1

I received my 1st acceptance of the year today, from an editor working on New Year's Day.

Published 3x

My story "I Gave Up Men" appears in the February 2013 True Story, and my stories "My Son's 1st Date" and "Uncommon Solutions" appear in the February True Confessions.

61

I received my 61st acceptance of the year this evening.

Published

"Crimewave," a Christmas mystery, has just been published in Kings River Life. Read it here.

Published

My lesbian noir story "Family Dynamics" appears in the just-published Out of the Gutter 8. Order your copy here.

Forty-six

I completed and submitted my forty-sixth short story of the year this evening, a light-hearted Easter romance I started on November 5.

Forty-five

I finished and submitted my forty-fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a St. Patrick's Day confession that I started writing October 11, 2011.

Published 2x

My story "Punch-Drunk Love" appears in the January 2013 True Confessions and my story "Snowballed into Love" appears in the January True Story.

60

I received my 60th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for another Valentine's Day-themed confession.

59

I received my 59th acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a Valentine's Day-themed confession.

Forty-four

I completed and submitted my forty-fourth short story of the year this morning. This one's a 3,500-word confession that I started writing November 19.

58

I received my 58th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a bit of erotic crime fiction.

With six acceptances in six days, it seems apparent that editors took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday, giving me much to be thankful for!

Writing tip of the day

Use the fewest words possible to make your point or tell your story...unless you're paid by the word.

57

I received my 57th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a bit of crime fiction that might best be described as lesbian noir.

56

I received my 56th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a bit of erotica.

55

I received my 55th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a Lent-themed short story.

53, 54

I received my 53rd and 54th acceptances of the year this evening, for stories to appear next year in two different erotic anthologies.

Published

My erotic crime fiction story "The Hitter and the Stall" appears in Wild Boys (Cleis Press). This anthology was released a few months ago but my copies didn't arrive until today.

Forty-three

I finished and submitted my forty-third short story of the year this morning. This one's a 2,000-word confession I started writing October 22.

52

I received my 52nd acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a story to be reprinted in a "best" anthology.

With this acceptance I have now met my annual goal of 52 acceptances. Though I certainly hope to receive a few more acceptances before the year end, it's going to be tough to beat last year's 73 acceptances. In fact, I have to look all the way back to 1995 when I had 77 acceptances and 1991 when I had 84 acceptances to find the only two years when I did better than last year.

51

I received my 51st acceptance of the year this morning, this time for an erotic story written on request for an anthology to be published next year.

50

I received my 50th acceptance of the year this morning. This one's for a mystery set at Christmas.

49

My 49th acceptance of the year was confirmed today, for a story picked up by an annual "Best" anthology. I knew last week that this was a probability but didn't count it as an acceptance until I had the contract in hand.

Reviewed

Nathan Burgoine reviews Wild Boys, a recently published anthology that I've not yet seen, at Erotica Revealed, as has this to say about my contribution:

"The type of story I was expecting most from the collection was Michael Bracken's 'The Hitter and the Stall.' Here we've got a cute young blond who picks the pocket of the wrong guy – someone better at that job than he is. Here there's a kind of mentoring involved, but the younger punk's attitude and nonchalance was exactly what was conjured for me with the title, cover, and description of Wild Boys. That the two men end up sharing more than pickpocketing skills is a given, and the narrator's awareness that this boy could be trouble, even as he's tumbling the fellow into bed, rang true.

Read the entire review here.

Forty-two

I finished and submitted my forty-second short story of the year this evening, a 4,000-word Valentine's Day romance that I started writing on November 5.

Published

My erotic story about love and death, "Let Us Go Down to the Sea," appears in the just-released anthology Sexy Sailors (Cleis), edited by Neil Plakcy.

Published

My private eye story "Yellow Ribbon," featuring my series character, Waco-based Morris Ronald "Moe Ron" Boyette, appears in the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of Needle. I've not yet received my copy, but you can order yours here.

Forty-one

I completed and submitted my forty-first story of the year this morning, a 4,300-word bit of erotica. This story was started on October 20 after I received an invitation to submit from an anthology editor who had published two of my short stories when he was a magazine editor.

Now, I wait to see if I met his needs or not.

47, 48 and published 3x

"Memories," the story of a couple spending their tenth anniversary reminiscing about all the good times, appears in the just released anthology Boys in Bed (Xcite). It has also been reprinted in April Showers (Xcite).

"One for the Toad" has been reprinted in Restored to Love (Xcite).

The two reprints constitute my 47th and 48th acceptances of the year.

