Lifetime Achievement Award

Today I learned that I am the recipient of a lifetime achievement award for my involvement with short mystery fiction. The Short Mystery Fiction Society honored me with the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer.

To see a complete list of this year's Derringer Award recipients, visit: http://shortmystery.blogspot.com/2016/03/2016-derringer-award-results.html

Fourteen

I completed and submitted my fourteenth short story of the year this afternoon. This one's an 800-word romance I started yesterday.

12

I received my 12th acceptance of the year, this time for a private eye story, back in February. I didn't count it then because the acceptance letter wasn't explicit. Luckily, an email I received this morning confirmed that it was, in fact, an acceptance.

Thirteen

I completed my thirteenth short story of the year today, a 330-word bit of flash fiction I started June 26, 2015. I've not submitted it yet because I don't yet know of an appropriate market.

Twelve

I finished and submitted my twelfth short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a confession I started writing August 19, 2005.

Published

"To Live and Die in Texas," a noir bit of crime fiction, has just been published at Honeysuckle magazine's website: http://www.honeysucklemag.com/to-live-and-die-in-texas/

11

I received my 11th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago. This one's for a 4,800-word noir story, accepted by a new periodical that released its first issue last summer.

Eleven

I completed and submitted my eleventh short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 5,200-word confession I started writing April 4, 2013.

Published

My story "Bathhouse Backstabber," a romance involving a would-be mystery writer, appears in the just-published anthology Men in Love (Bold Strokes Books).

Always spell the first word correctly

A mention on Twitter about a book on writing caught my attention. I found the book on Amazon. I used Amazon's "Look Inside" feature. I started to read the book. The first word was misspelled. I stopped reading.

Sigh.

8, 9, 10

I received my 8th, 9th, and 10th acceptances of the year this evening, all for confessions.

The "King of Confessions" rules

Earlier today, in my guise as the "King of Confessions," I spoke to the Creative Minds writing group at the West Waco Library in Waco, Texas.

Ten

I finished and submitted my tenth short story of the year this morning. This one's a 3,800-word confession I started writing March 12, 2013.

The Unacceptance

Today, in a guest post at Rejectomancy, I write about the most disheartening rejection of all:

The Unacceptance Letter by Michael Bracken

			The Unacceptance Letter by Michael Bracken Hey, folks, we’ve got a very special guest author today, the talented and prolific Michael Bracken. Michael has graciously agreed to write a post about one of the ...
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7

I received my 7th acceptance of the year today, this time for an essay about writing.