When editors don't get the joke

My work has been blue-penciled by many editors over the years. Some have improved my work, some have made changes but neither improved nor damaged my work, and an insignificant number have actually done damage.

Of all the things an editor can do, though, missing the joke or pun bothers me most.

Here's a sentence from one of my manuscripts:

"She had been one-third of our inseparable trio back then--The Three Mousseketeers because of the way we'd worn our hair--but she'd gone her own way since then and we hardly ever saw her."

Here's the published version:

"She had been one-third of our inseparable trio back then--The Three Mouseketeers because of the way we'd worn our hair--but she'd gone her own way since then and we hardly ever saw her."

What's most frustrating is that the pun should be self-explanatory, but I explained it anyhow --"because of the way we'd worn our hair"--and the editor still didn't get it.

Sigh.

Maybe I'm only funny in my own mind.

Published

My confession "Love and a Hula Girl Lamp" appears in the January True Confessions.

Published 2x

My hardboiled crime story "Wet Work" appears in the just-published Out of the Gutter 7 and my erotic hitman story "Reprieve" is the lead story in the anthology I Like to Watch (Cleis Press; Christopher Pierce, editor).

One

It's a new year so all my counts start over. This evening I finished writing my first short story of the year, a 2,100-word bit of noir crime fiction.

I wrote the first paragraph on August 30 and it sat on my computer until yesterday morning. When I reread what I had written, I saw how changing a couple of words would lead the story in a direction I wanted to go. I could then envision the first two-thirds of the story and I knew the type of ending I wanted.

As I drafted the first part of the story I bounced random questions off of Plot Monkey and asked fellow SMFSers two questions about guns. The answers from Plot Monkey helped me formulate the ending and the answers I received from my fellow SMFSers confirmed that the role a gun played in the end was plausible.

But, much like the last story I wrote in 2010, I wrote this story without a specific market in mind and now it sits atop my to-be-submitted pile.

2010 in review

Here's what happened in 2010:

59 acceptances (vs. 37 in 2009)

72 rejections (vs. 61 in 2009)

51 short stories published* (vs. 29 in 2009), 2 articles published (vs. 3 in 2009)

I completed 42 short stories (vs. 75 in 2009).

I completed (to final draft) 144,930 words of short fiction (vs. 216,310 in 2009).

That's an average story length of 3,451 words (vs. an average of 2,884); the shortest story was 680 words, the longest was 6,600 words.

I completed and submitted an average of .81 short stories each week (vs. an average of 1.44 each week).

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

Income from
Editing: Down 3.13%
Fiction (not novels): Down 24.25%
Non-Fiction (not books): Up from $0
Royalties (from all books and, beginning in 2010, from Kindle self-published short stories): Up 46.18%
Seminars/Teaching: Down to $0
Salary: Up 6.45%
Overall gross income: Down 1.91%

Observations:

Although I remain employed part-time, I still earn the majority of my income from full-time freelancing.

Even though I sold more short fiction in 2010 than in 2009 and even though I had more short fiction published in 2010 than in 2009, income from short fiction decreased because some of my primary markets are behind schedule in issuing payments.

Income from editing went down as a result of decreased work from one of my two primary editing clients.

___
*I may update this information later; I’m confident that I’ve had additional stories published but have not yet received my contributor copies.

Getting details wrong

When a writer makes a serious factual error I'm thrown from the story. That just happened a few minutes ago while I was reading Luis Alberto Urrea's story "Amapola" in By Hook or By Crook and 27 More of the Best Crime & Mystery Stories of the Year (Tyrus Books, 2010). I'd barely started reading the second page of the story (page 504 in the book) when I stumbled across:

"We met in my senior year at Camelback High. Alice Cooper's old school back in prehistory--our big claim to fame, though the freshmen had no idea who Alice Cooper was."

Alas, neither Alice Cooper (the singer) nor most of Alice Cooper (the band) attended Camelback High. Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier), Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, and Dennis Dunaway attended Cortez High. Only drummer Neal Smith attended Camelback High.

Did the author do his research by listening to old Alice Cooper albums? In the song "Alma Mater" on the School's Out album someone (probably Alice) sings "But you know, it breaks my heart to leave you, Camelback, my high school."

So here's a tip for would-be writers: Don't rely on the information contained in song lyrics when there are other, more-reliable sources for factual information.

Forty-two

I finished writing my 42nd short story of the year this afternoon, a 3,700-word heist story that I started writing on January 17, 2007. Unfortunately, I don't know where to send it.

This happens sometimes. Most of the stories I write, I write with a specific market in mind. Some of the stories I start writing without having a market in mind, but do have one in mind before I finish writing. A few--a very few--are like this story: born homeless.

I'll put the manuscript on top of my to-submit pile and do a little market research later.

Forty-one

I completed and submitted my 41st short story of the year this evening. This time it's a 1,200-word bit of erotica started on June 8.

Forty

This evening I finished and submitted my 40th short story of the year, a 5,400-word Mother's Day confession I started writing December 2.

Published 2x

I received contributor copies of two anthologies today: Video Boys, containing my private eye story "Watching Kyle," and Rock & Roll Over, containing my story "One Hit Wonder."

Published

"Southern Comfort," a bit of crime fiction featuring a private eye with a dark family secret, appears in the Winter 2010 issue of Big Pulp. I don't have my contributor copy yet, but the publication just went on sale. Learn more and order here.

I was framed

James Reasoner writes about receiving his first check for a professional fiction sale 34 years ago today in "I Remember It Well."

I received payment for my first professional fiction sale on November 9, 1978, almost two years after James, but I don't remember it all that well. What I do remember is framing the check stub and one crisp new dollar bill, and for many years that little frame hung in my office. I just went digging through the plastic storage bins under my bed and found it. Now that I've found it, I think I'm going to put it up in my office again.

I also framed a copy of the story ("The Magic Stone") along with the cover of that issue of the magazine (Young World, November, 1978). Alas, that frame seems to have been lost during one of the many times I've moved since 1978.

Thirty-nine

I completed and submitted my 39th short story of the year this evening, a 1,000-word bit of erotica I started yesterday.

60

I received my 60th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a hardboiled private eye story featuring my reoccurring character Morris Ronald "Moe Ron" Boyette.

A textbook case

I'm pleased to announce that I am one of 60 contributors to Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing textbook edited by Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller scheduled for publication by Headline Books in 2011.

Learn more about the book, the editors, and the contributors at the Many Genres blog.

Meet me in Mexico

Banderas News has a short article about the Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference this coming February, "Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference February 25-27, 2011." (There's more about the conference at the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group website.)

I'm one of the scheduled speakers, so if you want to say "howdy," why not do it in Mexico two months from now?

Do I need a social network?

Earlier this evening I deleted my MySpace account and I stared hard at my Facebook account, wondering if it deserved the same fate. Not yet, I decided, but maybe soon.

The MySpace account had stopped being useful several years ago. I realized this a few months back and started deleting my friends, most of whom were other writers who had apparently joined MySpace, just as I had, thinking it would be a good way to market ourselves and our books. It wasn't. At least, it wasn't for me. And not one of my former MySpace friends noticed or cared that they had been defriended.

I joined Facebook a bit later, while I was in college (to bring latecomers up-to-date: I graduated in December 2005, at the age of 48), because that's what college students were doing. My current Facebook friends are a mix of family, friends, and other writers, and I rarely post anything on Facebook. There are few intimate details of my life that I'm willing to share in a public forum--and with Facebook's woefully inadequate privacy protection it is very much a public forum--and I don't feel comfortable inflicting writing news on family and friends who mostly don't care that I've sold another story or had one published. I'm not even sure that more than a select few of my fellow writers care about my successes and failures because they are rightfully more concerned with their own.

So, if I rarely share information via Facebook and I don't follow anyone else's updates, what value does membership offer for me?

