It seems relatively common in the writing world to get good news tempered with bad.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve opened an e-mail with a wonderful acceptance only to have the next e-mail be a rejection.  Better than two crappy e-mails, I suppose.  Today’s karmic balance:  Good news from James Roy Daley over at http://booksofthedead.blogspot.com/, he wants to publish “America’s Farmlands Under Assault” in his Best New Zombie Tales series.  The bad news from Susurrus press, who are killing their Chicago Overcoat anthology that was set to feature my novella, “The Killing Page.”  Anyone who’s tried to place a novella in this crap-tastic speculative fiction market will tell you that this is a painful blow.  ”Killing Page” is a great story, one of my best (in my humble estimation) but its 30,000 word length makes it almost impossible to place.

Sigh and damn you, Fickle Gods of Fiction.

I’ve started to fill in the stories page (link up top) with my bibliography. In the coming days I’ll hopefully create a more detailed page for each story. Of course, I recall saying something similar six months ago…

Sent two stories out today, one to a contest (I know, I know, it’s a pitiful plea for validation.  I’m so ashamed.), and one to a reprint anthology.  Feels so good to be mailing again!

Many of you will already know this, but for those who don’t, I highly recommend the website Specficworld.com.  Among many other offerings, there’s good fiction to be found there, and one of the better speculative fiction market databases on the web.  There’s a fee of about 12 bucks for a year’s access to the database and a condensed monthly newsletter, but it’s a steal at twice the price for what you get.  The editor, Doyle Wilmoth, does a fantastic job on the site.  For some reason, at the moment, the site is running a little slow, but I expect that will get cleaned up soon.

A couple weeks back I joined a local writer’s group. This is a big decision for writers. Mention the words “writer’s group” to any gaggle of writers and you’ll get reactions ranging from “been there, done that,” to outright dismissal. I’ve personally always been more open to the idea, but just been unable to find the time.

But after a number of months of low productivity and frustrating quality (or lack there of) in what I was producing, I thought it was time for something drastic. So I got on the magical interwebs, and discovered the Pure Fiction League very close by.

I’ve been to two meetings so far, and found them to be a group of polite, caring, supportive people of diverse backgrounds and experience. It will be some more time yet before I work up enough creds to get my own stuff read, but I’m enjoying the time spent talking about writing and critiquing others work. More importantly, I find the time spent just focusing on writing to be reinvigorating for my own work, and I’ve definitely seen a bump in productivity there. I’ll keep you posted on my experience with the group.

Happy New Year all!  Here’s hoping it’s a healthy and productive one for all of us.

Columbia & Britannia, the fabulous alternative history anthology from Fourth Horseman Press hit stores yesterday.  The book features nine stories set in an alternate history where the American revolutionary war never happened.  My story, “All the Jungle is Thine” is one of the nine.  Buy it on Amazon today!

Two wonderful surprises arrived in the mail this week, the paperback and hardcover versions of Columbia and Britannia, the new anthology out from Fourthhorseman Press.  The book hasn’t hit the stores yet, so I’m not spoiling the publisher’s big reveal of the books, but I will say that they look amazing.  Once the book get’s listed on the Fourthhorseman website I’ll list ordering information here.

Dug up some old, unsuccessful stories the other day and started thinking about ways to revive them. This is always a tricky business. Sometimes a story that isn’t working is asking for attention, but sometimes they’re just asking to be given a quiet and honorable death. The hard part is really hearing it when they’re telling you to let them go. We’ll see what happens with this set: a new lease on life, or a final trip to the “do not publish” folder.

Progress on the website and a return to the writing life proceeds inch by stubborn inch.  Spent last weekend at my Grandmother’s house in West Texas, and then spent much of this week fretting over a vomiting baby (she seems fine now).  Hoping to have the skeleton of a stories page up by the end of this weekend, but that same baby’s second birthday will be happily getting in the way on Sunday.  Should be fun, we even have  a balloon lady coming. Here’s a little daily dose of cuteness as Maddy rocks out on Grandma’s piano: