A Seventies Disaster

Gef Fox is running a competition over at his blog and one of the prizes is my book Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits, which you can win along with Camille Alexa's Push of the Sky. And if you already have one or both of those books, he's also running another competition where you can win the anthologies 52 Stitches and Courting Morpheus. And if you have all those books on your shelf (I do), then erm... You are extra awesome (except in the case of me, because I'm in two of them).

Hope you're enjoying your weekend. I'm vegging out and watching old movies. Just watched Bell, Book and Candle with Jimmy Stewart and next up is Airport--I love disaster movies. I love old seventies disaster movies.

Souvenir Shops, Polaroids and Other Things

Beware, the following link may take you on a surreal journey...

The Scenic Path of Human Artefacts is today's story over at 52 Stitches.

...You have been warned.

Edible Flowers

My bizarre little story Edible Flowers Perched Above a Dying Landscape is this week's story over at 52 Stitches.

In Stitches

The Scenic Path of Human Artefacts, the short story inspired by the NaNoWriMo Prompts I listed on November 1st, has been accepted for 52 Stitches. And so ends the two month dry spell... Or for the pessimist, so begins the next. Whatever the truth of it, I be happy.



Zombie Hunter Coat of Arms by =The-Prophet-Of-Chaos on deviantART

Being a little bit concerned that my prompts are too odd here are some less odd ones.

Fireguard
Skeleton
Monkey
Bananas
Pizza
Diamond

Bored now... Let's jazz it up a bit.

Cracked Pots
Swallowing Words
Stripy Snake Socks
Disposable Friends
Vile Goblins
Drenched Beard

Theatre of Ideas

Five thousand word day for the win. I could have made it to six thousand but my need to declare it to the world via twitter led me to the main pc and it trapped me there for several hours. I swear, I've been hammering at the monitor but no one would let me out.

The rewrite of Theatre of Curious Acts is going well, the publisher didn't like the first fifty or so pages of the book and I've slashed them down to about ten, removed two characters, reduced the other two characters to bit parts and pulled my main MC from the rest of the book to the front (don't ask, the original version of Theatre had a complicated layout as it was set out as four novellas/novelettes and one short that all tied in together) and now the story starts in the trenches of The Great War with some nasty trench rats. The positive thing is, I've fallen in love with the story and am eternally grateful for this kick up the ass that will hopefully help me build a much better book.

In other news, the wonderful Kurt Newton has reviewed Olive Lemon on his blog. Happy, happy, happy. Plus, whilst panicking that I wouldn't have a story for the Cafe Doom competition this year and that I wouldn't have any flash stories to send to 52 Stitches when it reopens, I played with some words hoping to make an inspiring title. I found my title, I found my character, and they fit neither of the above. Oh, but it does have butterflies flying about my insides. Either that, or I have gas.

Bright Shiny Things

Being stuck in Novelville and thinking I'll never write another short story again - you know the drill - I visited Aaron Polson's blog yesterday and at the sight of the most wonderful cover of the 'Dead Bait' anthology I had pangs of I-want-to-be-in-an-anthology. Okay, so Dead Souls is launching at FantasyCon this weekend, but I was beyond reason.

Anyhow, this morning I received an email from the aforementioned Mr. Polson, who when he's not warping inspiring children, and writing creepsome stories is also an editor, who informed me (and many others) that the Fifty-Two Stitches anthology is now available to buy. And there I was all woe-is-me only a day before. Check out the Amazon listing and see my bright, shiny name.

The Death of Frog & Other August Related Fact

Ah, beautiful August.

Sales: 2
Publications: 4 (52 Stitches, Sideshow Fables, The Daily Tourniquet, Bucket 'O' Guts press)
Approx Word Count: 36,107 approx.
Total Word Count 2009: 167,121 words
Stories out in submission land: Not certain, but I'm almost at code red.
WIP: The Horrifiques 37,089 - words (first draft); Dead Marigolds (at the thinking stage).

I think I’ve written more new words this month than I have in about the past three combined, of course I would need to go back and check my figures and I refuse to do that as it takes effort, but I have had a most fabulous ‘wordage’ month. Not that the words are fabulous, in fact as the amount I complete in a day speeds up (as it always seems to do the further into a book I get) I’m convinced the words are considerably stinky, but who cares. I’ve changed the title – possibly – I’m sitting with it for a while and I may or may not use the new one. I also think I’ll hit my original estimate of 45,000 words for the first draft (I was in panic mode days ago) as the story has taken a turn that I never expected – hence the title change.

No short stories this month – eek! I’m convinced, I’ll never write another short again.* Ooh, unless you count hint fiction – I wrote three of those. Yep, I’m counting them.

Oh, and I retired Frog – a moment of silence please.

*Expect a post sometime next year where I wail that I’ll never write something longer than a short ever, ever again.

I'm Smiling

... But you may not be after this.

Nobody Smiling is this weeks story over at the wonderful 52 Stitches, edited by the even more wonderful Aaron Polson. Beware teachers, beware.

