Is half a psychopomp better than no psychopomp?

I really don't know whether this tale is heroic, pathetic, or ironic.
I've just had my story Charabanc accepted for Parsec Ink's next Triangulation anthology, theme: Hospitium, the Greco-Roman concept of hospitality, where both the guest and host have an obligation to treat the other with kindness and respect. Bring out the bunting. Hurrah for me. Etc., etc.

That's the heroic bit over.

Charabanc started off as a story about Black Shuck, then turned into an updating off the old legend of the phantom coach, updating the coach-and-four itself to a 1952 Foden PVD6, with Black Shuck sleeping on a seat behind the driver. In it, the bus drives on across the moor, into the storm, forever, with each passenger picked up becoming the next driver. They are, quite literally, psychopomps, guiders of souls to the afterlife. The story covered one soul, from flagging down the bus to finding himself in the driving seat, driving into the endless night...

The acceptance only came after the editors reached out to me to say they were minded to offer it a place in the collection, but only if they could cut the entire second half of the story - the part with the passenger from the first half now the driver.

I've accepted many editorial changes across the eighty-odd stories I've sold, from rewrites changing the point of view to new titles requested by the editor. But this was quite a fundamental change to the story itself - so was it pathetic to agree? Have I lost my principles? Sold out?!

I don't think so. Except, maybe, to the selling out bit, if you mean by that not being totally deaf to what your readers and buyers, editors and publishers, want. Fine if you want to be an artist with a capital A, just publish your own work in your own way, and don't trouble the market. Collaboration remains a dirty word. 

And it's not like I need the money, all $30 or so this sale will bring. Why not hold out to broadcast my 'vision' uncompromised by the venal views of Big Publishing?  Because selling short fiction is a lot like fishing; it's the challenge of throwing out the bait and seeing what bites. One day I'll land a Clarkesworld, Asimov's, or Lightspeed. But not today, and not with this story. Better to be happy with a semi-pro bite, even if it comes with conditions, than to wait at the water's edge forever.

Better half a psychopomp in the hand, than one in the bush and all that. 

And the ironic? Well, having been a c.1000-word story for most of its life, and having racked up forty-odd rejections at various nearness of miss, I rewrote it to 2000 words to give it a bit more heft. Ditching the second half, of course brought it crashing back to 1000 words, which was what was needed to get it over the line. Apparently.

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Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.

Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.

  

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.
“Brilliant stories, well written!” (five stars, Amazon).

TexArcana

Released on 17th June by Lunarian Press, TexArcana, an anthology of Texas-set fantasy stories, includes 'Death of a Medicine Man', a reprint of one of my first published stories, from 2012, in the short-lived, long-forgotten, and almost unobtainable magazine Crimson Fog. Nice to know it's getting another airing.

#

Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.

Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.

  

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.
“Brilliant stories, well written!” (five stars, Amazon).

Heaven or Hell

You'll find my drabble of that name in the latest offering from Shacklebound Books, available from 29th March 2024 from Amazon.

#

Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.

Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.

  

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.
“Brilliant stories, well written!” (five stars, Amazon).

AI, Robot

AI, Robot, from JayHenge now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or, well... all of them, I think.  Inside you'll find my story "How Did They get You?"

#

Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.

Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.

  

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.
“Brilliant stories, well written!” (five stars, Amazon).

Auntie

"Auntie" - now on Sci Fi shorts.

#

Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.

Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.

  

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.
“Brilliant stories, well written!” (five stars, Amazon).

My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.

Available from Amazon now.

#

Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.
“Brilliant stories, well written!” (five stars, Amazon).

End of year report

Having tried over the last few years to submit a story a day, and having both missed and overshot that target, 2023 is the year I managed the magic 365 submissions.  And, yes, there were quite a few ill-thought out scattergun pitches to keep my average up, although I'm grateful for Augur's flexibility over multiple submission in order to land smack bang on target like a cartoon man in a chicken suit.

