September 2022 - Gary David Gillen

Introduction

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie has thirteen stories from the World of the First Law. The stories are arranged chronologically by the date the story was set. They are either novel chapter outtakes, scenes set between the novels, or part of the sequence featuring Shev and Carcolf. Six stories were first published in this anthology, four stories were first published in other anthologies, and three stories were published as extras in the author’s novels in this series. Will the protagonists in these thirteen fantasy action stories prevail or fail in their efforts?

Summary

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie has these thirteen stories from the World of the First Law.

A Beautiful Bastard whose main character is Sand dan Glotka from the main series.

Small Kindness which features the first appearance of Shev the thief.

The Fool Jobs feature Curden Craw and occur in the North.

Skipping Town is another Shev story.

Hell occurs in Dagoska and features Temple the beggar.

Two’s Company is another story about Shev.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time occurs in Styria during the events of the novel named Best Served Cold.

Some Desperado features Shev.

Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden… is an outtake chapter from the novel named the Heroes.

Three’s a Crowd is about Shev.

Recommendation

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie fills in the blanks between the six novels of the World of the First Law. The stories are excellent, but I enjoyed two of the stories the most. Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden… is an outtake chapter of the novel named the Heroes. The story shifts between six POV characters including Colonel Bremer dan Gorst resulting in a surprising ending. Tough Times all over was first published in the Rogues anthology. The story wraps up the Shev and Carcolf story sequence. It has fourteen different Pov characters. I like how both stories are constructed, connected, and build to a satisfying ending. Reading all the stories in this anthology will help the reader to understand the background of the First Law World better. Reading the six novels first will help the reader to put these stories into context.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie, First Law World Series Book #7

This is the link to my Book Review of the Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie, Age of Madness Series Book #3. They defeated the rebellion, but all is not well in the Union. Will the wisdom of crowds start a revolution and bring down the Union once and for all?

Writing Progress Report September 2022.

This is my Writing Progress Report September 2022.

I went to the Cleveland Guardians baseball game on August 7, 2022. They beat Houston 1-0. This is the picture I took of the scoreboard after the win.

Writing Progress from August 2022.

I wrote four blog posts for my website, garydavidgillen.com. One post was my writing progress report for August 2022, which is linked below.

Writing Progress Report August 2022

In August 2022, I submitted Chapter 22 of my novel titled Cuba Liberto to the Novel Writing Workshop at the Parma, Ohio, library.

I submitted my short story, “The Last Supper,” to the Fiction Writing Workshop at the Parma, Ohio, library in August 2022.

Writing Progress from August 2022 Continued

I made five posts on my Goodreads account in August 2022.

In the past, I submitted the stories; Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard to magazines.

The seven Flash Fiction Stories I submitted in 2020 and 2021 were Space-Dog Confession, Sleeping Sickness, Caliburnus, Popular Mechanics Re-brewed, Wormhole Generator, Runs with Scissors, and Principled Rogue.

Magazine submissions for 2021 were 4 unique stories submitted 4 times, with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 4 rejections. No submission for 2022 yet.

Events from August 2022.

No events were attended in August.

Writing Goals for September 2022.

I plan to write four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my Writing Progress Report for September 2022.

I am working on a novel titled Cuba Liberto. The first draft was a script. My plan for the rewrite is to convert the story into 24 Chapters. I plan to complete writing Chapter 23 in September 2022 and submit it to the Novel Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio, library.

In September 2022, I plan to submit a story to the Fiction Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio, library.

I plan to submit a story to the critters workshop in September 2022.

I plan to work on third draft edits for Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Novel Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio. In Septemeber 2022, I plan to split Chapter 1 into two chapters and add a scene to the new Chapter 1.

Submit the stories Space-Dog Confession, Four Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, LARP Film noir, Sleeping Sickness, Popular Mechanics Re-brewed, and Caliburnus. to other short fiction magazines.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Writing Goals for September 2022 continued.

In August 2022, I plan to make five posts on my Goodreads account.

Put the novel Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.

Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Planned Events for September 2022.

The next event I plan to attend is Inkubator 2022 at the Cleveland Public Library on September 10, 2022. It is sponsored by Literary Cleveland. It is a two-day in-person writing conference with virtual events throughout the prior week.

This is the link to the Literary Cleveland website.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

I also want to attend the Capclave Washington Conference 2022 from September 30 to October 2, 2022, in Rockville, Maryland. The Washington Science Fiction Association of Washington runs the conference. It is a literary science fiction and fantasy conference which focuses on short fiction.

https://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave22/

Their motto is: Where reading is not extinct.