I'm still trying to answer that question. But, unless I convince myself that it has absolutely no value, I'll keep my Facebook account.

And keep posting my writing successes and failures here where anyone who reads my blog posts is doing so by choice.

59

I received my 59th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for an erotic ghost story.

Thirty-eight

I finished writing my 38th story of the year, a 5,000-word Mother's Day confession that I began writing December 7. The final draft is printing now and it'll go in the mail this afternoon.

How long ago?

Any writer who's known me for long knows I abhor the word "got." (To recap: Frequent use of "got" is the sign of a sloppy writer. In almost every instance "got" can be replaced by a better, more accurate, more descriptive word or phrase.)

Lately, there's another word that's been bothering me almost as much: ago.

Unfortunately, many writers, editors, and readers don't understand its proper use in a time sequence and bollix up their stories unnecessarily.

For example:

At the end of a long, hot summer, Little Tony finally had had enough. He pulled a snub-nose .38 from the holster attached to his belt at the small of his back and drilled a pair into the little prick who'd been riding him the entire time. He had never intended to harm his wife's younger brother, but three days ago the simpering fop had pushed his last button and Little Tony only had to wait until the two of them were alone to scrape that pimple off the world's ass.

Whoa! Wait a minute! When did the simpering little fop push Little Tony's last button?

Grammatically, the simpering fop pushed Little Tony's last button three days before this story was told, which might be--because this is written in past tense--days, weeks, months, or years after the shooting.

What the author meant is that the simpering fop pushed Little Tony's last button three days prior to the shooting.

Therefore, the author should have written:

He had never intended to harm his wife's younger brother, but three days earlier the simpering fop had pushed his last button and Little Tony only had to wait until the two of them were alone to scrape that pimple off the world's ass.

58

I received my 58th acceptance today, this time for an 800-word romance I wrote in January 2009.

The acceptance is a bit of a cheat because I'm accepting it for a newsletter I edit, but if I won't accept my own work, why should I expect other editors to?

Thirty-seven

I finished and submitted my 37th short story of the year, a 5,700-word confession that I began writing November 19.

Thirty-six

I finished and submitted my 36th story of the year, this time a confession with an Earth Day theme. I started writing this story November 18 and worked on it in fits and starts while working on a couple of other stories that I hope to complete within the next few days.

Top five

At Chris Rhatigan's Death By Killing blog, guest blogger Sandra Seamans lists her five favorite flash stories of 2010 in today's post "Top Five of 2010: Sandra Seamans."

Included in her top five is my story "Dead Things," published by Big Pulp. She says:

"Michael’s story is as old as time, but the pov he chose to tell the story pumped fresh life into the tale."

57

I received my 57th acceptance earlier today, this time for a private eye story I wrote back in 2003.

I also learned that three stories previously accepted by the same publisher have now been scheduled for publication.

Essay

I don't track my nonfiction and other writing the way I track my fiction production, but I did finish and submit a 450-word essay this evening. A writer I've known for many years (one of several Internet friends I've never met in person) is putting together a collection of essays about bad dates and on Tuesday sent me the call for submissions.

I guess I've been lucky because I've never had a truly bad date, but there is one that has haunted me for nearly 40 years. So I wrote about it.

Kindling

For every J.A. Konrath there's a Michael Bracken.

I received my first royalty check from Amazon Digital Services Inc. (ADSI) for the five titles I made available for Kindle: $15.

Granted, none of the five titles are novels. Two are novellas; three are short stories. Four have been previously published; one is original. Four are crime fiction; one is romance. The novellas sell for $2.99; the short stories for $.99.

I also have seven titles available from three different publishers (two novels, a short story collection, and four short stories) and have short stories available in two anthologies available in Kindle format. My royalty check from ADSI does not reflect income from these titles.

Although I have mentioned all of these titles here and on my website, I've not been actively promoting them the way some writers promote their work.

I prefer to spend my available time writing new material.

