Published 4x

My story "Phony St. Patrick's Day" appears in the March True Story. My stories "Break Up to Make Up," "My Drunk Sister," and "Spring Job Fair" appear in the March True Confessions.

5, 6

I received my 5th and 6th acceptances of the year this afternoon, this time for a pair of confessions

Reviewed

Jochem Vandersteen reviewed Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea at his blog Sons of Spade. He wrote about my story "Mr. Private Eye Behind the Motel with a .38": "Michael Bracken served up a very noir little tale" and concluded by calling the entire project a "great anthology." Read the complete review here.

Five

I finished, but have not submitted, by fifth short story of the year. This one's a 6,400-word bit of crime fiction started January 19. Alas, I wrote it with no particular market in mind and don't yet know where I'll send it.

4

I received my 4th acceptance of the year this morning, this for a confession.

3

I received my 3rd acceptance of the year this morning, this time for a confession.

Published

My story "Mr. Private Eye Behind the Motel with a .38" appears in the just-released anthology Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea (Down & Out Books) edited by Andrew McAleer & Paul D. Marks. Order yours here.

Four

I finished and submitted my fourth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,700-word confession I started on the 17th.

Three

I finished and submitted my third short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 7,300-word P.I. story I started on January 10.

Published 2x

My private eye story "Twink" appears in Heater, Vol. 4, No. 12, and my short mystery "Dead Things" has been reprinted in Big Pulp Annual 2016.

2

I received my 2nd acceptance of the year, this time for a confession.

Two

I completed and submitted my second short story of the year this morning. This one's a 2,000-word confession I started September 1, 2016.

1

I received my 1st acceptance of the year this afternoon, this for a historical erotic romance.

Published 2x

My story "Mr. Right" appears in the February True Confessions, and my story "Romance Rejection" appears in the February True Story.

One

2017 is off to a slow start. I haven't sold anything all year!

On the other hand, I did just finish and submit my first short story of the year, a 5,000-word bit of crime fiction I started on December 25, 2016.

2016 in review

45 acceptances (vs. 41 in 2015).

35 rejections (vs. 32 in 2015).

40 original short stories published and two reprinted (vs. 37 in 2015), 4 articles/essays published (vs. 3 in 2015).

I completed 56 short stories (vs. 41 in 2015).

I completed (to final draft) 169,430 words of short fiction (vs. 153,000 in 2015).

That's an average story length of 3,026 words (vs. an average of 3,732); the shortest story was 300 words; the longest was 8,000 words.

I completed and submitted an average of 1.08 short stories each week (vs. an average of .79 each week in 2015).

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

Observations:

1) The increased number of completed stories and the decline in the average length of my stories is partially attributable to a mid-year attempt to crack Woman's World. I failed.

2) Woman's World and a few other publications do not send rejections. Non-responses are not included in the rejection count.

2017 Goals

I have three annual goals, and they remain the same as in previous years.

1) To complete and submit an average of at least one short story each week. This goal is completely within my control.

2) To receive an average of at least one acceptance each week. (Reprints and non-fiction pieces count for this goal.) This goal is under my control to the extent that I control how much I write and how much I submit. I do not, however, have any control over editorial tastes and requirements.

3) To continue to have one or more short stories published each and every month, as I have for several years now. This goal is under my control to the extent that I control how much I write, how much I submit, and how often I write seasonal stories (for example: Valentine's Day stories for February, Thanksgiving stories for November, etc.). I do not, however, have any control over editorial publishing schedules.

44, 45

2016 is ending strong. I received my 44th and 45th acceptances of the year this evening!

43

I received my 43rd acceptance of the year this afternoon. This one's for a 4,700-word bit of crime fiction.

42

I received my 42nd acceptance of the year this afternoon, this time for a 2,100-word confession.

Fifty-six

I completed and submitted my fifty-sixth short story of the year this morning. This one's a 5,200-word confession I began writing January 20, 2010.