Forty

I finished and submitted my fortieth short story of the year this evening. This one's an erotic spy story I started writing on October 28.

Published

My erotic fantasy "One for the Toad" appears in the just-published anthology Dead Sexy (Xcite), edited by Antonia Adams. Currently available as an ebook, the paperback version will be released soon.

Thirty-nine

I completed and submitted my thirty-ninth short story of the year this evening, a 3,900-word Valentine's Day story.

46

I received my 46th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for the New Year's Eve-themed confession I submitted on the 19th.

Published 2x

My story "A Holiday Disaster Turned into a Miracle" appears in the December True Confessions and my story "1 Little Tree with Big Heart" appears in the December True Story.

Thirty-eight

I finished and submitted my thirty-eighth story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 3,900-word story about a woman torn between romance and religion that I began writing December 23, 2009.

45

I received my 45th acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for the winter-themed confession I submitted on the 13th.

Thirty-Seven

I finished and submitted my thirty-seventh short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a New Year's Eve-themed love story that I started writing August 2, 2011.

Shout-outs

In his review of Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, Kevin Tipple mentions my contribution to the textbook and writes, among other things:

"Prolific author Michael Bracken [...] makes the point that short stories can be more lucrative than novels while also making you a stronger writer."

Kevin concludes that Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction is "an excellent book that you must have and use." Read his extensive review here. (And purchase Mind Slices, Kevin's latest collection, here.)

In his review of this blog in "Blog Bytes," his column in the December issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Bill Crider refers to me as "the hardest working guy in the short-story game."

You may have to purchase the magazine to read the entire review, but failing that you can read more from Bill at Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine and follow the links to learn more about his extensive list of publications.

Thirty-six

I finished and submitted my thirty-sixth short story of the year this evening. This one's a confession I started writing on September 18, 2011.

Published

My paranormal love story "Mourning has Broken" appears in the Fall issue of Bohemia. See the on-line edition here and turn to page 30.

Thirty-five

I finished writing my thirty-fifth story of the year this morning, a 1,900-word action-packed erotic romance that I started writing September 29.

44

In this morning's batch of email is an acceptance from an anthology editor in England, my 44th acceptance of the year.

I wrote this story in 1991, it received a dozen rejections back in the early '90s, and it had been sitting in my files since the mid-'90s.

Lesson learned? Sometimes you write for the market; sometimes you write and wait for the market to catch up.

43

I received my 43rd acceptance this morning, this time for a Christmas story.

42

I received my 42nd acceptance of the year today.

I wrote a romance two years ago that was rejected by the anthology I'd originally targeted. This morning, while looking through my binder of anthology submission calls, I found one the story might fit if I could revise it a bit. The deadline for submission was listed as tomorrow.

I spent the morning adding 500 words to the story, submitted it, and promptly received an acceptance and a note that my story had squeezed in under the wire because the editor had actually closed the anthology earlier today.

Published 2x

My story "Relationships 101" appears in the November True Confessions and my story "Handprint Turkey" appears in the November True Story.

41

I received my 41st acceptance of the year this morning, this time for a Christmas-themed confession.

Number crunching

I have 1,025 short story sales, a number which surprised me when I totaled them today because I had not realized I'd passed the 1,000-sale mark.

The total does not represent 1,025 different short stories. Buried in the total, and too difficult for me to calculate based on the way I keep my records, are several reprint sales.

The total also does not represent 1,025 short story publications. Some of the stories are awaiting publication later this year and next, and a few were sales to magazines that ceased publication prior to publishing my story.

Even so, that's a hell of a lot of short stories.

Thirty-four

I finished and submitted my thirty-fourth story of the year this evening, a 4,800-word Christmas story I started writing July 29, while sitting in a restaurant during the final day of ArmadilloCon.

40

I received my 40th acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a bit of erotic crime fiction.

Reviewed

Subrei reviews "Late One Night at the Tourist Court" (Past Pleasures, Xcite) at Thoughts of a Growing Sub, and concludes

"Due to the one surprise during the first sex scene and the ending I would say this story is worth a read. It’s not great but it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read either."

Read the entire review here.

Published

My hardboiled mystery short story "Bumfuck, Egypt" appears in Crime Factory 11.

Download a PDF of the magazine here.

Thirty-three

I finished and submitted my thirty-third story of the year this afternoon, a 3,900-word Christmas-themed confession that I began writing August 2, 2011.

Reviewed

Midnight Boudoir reviewed Past Pleasures (Xcite, 2012) and said my contribution, "Late One Night at the Tourist Court," is

A brilliant post-war Bonnie and Clyde style storyline, on the run after a robbery, they stop for some celebrational sex, well written and brilliant plot and great twist to the ending.