Even so, here's my pitch: If you have a Kindle and want to read some good crime fiction, good romance fiction, or good confessions, try some of my titles. They're all available here: Michael's Kindle Titles.

Brand names

When I first started writing confessions in the 1980s, I quickly realized that editors deftly removed brand names from the stories they published.

"I drove my Rambler to Sambo's and ordered a Royal Crown Cola to drink while studying the menu" became "I drove my car to a chain restaurant and ordered a cola to drink while studying the menu."

In the belief that the less work a manuscript requires prior to publication increases--however minutely--the odds of the manuscript being accepted, I learned to write fiction without using brand names.

During the past few years things have changed. Confession editors are no longer excising all brand names from confessions prior to publication, and I recently read a confession that had so many brand names in it that I thought I was reading a shopping list and not a short story.

So I wonder which serves a story better: frequent use of brand names or complete removal of brand names?

I think use of brand names can be a crutch, a way for writers to create a character using shorthand--after all, a woman who wears Levi's and Polo shirts is quite different than a woman who dresses in Dolce & Gabbana and Manolo Blahnik--instead of making the character come alive through words and actions.

At the same time, use of brand names can date a story. Readers significantly younger than me may not even recognize the three brand names in my example above:

The Rambler was manufactured by American Motors, back when the U.S. had four major automobile manufacturing companies. The last Rambler was manufactured in 1969. American Motors was purchased by Chrysler in 1987 and renamed Eagle.

Sambo's was a chain of 1,200 restaurants that went bankrupt in the early 1980s and, apparently, only the original restaurant, opened in 1957, still exists.

Royal Crown Cola may be better known today as RC Cola.

If it's important to set a story in a particular time and place (pairing that RC cola with a Moonpie would likely set a story in the South in the 1950s), then brand names may be a valuable addition to a story, but if time and place is less important than the story itself, use of brand names would detract from the story and would be especially distracting to future readers unfamiliar with the brand names.

So, even though confession editors seem more open to the use of brand names, may I suggest that brand names be used judiciously and only when their use truly enhances a story.

Thirty-five

I completed my 35th short story of the year this evening, a 4,500-word St. Patrick's Day confession I started writing October 14. The final draft is printing now and it'll go in the mail tomorrow.

It's been almost three months since I completed a new short story, an anomaly not indicative of how much writing I've actually been doing. I didn't write much fiction in September--the month began with a family issue to address followed by a week of illness, and a load of other writing and editing filled up the last half of the month. But I returned to the keyboard in October and have been putzing around with various stories, adding bits to this story and that, outlining some new stories, and generating a variety of story ideas that I hope to get to soon. But generating ideas, outlining stories, and writing beginnings and middles don't create finished manuscripts. Only writing complete manuscripts accomplishes that goal.

56

I received my 56th acceptance earlier today, this time for a 6,200-word confession.

Published 2x

My Christmas stories "Bittersweet Homecoming" and "Fatherless at Christmas" appear in the December issue of True Confessions.

Published

My erotic deal-with-the-devil's-minion story "The Loophole" was published in Men at Noon, Monsters at Midnight (StarBooks Press, Christopher Pierce editor) back in June but my contributor's copy just arrived.

55

I received my 55th acceptance of the year via email this afternoon, this time for a Valentine's Day romance/confession.

Published

My Christmas confession "Santa's Little Helper Saves the Day" appears in the December True Story.

Published

My Thanksgiving confession "Turkey for Two" appears in the just-published December issue of True Love.

Published

My crime fiction story "Tides" appears in the just-released anthology Beautiful Boys (Cleis Press), edited by Richard Labonte.

Published

"My Lover's Secret," a confession, has been released by Lady Leo Publishing. It's available in various electronic formats.

54

I received my 54th acceptance today, this time for a confession.

53

I received my 53rd acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a bit of crime fiction.

Published

My article "Sky Island Gardening" appears in the November/December Texas Gardener.

52!

