Jan

10

There Be Bunny Crimes

Filed Under Rejections | 2 Comments

Another day, another rejection, this time from Tales of the Zombie War. Clearly I need to up my zombie game. Never mind. Rejection is all part and parcel of the writer’s life, and I offer this to all my fellow writers out there as a comfort whenever they may need it:

(Thanks to Ian Cundell. I now can’t listen to the R.E.M. original any more without thinking of this.)

Jan

9

FlashScribe

Filed Under Acceptances | 2 Comments

I’ve just heard that my meta-fiction flash, “Post-”, is to appear in February’s inaugural issue of FlashScribe. It’s always good to submit to new ventures because they tend to be a lot quicker to respond than the established markets, who are usually (as my wife would say) up to their oxters in slush. (No idea what oxters are, or even if that’s spelt correctly.) Not only that, but they also tend to give very helpful suggestions if a piece isn’t quite right – as FlashScribe have with one of the other flashes that I sent them.

[UPDATE: Oxters are apparently armpits. So now you know.]

Jan

8

So Farewell, Then, Cadenza

Filed Under The Publishing Industry | Leave a Comment

Turns out that I won’t get a chance to better my longlisting in a Cadenza Comp, as Cadenza is closing. Sad news indeed, although I’m wondering if it’s just another symptom of the move towards e-zines rather than paper ones. When a story on Every Day Fiction has clocked up in excess of 27000 hits as a result of a mention on StumbleUpon, you wonder if we’re close to the tipping point.

Speaking personally, my current aim as a writer is to get as many people as possible to read my stuff. Well, duh! Of course that’s my aim! And as you can see from my list of publications, almost all of those are currently online rather than print. What’s really interesting is that the likes of EDF and its sister site, Every Day Poets, are attracting submissions from some big players, such as Vanessa Gebbie, Nuala ní Chonchuír and Alex Keegan. What’s for sure is that they aren’t there for the money. But I can see the logic of self-promotion that way so that ultimately more people buy that short story collection when it comes out.

The next big question is whether that short story collection should be an ebook or (as Adrian Graham would put it) a pbook. That’s the point at which my inner luddite comes out, and I still want something tangible to hold in my hand. But then I still buy CDs, so what do I know?

Jan

7

Not Giving Up The Day Job Quite Yet

Filed Under Stuff | Leave a Comment

Gosh, how exciting. My half-yearly royalty statement from John Wiley and Sons came through the post today, and I was amazed to find out that I’m still earning $$$ from software books that I gave up writing half a dozen years ago. Just under $150 in six months, no less. I promise not to spend it all at once.

Meanwhile, less impressive news from Public Lending Right. This is the first year that I’ve been signed up for this, and according to my statement, a grand total of 8 people borrowed a book which I have a 7% interest in, at 5.98p per loan. Which makes a grand total of just over 3p. So I’m not giving up the day job quite yet.

Jan

5

Longlisted at Cadenza Again

Filed Under Competitions, Placings | Leave a Comment

So … for the second time running, I’ve been longlisted at Cadenza, this time with my story “Piss and Patchouli”. Whoo hoo! And for the second time running, I’ve failed to make the shortlist. Boo hoo! Clearly I’m doing something right, but not quite right enough. Still, I guess that’s my first hit of 2009. Now where else can I send it?

Jan

3

Internal Affairs

Filed Under Publications | 5 Comments

My 87-worder “Internal Affairs” is today’s story at Flashshot, so for the next 24 hours or less it can be viewed here, and then for another nine days here. Believe it or not, this piece, short as it is, was actually changed as a result of critiquing by my fellow members of the VWC. The original punchline was:

My doctor withdrew his fingers, took off the latex gloves and looked at me.

“Have you been hanging out with those magicians again?” he said.

which isn’t anywhere near as good. So many thanks to the very talented Dave Weaver for the new, improved version. Dave is another of those members of the VWC who insists on keeping his light under a bushell, and should be submitting a lot more stuff. However, you can find one of his stories, “Finding Uncle”, here. It’s rather good.

Jan

1

Happy New Year!

Filed Under Acceptances, Publications, The Hit Count | 2 Comments

So, Happy New 2009 to all this blog’s readers. And, specially for you, here’s a link to a download of the inaugural issue of TheRightEyedDeer, which contains my story “Somewhat Less Than Thirty Pieces”, which was accepted on December 28th and thus becomes my 42nd and last hit of 2008 (up from – er – 4 in 2007). TheRightEyedDeer is (as you can probably guess) the brainchild of Donna’n'Doug, the team who took over The Write Idea earlier this year and who seem to possess inexhaustible amounts of energy and ideas for new projects. Good on ‘em – can’t wait to see what they come up with in 2009.

“Somewhat Less Than Thirty Pieces” was longlisted in Cadenza’s March 2008 competition, and is a free-wheeling piece of meta-fiction that has got a bit more meta with every new version. I’m particularly pleased with the footnotes, which is why I’m really glad that it’s finally been published in a PDF format magazine rather than HTML.

← Previous Page