Monday, November 19, 2007
Okay gang...

At long last, "Urban Elf" the first in what I hope will be a series of short, humorous fantasy stories (but not necessarily on this magsite,) is out today in Issue #268 of BewilderingStories.com!! I hope you can check it out! And, as always feel free to leave any comments on BS.com or on this blog!

Thanks.

Posted by P.I. Barrington 2007-11-19 01:59:27

Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Blatant self promotion-is that allowed here?

My mother always told me, "If you don't toot your own horn, nobody else will!" so at long last, I have not only begun to quote her, I have become her (to a certain extent.)Therefore, I will also take her advice. I am very very thrilled to have one of my short stories, the ever-referenced, "Urban Elf" slated for Issue #268 of BewilderingStories.com, November 19,2007! Hopefully you will find it fun and as always, feel free to leave comments, reviews, opinions, etc., here or at my semi-website: www.pibarrington.com. "Urban Elf" is the basis for a wish of a collection of humorous fantasy shorts, under the actual title of "Lifestyles of the Urban Elf" that I gave to this blog as moniker. In any case, I hope you like UE.

Signing off,

Me.

Posted by P.I. Barrington 2007-10-30 20:34:52

Wednesday, October 10, 2007
I got nothin' but Johnny Carson on the telee'

Except perhaps that I read a great story froma site where they hold writing competitions--well--it was a great story idea. It had some believable logic, and was a fantasy romance with most of the cliches' that go along with it. And the execution was great! But the author, forget the name and will get back here with it, fell into that horrid trap I like to call the 'chick lit' syndrome. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not immune to that trap myself although I do try to kick my own butt out of it whenever I can. This syndrome is the entire reason I roll my eyes at chick lit. The main symptom is that the writer triesso pitifully hard to make every line or other line a smart-ass funny one-liner that it's painful to read.

You know, I once heardthe late greatJohnny Carson (anybody remember him?) deliver the best description of writing comedy I ever heard and it is with muchlove that I put it down here for your enjoyment.

Backstory: It was during the Watergate political scandal with President Richard M. Nixon and the Senate subcommittee investigation which was televised all day long. I was in high school-I think sophomore-- year and we watched it during history classes.I used to stay up late to watch Carson on The Tonight Show (now with Jay Leno). Now, what happened on the televised subcommittee investigation that particularweek was this: One of the Senators got frustrated with one of Nixon's gang's "I don't recall" excuses and delivered some smartass insult. The entire room cracked up over it and it got plastered all over the news for the next 24 hours. Believe it or not, the rest of the Senators tried to emulate or even outdo the others with witty, funny comments. By the end of that week, those same Senators were surly and snapping at everyone, especially each otherangrily.

That night Johnny Carson was doing his monologue on current events. It went something like this:

Carson: "Hey, did you catch the Senate subcommittee today? Boy they were snapping at each other and everyone else!"

Pause.

Carson: "See? They're finding out how hard it IS to be funny FIVE DAYS A WEEK!"

That to me was the best, most appropo comment on the entire Watergate situation! So, I feel like telling the chick lit writers that. If it doesn't crop up naturally, don't force it. This one story would have been perfect, perfect I tell you had the writer not been squeezing every bit of energy outtrying to be snappy with the one liners. A funny line here or there? Yeah. Every line if it flows right.

Just don't force it.

Signing off,

Me

Posted by P.I. Barrington 2007-10-10 01:50:51

Wednesday, October 3, 2007
A question posed...

Hey, I am writing several shorts in the urban fantasy humor genre'. Any thoughts on whether I should attempt to get them published as a collection or just submit them one at a time? If I submit individually and they get published, I face the problem of them being rejected as 'reprints' which many publishing houses do not accept. Has anyone ever done this (and I will not go the way of self-publishing)? Any suggestions are welcomed.

Posted by P.I. Barrington 2007-10-03 01:14:46

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Identiy yourselves...identify yourselves

I swear it's the same four people reading this blog. Who are you and what do you want? Identify...identify...identify...

Posted by P.I. Barrington 2007-09-26 16:29:17