I received my 52nd acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a short story featuring Waco-based private eye Morris Ronald "Moe Ron" Boyette. Boyette has appeared in several published stories since his "birth" in "Feel the Pain" (Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin, Mysterious Press) in 2003.

With this sale I've achieved my annual writing goal--to average one acceptance per week--and every sale from now until the end of the year is gravy.

Which is a good thing because I haven't finished any new manuscripts since early September.

Published

My Thanksgiving story "Home for the Holidays" appears in the November True Confessions.

Published

My ghost story "Pushing Coal" appears in the just-released anthology Specters in Coal Dust, edited by Michael Knost and published by Woodland Press, LCC.

To order directly from the publisher, go here: http://www.woodlandpress.com/book/folk-lore/now-shipping-specters-coal-dust

I've been tweeted

I don't have a Twitter account, but the SFWA tweets my blog posts. Even more unusual is that someone else--Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen--quoted me in one of her tweets on October 10. Go figure, huh?

51

I received my 51st acceptance of the year in today's mail, this time for a Christmas confession I wrote in 2008.

50

I received my 50th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, for a hot, summer confession.

49

I received my 49th acceptance of the year in today's mail, this time for a 6,100-word Christmas story.

Food for thought

While reading Kevin Burton Smith's "Murder on the Menu," an article about food in mysteries in the current (Fall, 2010) issue of Mystery Scene, I was surprised to see this:

And we should mention Hardbroiled (2003), edited by Michael Bracken, a collection of tough private eye stories in which food plays an important role.

It's nice to know that somebody other than the contributors remembers the anthology.

Published

My story "Too Good To Be True" appears in the Winter True Experience.

Kindling

Now available for Kindle: "Pick." While stealing the contents of a file folder, a B&E man witnesses a mob killing. Then his life gets complicated.

As time permits, I'm making my previously published crime fiction short stories available for Kindle, most of them for a mere 99 cents.

48

I received my 48th acceptance of the year this afternoon, for a 5,700-word Christmas-themed confession I submitted August 22.

Passport

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak at a writers conference in Mexico. I haven't been outside the U.S. since I was a teenager, and that was a one-day trip into British Columbia, Canada.

I agreed, then learned I needed a passport to travel to Mexico. The process of applying didn't seem particularly difficult...until I saw the questions I had to answer about my parents. My dilemma is that my parents have been dead for many years and I have limited family documents.

I had to obtain a copy of my birth certificate--at least I knew where I was born--and I found the answers to some of the questions there. I found the rest of the answers by digging around in my files, but it took a while.

I'm lucky I didn't need information about my grandparents. I might never have completed the application...

47

I received my 47th acceptance back on September 4 but failed to note it here, for a story written as a confession but sold to an anthology.

Published 2x

My erotic story "Tossing the Caber" was published in Teammates and my erotic mystery "Smooth Strokes" was published in Boys Getting Ahead. Both of these anthologies were released several months ago; my copies just arrived.

Writers love writing

If you are in a relationship with a writer, or are contemplating a relationship with a writer, read this:

http://agrammar.tumblr.com/post/1127991128/offended-by-rank-objectification-of-writers

The recession hits home

A couple of years ago, when a few of my primary fiction markets dried up and a few others started dragging payments, I altered my household budget. I eliminated fiction income from the budget and adjusted my projected expenses based on the presumption that my only income would be provided by my three biggest clients.

It's a good thing I did. Even though I brought in more money last year than in any year since 1996, my year-to-date income in 2010 falls short of 2009. I continue to sell fiction at a steady pace, but the long-term markets I'm writing for continue to drag payments and the new markets I've found don't pay as well as the markets I lost.

Through careful budgeting and a little luck my year-to-date income after expenses is slightly better than last year, but I don't like the financial direction my fiction writing has taken. It's no longer a question of budgeting cash flow as much as it is budgeting time and effort.

Do I step back, adjust the type of fiction I write, and take a hard run at some of the remaining top markets? The risk, as I learned early last year when I took a hard run at Woman's World, is that I may wind up with a lot of unsold and possibly unsellable short stories.

