/2008
Terra Obscura is another first-person fairy tale story. I wrote it to work out my issues with first-person present tense (FPPT). It’s a style I’d always hated, but then I read Ann Aguirre‘s excellent Grimspacewhich employs first-person present to wonderful effect. That book made me kind of like FPPT. Worse yet, I started drifting into present tense in my other works in progress. So, I decided to write a story in FPPT to get it out of my system.

A warning about the “Terra Obscura”, the ending is …open-ended. Okay, so it’s not really an ending at all. The only person who has ever thought the end constituted a real ending is me, because in my view, the decision is the ending. What happens after is a whole other story.

Epilogues & Ephemera

Updated Oct 2, 2011

Epilogue for Each Step Sublime

What happens after the story ends? The Writer’s Duel thread over on Romance Divas challenged me to the write following scenario  in 750 words or less:

Your hero and heroine are isolated from civilization together and must find their way back. During which one of them temporarily loses use of one of their senses. Please include the color blue and a mention of footwear.

I thought it was perfect for the characters from my short story, “Each Step Sublime”, so I wrote an epilogue that is 750 words, exactly.

Contest Entries

Updated October 2, 2011
My first published story, the novella “Like a Thief in the Night” started as a 200 word contest entry for Dionne Galace‘s monthly writing contest. My initial lack of web content inspired me to post all of my entries, and reader feadback has kept them on the site through three redesigns.

Girl Saves Boy

The challenge was to write a scene where the woman saves the man in 400 words or less. Possibly due to the influence of Girl Genius, I was in a comic book / steam punk frame of mind. This 401 word scene is the result.

Marked

Ink can last a lifetime when set just beneath the skin. One look, sharp as a needle, and he was under hers. One look, and she was marked.

The challenge was to describe a dangerous hero in 300 words or less. This scene relates to my WIP Marked.

Heat

The challenge was to portray heat, both in setting and between two people. 200 words or less. This one actually won the contest, netting me a $50 Amazon gift certificate. Strangely, this is also the only one I haven’t been inspired to turn into a longer story.