Fifty-five

I completed and submitted my fifty-fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,400-word bit of crime fiction I started December 13.

Fifty-four

I completed and submitted my fifty-fourth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,100-word confession I started April 23, 2014.

Fifty-three

I completed and submitted my fifty-third short story of the year this evening. This one's a 3,400-word ghost story I started November 25.

Fifty-two

I completed and submitted by fifty-second short story of the year this morning. It's a 3,600-word confession I started November 9, 2015.

One of my goals each year is to write and submitt an average of one story each week. With this story, I've reached this year's goal...and I have a few weeks remaining and a few stories near completion. So, this year I might exceed my goal.

Published 2x

My story "Kicking Bad Habits" appears in the January 2017 True Confessions and my story "Surviving Cabin Fever" appears in the January 2017 True Story.

Fifty-one

I completed and submitted my fifty-first short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,000-word bit of crime fiction I started writing on November 25.

Fifty

I completed and submitted my fiftieth short story of the year this afternoon, a 2,700-word bit of crime fiction I started October 19.

41

I received my 41st acceptance of the year today, this time for a confession.

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.

Published

My story "An Unhealthy Death," which appears in this month's Mystery Weekly Magazine, was yesterday's free story of the week, emailed to everyone on the magazine's email list. If you'd like to receive a mystery every Tuesday, join their email list: http://mysteryweekly.com.

Forty-three

I finished and submitted my forty-third short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 5,300-word confession I started August 18.

Forty-two

I completed and submitted my forty-second short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 2,300-word Christmas story I started December 24, 2015.

31, 32

I received my 31st and 32nd acceptances this morning, this time for a pair of confessions.

Forty-one

I finished and submitted my forty-first short story of the year this evening. This one's a 1,000-word horror story that I started yesterday.

With this story, I have now completed as many stories as I wrote all of last year and one more than I wrote in 2013. On the flip side, my word count is lower than either of those years because I wrote a handful of short romances earlier this year intended for a high-paying woman's magazine. (I'm still waiting to see if that effort paid off.)

Published

My story "Dead Things" appears in issue 3 of M.

Collecting rejections

One of my favorite blogs is Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy. Aeryn is a novelist and short story writer who previously worked as publications manager for Privateer Press, so he has experience on both sides of the editorial desk. He suggests that "[t]he skill of rejectomancy is largely derived from understanding what rejection, in its various forms, actually means, because it’s not all bad. Rejection is a chance to grow, to develop your craft, and to acquire the thick skin you absolutely need if you want to make writing your career."

When I stumbled upon Aeryn's blog several months ago, the first post I read intrigued me so much that I scrolled back to the beginning and read every post. I still read every post and sometimes add my two cents in the comments section.

In the comments section of his August 1 post titled "July 2016 Submission Statement," Jessica Snell mentioned Laura Maylene Walter's Kenyon Review blog post "Doubling the Rejection Goal: How I Received 215 Rejections in 2015," which was a commentary on Kim Liao's post at Literary Hub "Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections This Year," and I found myself shaking my head in bewilderment. Why would anyone seek 215 rejections in a year?

The gist of the argument, followed back through the various blog posts, is that anyone receiving that many rejections must surely receive a few acceptances as well. Proving the theory has some validity, Laura received 12 acceptances in 2015.

215 rejections. 12 acceptances.

Those kind of numbers make me shake my head in bewilderment. If my acceptance to rejection rate was that low, I might just cut off my fingers and stop writing.

In 2015, I received 32 rejections and 42 acceptances.

I don't collect rejections. I collect acceptances.

Rejections are the temporary barriers I must overcome in order to reach my goal. Much like Aeryn, I use rejections to help me grow as a writer, whether it means improving my craft or learning to better target my submissions.

But even though Laura's approach is the antithesis of mine, the conclusion she draws is very much one I learned long ago: "Submit again, submit again, submit again." If you never risk rejection, you will never receive acceptance.

