Yes, I’m taking a week off, and it’s badly needed. Work has been fairly stressful lately, so it’ll be nice to get away from the grind for a while.

Vacations have been interesting events for me as far as writing in goes. In each of the past two vacations I took, I came back to find acceptances in my inbox. I’m hoping lightning strikes thrice and I can snag another one over this trip.

Tonight I finished a three-thousand story I hope will be uplifting and optimistic — and I’m completely ambivalent about it. I don’t know if I’ve done the idea justice or disservice. Basically, the entire tale is dialog. I think I’ll kick a copy to my long-time confidant of a first reader, Michael Anthony, he of recent Pseudopod notoriety, and see what he says.

Something came up lately: my byline. I’ve been thinking about dropping the “C.”. I’ve had mixed success using it. A few markets have credited me as “Jonathan Gillespie”, which shows up on google as quite a few people, which gets back to why I added the C (my middle name is Clinton, after my dad, and not the disgrace to this country), which is increasingly making me feel like an ass when I ask markets to add it back in to their listings.

So what do you think? Why not drop me your opinions below, and when I get back in town next week, I’ll respond.

Next week I turn 29. Seems like just yesterday I was 21, and interested in taking a casual stab at that writing thing I’d been meaning to try.

Right now, head on over to The Drabblecast and check out Norm Sherman and co’s fine treatment of “Old Clara’s Favorites”, a horror piece originally featured here in my “free fiction” section.

I think you’ll enjoy the extended edition I put together just for the folks over at the Drabblecast, but beyond that, I encourage you to subscribe, if you haven’t already.

This has been a good year for me in audio: four stories have made the jump, and counting.

I’m in good company, too. D.K. Thompson’s excellent “Saint Darwin’s Spirituals” recently ran over on Variant Frequencies, and after a listen, I can give it my official endorsement. This is an eerie tale with an interesting take on the supernatural.

Much love to D.K., and all of you listeners at either podcast whom might have wondered in this direction.

I’ve sold the non-exclusive audio rights to “Old Clara’s Favorites”, a little horror piece of mine, to “The Drabblecast”. Although this is the same tale that you can find under my free fiction section, the version they’ll be running is expanded to add a few more bits of detail. Oh, and it’s edited better. Keep in mind, I wrote the original version of this tale completely stream-of-conscious last Halloween, so I cleaned it up a bit for these guys.

I’m thrilled to know I’ll have work go live on Norm Sherman’s neck of the woods. I’ve been listening to this podcast for a while now, and I personally think his episodes are consistently top-notch; the style and length thereof more to my liking than some of the other big players in this segment of the speculative fiction universe.

I highly suggest you drop by and subscribe, if you haven’t already.

I’ll be posting an announcement here, as always, when the tale goes live.

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In other news, I see D.K.Thompson has a new tale up with my friends over at Variant Frequencies. Kick ass. Although I haven’t had the chance to listen to it yet, the premise sounds wonderful, and I’ll post my honest thoughts and feedback once I’ve given it the once over.

Congrats, DKT.

Stay tuned.

I’d like to highly recommend you checking out Michael Anthony’s piece, “The Guardian”, currently live over on Pseudopod. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Michael’s writing efforts take off roughly in-step with my own, so it’s always inspiring to see him get his due, but beyond that, this is a damn good story.

Mike ramps the tension nicely in this one and fleshes out a stark and terrifying setting, all told from the viewpoint of one courageous young girl.

Good stuff!