Do I attempt to increase my productivity, writing more for lower paying markets in an attempt to compensate for lost income? The risk is that I wind up Walmarting myself, making a little money from each of many sales rather than making significant money from each of only a few sales.

Or do I continue to write for the better paying markets that still publish my work, even though they now drag payments several months? The risk is that the publications don't survive the recession and disappear owing me significant amounts of money.

The life of the average freelancer is not easy. The life of the average freelance fiction writer is harder still.

And the recession just complicates everything...

ArmadilloCon, again

Elspeth Bloodgood, Kim Kofmel, and I share "Memories of Fandom Past" at ArmadilloCon: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elzes/4989118670/. Joining us but not pictured: Cat Conrad.

Published

My confession "The Secret Lives of Teachers" has been released in various electronic formats. It should be available for Kindle within the next few days.

Published

My romance story "An Engaging New Year" appears in Passionate Hearts, released this month in various electronic formats. A print edition is forthcoming.

Kindling

I am in the process of making some of my previously published short crime fiction available on Kindle. Rather than bore you with how much money I'm earning and how I'll soon retire to a villa on the south of France, how about if I tell you about the first three stories?

When the lady of the house seduces the ex-con tending her lawn, murder isn’t far behind.

Available now.






The Baker High School class of 1974 had big dreams. Then one father’s small crime changed everything.

“Dreams Unborn” was named one of the best mystery stories of the year by Joyce Carol Oates and Otto Penzler, editors of The Best American Mystery Stories 2005.

Available now.


When two young men break into a house and discover evidence of a horror beyond any they could imagine, one of them is forced to choose the lesser of two evils.

Uploaded this evening; should be available within 48 hours.

Published

My story "Dead things" was published today at BigPulp.

"What do you do...?"

I received the following via email this morning and thought I would share my response.

"Do you have confession stories that have not been accepted after sending them around? What do you do with them?"

I don't have many unsold confessions. Up until the black confession magazines (Black Romance, Jive, etc.) ceased publication a few years ago I had sold every confession I'd ever written. Now, with fewer confession magazines and the existing magazines (True Love, True Story, etc.) not as interested in some of the stories that would have easily sold to the black confession magazines, I have a few confessions hanging around in the filing cabinet.

But I do what I've always done:

1) If I can see a flaw in the story, I revise, retitle, and send the story around again. (I've sold a few this way.)

2) If I don't think there's a flaw in the story, I wait until an editor changes jobs and submit to the new editor. (I've sold many this way.)

3) And, lately, I've been keeping my eyes open for opportunities--anthologies, other magazines, epublishers--that don't identify as confession markets but have guidelines that make me think a confession or confession-like story might be appropriate. (In the past couple of years I've sold half a dozen or so this way.)

Interviewed

Haven't gotten enough of me yet? Last month I was interviewed by Aurora, a website that reviews and interviews the authors of young adult fiction, and the interview was posted this morning. Check it out at http://aurorareviewsarchives.blogspot.com/2010/09/interview-michael-bracken.html.

Published

"My Undercover Lover," a confession, appears in the October True Story.

Published

My erotic crime story "Slash and Burn" appears in the just-published paperback anthology Boy Fun, and the e-book anthology Beach Challenge.

47

I received my 47th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, for a story I submitted earlier this afternoon. I originally wrote the story as a male-viewpoint confession but sold it to an anthology instead of a confession magazine.

Published

"Loving My Neighbor," a confession with a Halloween tie-in, appears in the October True Love.

Video killed the writing star

Another first: I'm part of a book trailer promoting Passionate Hearts, an anthology of short romance fiction. Watch the trailer at http://www.freado.com/book/8040/passionate-hearts.

Thirty-four

I finished and submitted my 34th story of the year, a 2,900-word bit of erotica. I started writing the story on December 20, 2007, and had about half of it written. I picked it up again Monday when I realized it fit the theme of an anthology that just sent out an open call for submissions, and I finished it this morning.

