My urban fantasy story “Somebody Else’s Problem” will be appearing in Fiction River #5: Hex in the City next month. But you can listen to it for free on the WMG Publishing podcast for the next week! It has tattoos, telepathic rats, magic, and lots of action. What more could you want from urban fantasy, right?
As I said before, I’m super busy catching up on all the work that fell by the wayside this last six months.
But here’s a little preview of what to expect from me (and Doomed Muse Press):
First, the Pyrrh Series. Avarice, the first novel, will be out in October with the next three books following in 2013. The series is basically “Law & Order” with swordfights. Who wouldn’t love that? And check out the awesome cover by Nathie.
Then, in November, the first book of the Lorian Archive Trilogy will be out. You can read the first 3rd of the novel for free (see the sidebar under Casimir Hypogean) or the finished book will be available in November. The rest of the series will come in 2013. The series has lovely covers done by the awesome Tom Edwards:
I sold an SF novelette to GiGaNotoSaurus, it’ll be appearing in June.
I also got the cover for the second Lorian Archive book. The trilogy won’t be published for a little while longer (but should all be out this year, barring life catastrophe, knock on wood).
Have some shiny:
(Cover done by the awesome Tom Edwards)
My NaNo rebel project is not going well. I’m stuck trying to figure out if this story needs to be told in 1st or in 3rd person. So I’ve switched back to the novel (the sequel to A Heart in Sun and Shadow). I’ve never written a sequel before. It’s tough writing one for a book that is published, too. I can’t change details that were set in the first novel, so I’m constantly having to recheck the older book for things. I think I might take a couple hours today and make a quickie world bible or at least a list with the relevant details. I wrote the first book before I’d really nailed down how I prefer to write novels and I have zero cohesive character notes or world notes at all (which is something I started doing AFTER I wrote this one). It’s odd to go back and look at a work that I did a couple years ago.
In other news, I sold another story to Daily SF. This is my tenth fiction sale in less than two years (first sale was in December of 2009). Five of those have been to Daily SF. I guess it is true, you just have to find an editor who loves what you write and then sell them as much as you can. I’m glad so many stories of mine have found a home with Daily SF. They are a great publication (delivered to your email! Go subscribe! /end plug).
Oh, and I crossed the 1,000 books sold mark for my e-books. Hopefully the next 1k doesn’t take quite as long, but it is definitely a mile-stone.
So that is what’s up with me. Now, where did I put that outline? Back to writing!
I am pleased to announce that I have sold a short story titled “Nevermind the Bollocks” to the new monthly anthology series Digital Science Fiction. The story should be out in their second installment, so sometime this summer I think. This is my fourth pro-rate sale and, counting reprints, my seventh overall sale in the two and a half years I’ve been doing this. I hope this is a sign that between the books I’ve been studying, the workshops I’ve been doing, and the writing practice itself, that I’m still growing and improving.
I also have finally posted a collection of fantasy short fiction, which is will be available soon on Kindle and Nook and is already through the new, streamlined Smashwords grinder.
Here’s the cover:
It includes eight of my fantasy stories. More information can be found by clicking on the picture or you can get it directly from Smashwords by going here.
As for writing, well, I’m doing better. The novel is literally one working session away from done. I’m dropping my better half off at the airport today and then I’ll have almost three full days to get work done with zero social distractions. My top priority is to finish the novel and then finish the story I owe for the Mirror Shards anthology. Then it’s on to outlining the sequel to A Heart in Sun & Shadow and getting some other short fiction done as a warm-up to Clarion.
Speaking of Clarion, I’m starting to get excited and nervous about it. As we get ever closer to the start date and things begin to get sorted out like travel plans and housing, it feels more and more like this isn’t something abstract. And hey, at this point I don’t think I got in on an administrative mistake, since no one has corrected it yet. My Kickstarter project has only five days left, but it is pretty close to getting funded (only a few hundred left!) so I’m hopeful that the money will come through. The outpouring of both financial and emotional support by my friends and my fellow writers has really touched me. I thank all of you and I’m going to work my ass off at Clarion to make sure I don’t waste this opportunity.
So that’s what is going on with me. Lots of work, not a whole lot of blogging, sorry. I’ll do my usual monthly round-up next Tuesday (e-book sales have been pretty good to me this month, yay).
It’s nice to have good news for once coming in multiples. Most of the neo-pro writing life is being told no in varying ways, over and over and over. It’s good to hear a yes on occasion. It’s even better in pairs *grin*
So. A couple sales to announce. First is a reprint sale of my story “No Spaceships Go” (originally appeared in Daily SF in Dec 2010). The wonderful people at Scape– The e-zine of YA speculative fiction loved it so much they want it even though they don’t normally do reprinted fiction. So soon it will be available there as well.
Second sale is an as-yet-untitled story for the anthology Mirror Shards: Exploring the Edges of Augmented Reality (Volume One) being edited by my writer friend Tom Carpenter at Black Moon Books. The anthology is open to submissions until July, so get on it if you have an augmented reality story idea.
And finally, another interview for my indie-publishing side (I’m like the Hybrid Author of Doom here I guess) is up on Indie Reads. You can find the interview here.
Whew. Now back to the grind.
I got a Silver Honorable Mention for my story. My first Silver HM, so that’s something I suppose. I figured this story was HM level sort of thing, so it did better than I expected. My story for Q2 is, I think, going to be a Semi-finalist. I believe it is really good, but it might have a flaw that won’t work for the contest. We’ll see.
I have a couple more neo-pro interviews to post this week so the blog won’t be totally neglected while I finish this novel. I’ve been reading books on writing and reading tons of short stories lately. I have all sorts of plans, but I’m torn between what to do and what order to do it in. We’ll see. I might be posting a revised writing schedule for the year here soon.
Yeah, I know. But I sell sporadically enough that any sale is worth a giant announcement, damnit. Because it’s been almost 6 months since my last sale to a magazine, so I was starting to tell myself it had all been a fluke etc…
Anyway, I sold a flash fiction story titled “Love at the Corner of Time and Space” to Daily Science Fiction. Which marks my fourth short story sale to a magazine and my second pro-rate sale. W00t!
On another note, I’ve written 3 pieces of flash fiction in my adult life, and sold 2 out of the 3. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something…
I got my 4th Quarter results for WotF. Another Honorable Mention. Not surprised at all really. I didn’t think this story was finalist material, though I like it a lot and think it’s a good story. But it is a very dark, somewhat strange fantasy story.
My story for Q1 is probably not a winner either, but truthfully on that one, I have no idea. It’s totally different from what I usually write, so we’ll see. I’m currently working on my Q2 story and think it has a ton of potential. I just have to finish this novel first, then I’ll get the story done and mailed.
So that’s that for Q4. Time to find another market and send the story back out.
Technically, I have a couple stories eligible for award nominations. I had a long debate with myself about even writing this post, but decided, hey, first year I’ve got things eligible, I should at least write a subtle “zomg sold stuffz!” post pointing this out.
So here goes…subtle. Yeah.
“Some Like it Hot” (AlienSkin Feb/March 2010 issue) is eligible as a short story.
“No Spaceships Go” (Daily Science Fiction, Dec. 17th, 2010) is also eligible as a short story.
So if you for some reason loved either of those and are in a position to do some nom-ing, there you go. That’s my list. (My third story published this year doesn’t, I think anyway, fall into the speculative fiction category enough to be relevant. However, if you feel like reading it and don’t mind dropping .99 on it, it is now available as an ebook with another short story here or for free on Contrary’s website here)
