News and Good News - 2.5.14

First off, an apology. Well, more like an excuse. I had almost gotten settled into a regular blogging schedule and then writing stuff got real. (In a good way. More on that in a minute.) And just about the time I was wrapping that up there was this snow event that kind of fucked up the Southeast. Me and mine were able to stay warm and not get stuck anywhere. (Of course, we also salted, shoveled and took a flame-thrower to the road outside our house to enable safe passage up and down.) Long story short, I've been kind of busy and blogging just wasn't at the top of the list of things to do.

Next up, some publishing news.

1. The 2014 Campbellian Anthology is available for FREE download, thanks to Stupefying Stories/Rampant Loon Publishing and several mirror sites. It features the work of 111 up and coming SF/F authors (including myself) who have qualified for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. It will only be available for a limited time so be sure to check it out now!

2. "Vessels for Destruction", a dark SF flash story, is Nature Magazine's "Futures" story for February 6th, 2014 and is live on their site HERE.

3. I have an agent! After a lot of queries and hard work the Steampunk Novel (and it's sequels) is now repped by Bob Mecoy of Creative Book Services.

Finally, market news.

Unidentified Funny Objects 3 is currently in the Kickstarter phase but will be opening to submissions March 1st: DETAILS HERE. They are a pro-paying market and produce quality books. If you like humorous SF/F and would like to help support them, please do. If you're a writer looking for a good humor market, this is one to try. (But wait until the submissions period opens March 1st.)

And, Apocalypse Ink Productions is looking for linked novella trilogies. They like things dark, speculative and more-or-less contemporary. They also offer a small advance and 50% royalties of net profit.

And that's it for this week.
Stay warm! (Or if you're on the other side of the globe, stay cool!)

Southern Gothic Now Available

(I should have posted this earlier in the week, but I've been scattered.)


Southern Gothic: New Tales of the South, an anthology that includes my own flash piece "Love Like Dysphoria" is now available for purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Google Play 


In addition to over 15 stories and poems the book features original artwork by Nathan Mark Phillips.

Forthcoming - Southern Gothic, "The Collections Agent" and "The Spider-thief and The Sorcerer"

Southern Gothic - an anthology edited by Brian Centrone is scheduled for release on October 15th. It contains my flash story "Love Like Dysphoria" among other works of contemporary southern gothic short stories. I will post links to the various vendors when the book goes live. There are plans to publish via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, GooglePlay, iBooks and possibly Kobo.

After consulting with Bruce Bethke at Stupefying Stories it appears that "The Collections Agent" will be published soon. (Like, in the next month soon.) More details on that as soon as I have them.

Additionally, I received word last week from Crowded Magazine that "The Spider-thief and The Sorcerer" has been accepted for Issue 3. Publication is tentatively scheduled for early Spring 2014. 

"The Spider-thief and The Sorcerer" was a story I'd been working on selling for over a year. It had been short-listed at six different markets in a row, before being passed over. I'm so happy that it's found a home with Crowded. 

Stupefying Stories Showcase: Issue #1

I thought this would be out soon and it is!

Stupefying Stories Showcase: Issue #1

Featuring four tasty stories including my flash piece, "Caught". 

And just in time for some weekend reading. Enjoy! 

Forthcoming!

A quick note about some upcoming publications.

"In the Cool of the Day" is scheduled for publication in the July issue of Abyss & Apex. This is one of my favorite stories and I was so very pleased when it found a home. 

"Caught" will be out in the brand new, super-shiny, Stupefying Stories Showcase - the web-zine edition of Stupefying Stories. I'm still waiting on the exact date, but copy-edits have been made so I think it will be soon. 

"Legacy" is coming out in the spectacular The Beast Within 4: Gears and Growls - edited by Jennifer Brozek and published by Graveside Tales. The release will happen sometime this fall (2013) so stay tuned for more info. 

"Love Like Dysphoria" will be part of the New Lit Salon Press anthology Southern Gothic. Exact details coming soon. 

And "Insomnia" (originally published at Daily Science Fiction) will be part of the Write 1, Sub 1 Anthology coming soon from Parsec Ink. Details to follow.  

Flash Fiction: Good-bye

On December 28th, 2005 my mother passed away from Metastatic Melanoma. In the weeks following I wrote a very short essay to try and put my hands around the grief that comes from losing a loved one. Eventually that morphed into this flash story about moving on. Which I am publishing here just in time for Christmas. 

Good-Bye

In Memory of BRB 

May 14, 1951 - December 28, 2005 

Since she's been gone, life has moved on. You suppose that is to be expected. But it's still strange how normal things can seem without her. You thought you would struggle more, that the change would be catastrophic, but the reality is not what you imagined.

It isn't that you don't miss her. That would be impossible. Too many things bring her to mind. Bombshells you call them. Seeing her chair without her in it. Picking up the phone to call then remembering she isn't there to answer it. Finding one of her notes tucked away in a drawer.

Sweetheart, I love you with all my heart.

It is a slow pull, this grief. It tugs tears from you at unexpected moments. But you fear moving beyond those tears, afraid it may mean moving beyond memory.

Friends call you several times a week. Always the same exchange.

“How are you doing?”

“I'm fine. And you?”

“Good.”

You smile and laugh and go to work because life does move on and you must move with it.

In the quiet moments you realize you aren't doing well and you don't know how to fix it.

You dream of her. The first you think you've had of her since she left. The details are already fading when you wake. Your face is wet, eyes hot and salty. Whatever happened in that dream it broke your heart.

You think you were in those last days, when words fled her besieged mind and all that was left was that sidelong glance and mischievous smile.

What did she see when she looked at you? Something that made her smile when all you felt like was crying. What joke did she hear, what story did she remember that made her grin so wide and innocent?

In your dream, she laughed and danced. You tried to take her hand, but she was already a step beyond you.

You stuffed your hands in your pockets, sullen because you could not keep up. She circled back, moving like water around you.

“Some day you will look back and laugh.”

“At this?” You were cross, just as you had been during the final days.

“At all of it.” She smiled. “And then, I think, I will see you again.”

As if you were the one going away.

You nodded, reluctant. “Okay. Some day we'll laugh about this.”

She danced away, wearing that dress you bought her for when she was clean again. For when she could say survivor and not just fighter. Wearing the dress that you still have hanging in the closet.

The night after she passed on, you opened a bottle of wine and drank a toast and ate the chocolate you had bought her for Christmas. You looked at pictures you had from younger days. In all of them she smiled and you smiled back because the grief had not yet taken hold.

Now the silence has set in, louder than any noise.

You dull the pain with whatever you can - vodka, music, sleep – and you wait.

Some day there will be laughing.