Continuing from where Part One left off...
#7 "Jesus of Biggleswade" in Cemetery Songs, Eldritch Cat Press
The first of two stories sold in September, Alanna Robertson-Webb's Eldritch Cat Press took my religious zombie satire (a latter-day Jesus raises the dead causing a zombie apocalypse - see how I don't make things easy for myself, sales-wise?). It was published in November - an impressive turnaround.
#8 "ghost town" in Twisted Trails: Tales of the Weird Wild West, Shacklebound Books
Another anthology put together without sparing the horses. This was taken by Eric Fomley's Shacklebound in mid-September, and had hit virtual shelves in early November.
My contribution, written specifically for this call, put the ghosts into ghost town. Weirdly, the collection doesn't appear on Shacklebound's own website. Perhaps a case of simply being too quick on the draw?
#9 "…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. That, and T-Shirt Sales", Sometimes Hilarious Horror
Another reprint (but only two out of the year's thirteen acceptances were), which would have won me $10 had it not gone very, very weird when it came to the contract. I'm not going to go through it all again - read about it here, but the executive summary is that it won't be coming out under this masthead, which is more to do with them than me.
# 10 " ", Big Smoke Pulp Vol 2
Why? Maybe you should read it when it comes out. When that is, I'm not sure: it was crowdfunded in seven minutes, but proofs were promised in November and I've yet to see them.
It's also the only story I've ever written with an interrobang, so I definitely want to see it out there.
#11 "The Adventure of the Sekhetaru Club", BFS Horizons
The story is Irene Adler's, from the Sherlock Holmes universe. Even though Holmes in now unambiguously in the pubic domain worldwide, this story of Adler and a cult of Egyptian immortal-wannabes had proved too fanfic-adjacent for many markets, which made me feel doubly foolish for investing time into it, then misaddressing it.
Not yet published by the British Fantasy Society. Indeed, I'm yet to see a contract.
#12 "He’s Making a List", Eerie Christmas vol 4, Black Hare Press
You know that scene from Heat, where de Niro and Pacino face off over coffee? Now substitute Santa Claus for de Niro. I know that's a story you want to read. And it's here. Bought by Black Hare in mid-November, and released exactly a month later. And you thought Santa worked quickly.
#13 "The Salmakki Resurrection", The Daily Tomorrow
Another rare case of me focussing on a particular market, rather than setting the drivel passing through my mind down in words regardless of who may end up buying it. In this instance, it was a case of rewriting, rather than writing to fit the Daily Tomorrow's model of weekly stories in seven parts. Quite why I initially honed this tale of pacifist robots' multi-millennia-long survival strategy in the face of an unstoppable foe into five parts eludes me. (See #11, possibly.)
It was only sold on the 23rd of December, but a swift and professional approach means it's due out on the 13th of January. And, being a pro-paying market, it leaves me teetering on the brink of L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest disqualification. One more 3000+ word story at over 10 cents a word, and the airlock closes on me.
Talking of WotF, it was just two honorable (sic) mentions and two unplaceds in 2025. I used to regularly get a couple of silver honorables a year. The two unplaced were long (9000 and 13000 word) stories very much written with the contest in mind, whereas the ones that were at least recognised as being okay were scrubbed up members of the rank and file of stories that regularly try their luck in the marketplace.
I've blogged about the WotF Contest previously. Given how regularly it runs, it should be something of a bellwether of how one is doing as a writer, but I still find it baffling how my results are slipping at the same time as, say, I'm getting pro sales that are undermining my eligibility.
So, 330 submissions made and, after a very slow start, thirteen sales in the year, of which all but two were original stories. Of those eleven newbies, six were drabbles and flashes under a thousand words, but the other five were 2700 words up to 5000. And two of those were at professional rates of pay (and have been paid for). Six have been published, and I only know for sure one won't see daylight, and that was a reprint. Whilst not a vintage year, that’s a return I’m quite happy with.
Otherwise it was another year waiting for my kill fee from Carrie Cuinn, and not a word out of Roxie Voorhees.
Happy New Year.
My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms
Meet a man mistaken for a robot, a robot which learns the meaning of irony the hard way, a Frankenstein’s monster with a future in tailoring, a talking cat, a talking car, several time travellers, and a host of other characters.
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 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
