June 26, 2011 in General Topics
Doing some math today with my fiction, I discovered I’ve written over fifty short stories since starting writing seriously back in my twenties. That is quite awesome. And a little bit obsessive.
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December 28, 2008 in General Topics
And a happy new year. Remember when I said fantasy and I were getting along better these days?
Trot on over at a merry gait to The Drabblecast and listen to “On Dasher”, which I tried my level best to make the strangest Christmas tale you’ve ever heard.
I want to thank the guys at Drabblecast, especially Norm Sherman, who pushed through a dead computer and clean reload on new hardware to get this piece live.
Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year. I’ll be back here for the 2008 wrap-up in a few days.
Stay tuned.
December 11, 2008 in General Topics
Fantasy and I don’t get along well. I’ve had some success with science fiction, particularly the dark stuff, to the point that you could almost say I’m two-timing behind science fiction’s back with horror. Horror’s been good to me, too.
But Fantasy, she’s used that “I have to wash my hair” excuse more times than I can count.
What I refer to is the uphill struggle to garner any of my fantasy pieces a place in a like-minded publication. Sure, the feedback in those rejections is sometimes great — I’ve got one tale in particular that has been given pretty solid feedback just about everywhere it’s gone — but it always seems like my fantasy pieces are just shy of making it into some genre mag’s pages. I swear I’ve heard just about everything imaginable to explain why a fantasy piece of mine an editor otherwise apparently loved (based on what they’re telling me) didn’t make the cut. I’ve even one in the trunk right now that was shortlisted before being turned down.
In all these years being a serious genre fiction writer, I’ve exactly one fantasy work published, “One Night at Ollie’s Stump”, still waiting for you to listen over at Sniplits.com.
Well, the drought is over. I have planted seed in the bitter soil of the fantasy magazine markets and I’ll be damned if I’m not looking at a green sprout coming up. I can’t tell you yet what’s coming — it’s a surprise — but I’ll give you a hint: never in a billion years would you have guessed the combination of characters you’ll see in this piece.
Stay tuned.
April 24, 2008 in General Topics
This post will be a double announcement, since I lost some material in a site crash/restore I went through yesterday. I apologize to any of you that came here and found a dead site over the last day or two — I was none the wiser until I logged in last night (ironically to make this same announcement).
So, I emerge from the dead with some good news. Sniplits.com, a start-up a la carte audio publication, has published “One Night at Ollie’s Stump”, a fantasy humor piece. This particular morsel, exclusive only to Sniplits.com, takes place almost entirely within a pub in the middle of a sleepy little town. Well, until a wizard screws things up. How’s that for a 180 to what I normally do? I humbly encourage those of you who have found
my modest fiction enjoyable over the past year to consider purchasing this bang-up tale weighing at 28 minutes, 52 seconds for the bargain-basement price of $.88. Please note, you can listen to a sample of the piece. It’s professionally produced and narrated.
Anne Stussey, editor of Sniplits.com, has as a novel approach to audio fiction, offering stories of a few up to over forty-five minutes in length, neatly laid-out, and organized in an easy-to-use, pseudo-iTunes interface. I’m digging it. I’m also digging the fact that I’ll nail some royalty money if enough people buy my work, and will continue receiving said royalties over time as this and other work goes live. If you enjoy my fiction and want to bite off a tasty chunk, consider tossing some change my way. I think you’ll be pleased with your purchase, and I would deeply appreciate it, both in terms of helping me out and helping a new market get off the ground.
That’s not to say you can look forward to a drought of freebies any time soon. Since the crash killed it, let me re-post my announcement that “Tex’s Last Run” went live on Variant Frequencies earlier this month. I’ve received some really great feedback from this, and as always Rick Stringer did an excellent job producing and narrating it.
Couple that with some excellent readings by fellow writers Anne Stringer and P.G. Holyfield, and I think you’ll enjoy it, if you haven’t already. As always, drop me feedback either way, or–even better–let Rick know what you think by leaving some comments on the story over on the VF site itself. It is dully appreciated.
Once again, let me thank all of you out there that have taken the time over this past year to give my fiction a chance. Whether you enjoyed it or not, it has been my sincere pleasure to bring it to you, and make so many good friends in the community.
Stay tuned.
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