39

I returned from a short trip out of town to discover that I'd received my 39th acceptance of the year while I was away. This one's for a 4,400-word confession.

Published

My story "Tips" has just been publish at Out of the Gutter's website:

http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2012/09/bareknuckles-pulp-no-9-tips.html

Hardbroiled shout-out

In "Murder on the Menu," Kevin Burton Smith gives a shout-out to Hardbroiled (Betancourt & Co., 2003), an anthology of private stories I edited in which food plays an important role.

38

I received my 38th acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a ghost story about coming to grips with the loss of a loved one that I wrote in 2003.

Published 2x

My story "Two Men with Chocolate" appears in the October True Confessions, and my story "The Pirate and the Bartender at Halloween" appears in the October True Story.

Reviewed

At Erzabet's Enchantments, Erzabet Bishop interviews Sedona Fox, a contributor to Cowboy Lust, and then follows the interview with a review of the anthology.

In the review she mentions five stories as her "absolute fav's," including my story, "Drought." Read the interview and review here.

37

I received my 37th acceptance of the year this evening, this time for the 1,500-word Thanksgiving-themed confession I submitted a couple of days ago.

36, published, and free

My erotic romance "Picture Perfect," about a widow and a younger man, has been reprinted in Cougar and Kitten, a five-story mini-anthology that's free for Kindle users today through the 21st. Learn more and get your copy here.

35

I received my 35th acceptance of the year yesterday, this time for a 2,500-word bit of crime fiction.

Published

My erotic crime fiction story, "Late One Night at the Tourist Court," about a mid-40s bank heist and what follows, appears in the just-published anthology Past Pleasures (Xcite Books), edited by Elizabeth Coldwell.

Thirty-Two

I finished and submitted my thirty-second short story of the year this evening. This one's a 1,500-word Thanksgiving-themed confession.

"Young Man's Game" reviewed

Fangtasia reviews Model Men, an anthology edited by Neil Plakcy, and my story "Young Man's Game" is one of a handful of stories singled out for special attention. Among other things, Fangtasia writes:

"...this one snagged my attention because of the romance, the luscious outdoor sex, and the older characters."

Read the entire review here.

Microchick reviewed

Kevin Tipple reviews Microchick, a collection of my previously published erotic science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories, and concludes:

"The tales in Microchick are good ones. All are complicated and frequently have multiple twists that encourage the reader to consider other possibilities. Microchick: Erotic Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror is another very good read from author Michael Bracken and only intended for adult readers."

Read the entire review at Kevin's Corner.

Microchick is only available in electronic formats, so look for it wherever eBooks are sold.

Writing a Strong Female Protagonist

Here's a photo and brief description of the "Writing a Strong Female Protagonist" panel at last weekend's ArmadilloCon in Austin. A careful examination will reveal that I'm the only male member of the panel.

Free mini-anthologies

My erotic crime story "Late One Night at the Tourist Court" appears in the mini-anthology Cherry Ripe (Xcite Books). The Kindle edition of Cherry Ripe will be free at Amazon August 4-8. Learn more here.

My erotic story "Boys of Summer" appears in the mini-anthology Stud Poker (Xcite Books). The Kindle edition of Stud Poker will be free at Amazon August 7-11. Learn more here.

33, 34

My 33rd and 34th acceptances of the year are reprints. This is turning out to be a good year for reprints.

"Lost Soul" reviewed

My short story "Lost Soul" is reviewed by Stephanotis at Long and Short Reviews. Stephanotis sums up with

"'Lost Soul' is a snappy, quick read for mystery lovers who are short on time. I’ll definitely be looking for more stories by the author." 

Read the entire review here. Purchase the story here.

Preview

My erotic romance "Drought" is scheduled to appear in Cowboy Lust, an anthology being released in August. Here, the editor shares a preview of my story: http://www.cowboylust.net/2012/07/31/snapshot-3-michael-brackens-drought/.

32

I received my 32nd acceptance of the year, this time for a 4,300-word confession.

Published 2x

My stories "The Little Black Dress" and "Forced to Choose: Work or Love" appear in the September True Story.

Published

My crime story about a kidnapping gone wrong, "Mac and Cheese Get Boxed," appears in Kept Against His Will II, edited by Christopher Pierce. The anthology was released in March but I just received my contributor copy.

I'm lean. Are you?

