40

I received my 40th acceptance of the year this morning, this time for a Valentine's Day confession.

39

I received my 39th acceptance today. This is for another essay.

Forty-Nine

I completed and submitted my forty-ninth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 5,500-word Valentine's Day romance I started October 30.

Published: "The Santa Suit"

My story "The Santa Suit" appears in the December issue of True Story.

Tales from the Dark Side

My "Tales from the Dark Side," an essay about errors of professionalism that writers make, is a guest blog today at Sleuthsayers.org. Read it here.

Published: "Selfies"

My story "Selfies" appears in the just-released anthology A Dose of Murder, Mystery and Mayhem.

Order the Kindle edition at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dose-Murder-Mystery-Mayhem-ebook/dp/B01M3V2G8V/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477874798&sr=1-2&keywords=michael+bracken

My story is the first one in the anthology, so by using Amazon's "Look Inside" feature you can read the entire story.

Forty-eight

I completed and submitted my forty-eighth short story of the year this morning. This one's a 2,400-word Valentine's Day story I started October 12, 2009.

38

I received my 38th acceptance of the year. This one's for an essay, not a short story.

Meanwhile, in NYC

 While in New York City last Sunday, I had lunch with Loretta and Stacy Folk. Loretta is Vice President of True Renditions, LLC, publishers of True Story and True Confessions magazines, and we had a wonderful conversation about the magazines, about publishing, and about potential future opportunities. (Alas, I have no photo of Stacy because he's the man behind the camera.)

That evening I had dinner with mystery writers Elizabeth Zelvin and Gerald So. Gerald So, in a blog post (https://geraldso.blogspot.com/2016/10/nizza-to-meet-you.html), and Liz her in response to his blog post, provide their take on our dining adventure.

37

I received my 37th acceptance of the year this morning while I was in NYC. Signed and returned the contract as soon as I returned home this evening.

36

I received my 36th acceptance this afternoon. This one's for the story I submitted this past Sunday.

Forty-seven

I completed and submitted by forty-seventh short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,000-word confession I started October 9, 2010.

Forty-six

I finished and submitted my forty-sixth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,000-word New Year's Eve romance I started writing April 9.

Published 2x

My stories "He Mall Walked into My Heart" and "Unexpected Thanksgiving Gifts" appear in the November issue of True Story.

Forty-five

I completed and submitted my forty-fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 3,100-word erotic romance that I started writing November 14, 2008.

35

I received my 35th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a bit of crime fiction.

34

I received my 34th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this one for a Christmas story.

Forty-four

I completed my forty-fourth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 5,500-word bit of crime fiction I started June 15 and had almost finished before Bouchercon last week. I went through it after returning home, corrected typos and made a small adjustment to chronology, and submitted it.

33

I received my 33rd acceptance of the year this afternoon, for a story I submitted to an anthology June 30, 2014. On April 7, 2016, I pulled the story from the submitted queue, thinking the project had been abandoned. Surprise! The anthology's a go and today the story was accepted.

Publishing 3x

My story "I Dated My Brother" appears in the October True Story, and my stories
"His Punching Bag" and "My Halloween Princess" appear in the October True Confessions.