Write1Sub1 Week #52 Check-In

Today is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction/poetry output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

Definitely the final Write1Sub1 post of 2011. The Bradbury is mine for following the scheme! Looking forward to Write1Sub1 in 2012 ...


Written :

• Luminous Beings (haiku)
• Dog Days (flash)

Submitted :

• Luminous Beings (haiku)
• Dog Days (flash)

Accepted :

• Vapour Trails (Twitter) by 7x20
• Heart Condition (Twitter) by 7x20
• Lightning Rod (Twitter) by 7x20

Published :

• The Magister's Clock by Apollo's Lyre

Write1Sub1 Week #51 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

Couldn't keep away. Happy Christmas one and all!

Written :

• She Touches My Skin (haiku)
• Cold Aphelion (haiku)

Submitted :

• She Touches My Skin (haiku)
• Cold Aphelion (haiku)

Accepted :

• The Heart of a Much Younger Man (Twitter) by Nanoism
• Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere (Twitter) by One Forty Fiction
  

Published :

• The Heart of a Much Younger Man (Twitter) by Nanoism
• Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere (Twitter) by One Forty Fiction
• Cernunnos by Trapeze
• Rho-m10 by Trapeze

Advent Ghosts Short Story: While You Sleep

The I Saw Lightning Fall blog has a tradition of hosting 100-word spooky flash fiction stories on Chrismtas Eve: Advent Ghosts. I couldn't resist. Here's my own contribution ...

While You Sleep

    She would stay awake this year, she would. Every Christmas Eve she made the same vow. Every year sleep betrayed her. She would awake with a gasp to the glittering presents on her bed and the cold thought he’d been in her room, standing there while she slept.

    But she was ten now, no longer a child. If she stayed awake, he couldn’t come in. That was the rule. Everyone knew it. This was her room, where she felt safe. Every other night of the year.

She waited, trying to ignore the smothering weight of tiredness filling up her mind.




Thanks for dropping by and Merry Christmas!

Best Of The Net Nomination

Delighted to report that microstory Square on the Hypotenuse has been nominated for a Best of the Net award by Folded Word. A first for me! Not entirely sure what it means but I'm delighted anyway ...

Write1Sub1 Reloaded for 2012

As regular readers will be (painfully) aware I've been participating in (and co-organizing) Write1Sub1 this year: a commitment to write and submit a fresh story or poem each week of the year. It's been tough at times (holidays? Who needs them?) but I've managed to stick to it. In fact, counting up, I've come up with 192 pieces this year, ranging from haiku up to novelette-length fiction. A pretty good haul. At the lastest count, 91 of those have been accepted for publication in one market or another, a fair few in paying or even pro level magazines.

The scheme has been hugely successful for me and I'll certainly be sticking at it next year. The incentive to complete the course has been invaluable, but more important has been the sense of community with all the other writers struggling through all the same stuff I am. If you're a short story writer or a poet not already doing W1S1, why not drop by and take a look? Even if you don't want to commit, there are some wonderful interviews and inspirational posts.

I'm going to move from the weekly to the monthly level as I need to concentrate more on novel-length fiction next year, but otherwise it'll be the same deal. Twelve stories good enough for pro markets to want to publish. I can do that, can't I?

Write1Sub1 Week #50 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

It's the end of the road! For this year at least. Fifty weeks of short story/poetry writing and submitting succesfully negotiated.

Time for a lie down ...

Written :

• While You Sleep (flash)
• Pens (flash)
  

Submitted :

• Pens (flash)

Accepted :

• Fireworks (poem) by unFold
• Predators (poem) by unFold
• V2.0 (Twitter) by Trapeze
  

Published :

• Snow Angels (flash) by Bent Masses
• Human Statue (reprint) in 140 and Counting

Snow Angels Published by Bent Masses

Spookily Christmassy flash tale Snow Angels sees the light of day over on Bent Masses today.

Watch out for that snow ...

140 And Counting Published

140 and Counting is an anthology of Twitter length fiction published by Upper Rubber Boot books, the stories selected from those that have appeared in 7x20 magazine over the first two years of its existence.

