Tag Archives: crossed genres

Announcements! Progress! Cake!

Okay, I’ll admit up front that the cake is a lie. You had to have seen that coming.

First off, my long time friend Joanne Uppendahl has put out a collection of her poetry called She Sho Gathers Stones. I’ve ordered my copy and you may be inclined to order it as well.

In more local to me news, I got a mention in my neighborhood blog. Because, you know, neighborhood newsletters are so last century. The article is about the launch of the Cobalt City Timeslip anthology, which I have a story in. There is also a reading and signing event at Wayward Coffeehouse on Ocotber 9th from 7-10. The girlfriend and I won’t be able to make it due to a conflicting engagement, but all the rest of the authors should be. You can also Pre-order the book here.

I’ve submitted a story to a pro market finally and received a rejection. This was one of the most discouraging rejections to date. Not only did they get my name wrong, but when offering feedback on the story they confused it with another piece they had read. I’ve turned around and re-submitted elsewhere. So here’s to hoping.

And now, the honeydew.

Continue reading →

Running with Chainsaws

3 Replies

Before I dig in with this, I’d like to give a hearty hurrah for Ann Charles, who has just won the Daphne du Maurier award in the unpublished division. Not only did Nearly Departed in Deadwood take first place in the “Mainstream Mystery/Suspense” category, but she was also the overall Daphne winner for that division. Rock on!

My big hurrah coming up is my first honest-to-gosh reading. This is the official blurb:

An Evening of Authors, Wayward Coffeehouse, August 21, 7-10pm.
Hosted by Jennifer Brozek and Nate Crowder. Come to an evening of authors and good coffee at Wayward Coffeehouse. We will be reading from recent and forthcoming releases, answering questions and generally having a good time. Come one, come all and enjoy an evening with your local authors. Find out what’s next. Authors include: Cat Rambo, Rosemary Jones, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Alma Alexander, Nate Crowder, Jeremy Zimmerman, R. Schuyler Devin, Leah Cutter, Sunder Cameron Addams and Angela Korra’ti.

I don’t recognize all of those names, but the ones I do are people I sat on the other side of the table from during panels at Norwescon. I’m a little stunned to be amongst such luminaries. Holy mackerel.

Less auspicious is that I’ve received five rejections in a row. Two of them encouraged me to submit to them again. Two were people I’ve submitted to in the past and will probably submit to again in the future. One told me the anthology will not be coming out after all. D’oh. Two of my rejections came in today. After a night of fitful sleep because my bedroom is an oven right now, the rejections hit me a bit harder than they might normally. One of these five also qualifies as my fastest rejection ever. I’ve never been turned down the same day before.

And now, the honeydew.

Continue reading →

Brief notes

2 Replies

First, pimping of others:

There’s a new story up at Wily Writers, “The Tunnel” by Matt Cowens.

A.M. Dellamonica, who taught my UCLA extension course, has been short-listed for the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. There’s also some other people on the list.

Crossed Genres has announced the winners of their flash fiction contest.

The location of the Seattle stop of Jennifer Brozek and Seanan McGuire’s “Murder and Mayhem” tour has changed. It is now as follows:

SEATTLE
July 10, 2010, 6pm+
Wayward Coffeehouse
8570 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle WA 98103

And, my own personal news is that I sent off two short stories off for consideration a couple days ago, for a total of three that are awaiting response. I have another one that is almost ready for prime time that is due in a couple weeks and I’m hoping to get another written and submitted by the end of the month. I’m pretty excited about this because I’m aggressively pursuing other markets beyond Crossed Genres and, even if they don’t get picked up, I’ll have a fleet of stories representing a lot of lessons learned over the last few years that I can shop around to other markets.

State of the Honeydew

1 Reply

A quick post to review where I am with my goals.

Continue reading →

I feel like I just swam through eel infested waters.

8 Replies

First, some pimping!

This month, Wily Writers has been providing flash fiction weekly instead of short fiction every other week. The great thing about Wily Writers is that (a) it’s free and (b) they provide MP3 readings of all their stories. This week’s story is, “Grand-Monster” by Sasha Janel McBrayer.

(And, you know, I have a story there too if you want to look for that. *ahem*)

In other news, I spent Saturday night at a reading at Third Place Books for Apex Publishing’s Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. Jennifer Brozek, the editor of the anthology, coordinated the five authors that read and did signings. I meant to post information about the reading earlier, but have been too busy with deadlines to poke at this blog. Especially since most of my update is, “Still working on it.” And I also haven’t read the anthology.

BUT! That said, the readings I heard were marvelous. I felt definitely out of my league among some of these people, and I play D&D with a couple of them. Really top notch stuff. The authors present were:

Eric Scott de Bie, who I had the honor of hearing read at Norwescon earlier this year. I learned this weekend that he also comes from central California, and actually had to endure it through his teenage years. He’s also one of the people writing the novels for the Forgotten Realms these days.
Nathan Crowder. Yeah, that guy.
Rosemary Jones, who also has been writing for the Forgotten Realms these days.
Alma Alexander. She was on a couple panels I attended at Norwescon, and her reading was magnificent. Ms. Brozek introduced the story by saying that she picked it for the anthology because it made her cry. She did not exaggerate. I got choked up from hearing just a portion of it.
Shannon Page. I hadn’t heard of her before this night. But then, prior to this last winter I’d never heard of Jay Lake, who co-authors several stories with her. I guess I’m not hip to the cool new faces of SF/F. Or even some of the old ones. But I digress. Her reading was also good and holds a lot of promise.

(I feel I should add: Nate, Rosemary and Eric all had good readings as well. But I already knew they were going to be good. Alma Alexander and Shannon Page were unknown variables.)

Anyway, a quick update on the honeydew. New stuff is italicized, unless I screw up the HTML again.

Continue reading →

Things. Stuff.

4 Replies

Currently reading The Fall of Hyperion, the award-winning sequel to the award-winning Hyperion. I’ve come across at least a couple “As You Know Bob” moments in the text.

Continuing to chug away at deadlines. Got a couple items off my plate, so I’m feeling pretty good about that. This week will be mostly dedicated to clubbing my stuff before I send it to Mr. Gunn for the workshop.

Now, have some honeydew.

Continue reading →

State of the Honeydew

2 Replies

At the Wayward trying to write this morning, but having trouble focusing. Figure I’ll review my to-do list and see what needs my attention.

Part of what I’ve been doing is just hitting some low hanging fruit just to get things off my plate. So, taking stories that are damn near done and getting them done done.

I’ll italicize the items I’ve updated.

Continue reading →

Boxes, a quote, and a melon.

4 Replies

I’m waiting for the Malware scanner to finish on the girlfriend’s PC before I run off to work on my writing. So I have some random thoughts to offer, and a comment on writing progress.

Continue reading →

Another feather in the cap for Mr. Crowder

4 Replies

My friend, Nathan Crowder, recently received word that his story “Ink Calls to Ink” had been chosen for Night-Mantled: The Best of Wily Writers Year One. It also features such authors as Angel Leigh McCoy and Jennifer Brozek. A fine crowd to be mixing with.

I’ve been constantly impressed by all the accomplishments Nate’s had this year. Just prior to this he had a story appear in the anthology Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. And before that his magnificent piece “Deacon Carter’s Last Dime” not only appeared in Crossed Genres Year One, but was a finalist in the storySouth Million Writers Awards Notable Stories of 2009.

I’m really proud (and more than a little envious) of Nate’s success. He’s been an excellent friend, peer and mentor and I’m excited that he’s doing so well. Excelsior!

A new review of Crossed Genres Year One