Thursday, March 31, 2016

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

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Fourteen

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

Saturday, March 26, 2016

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.

Friday, March 25, 2016

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.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

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.

Monday, March 21, 2016

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.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

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).

Thursday, March 17, 2016

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.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

8, 9, 10

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

Saturday, March 12, 2016

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.

Monday, March 07, 2016

The Unacceptance

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

The Unacceptance Letter by Michael Bracken

Sunday, March 06, 2016

7

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