46

I received my 46th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for 4,400 words of violent crime fiction about a hired killer.

ArmadilloCon pics

Michael Bracken (moderator) and Thomas M. Wagner answer the question "Are Online Sites the New Fanzines?"
George Wilhite, Michael Bracken, and Joe R. Lansdale discuss "Writing in Other Fields." Not pictured: Steve Wilson and moderator Michael Ashleigh Finn.

45

I returned home from ArmadilloCon this afternoon to find my 45th acceptance in my mailbox. This one's is a 6,600-word Thanksgiving-themed confession I submitted July 18.

Marketing gone amuck

I can't claim to have seen everything, but this comes close: My name (and the names of the other contributors) on a tote bag promoting Passionate Hearts, a forthcoming anthology containing one of my stories:

http://www.zazzle.com.au/passionate_hearts_bag-149385558866592477

Great review

In a Bookgasm review of The Baddest of the Bad, a collection of the best material from the first three issues of Out of the Gutter, Rod Lott writes:

"...followed by the even-better 'Professionals,' in which Michael Bracken spins a story of a male prostitute who gets into big trouble with one of his johns."

ArmadilloCon

I'll be at ArmadilloCon (a science fiction convention) in Austin, Texas, this weekend. I'm on three panels (moderating one of them) and will be reading "Pushing Coal," a ghost story to be published later this year in the anthology Specters in Coal Dust, at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

If you are also attending, say howdy.

Thirty-three

I finished and submitted my 33rd short story of the year this evening. This one's a 1,000-word horror story, inspired by a folk song, that I began writing yesterday evening.

Thirty-two

I finished and submitted my 32nd short story of the year this evening. This one's a 5,700-word Christmas-themed confession that I started writing July 19, 2007. I'd completed the first scene--just shy of a thousand words--some time in the past and wrote the balance of the story over the course of several days this week.

44

I received my 44th acceptance today, this time for a romance to be published in an anthology of romance stories.

Thirty-one

I finished and submitted my 31st short story of the year earlier this evening, a 3,000-word Christmas confession that I started writing on July 30.

43

I took a break from office work and went grocery shopping. When I returned, my 43rd acceptance of the year was waiting for me. This one's a romantic/erotic story about finding a modern-day "handsome prince." In my story, the handsome prince is a rich Texas cowboy.

42

My 42nd acceptance of the year was waiting in my inbox when I checked email this morning. This time it's a ghost story, accepted by the editor of an anthology of ghost stories set in the Appalachian coal mines.

40, 41

I received two acceptances today, my 40th and 41st of the year. The first is for a story about a hitman and what he sees through his rifle scope. The other is for an article I wrote for a gardening magazine.

Published

"I Was a Topless Waitress," a confession, was released in electronic formats by Lady Leo Publishing.

The publisher describes the story this way:

When Samantha ”Sandy Beaches” Beecher loses her job as a Web site designer, the only job she can get is waitressing topless at Mountain Tops.

The money becomes seductive, allowing her to pay off her debts. But, she soon learns that the real money’s in stripping, and she seriously considers making the change until one night, her world falls apart, and Samantha must decide what kind of woman she really is.

"I Was a Topless Waitress" is currently available from the publisher's website and should soon be available from Amazon and other sources.

This Little Piggy Went to Market

What I'll be doing on Facebook next Wednesday:

MICHAEL BRACKEN presents “This Little Piggy Went to Market: How I’ve Sold More Than 800 Short Stories”

You're invited to visit www.facebook.com/janice.curran to participate in this special Featured Friend event for writers! Click on over Wednesday, August 11, between 12 and 1 P.M. Central/1 and 2 Eastern to read Michael's tip, comment and ask questions. Have to miss the event? The thread will remain posted so you can view it at a later time. Hope to see you there! :-)

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Published x2

My story "Burning Love" appears in the September True Confessions and my story "Lessons in Love" appears in the September True Story.