So, 365 stories went out, and 322 responses came back, 280 straight no's and 27 with something to say although ultimately adding up to 'no' - but 15 acceptances.  At year end, 71 irons remain in the fire, though only two are formally held for further consideration and all but one date from the second half of the year, which suggests not many seeds may sprout in 2024.

But these are the ones that did in 2023:

In January, my maternal horror Wrapped was taken for the Ghost-inspired anthology Tales from the Crypt, which came out in July from October Nights Press.

February saw two acceptances.  The first was for the Air and Nothingness Press' delicately beautiful Gargantua anthology, tales of precisely 1000 words on mega-engineering in space, Shellworlds, Alderson Disks, Dyson Spheres, and the like.  My story, Terminal, which opens the collection, is essentially about an insect-o-cutor.  No, I'm never good at sticking to instructions, am I?  It was published in May.

The second, a weird fiction riff on whether being lucky can ever be an innate talent, was submitted for the The Alchemy Press Book of the Unknown which has subsequently morphed into an anthology called Shadowplays to be released by PS Publishing later this year.

Nothing in March, but three acceptances came in April.  Firstly, the Canadian magazine of the fantastic On Spec took my weird fiction grail quest satire, Knights of the Spherical Table.  They've been sending me copies of their quarterly publication ever since - I hope the free subscription lasts until it's published sometime this year.

Then, Eric Fomley, big cheese of Shacklebound and one of my semi-regular customers, took my flash The Interrogation of Corporal Ng for his second Dread Space anthology.  Being fleet of foot, it came out in May.

At the end of April, Sunrunner, from Third Flatiron's 2022 collection After the Gold Rush, was selected as my fourth appearance in NewCon's Best of British Science Fiction.  I don't know how widely read these are, or whether their held in high esteem by the industry, but I certainly feel a small glow of modestly British pride at having appeared in four of them over just seven years.  It may even mean I'm doing something right.  (I also had immense fun taking part in the online launch, which you can relive on YouTube).

In May, I had two sales in one day.  Well, I say sales: Shacklebound took another story, Lacrymeter, for their Book of Drabbles, with just a free ebook as reward.

Wyldblood then took I Was Just Doing What You Asked for their Wyldflash line, which appeared free and online in June.

I had to wait almost two months for my next sale when new website Cosmorama accepted Some of us are Going on a Bear Hunt, a flash.  I haven't been paid and their previously frantic Twitter feed fell silent in September, suggesting it is no more.  I'm still counting it as a sale, though.

Then it was another two sales on the same day in August, but less coincidental this time as they were both reprints being taken for JayHenge anthologies.  2019's How Did They Get You? will appear in AI, Robot; and 2015's Farndale's Revelation will see the light of day again in The Kafka Protocol.

Something slightly different in September when the Delta Literary Arts Society, just south-east of Vancouver, took my flash The Ultimate Vegan Curry to perform.  On stage.  In front of paying punters.  You can see how it went here.

Early October saw Androids and Dragons accept After Abercrombie, which has already been and gone from Page and Spine, published as pretty much their last hurrah in 2022.  I haven't seen a contract for it as yet, so one for me to chase.  But, as I say, it meets my very low bar for a sale.

Late September saw longish fantastika flash Snake being taken by Story Unlikely, but only as a podcast.  It remains out there, looking for the love of a good print (paper or webpage) publisher.

Lastly, mid-November saw an acceptance, like the first of the year, for an anthology based around an artist's music.  Unlike January's Ghost-inspired anthology, I am familiar with the band in question - Nirvana - even if not with Help Me I'm Hungry, the song I associated Science Project, my sci-fi horror with on the basis of title alone.  It'll appear in Bookslayer's Negative Creep anthology later this year.

An odd way to bookend the year, don't you think?

#

Click on the images or search on Amazon.

You're here, so surely you know how to do that?

2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth

2084. The world remains at war.

In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.

The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.

Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.

Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.

24 0s & a 2

Twenty-four slipstream stories.  Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, occasionally heroic.