58

I received my 58th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a bit of erotic crime fiction.

With six acceptances in six days, it seems apparent that editors took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday, giving me much to be thankful for!

Writing tip of the day

Use the fewest words possible to make your point or tell your story...unless you're paid by the word.

57

I received my 57th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a bit of crime fiction that might best be described as lesbian noir.

56

I received my 56th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a bit of erotica.

55

I received my 55th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a Lent-themed short story.

53, 54

I received my 53rd and 54th acceptances of the year this evening, for stories to appear next year in two different erotic anthologies.

Published

My erotic crime fiction story "The Hitter and the Stall" appears in Wild Boys (Cleis Press). This anthology was released a few months ago but my copies didn't arrive until today.

Forty-three

I finished and submitted my forty-third short story of the year this morning. This one's a 2,000-word confession I started writing October 22.

52

I received my 52nd acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a story to be reprinted in a "best" anthology.

With this acceptance I have now met my annual goal of 52 acceptances. Though I certainly hope to receive a few more acceptances before the year end, it's going to be tough to beat last year's 73 acceptances. In fact, I have to look all the way back to 1995 when I had 77 acceptances and 1991 when I had 84 acceptances to find the only two years when I did better than last year.

51

I received my 51st acceptance of the year this morning, this time for an erotic story written on request for an anthology to be published next year.

50

I received my 50th acceptance of the year this morning. This one's for a mystery set at Christmas.

49

My 49th acceptance of the year was confirmed today, for a story picked up by an annual "Best" anthology. I knew last week that this was a probability but didn't count it as an acceptance until I had the contract in hand.

Reviewed

Nathan Burgoine reviews Wild Boys, a recently published anthology that I've not yet seen, at Erotica Revealed, as has this to say about my contribution:

"The type of story I was expecting most from the collection was Michael Bracken's 'The Hitter and the Stall.' Here we've got a cute young blond who picks the pocket of the wrong guy – someone better at that job than he is. Here there's a kind of mentoring involved, but the younger punk's attitude and nonchalance was exactly what was conjured for me with the title, cover, and description of Wild Boys. That the two men end up sharing more than pickpocketing skills is a given, and the narrator's awareness that this boy could be trouble, even as he's tumbling the fellow into bed, rang true.

Read the entire review here.

Forty-two

I finished and submitted my forty-second short story of the year this evening, a 4,000-word Valentine's Day romance that I started writing on November 5.

Published

My erotic story about love and death, "Let Us Go Down to the Sea," appears in the just-released anthology Sexy Sailors (Cleis), edited by Neil Plakcy.

Published

My private eye story "Yellow Ribbon," featuring my series character, Waco-based Morris Ronald "Moe Ron" Boyette, appears in the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of Needle. I've not yet received my copy, but you can order yours here.

Forty-one

I completed and submitted my forty-first story of the year this morning, a 4,300-word bit of erotica. This story was started on October 20 after I received an invitation to submit from an anthology editor who had published two of my short stories when he was a magazine editor.

Now, I wait to see if I met his needs or not.

47, 48 and published 3x

"Memories," the story of a couple spending their tenth anniversary reminiscing about all the good times, appears in the just released anthology Boys in Bed (Xcite). It has also been reprinted in April Showers (Xcite).

"One for the Toad" has been reprinted in Restored to Love (Xcite).

The two reprints constitute my 47th and 48th acceptances of the year.