Story thirty

I finished writing my 30th short story of the year a few minutes ago. It's a 6,100-word Christmas confession I started writing on May 2, but I only wrote the first few paragraphs back then. I picked the story up again Sunday morning and finished writing it this evening. The final version is printing out now and it will go in the mail tomorrow.

Submitting to the mathematically challenged

I've been surfing the net this evening, searching for places to submit unsold stories, and I've stumbled across too many "paying" publications that reveal mathematical ineptitude in how they describe their pay rates.

For example, one site that claims to pay professional rates states that they pay .05 cents per word.

Say what?

Five cents per word is usually considered a professional rate.

One-twentieth of one cent per word is not.

If they truly pay a professional rate, then they should state that the pay rate is:

5 cents per word

or

$.05 per word

but NOT

.05 cents per word

As it stands, their stated pay rate is either abysmally low or their editors lack proofreading skills. Either way, would you want them to publish your work?

39

Mail delivery was quite late today, but well worth the wait. In it was my 39th acceptance of the year, this time for a confession I wrote back in early 2008.

OKC in 2011

I've received--and have accepted--an invitation to lead two sessions at the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc.'s 2011 Conference in Oklahoma City, May 5-7.

38

I received my 38th acceptance of the year earlier this evening, for a confession I wrote back in 2008 and revised earlier this month at the editor's request.

Story twenty-nine

I completed my 29th short story of the year today, a 6,600-word Thanksgiving-themed confession that I started writing on July 18, 2007. I'm printing the final draft now and expect to drop it in the mail tomorrow.

34, 35, 36, 37

I received my 34th, 35th, 36th, and 37th acceptances of the year a few minutes ago, all from the same publishing company in England. One story was accepted for an anthology being put together right now and the other three for future projects. The oldest story was written in 2005; the other three in 2009.

With these four acceptances I've now received exactly the same number of acceptances as I did all of last year, and I'm placing stories faster than I'm writing new ones.

Why am I unhappy?

In "The Creativity Crisis" (Newsweek, July 19, 2010) Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman write, about creative people, "They're not particularly happy--contentment is a kind of complacency creative people rarely have."

That explains a lot.

What's happening at my Barnes & Noble

The section for westerns at my local Barnes & Noble is growing while the section next to it--anthologies (which contains both fiction and non-fiction)--is shrinking.

The section devoted to books about writing is shrinking rapidly.

33

I received my 33rd acceptance of the year in today's mail, this time for the romance/confession I submitted July 4.

Published

My story "Professionals," which first appeared in the second issue of Out of the Gutter back in 2007, has been reprinted in The Baddest of the Bad, a collection of the "baddest" stories from the first three issues of the magazine.

When "Professionals" was first published, Bill Crider noted that it "reveals that Bracken is himself a real pro when it comes to crime shorts."

The Baddest of the Bad, edited by Matthew Louis and published by Gutter Books, is available directly from the publisher at www.GutterBooks.com, Amazon, and other retailers.

31, 32

I received my 31st and 32nd acceptances of the year this morning. One was for the 5,000-word Halloween-themed confession I finished and submitted this weekend; the other was for a 3,000-word Thanksgiving-themed confession I wrote in 2009.

Story twenty-eight

I completed and submitted my 28th short story of the year today. It's a 5,000-word confession/love store tied to Halloween that I started writing back on May 5. I wrote only part of the opening scene back then and wrote the bulk of the story this week.

Story twenty-seven

I completed my 27th story of the year a few minutes ago. It's a 4,800-word confession/romance. The final draft is printing now and it'll go in the mail the next time I pass a mailbox.

Kindling

I have four titles available for the Kindle, and sometime overnight my latest--"I Slept With My Sister's Husband" (Lady Leo Publishing)--became by bestselling title, surpassing All White Girls (Wildside Press) in second, my self-published Unbridled Love in third, and Just in Time for Love (Hardshell Word Factory, recently bought out by Mundania Press) in fourth.