Hey Writers. Yeah, YOU.

So I'm thinking about starting a publication...

I've always been a "pay it forward" guy. As a writer, where would I be without publications to which I submit my work? Where would I be without awesome editors who took the time to glance at my stuff, sometimes read it, and in some rare instances publish that work?

With all this in mind, I'm considering another publication. This is all groundwork and nothing is chiseled into a Lovecraftian stone monolith at the bottom of the ocean. If you have a few moments, please take my survey and feel free to share it with other writers. 

Publish This! (a survey for writers)

I'll collect surveys for the next month and share the results on the other side. Rumor has it flying monkeys might bring you a cookie.

WIP Wednesday: I Have Conquered #10bythen

I like challenges, and I usually attack them with vigor. #10bythen has been good to me this month...in fact, I just shipped off submission eleven. Granted, it was an old story which sat unloved in an editor's inbox for nearly two years before I pulled it...

In the past month, I've made submissions to The Zombie Feed, Clarkesworld, Fantasy, Gloom Cupboard (a poem!), Whidbey Writers Workshop Students' Choice Award, Pedestal Magazine, Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Scape, Trembles (another resurrected story), and Ghostology. I have three pieces of flash ready for editing, including a rather chilling (at least I think so), story inspired by Jeff VanderMeer's brilliant short, "The General Who is Dead", and bog mummies. I have two more short stories, about 3K each, which need editing, too. One is destined for submission to Kevin J. Anderson (Blood Lite 3), but I won't hold my breath that lightning will strike twice. The other is weird and haunting, but not horrific. Literary markets, here comes "The Emperor of Empty Spaces".

And, for the record, all of the markets to which I've subbed this month pay, at least a token sum. I don't like to make official decisions, but it looks like I've but my fiction where my thoughts are.

Thanks to Mercedes and all the #10bythen crew. I needed a kick in the pants, and October has been an awesome run of writing (so far). With five stories waiting in line, time to hit the edits, eh?

Howdy, Ranch Hands

I just polished and submitted the longest short work I've penned to date: "Ranching the Sleore" (a "novelette" of about 8,400 words). Let's just say it involves various bodily violations.

It is probably the foulest story I've written.

I felt physically uncomfortable putting some of those words on paper.

There are only a handful of markets for such a thing.

What the f$#&! was I thinking?

(but "novelette" is a cute word, huh?)