Forty

I completed by fortieth short story of the year this morning, a 3,600-word bit of crime fiction. I have not yet submitted it because the publication I think it might best fit is not currently open for submissions.

Published 3x

My story "Teacher with a Bad Rep" appears in the September True Story, and my stories "A Cheater Brought Us Together" and "The Way to a Heart" appear in the September True Confessions.

External motivation

While participating in a panel discussion at this past weekend's ArmadilloCon in Austin, Texas, I had an epiphany about the role of external motivation.

Matt Cardin, Carrie Clevenger, Amanda Downum, Kirk Lynn, Ari Marmell, Jessica Reisman, and I were discussing "How to Deal with Writer's Block." Having never experienced writer's block, I, of course, claimed it didn't exist. The other panelists begged to differ.

My co-panelists are primarily long-form writers (novelists, non-fiction books, etc.), while I am primarily a short-form writer (short stories, articles, etc.), and our discussion of ways to overcome those periods when one does not feel motivated to put words on paper (regardless which term one uses to identify those moments) included a discussion of internal and external motivation.

Long-form writers require, and struggle with, internal motivation to drive them through the long slog of producing several hundred pages of publishable prose. The paucity of external motivation drives them to seek it from spouses, critique groups, beta readers, and others.

I realized that I don't struggle with internal motivation in part because, as a short-form writer, I am deluged with external motivation. For example, in the week leading up to ArmadilloCon, I received contracts for three short stories, responded to an editor's request for a bio to accompany a story in an upcoming anthology, received an update from another anthology editor, received payments for two short stories, and received royalty reports regarding contributions to four already published anthologies. (And, yes, my spouse also provided external motivation by asking when I'll finish another story for her to read.)

All of this activity represents a fairly typical week. In short, I receive external motivation on a frequent and on-going basis, so I rarely rely on internal motivation to drive myself to the keyboard.

This may explain why I concentrate on short-form writing. Early in my writing career I wrote a few novels (all of which were published), but short fiction provided greater and more frequent external motivation. That external motivation contributed to a feedback loop. The more I wrote, the more external motivation I received. The more external motivation I received, the more I wrote.

Would I experience "writer's block" were it not for this deluge of external motivation?

I don't know, and I hope I never have to find out.

28, 29, 30

I received my 28th acceptance of the year on the 24th, and received my 29th and 30th acceptances of the year on the 29th.

Thirty-nine

I completed and submitted my thirty-ninth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,800-word bit of crime I fiction I began writing on the 10th of this month.

Published

My story "Concerto for Cellist and Maestro" appears in the just-released anthology Sex Objects, edited by Delilah Devlin.

Interviewed

'Nathan Burgoine interviewed me about my contribution to Men in Love, an anthology of romance stories edited by Jerry L. Wheeler. Read the interview here.

27

I received my 27th acceptance of the year this evening. This one's for a 3,900-word mystery.

Thirty-eight

I finished and submitted my thirty-eighth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,600-word confession I began writing July 17, 2013.

Thirty-seven

I finished and submitted my thirty-seventh short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,300-word confession I began writing August 16, 2012.

Published 3x

My story "Summer in the City" appears in the August True Story. My stories "Bar Babe Survives Shootout" and "Last Dance" appear in the August True Confessions.

26

I received my 26th acceptance of the year this afternoon. This one's for a 2,700-word confession.

Thirty-six

I completed and submitted my thirty-sixth short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 4,300-word confession I began writing on August 11, 2004.

Thirty-five

I completed and submitted my thirty-fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,600-word confession I began writing  October 7, 2015.

Thirty-four

I completed and submitted my thirty-fourth story of the year this evening. This one's a 2,500-word confession I started writing on December 17, 2003.

Thirty-three

I finished and submitted my thirty-third short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 5,100-word bit of crime fiction I started on June 14.