It's a wonderfully eclectic collection of very short stories and poems. My own slight contribution - Human Statue - appeared in 7x20 back in May. It's great to see it in such good company.

The anthology is available on Amazon here.

Write1Sub1 Week #49 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

The penultimate week for me! I always planned to take the week leading up to Christmas off. Really, I did. Although, I might still write and submit something then, in which case this would be the antepenultimate week ...

Written :

• Earworms (short story)
• V2.0 (Twitter)
• Brave New World (Twitter)

Submitted :

• V2.0 (Twitter)
• Brave New World (Twitter)

Accepted :

• Snow Angels (flash) by Bent Masses
• Reprint : The Standing Stones of Erelong by Ether
• Reprint, non-W1S1 : The Good King by Ether

Published :

• Horoscope by Seedpod
• Reprint : The Standing Stones of Erelong by Ether
• Reprint, non-W1S1 : The Good King by Ether 

Anthology Update - Artwork Comments?

I haven't mentioned the short story anthologies I've been working on much of late. A brief recap : I've decided to collect together all the stuff I've had published over the past decade or so into four volumes :

• Spell Circles - fantasy

• Eccentric Orbits - SF

• Life Cycles - mainstream

• Perfect Circles - everything in one volume

I've just about finished editing and converting the first volume - Spell Circles - and I've started to think about art work. I want each volume to have a prominent circle of some sort to make it look like they vaguely belong together. Here's what I've come up with after about fifteen minutes of downloading and hacking :

 

What do you think?  Is it eye-catching? Does it say "exciting fantasy read" at all? Amateurish? Love to know what you think.

Write1Sub1 Week #48 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.


Written :

• The Zombies of Death (novelette)
• Judgement Day (Twitter)
• A Change of Sides (Twitter)
• Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere (Twitter)
• Rips Tearing the Sky (haiku)
• Brain Scanned (haiku)

Submitted :

• Judgement Day (Twitter)
• A Change of Sides (Twitter)
• Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere (Twitter)
• Rips Tearing the Sky (haiku)
• Brain Scanned (haiku)

Accepted :

• Brain Scanned (haiku) by Scifaikuest
• Horoscope (Twitter) by Seedpod
• Shining in the East (Twitter) by Seedpod

Published :

• Her Pale Smile (short story) by Electric Spec
• The Accusation (Twitter)  by Seedpod
• North Wind (Twitter)  by Seedpod
• Her First Day (Twitter)  by Seedpod
• Delivered (Twitter)  by Seedpod
• Can't Get The Parts (Twitter)  by Cuento
• Pregnancy Test (Twitter)  by Cuento
• (Non-W1S1) The Flying Incredulo (flash) by Apocrypha and Abstractions
• (Non-W1S1) The Good King (flash) reprinted by Mirror Dance

Let It Snow!

It's December, which means it's near enough Christmas, which means it's time for the return of the blog snow! If you're reading this via spellmaking.blogspot.com, you should be seeing it now ...

Ho, ho and, indeed, ho.

My thanks to Scott Schiller for the code that draws the snow. If you want it on your blog, too, just create one of them HTML/JavaScript gadgets for your sidebar or something and paste in this code :

<script src="http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/snowstorm.js" type="text/javascript">
snowStorm.snowColor = '#99ccff';
snowStorm.flakesMaxActive = 128;
snowStorm.useTwinkleEffect = true;
</script>

And that should do it. There are a few things you can tweak if you go and look at his original JavaScript. Enjoy!

Her Pale Smile Published by Electric Spec

Celebrations here at Spellmaking Towers as Her Pale Smile is published by Electric Spec.

This is another story that started life as a Twitter-length tale, then grew. The original piece was published in Trapeze back in 2010 as a runner-up in the magazine's Hallowe'en contest :

The worst of it was he’d had his heart-attack riding the ghost train. Now, however much he wailed and screamed, no-one took him seriously.

Her Pale Smile expands the story up to 2200 words or so, but it's the same basic idea, as you'll see from the opening :

If I’ve learned one thing in the two years I’ve been trapped in here, it’s this. Don’t ever die of a heart-attack riding a ghost train.

The story is a free read available here.