Published 2x

My stories "In Sickness and in Health" and "Behind the Mask" appear in the October True Story.

The Big Book of Bizarro book trailer

Watch The Big Book of Bizarro book trailer here.

53

I received my 53rd acceptance of the year today. I think. In lieu of an actual acceptance, I received a request from the publication's editor for a photo to include in the contributors section.

This acceptance is for a 1,000-word horror story based on an old Appalachian folk song that I originally wrote for an anthology. Unfortunately, the anthology was cancelled because the editor did not receive enough quality submissions. So now the story will appear in a regional literary magazine.

Money flows...where?

I posted this is response to a blog post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "The Business Rusch: Common Sense and the Writer," and thought I should post it here, as well:

The “money flows to the writer” mantra doesn’t apply with self-publishing. Once a writer self-publishes, he stops being a writer and becomes a publisher. And if you’re a publisher, money flows to everybody: writers, editors, designers, illustrators, photographers, typesetters, printers, distributors, and on and on and on.

52

I received my 52nd acceptance of the year this evening. I revised and updated an essay on writing that I'd written for Sleuths' Ink a few years ago. "Anybody Seen My Shorts?" will appear in next month's SPAWNews.

Forty-five

I finished and submitted my forty-fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,600-word erotic romance written in response to an anthology's open call for submissions. I started writing this on August 4 and finished it a few minutes ago.

50, 51

I received my 50th and 51st acceptances of the year in today's mail, both for confessions. One's tied to Thanksgiving, the other to National Diabetes Month.

Forty-four

I completed and submitted my forty-fourth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,600-word erotic crime story about an experienced pickpocket who catches an amateur pickpocket trying to lift his wallet.

I started writing this story on August 9 in response to an open anthology submissions call. I've placed several stories with this editor during the past few years, so I hope that I'll do it again.

49

I received my 49th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a bit of erotica to be published in an anthology.

"Dark Promptings"

As part of Michael Arnzen's on-going series of story prompts for horror writers called "Dark Promptings," I contributed six story-starters under the heading "If you can't write about your family, who can you write about?"

See my prompts here.

Forty-three

I completed and submitted my forty-third short story of the year today. This one's a 5,300-word confession with a New Year's Eve theme.

I started writing the story August 2, 2010, and had reached 4,000+ words. I had forgotten about the story until yesterday when I was looking for New Year's Eve stories (it's that time of year on editorial calendars!). I read what I had written, read the notes I had made about how the story should conclude, and then wrote the final 1,300 words. I let the story sit overnight, proofread it this morning, and then submitted it.

Write faster

Here's how: "Slowpoke."

48

I received my 48th acceptance of the year earlier today, this time for an erotic crime fiction story about two kidnappers who are outwitted by just about everyone.

Forty-two

I finished and submitted my forty-second short story of the year this evening, a 4,200-word Christmas-themed confession.

I started this story on November 23, 2009, but only wrote a one-paragraph rough outline. Although I noodled with the story a little bit earlier this summer, I wrote the bulk of it this week, interrupting work on this one long enough to write my forty-first story.

With this story I have now written as many as I wrote all of last year, which was, admittedly, a slow year. The year before that I wrote 75 short stories. At this pace, I might come close to producing as much as I produced in 2009.

Published

My story "Jumpers" appears in The Big Book of Bizarro, now available from Burning Bulb Publishing.

I dream in sentences

I don't understand this, and I don't know for certain when it changed. I used to dream in moving pictures, just like everyone else seems to, but now I dream in sentences. Rather than seeing events unfold while I dream, I see words on a page describing the events unfolding. And I don't hear dialog; I see it written on a page with quotation marks and dialog tags. I suppose this is a good thing as a writer--sometimes when I rise I'm able to transcribe parts of my dreams directly from memory because the writing's already been done--but I don't understand why I now dream like this.

Forty-one

I finished and submitted my forty-first short story of the year a few minutes ago, a 3,000-erotic story with paranormal elements.

In May I received a call for submissions from an anthology editor for whom I've previously written. I had a pair of stillborn ideas right away but didn't have a workable idea until July 29. I wrote the opening couple of paragraphs that day and wrote enough additional material that I knew the protagonist/narrator and the setting, and vaguely knew the two other key characters and the plot.

I returned to the story yesterday, realized in looking at what I'd written that my original idea for the ending didn't work, and headed in a different--and much better!--direction.

It's in the editor's hands now.

Reviewed

"WildAboutBones" reviewed Dark Desires, an anthology of paranormal erotica in which I have a story, at the Bitten By Romance Blog, and writes, "Overall I enjoyed this book. There are some very creative paranormal stories here. I think paranormal fans will enjoy most of the book."

Each story was reviewed separately, leading up to that conclusion, and my story "The House of Seven Inches," was rated 4/Hot. I'd quote the review itself, but it provides a major plot spoiler.

Order the paperback of Dark Desires here and the Kindle edition here.

Forty

I finished and submitted my fortieth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,400-word erotic fantasy for an anthology with an open submissions call.

The deadline in the original call for submissions had expired before I had an appropriate idea. Then a revised call with a new deadline appeared in my in-box. An appropriate idea and some free time soon followed.

I started this story on Monday and finished it today.