Published: "Danny"

My story "Danny" appears in the just-published anthology Shotgun Honey Presents: Locked and Loaded (Both Barrels) (Volume 3). Learn more here.

Nine

I completed and submitted my ninth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,600-word confession I started March 1, 2011.

Free Today

In celebration of Earth Day, Fifty Shades of Green, an anthology of erotic gardening stories that contains my story "Seed," is free for Kindle. Get it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Green-Rebekah/dp/B00MLEFNLY/ref=sr_1_3_twi_2_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1429622078&sr=8-3&keywords=fifty+shades+of+green

Eight

I completed and submitted my eighth short story of the year this afternoon. This one's a 4,800-word confession I started writing March 26, 2010.

10, 11

My 10th and 11th acceptances of the year were sitting in my inbox when I awoke this morning.

9

I received my 9th acceptance of the year this afternoon.

Seven

I just finished and submitted my seventh short story of the year, a 2,900-word confession I started writing August 16, 2012.

Six

Earlier this evening I finished and submitted a 5,400-word confession I started writing April 5, 2013.

A matter of style

Crime fiction, historical fiction, and other fiction that has characters reading newspaper articles as part of the story's plot run a high risk of making stylistic errors that can bounce a knowledgeable reader out of the story, much like a affixing a silencer to a revolver bounces out readers familiar with firearms.

Newspaper articles are typically written to conform to the dictates of the Associated Press Stylebook. Therefore, the author and the copyeditor should put down their copy of The Chicago Manual of Style when writing and editing sections of a story purported to be newspaper articles.

For example, a novel I am currently reading quotes a fictitious newspaper article from 2004 using the phrase "near Conroe, TX," immediately signaling to an astute reader that no real newspaper article is being quoted.

Texas is one of eight state names never abbreviated in a newspaper article, and no properly written newspaper article uses the two-letter USPS state postal code to refer to a state unless it is part of a complete mailing address that includes a ZIP code.

A writer who has never been a journalist might not know this, but no good copyeditor should be excused for allowing this error to pass into print. A good copyeditor knows which stylebook to follow and when.

-1

I had a story unaccepted today when a publisher cancelled a line of books, so now I'm back to only 8 acceptances for the year.

Published 2x

My story "Alone on Mother's Day" appears in the May True Confessions, and my story "Can Mom Remember?" appears in the May True Story.

Reviewed: "Quarryville, Texas"

Jochem Vandersteen at Sons of Spade reviewed The Private Eye Writers of America Presents: 50 Shades of Grey Fedora. Though my story--"Quarryville, Texas"--wasn't mentioned by title, it was mentioned:

"Some tales are a bit raunchier than others, Bracken's probably the more hardcore one. If you don't like that kind of stuff, don't worry, it is at the beginning but not indicative to the rest."

Read the entire review here.

8, 9

I received my 8th and 9th acceptances of the year this evening.

One of six

Glynis Scrivens asked six writers which writing how-to books they thought most influenced their short story writing, and she included their responses in "The Best Books for short stories," published in Writers' Forum #162.

I discussed How to Write and Sell Confessions by Susan C. Feldhake and Confession Writers' Handbook by Florence K. Palmer and Marguerite McClain. Without the jumpstart these two books gave me, I might never have become a confession writer.

7

I received my 7th acceptance of the year this morning, this time for a reprint written by one of my pseudonyms.

Published: "Beneath Still Waters"

My short mystery "Beneath Still Waters" appears in the just-published anthology And All Our Yesterdays (Darkhouse Books).

Learn more at Amazon.

Published

My story "Flyboy" appears in the recently released anthology Best Gay Romance 2015 (Cleis Press).

Published

My story "My Lover or My Husband" appears in the April True Story.

Published 3x

My stories "Cum Bumps," "Backdoorman," and "A Cock & Bull Story" appear in The Mammoth Book of Uniform Erotica (Robinson/Running Press). The the official release date apparently is next month, my copies arrived today.

Five

I finished and submitted my fifth short story of the year this evening. This one's a 4,900-word confession I started writing January 13, 2002.