So now that the dust is settling from getting a house, I’m getting back into the swing of things on the writing front. The novel outline is slowly nearing conclusion, I’ve still a story in final consideration at a pro market (trying not to jinx it), and I’ve still an absolute mess of stories out there. So all is well.

Stay on the lookout for more fiction of mine appearing in both print and audio form; as always I’ll keep you posted here.
Funny enough — it looks like I’ll have tales out for at least Christmas and Halloween. Maybe I should have been in holiday decoration sales.

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The Vital Burden on Fiction Podcasters

I’ve followed with interest some of the recent news and internet chatter relevant to podcast fiction, of which I suppose I’m a pseudo-party of at this point, thanks to my fiction being in two podcast fiction outlets — Variant Frequencies and The Drabblecast.

I hesitate to say anything about some of my concerns with the podcast fiction community, because 9 out of 10 of the folks in it are good people, but for all the trail-blazing these brave individuals are doing, I have seen some things that make my skin crawl as far as personal behavior goes.

All I have to say is this: Please be professional. That means everywhere, to everybody, especially if they tell you your fiction is garbage, especially if they say something you don’t like. It’s customer service, and it stings, but you’re a salesman, first and foremost, and you’re building your customer service image. One of the things that has stunned me about the fiction community is people that are aggressive seemingly for the sake of being so. This baffles me. I wouldn’t buy many widgets from a widget factory that told me to kiss off when I commented on the color of one of their latest products. I see such behavior as nothing but counterproductive.

For those of you out front, being groundbreaking, especially in new media: I thank you deeply for helping our humble fiction abode with a nice shot in the arm. All of us waiting in the wings owe you a lot. But please, always represent well our bastard children called science fiction, fantasy, and horror. There are reasons the industry doesn’t take us as seriously as they could, and we’re the ones whose shoulders it falls on to improve said perceptions.

Stay tuned.