Slieau Whallian Published, Bones Are Rising To The Surface Accepted

Fantasy short story Slieau Whallian is published over at Electric Spec today. 'Tis here if you fancy a read. It has witches in it. I seem to like witches. I don't know why.

Ginny Kerruish watched the men roll the herring barrel up the hillside. Her big brother Calum and three others, grunting and straining against its weight. Calum scowled at her but didn't speak, his face red from the effort. The barrel was empty, of course, but heavy with all the extra ironwork hammered into it. Down at the foot of the hill, earlier that day, Ginny and the other children had peered inside to see the nest of spikes there, like a great mouth full of uneven teeth. The sight of it, the reek of fish, had made her stomach lurch. (Read on ...)

Oh, and I've also just learned Dark Fiction magazine are going to reprint (dark) fantasy story Bones Are Rising To The Surface. So February is ending on a definite high here at Spellmaking Towers.

Please Prove You're Not A Robot

It always surprises me how many bloggers leave their comment word verification setting to "on". Those words you have to type in to prove you're not a robot or a spammer (or a spamming robot) have always been annoying. But Blogger's latest attempt at this - the two word one - is just plain hideous.

Sometimes it take me two or three attempts. Sometimes, I confess, I give up. How many others do I wonder? How many comments never get through?

So, just a humble request. If you use Blogger and you've left this on, please, please consider turning it off. I turned mine off ages ago and haven't been flooded with spam. You can always turn it back on if it doesn't work out ...

Write1Sub1 February Check-In

It's Write1Sub1 check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction and poetry output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

A good month, despite a couple of migraines robbing me of several days' work.

Written

• The Tale of the Dog (SF, short story)
• The Genehunter #3: The Clone Who Didn't Know (SF, novelette)

 Submitted

• The Tale of the Dog (SF, short story)

Accepted

• wolF emiT (flash, SF, 2011, $)  by Every Day Fiction
• Slieau Whallian (short story, Fantasy, 2011, $) by Electric Spec
• The Summoning Words (drabble, Fantasy, 2011, $) by the Sam's Dot Drabble Contest
• A Mote in the Void (short story, Lovecraftian, 2011, $) by Lovecraft eZine
• Repeats (Twitter, 2011) by One Forty Fiction

Published

• wolF emiT (flash, SF, 2011, $)  by Every Day Fiction
• Slieau Whallian (short story, Fantasy, 2011, $) by Electric Spec - coming soon
• Fireworks (poem, 2011, $) by unFold
• Predators (poem, 2011, $) by unFold
• Lightning Rod (Twitter, 2011) by 7x20
• Vapour Trails (Twitter, 2011) by 7x20
• The Summoning (Twitter, 2011) by Trapeze
• The Second Apocalypse (Twitter, 2011) by Trapeze
• Repeats (Twitter, 2011) by One Forty Fiction

wolF emiT Published At Every Day Fiction

wolF emiT has just been published over at Every Day Fiction, should you fancy a read. This is an SF flash story that grew out of a Twitter-length piece originally published by Trapeze.

Some interesting discussion among commentors on the story (oh how I love and hate that!) about whether the opening line gives the whole story away:

It was kissing Magda that made Sam destroy the universe.

The truth is, it does, and I knew it when I wrote it. It was just too darn cool an opening line to cut out. Is that wrong?

Oh, and speaking of Trapeze, I've a little story published over there, too, today. The Second Apocalypse is here.

Micro Poetry Published

I've a couple of Twitter-length poems appearing over at unFold this week. The first one, Fireworks, is up now should you fancy a quick read. I wrote it last bonfire night, as you might have guessed from the name.

The second, Predators, will be appearing on Friday. This one is more epic in scale so is going to be split over two tweets ...

Lovecraft

Just heard that my first stab at a Lovecraftian tale - a short story called A Mote in the Void - has been bought by the Lovecraft eZine.

I don't know, you wait ages for an acceptance and then three come along at once ...

Of Witches and Deathbeds

There's a hill on the Isle of Man (where I hail from, as regular readers will know) called Slieau Whallian. Folk legend has it that they used to put suspected witches - women and men - into spiked barrels at the top of this hill to see if they survived being rolled down. If they did the unfortunate victims must be witches and were killed. I'm sure you get the twisted logic.

Whether any of this actually happened, I don't know. I do know it's a very peaceful and lovely hill now. And I also know the tale is a good setting for a fantasy story. One in which things don't quite go to plan for those meting out this "justice". Having written such a story, I'm delighted to report that Electric Spec have bought it for their February edition. The story is called, unsurprisingly enough, Slieau Whallian.


Also, my entry into the 20th Sam's Dot Drabble Contest (Deathbed Confessions) - a fantasy piece called The Summoning Words - has been accepted and should be appearing there later this month.




Image: Slieau Whallian © Copyright Jon Wornham.

wolF emiT Bought By Every Day Fiction

wolF emiT is a flash SF piece that grew out of a Twitter length story. Yes, another one of those. Delighted to report that Every Day Fiction have accepted it for publication this month or next month.

As ever, the magazine have provided some invaluable feedback. In fact, their editorial input is nearly as long as the story itself. I don't know how they are able to do that, but it's fantastic they do.