Is your writing flabby or fit? Don't know? Take The WritersDiet Test:

http://www.writersdiet.com/WT.php

I tested several of my stories (representing different genres) and all but one was rated "lean" overall. The only story that wasn't rated "lean" was an unedited partial first-draft typed directly into the text window, and it was rated "fit & trim" overall.

Weird video

I don't know why, but someone made a 12-second video of the cover of Bad Girls, one of my short story collections:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtiSExm2BGE

31

I received my 31st acceptance of the year a few minutes ago, this time for a Halloween-themed confession.

28, 29, 30

I just discovered that I had three stories reprinted last month, so they count as my 28th, 29th, and 30th acceptances of the year.

Siri knows me

Siri corrected me today when I was using the dictate function of my iPhone to send a text. (I know. It seems so convoluted to dictate a text to be sent via a phone. Why didn't I just call?)

I was telling someone I was a "horror writer." Siri changed it to "whore writer."

Sigh.

Siri knows me.

27

I received my 27th acceptance of the year this morning, this time for an erotic story about a middle-aged widow.

Published

My story "Chance Encounter" appears in the August issue of True Confessions, available on newsstands now.

Thirty-one

I finished and submitted my thirty-first short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 4,000-word confession I started writing October 22, 2007.

Thirty

I finished and submitted my thirtieth short story of the year a few minutes ago. This one's a 3,300-word Halloween confession I started writing December 22, 2007.

ApolloCon and 26

I spent this weekend at ApolloCon in Houston, where I served time on two panels with moderator Bill Crider and had twice had breakfast discussions with Bill and his lovely wife Judy outside the Con Suite.

Late Saturday evening I received my 26th acceptance of the year--a 2,600-word confession--surprising me because who expects a magazine editor to be working late on a Saturday?

Reviewed

Tam recently reviewed the anthology Stand By Your Man at Tam Reads, Writes & Rambles and had this to say about my private eye story "Stand By Your Man":

"I don't want to ruin the ending but I was surprised to say the least. It's a bit about manipulation and using your body to get what you want, which is something graduate student Jeremy is quite adept at."

And he had this to say about all of the stories in the anthology:

"They were all well-written little shorts."

Read the entire review here.

Sinks and faucets

Writing bears an interesting similarity to sinks and faucets.

Ideas flow from writers like water from a tap. Every so often, when we want to capture an idea and turn it into a story, we put a stopper in the sink to collect the words, sentences, and scenes that will fill the sink and complete the story.

Sometimes the creative tap is wide open and the story sink fills quickly. Sometimes the faucet merely drips and the sink does not fill for a long, long time. Often we have several faucets filling several sinks concurrently.

What I've come to realize is that it doesn't matter how quickly or how slowly each story sink fills. Often no one, not even the writer, will recognize which story sinks filled quickly and which filled slowly because each writer's sinks are filled from the same creative source.

So, stop up a few of your story sinks and start capturing the flow of your creativity.

History sends me spiraling into depression

A few days ago I picked up a copy of Damon Runyon's short story collection Take It Easy. Though first published in 1938, my find is a 1945 PocketBOOK wartime edition.

Last night, I started reading Take It Easy and wasn't depressed until the second paragraph of Robert van Gelder's introduction, titled "A Few Words About Runyon," where he notes that Runyon "gives two days each to the actual writing of these stories that you are about to read [...], but although he is paid for them at the rate of three dollars or more a word, this work is for him a part-time activity."

Holy Mother of God. Three dollars--or more!--per word. In the early 1930s.

At a mere three dollars per word, last year I would have earned more than half a million dollars from my short fiction.

I didn't even come close.

Sigh.

25 and published

I just learned that one of my erotica stories was reprinted, making it my 25th acceptance of the year.

24

I received my 24th acceptance of the year this morning, and there's a story behind this story.

I originally wrote it for the confession magazines, from whence it was returned because it was too "hot." I revised it by amping up the heat a little and sent it to the editor of a series of confession anthologies, where "confession" has a different meaning than it does at the magazines.

Yesterday, the anthology editor asked for a slight revision--amping up the heat even more in the, um, climactic scene--but she wanted to finalize the contents of her anthology today, so could I turn it around quickly?

I said I could, I did, and this morning I awoke to an email telling the revision was "perfect."

I live for those emails.

Awards & accolades

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction, a writing textbook to which I contributed, has received many awards and accolades since publication last year, including

Winner, "Business: Writing and Publishing" category, 2012 International Book Awards.

Winner, "Education/Academic" category, 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Winner, General Non-Fiction Award. 2011 London Books Festival Award.

Listed 5th in "This Year's Ten Most Terrific Writing Books" by The Writer magazine (Dec 2011).