You can also pre-order the anthology at the Strange Publications website. I'm excited, chances are (being that many of you are in it) you are too.

The Marionette Manipulator & The Headless Bride

My odd little story The Marionette Manipulator & The Headless Bride is up at 52 Stitches. If you have a spare couple of minutes (it's a flash story), I would love if you could read it.

Leaving a Dent in the Sofa

Don't forget 52 Stitches begins its year long run today with I'm Keeping it Light by Mercedes M Yardley. I can't wait for it to go live. I've pressed refresh a gazillion times.

I'm relieved the holidays are over. I loved the break. I loved lounging around watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD and watching old episodes of The Outer Limits on cable, but it's also good to be back at the computer. I'm hard at work (ahem! well almost) working on the second draft of 'Theatre of Curious Acts' and I am about to move onto part two: Paper Dragons. At the moment I'm averaging about 1,400 words a day - I think that's respectable.

I hope to add about 7,000 words by week-end to Theatre and I also want to write a dark short story so that I can submit to 'Necrotic Tissue' this month. I know I said I'd only do one short story a month, but I figure as long as I'm working on the long stuff and doing a resonable amount of wordage that I can play with the shorts too. Got to keep the writer happy.

The Blog of a Modest Star

I'm amazing.

I thought you all deserved to know that. Not only have I just crept over the 46,000 word mark in my NaNoWriMo project (gets down onto her knees and begs the Plot God to give her enough ideas to make it through to 50,000) but during this merry month of novel writing I also managed to find the time to write a flash story.

A break for applause.

Anyhow, said story 'The Marionette Manipulator & the Headless Bride' (ooh, maybe if I make the chapter titles really long in Theatre I can get to the end today) has been accepted by 52 Stitches.

I've got to stop applauding myself, my hands hurt.

Cover Art Goodness

YAY! Strange Publications are publishing an anthology of the year’s stories – check out the cover art to the left. It will feature my story ‘Through the Warped Eye of Death’ which appeared in issue 2.

Plus, the same team are also behind 52 Stitches, which opened for submissions for flash fiction yesterday. They started my Sunday off in a good way by accepting my story ‘Nobody Smiling’.

Hoping to get at least 500 words done on ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’ later today if I get home in time – don’t want to miss my favourite Sunday night show at the moment – Stephen Fry in a taxi journeying across all of the United States states.

Oh, and I also got a 1 day rejection from Clarkesworld this morning – well if you don’t try. :)

Macabre November

YAY! The November issue of Macabre Cadaver is now available online. It features my story: In the Dumpster King's Zip Code; plus Jeremy Kelly's story The Crop Bearer ; and Mean Spirited by Joshua Scribner.

If you entered the Cafe Doom Annual Writing Competition, the stories are now up for you to read and vote. I printed them all out this morning. We have until November 11th to register our votes. Some intriguing titles.

And don’t forget 52 Stitches opens for flash fiction submissions today.

Time now to go back to writing my ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’ – 1339 words so far and a few more hours left in the day. I would like to get 3334 completed as I’ve got a family party and baptism to attend tomorrow.

I’m Severus Snape

This was the week that I discovered I’m a much tougher cookie than I thought I was. Had a big rejection that I admit knocked me for six, I expected to be depressed for the week, and then found myself bouncing back into gear within the day. Of course, it left everyone who witnessed my sudden intake of breath and sob (note to self: do not open emails at work, especially when you’re the receptionist and everyone walks past your desk) thinking isn’t she supposed to be sad, but hey, you can’t be sad forever.

So what have I accomplished this week?

Well thanks to Kim Kasch and a not-so fun Harry Potter Personality test, I discovered I’m Severus Snape.

I started, finished, revised, finished again, and submitted a story to the Cafe Doom Writing Contest – can’t give anymore details than that as the story will be posted on the forum along with the other entries (twenty-four so far) for voting purposes, so it has to remain pretty much anonymous. Just look out for one containing…. :) Only kidding.

I wrote a flash short story that I intended to send to 52 Stitches when it opens on November 1st, then I decided it was probably not scary enough (or rather not scary at all) so I sent it along to Every Day Fiction instead. I hate the title I subbed, so I’m hoping if it’s accepted they’ll allow me to change it to ‘Travelling Along the Conveyor Belt’.

‘Nobody Smiling’ didn’t place in the Apex Digest Halloween competition, so now I can sub that story to 52 stitches when it opens. Silver linings and all that.

Received my copy of ‘Twisted Dreams’, which contains my story ‘Dead Bolt’. I should have received it ten days ago, but Lulu mixed up the order and sent me a copy of a book about the Lusitania instead. I complained (of course) and they said I could keep that book and they’d get another copy of Twisted Dreams out to me. I feel it is now my duty to feature the Lusitania in a short story.

And on a final screeching note – It’s one week to NaNoWriMo. If you hear an alarm while reading this, don’t worry it’s just my panic button going off.