Having tried over the last few years to submit a story a day, and having both missed and overshot that target, for the second year running I've managed the magic 365 submissions. It was a target I screamed towards like Bodie in a Capri for much of the year, to the extent that I've only sent out four efforts in the second half of December in order to skid to a halt, Professionals-style, on that totally arbitrary and meaningless figure.
But, before we begin, some bad (taste in the mouth) news.
My last acceptance of 2023 was a story for a Nirvana-themed horror anthology from Book Slayer, to be called Negative Creep. It got as far as signed contracts and advanced reader copies going out for review. Then... nothing. The project froze, like a mosquito in sap, but with less chance of a Spielbergian reanimation.
I've had projects which haven't come to fruition - shit happens - but not when ARCs have gone out and reviews been posted. And I've usually heard from the publisher, not from others via social media. But in this case they've just left everyone, thirty writers, hanging - not a single word of apology or explanation. Just a black hole.
As well as being utterly fucking unprofessional, it leaves authors confused as to whether we can shop our stories around again, or are they now lost in some Schrodinger's cat publishing netherworld? Have they, in any legal sense, been published or not?! So, please understand when I send out this short and heartfelt message to publisher, Roxie Voorhees, on behalf of all those affected: YOU UNMITIGATED CUNT.
Rant over.
January 2024. First sale of the year: Sci-Fi shorts taking my weird reflection on consumerism, 'Auntie'. And, had I known they'd use this image, I'd have tweaked the team of lawyers in the story to suit.
January also saw that most-rare phenomenon of two acceptances on the same day, although it was possibly not that odd as they were both for Shacklebound anthologies. Drabble 'Heaven or Hell' appeared in Drabbledark III in March, available from Amazon. The other, a reprint of another drabble, 'Working Late', is slated to see the light of day in Chronos 2 early next year.
.jpg)
Just one sale in February, a flash, the snappily titled 'God’s Gift to His Creation, and the Price We had to Pay for It', in Extrasensory Overload from Angry Gable Press. I've just finished reading it, and liked it.
March was a good month. First came news that 'Thus with a Kiss I Die', my Shakespeare-tinged body-swapping corporate-versus-academia longish short story first published by Aurealis would get a second burst of the limelight in Best of British Science Fiction 2023, my fifth appearance in the series.
This was tempered later in the year with the news that BoBSF would be on hiatus next year. I hope to see it return in 2026, maybe less-confusingly titled Best of British Science Fiction 2026? Best of British to editor Donna Scott and her Slab Press projects if she's reading this.
Late March saw 'Formula 719 - A Cure for Ennui', a black comedy about the counter-productivity of relying on technology to get us out of the holes we dig for ourselves (to me) or straight sci-fi (to, seemingly, everyone else) made it into the British Science Fiction Association's Fission #4.
And, two days later, Imagitopia said they'd run 'Devil Ray at the Doorway', previously published by Medusa Tales, as a podcast. They're currently on hiatus, but promise to be back and to run the stories already picked.
.jpeg)
April saw another brace of acceptances across a handful of days. On the 11th, Parsec Ink took half (yes, half) of my story Charabanc for their Hospitium anthology, part of the Triangulation strand. Editors Greg Clumpner and Brandon Ketchum may have had the help of the Devil someplace as it was on sale by early July.
And, on the 13th, 'The Other Brother Grimm', about the one you've never heard of, was taken by Mystery and Horror LLC for my second appearance in their Strangely Funny series. It's yet to appear.
May saw another two acceptances. Firstly, 'Sérénade Mélancolique in A Flat', a dark piece, more atmosphere than horror story, that I wrote thirty or so years ago, hidden in a virtual drawer ever since, was picked up by Dark Holme's Nightmare Narratives for a song (see what I did there?). The website's since disappeared, and I've made my punning title hard to Google, so the only evidence that it was ever published is probably this blog. Ooops.
And then, on my birthday, Whisper House Press took my flash, 'One, Two, Three' for their Costs of Living anthology. I'm slightly confused about timelines, as I've had my e-book copy for a while, reviews are appearing online, and my video interview was done in early autumn, but everything says a September 2025 release date. Having met him on screen, I like the chief Whisperer Steve Capone and what he's trying to do, and wish him and Whisper House Press well.
In June, I managed to get my name on the front page of the Grinder twice at the same time, with acceptances two days running. Firstly, Wyld Flash came back for some repeat business, running my ambient flash 'We Are All Made of Stars' the following month. Then, the next day, Donna Scott's Slab Press came in for 'The Trouble with Vacations', previously only available as an Overcast podcast, for its Laughs in Space collection. That was published in August.
And, finally as far as the first six months goes, Illustrated Worlds took one of my favourite stories, 'Faivish the Imbecile', first published in 2021 by The Quiet Reader. I haven't heard a peep from them since, but their website suggests they're still active. I assume I'm in a queue. How British...
So, fourteen acceptances in the first six months. Find out in part two how the second half of the year went.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment