Nine

I completed and submitted my ninth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,700-word Independence Day-themed confession that I began writing last Thursday.

Derringer Award recipient

My story "Getting Out of the Box," published last year in Crime Square (Vantage Point), today received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story from the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Published

My story "Trapped with a Rapist" appears in the just-released issue of Mysterical-E.

Eight

I finished and submitted my eighth short story of the year this morning. Like yesterday, this one's a 2,500-word erotic story for an anthology.

Seven

I completed and submitted my seventh short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 2,500-word bit of erotica for an anthology.

Published

My story "I Need a Husband by Mother's Day" appears in the May True Story.

10

I received my 10th acceptance of the year this morning. This one's for the bit of erotica I finished and submitted on Sunday.

9

I received my 9th acceptance of the year a little while ago. This one's for a Father's Day story.

Six

I completed and submitted my sixth short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 4,200-word bit of erotica written at the invitation of an anthology editor.

Dan A. Sproul unpublished short story

In 2004 I accepted "Costa Rica? No Thanks," a short story by Dan A. Sproul for an anthology I was editing. Sproul, the author of several short stories published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and other publications—including two of my anthologies—died in 2007.

Unfortunately, the anthology was cancelled by the publisher. While other contributors have placed their stories elsewhere, Dan's story languishes in my filing cabinet.

I do not know how to contact Dan's surviving relatives and suspect they may be non-writers who have no idea what to do with Dan's unpublished manuscripts. I suspect they have trashed the hardcopies of his manuscripts and/or erased them from his computer drive because they do not understand the value of what he left behind.

I am left with a conundrum. I have a contract with Dan to publish his story, but the contract was tied to a specific anthology. Unless I somehow resurrect the dead anthology, I have no right to publish Dan's story nor do I have the right to see that someone else publishes it.

On the other hand, if I do nothing, the story may never see publication.

If anyone knows Dan's surviving relatives and can connect us, I would greatly appreciate it.

If anyone knows of a loophole in the copyright law that would allow me to shepherd this story into publication without his family's permission, I would greatly appreciate that information as well.

Five

I finished and submitted my fifth short story of the year this morning. This one's a 4,000-word Father's Day story I started writing October 11, 2012.

Published

My story "Helping Mother Nature" appears in the April True Confessions.

Four

I finished and submitted my fourth short story of the year this evening, a 2,600-word Father's Day story I started on February 26.

Reviewed

In "Short & Sweet," his column in Mystery Scene #128, Bill Crider reviews the Fall/Winter 2012 Needle Magazine and mentions two stories by name: Jim Winter's "The Heckler" and my "Yellow Ribbon." About my story, Bill writes,

"Michael Bracken's 'Yellow Ribbon' is hardboiled Texas fiction narrated by a guy who's won 207 straight games of solitaire on his computer. You don't want to mess with a guy like that."

To read the entire review, you'll have to buy your own copy of Mystery Scene.

Nominated

My story "Getting Out of the Box," published last year in Crime Square (Vantage Point), has been short-listed for a Derringer Award.

See the complete list of nominees here.