25

I received my 25th acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a confession.

24

I received my 24th acceptance of the year this morning, this time for a confession.

Thirty-two

I completed and submitted my thirty-second short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 4,000-word confession I began writing December 29, 2014.

Thirty-one

I finished and submitted my thirty-first short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 3,400-word bit of crime fiction I began writing on July 10, 2014.

Thirty

I completed and submitted my thirtieth short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 4,000-word bit of crime fiction I started writing on May 21, 2015.

Twenty-nine

I completed and submitted my twenty-ninth short story of the year this evening. This one's an 800-word romance I began May 29.

23

I received my 23rd acceptance of the year this morning. This one's for a confession.

Twenty-eight

I completed and submitted my twenty-eighth story of the year this morning. This one's a 4,200-word confession I started June 20, 2013.

13 years and counting

Effective with the just-released July issues of True Confessions and True Story magazines, I have now had one or more short stories published each and every month for 156 consecutive months. That's 13 years.

Published 3x

My story "Summer School Sketches" appears in the July True Story and my stories "An Affair with My Sister's Fiance" and "New Love Caused by Divorce" appear in the July True Confessions.

Twenty-seven

I completed and submitted my twenty-seventh short story of the year this afternoon. This one's an 800-word romance I started May 17.

22

I received my 22nd acceptance of the year this evening, this time for a mystery.

Reviewed

At Little Big Crimes, Robert Lopresti reviews "Sugar" (published in Crime Syndicate, issue 2) and calls it a "terrific" story. Read the entire review here: http://lbcrimes.blogspot.com/2016/05/sugar-by-michael-bracken.html?spref=fb.

The Short Mystery Fiction Society at 20

In 2016, the Short Mystery Fiction Society turns 20. Long-time members and past officers have been invited to share their memories about the organization on the SMFS blog. Go here to read what I had to say: http://shortmystery.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-society-celebrates-20-years-michael.html.

21

I received my 21st acceptance of the year this morning. This one's for a confession.

20

I woke up to my 20th acceptance of the year. This one's for a confession.

19

I received my 19th acceptance of the year this afternoon. This is to reprint a story first published in 2010.

Published

My country noir story "Deep in the Heart of Texas" appears in the just-published anthology Black Coffee (Darkhouse Books, edited by Andrew MacRae).

18, Published

My recipe and 18th acceptance of the year, "Michael's Asparagus," appears in the May/June issue of Texas Gardener.

Twenty-six

I finished and submitted my twenty-sixth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,600-word confession I began on January 27, 2012.

Twenty-five

I completed and submitted my twenty-fifth short story of the year this morning. This one's an 800-word romance I started on May 12.

Twenty-four

I completed and submitted my twenty-fourth short story of the year this evening. This one's an 800-word romance I began writing yesterday.

Twenty-three

I completed and submitted my twenty-third short story of the year this evening. This one's a 3,900-word bit of crime fiction that I started April 23.

Reviewed

Robert Lopresti reviewed my story "Chase Your Dreams" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, June 2016) for his blog Little Big Crimes, calling it a "very touching story." Read the complete review here.

Writer's Block

What writer's block looks like in the movies: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/05/06/writer_s_block_a_supercut_assembles_the_shining_misery_and_more_to_perfectly.html

Twenty-two

I wrote my twenty-second story of the year today, a 300-word bit of flash fiction. The publication to which I wish to submit the story doesn't reopen for submission until July 1, so I might just sit on it until then.

Published: "Chase Your Dreams"

My story "Chase Your Dreams" appears in the June issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

Twenty-one

I finished and submitted my twenty-first short story this morning, an 800-word romance I started yesterday morning.

Published 4x

My story "Sugar" appears in issue 2 of Crime Syndicate Magazine; my story "My Daddy is a Failure!" appears in the June True Confessions; and my stories "Values in Hard Work" and "Wags and Kisses" appear in the June True Story.