One

I finished and submitted my first short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,100-word Mother's Day story I started writing February 8, 2013.

Reviewed: "Mutable Memories"

My story "Mutable Memories" is one of many mentioned in Lloyd A. Meeker's review of the anthology Men of the Manor at the website Out in Print. He says:

"The most chilling, however, was Michael Bracken’s tale of a butler’s calculated theft and blackmail, Mutable Memories."

Read the entire review here.

2

I received my second acceptance of the year, this time for a 1,700-word confession.

2014 in review

42 acceptances (vs. 40 in 2013).

21 rejections (vs. 8 in 2013).

36 short stories published (vs. 45 in 2013), 1 article/essay published (vs. 0 in 2013).

I completed 53 short stories (vs. 40 in 2013).

I completed (to final draft) 198,000 words of short fiction (vs. 142,500 in 2013).

That's an average story length of 3,735 words (vs. an average of 3,563); the shortest story was 300 words; the longest was 10,000 words.

I completed and submitted an average of 1.02 short stories each week (vs. an average of .77 each week in 2013).

(I only track completed short fiction word counts, not words written for incomplete projects, nor words written for other forms of writing.)

Observations:

My productivity increased last year while my rejections increased and my sales decreased. There are at least two reasons for this:

1) I wrote a handful of stories just for me rather than for specific markets. Though I have already found homes for a few of them, these stories tend to be difficult to place because they don't clearly fit the needs of existing markets with which I am already familiar. They tend to collect rejections while I work my way through potential markets.

2) I attempted to crack new markets, and I put some effort into writing for markets to which I have not sold anything in several years and had not submitted anything to in quite some time. I had limited success with these efforts, though I collected some really nice personal rejections.

Published

Today's mail also brought good news: My story "Kiss of Life at Midnight" appears in the February True Confessions.

1

2015 began with depressing news: My first rejection of the year was waiting in my inbox when I logged on January 1.

Today's acceptance--my first of year--more than makes up for yesterday. This acceptance was for a mystery to be published in a small press anthology.

42

I received my 42nd acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a confession.

41

I received my 41st acceptance of the year late this afternoon, surpassing last year's 40 acceptances with several days left in the year to nudge the total up another acceptance or two.

Published

My erotic crime fiction story "Mutable Memories" appears in the anthology Men of the Manor, which was published in October, though my copies didn't arrive until today.

Reviewed

Lirtle reviews Men of the Manor at Prism Book Alliance and has this to say about "Mutable Memories," my contribution to the anthology:

This is raunchy and irreverent and I love it. Young men all around, behaving like the free sexual beings they’re fortunate enough to be able to express themselves as, thanks to the lives they lead. This is rife with straight-faced tongue-in-cheek humor. This definitely qualifies as more Downton Abbey erotica for your dining pleasure. Enjoy it. I know I did. This is another author of which I want to read more of his work. And the title, yeah, it fits. Nicely plotted short story. 

4.25 stars

Read the entire review here.

40

I received my 40th acceptance of the year today, this time for a story I submitted to an anthology in May 2013.

Fifty-three

I finished and submitted my fifty-third short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,600-word confession I started writing February 1, 2009. Until I picked it up again a few weeks ago, all I had written was the opening scene.

Interviewed

I'm interviewed today on the Boo Books blog about "Little Spring," my contribution to the anthology Haunted, which they released last month. Read the interview here: http://boobooks.net/boo-blog/.

Fifty-two

I finished and submitted my fifty-second short story of the year this evening. This one's a 5,000-word private eye story.

Published 3x

"My Quirky & Strange Son" appears in the January True Story, "The End of the Year" appears in the January True Confessions, and "High-Rise Hook-Up" appears in the just-published anthology Hired Hands.

39

I received my 39th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a 3,000-word confession.

Fifty-one

I finished and submitted my fifty-first short story of the year this evening. This one's a 3,300-word confession.

Fifty

I completed and submitted my fiftieth short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 10,000-word private eye story, the longest non-novel story I've completed since I began tracking word counts in 2009.

This one was written by invitation, but I have concerns about it. While I'm confident I've written a good story, I think it's a little left of the bull's eye upon rereading the submission guidelines. Luckily, there's time to write a new story if necessary.

So, fingers crossed and all that.

Forty-Nine

I finished and submitted my forty-ninth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,600-word confession.

The seeds of "Seed"

Today on Charlotte Howard's blog I have a guest post about the three elements that came together when I wrote "Seed,"  my contribution to the anthology Fifty Shades of Green. Following my post is an excerpt from the story. Read "The Seeds of 'Seed'" here.