Novelettes, or
How I learned to Love the Short Form
by Bey Deckard
When I first started writing, I jumped straight into the novel form. Caged wound up being over 120k words, which makes it a hefty enough read… and that’s after I cut out a whole bunch. Then, I had a dream about two Space Marines and decided to write it out to see if I had any future in Science Fiction—that was the first chapter of Sarge. Folks enjoyed it and wanted more, so I set myself some writing hurdles, one of which was: can I write a reasonably well fleshed-out story in less than 20k words?
See, I might be new to writing fiction, but I wrote research papers for years: substantial works in history, art history, anthropology, philosophy, art theory, psychology, and Shakespearean language/ interpretation. Huge, weighty papers that had pages of endnotes (or loads of footnotes depending on the prof). I excelled in writing long papers—any time I had to do short abstracts, I floundered. How could you say everything in such tight constraints? I managed to do it, but never really warmed to the short form.
Fast-forward to last year while I was writing Sarge. Instead of seeing the short form as something limiting, I decided to make it a challenge. A fun challenge… Hey, I’m not doing this for a degree or a grade, right? Writing is fun for me.
But… how to write something that conveys what the characters are feeling, and how incredibly powerful the relationship is between them, without breaking the (word) bank? It’s not easy, that’s for sure. For every thousand words I wrote in both Sarge and Murphy, I kept maybe a hundred. The result is something that is incredibly distilled. And you know what? I loved writing it. There’s something incredibly satisfying about paring down sentences and cutting the fat out, and I think sci-fi lends itself well to the style.
Did I succeed what I set out to do? I think so, judging from the reactions to Sarge and Murphy. And that makes me happy.
Will I write more about them? Definitely. In the meantime, fans of Sarge and Murphy should stay tuned and look out for a special print version (coming June) that includes both novelettes, some art, plus what I’ve called “The Missing Reel”.
About Murphy
Sometimes when it seems like it’s too late, the right person comes along and opens your eyes…
Murphy is the continuing story of a D/s relationship between two Space Marines who found each other in the midst of hopelessness and misfortune.
Sarge and his newly minted squad travel across the galaxy on a top-secret mission that could help win the war. However, to Murphy something about the mission stinks, and it’s not just the planet they’ve landed on
Release Date: June 10, 2015
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
About Bey Deckard
Born and raised in a small coastal town in northern Québec, Bey spent his early summers on his uncle’s boat and running wild on the beaches of the surrounding islands, lighting fires, and building huts out of driftwood and fishermen’s nets. As an adult, he eventually made his way to university and earned a degree in Art History with a strong focus on Anthropology. Primarily a portrait painter and graphic artist, Bey sat down one day and decided to write about the two things that he felt most passionate about: sex and the sea.
Bey currently lives in the wilds of Montréal with his best buddy, a spotty pit bull named Murphy.
You can find out more about Bey on his Website, Facebook or Goodreads.
As part of this blog tour, Bey is giving away an ebook copy from his backlist!! To enter, just click the link below!
Please be aware that the only way to enter the giveaway is to click the Rafflecopter link above. Any comments on this post will not count towards entering the giveaway unless otherwise stated but are still welcome anyway.
Be sure to check out Jen’s review of Murphy!
Good luck!
Title: Spell Bound
Title: The Altered 2
Title: Art Criticism
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