Finalist, "Business: Writing and Publishing" category. USA Best Books 2011 Award.

Finalist. 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Awards.

Finalist, "Writing" category. ForeWord Review's 2011 Book of the Year Awards.

Health update

I had quadruple heart bypass surgery on Sept 10, 2008, and for the following few months I wrote about it, about my recovery process, and about the impact it had on my writing.

I haven't written much about my health since, but I thought I should provide an update. Today was my annual visit with my cardiologist, and the news is all good.

First, I've lost 15+ pounds since September 2008, most of it finally coming off this year. (This weekend I even bought new chinos a waist size smaller than I had been wearing.) My cardiologist wanted to know how I'd done it because, for the first time in his life, he's been advised to drop 15 pounds. So, I was giving my cardiologist dieting advice!*

Second, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are now within "normal" range, which means no changes to my current medication.

Third, and perhaps more importantly, my EKG was normal. The doc says my EKG was one of the best post-bypass EKGs he's ever seen.

So, life is good!
_____
*Here's how I've done it:

1) Improve the quality of my diet by including more fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and eliminating as many prepared canned and boxed foods. Reduce salt and fat intake. Eat more chicken and seafood and less beef. Also, eat more home cooking and less fast food.

2) Reduce the amount of food I consume. Instead of eating until I'm full, I now eat until I'm no longer hungry.

3) Fight my addictions. For example, I'm a Mountain Dew addict. Each time I've gone cold turkey, I've been back on the bottle within a few weeks. Now, I trick my taste buds. When I want a Dew, I take a big swallow of it and then switch immediately to water. I get that first rush of flavor from the swig of Dew but the water ultimately quenches my thirst.

4) Find an exercise I'll actually do because walking is boring. I've always enjoyed dancing, so I've taken some dance classes and have been dancing several times the past few months. (A dance partner and I even won a Twist contest!)

5) Be happy. Enjoy life. Don't stress over the little things.

23 and published

I received my 23rd acceptance of the year today. Sort of. One of my erotic stories was picked up for a "best of" collection published earlier this month, but I didn't know it until I discovered the book for sale on Amazon.

22

I received my 22nd acceptance of the year this morning, for a story submitted three times to the same publication.

The editor to whom I first submitted the story left the magazine shortly after I submitted it. The person checking her emails during the transition had no record of it, so I resubmitted the story. A few months later, after a new editor settled into place, I once again checked on the status of the story and the new editor had no record of it. So I resubmitted it.

Third time's the charm!

Reviewed

Kevin R. Tipple reviews Sex, Violence & Half a Million Dollars and concludes:

"While sexuality is clearly part of each story, the stories are primarily good crime stories and feature the traits that readers of crime fiction writer Michael Bracken know and love. This very adult collection isn’t for everyone, but if you are okay with adult themes and situations, this collection is a very good one."

Read the entire review at Kevin's Corner.

21

I received my 21st acceptance of the year this morning, for a bit of erotic crime fiction I submitted on June 22, 2011.

Nine-year stretch

Effective with publication of the July 2012 issue of True Confessions, which contains four of my stories, I've now had one or more short stories published each and every month for nine years--that's 108 consecutive months.

My short stories have been published in nearly every genre; in anthologies, magazines, and newsletters; electronically, in print, and in audiobooks; in several countries and in a couple of languages.

And I have contracts stretching a few months into the future, so there's a glimmer of hope that this incredible run will continue for a while longer.

Published 4x

My stories "Failure at 30?," "Sundays with Daddy," "Will Date for Food," and "Mama's Boy!" all appear in the July issue of True Confessions.

Twenty-nine

I finished and submitted my twenty-ninth short story of the year this evening. I started the story on January 13, 2002, and had written about two pages. It languished on my computer until a couple of days ago when I realized it was the perfect opening scene for an anthology with an open submissions call and a deadline only a few days away. I finished the story in two writing spurts, the first when I rediscovered what I had written and the balance today, when I alternated writing and various household chores. It's an erotic story about two police officers, and it's complete at 2,800 words.

When editors fail

I'm reading Map of Murder, an anthology published in 2007, and found this in one of the stories:

"[...] she pulled the phone plug out of the wall."

Three paragraphs later:

"She ran to the phone, dialed her father's phone number, but got a busy signal."

She shouldn't have gotten any kind of signal. The phone's not plugged in.

"Chalkers" on sale

Untreed Reads is offering several titles on sale this month, including my mystery short story "Chalkers."

When eleven men return to their college alma mater for homecoming forty years after graduation, do they dare reveal the long-held secret that binds them to one another?

Learn more here.