Isaiah's Attic

I've been somewhat self-absorbed as of late, hence the lack of posts. I've also been struggling with my muse. I spent four days on a flash piece earlier this week only to come to the realization that it simply wasn't working and could not be salvaged in its present form. Four days on a flash piece is unacceptable. I should have been working on my novel. Oh, well. Moving on...

Last night was better. I finally managed to finish a story that I wrote quite a long time ago but ended up setting aside because it needed a rewrite and I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to take yet. It's kind of an absurd little piece so I have no idea where to send it, but at least it's done.

On the publishing side of things, I received contributor copies of both Beyond Centauri and Fictitious Force this week, as well as a way cool t-shirt from Necrotic Tissue. Haven't sampled any of the fiction from the contributor copies yet but since the issue of FF contains stories by LJ friends aliettedb and tchernabyelo, I'm looking forward to it.

Also worth mentioning is the review I received from Sam Tomaino of SFRevu. Sam calls my story "Half-Sneeze Johnny" one of the best in the magazine (Kaleidotrope). Full review here.

And last but not least, I received a bit of love recently from The Last Short Story Project as well. Ben Payne called "Penny Wise" nicely written and engaging. Full comments here. "Penny Wise" is from the latest issue of Shimmer.

And that about wraps it up.

Unexpected zombie story, that is. I wrote one over the weekend. I'm generally not much for this particular horror trope (I'm not much for vampires or were-critters either), so I really didn't think I'd ever touch on it in my own writing, but it seems my muse had other ideas. I'm not sure how well the end result will stand apart from the countless other zombie stories out there, but I suppose the only way to find out is to start shopping it. I'm actually pretty happy about how it came out.

"In My Darkest Moments"

1700 / 1700 words. 100% done!

And in other news, my contributor copies of Kaleidotrope #4 arrived in the mail today! I haven't read any of the stories yet, but since I enjoyed issues 1-3, I'm pretty confident I'll find the current offering more than satisfactory. And to show my support for the mag, I just ordered a t-shirt from CafePress with issue four's cover image on it. I shall wear it proudly. :-)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it spring? The reason I ask is because there's a full-scale blizzard underway here in Toon Town. I just drove home through near zero-visibility conditions, and the bad stuff isn't even supposed to start until tomorrow! We hit 24 degrees Celsius a week ago and now this? It seems old man winter was only having a nap. The bastard.

Kaleidotrope #4, which features my story "Half-Sneeze Johnny" is now available. This is one of those cool offbeat mags that you should definitely check out if you haven't already. Plenty of bang for your buck. This is my second (and hopefully not last) appearance in K's pages.



Poetry
"Househunting on Mars" by Bonita Kale
"Praise for What I Don’t Know" by Thomas Zimmerman
"Cracked Shells" by Beth Langford
"Spring in the Lab" by Alyce Wilson
"Farm School" by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
"A Manual For Good Housekeeping in the Age of Global Warming" by Miranda Gaw
"Ivanikha" by Dana Koster
Two Poems by Franz K. Baskett
"Worldviews on a Desert Trail" by Jason Huskey
"Towards the Afterlife" by Aurelio Rico Lopez III

Plus! (quoted direct from website)

"Who Goes There," Betty Ragan's interview with Marc Schuster and Tom Powers
"The Rise of the Fembots: A Brief Introduction to Female Android Sexuality in Film" by Eric Borer

Artwork from Remi Treuer, Rod Walker, and Lisa Willis -- and assorted other fun! I hope you'll consider picking up a copy. For just $4 ($6.50 international), it's a steal -- and all that money goes directly back to my contributors, keeping them happy and fed!

And, amazingly enough, two years of this hasn't quite deterred me yet! I'm accepting submissions for issue #5.
  

Stopped off at the bookstore yesterday to pick up the last installment in a new series by Christopher Golden. I really enjoyed book one and am just about to start on book two. I also looked for some Brian Lumley while I was shopping and was fortunate enough to find two short story collections in the clearance section. Love when that happens.

Last night was poker night over at a friend's place. It's a once-a-month game that I always look forward to and seem to do rather well at. I ended up winning both games for a total profit of $95.00. I suspect this extra cash will translate to further additions to my library. There are a few books on my amazon wish list I've been meaning to purchase for a while now.

Managed to get a flash in over at LH today. It's only my second flash in the last 3 months, so I was a little rusty, and ended up writing a vignette rather than a full story, which is basically what I set out to write, so I guess that's okay. As of right now, I like how it came out. Tomorrow I'll probably feel differently.

Received word last night that Necrotic Tissue will be running a dark flash piece of mine in their October, 2008 issue. Twenty-five bucks plus a Necrotic Tissue T-Shirt for a 1000 word story. Not bad at all. :-) I mentioned a while back that my dark offerings seem to be more favorably received than my light ones and my last few sales seem to be bearing that out.

On the progress front, I've been working on something that I started about 6-8 months ago but didn't feel confident enough to finish. It's going to be a bit on the longish side, I'm afraid, but the depth of characterization required in this one necessitates the extra words, so there's not much I can do about it. Genre-wise, I guess I would call it dark magic-realism.

6467 / 9000 words. 72% done!

I mentioned about a month back that I'd sold a story but couldn't reveal to whom until a later date. The reason for this was because the TOC was to be unveiled at The World Horror Convention at the end of March, and the publisher asked all of us contributors to keep the lid on it until afterwards. The table of contents has now officially been loosed upon the world so I can finally follow up. The sale:


How's that for a kick-ass cover and TOC? Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped to be a part of this. :-)

I started working on a new story this morning and told myself that I'd finish it by the end of the day. It's now 1:40 am here, technically tomorrow, but since I haven't slept it doesn't count as tomorrow. The story is finished, and lo and behold, the final word count fell into my sweet-spot range, which I've mentioned before is 3000-3500 words. It's a quiet horror piece, tentatively titled. Feels good to hammer out a story of decent length (and hopefully decent quality) in one day. Been a while since that happened, what with working on the novel and all.

"Patience"

3538 / 3538 words. 100% done!

The final season of Battlestar Galactica starts in less than one hour. One hour! This is one of those rare shows that has remained consistently good through the duration of its run (unlike, say, Lost, which kicked ass at the start but had me swearing and shaking my fist at the TV screen before the end of season two). I just wish more people I know would have given BSG a chance. 

1) Flash over at LH this weekend. I had planned on participating but I ended up spending most of yesterday afternoon doing research for my novel instead. I couldn't go forward on chapter 16 without a better understanding of Ley Lines and Haitian death squads so it was imperative that I spend a few hours familiarizing myself with both topics.

2) Submit a story to WOTF for the first quarter. I had a finished story; I just never got around to printing it off and throwing it into an envelope. Despite intentions to the contrary, I have yet to enter this contest.  And at this rate, I never will.

3) Write a <500 word flash piece for Raven Electrick's March submission period. I was hoping to redeem myself for the two duds I sent in during the last submission period but sadly I never found the time. Ah well, maybe next year.

My poor neglected LJ. :( Been lost in novel land for about a week and a half now, though I have had to pause to do revisions on a couple of shorts along the way. I've also had to rewrite certain sections of said novel to accommodate new ideas, which has put a dent in the overall word count. Still making progress, though, and I suppose that's what matters.

I'm getting sick, throat's swelling a bit. I'm really hoping it's not the rock 'em, sock 'em bug that has been going around lately because I'd really rather not be out of commission for more than a few days, and by the sounds of it, this bad one is taking its toll over the course of weeks.

And to go with my ailing body...

...nightmares! I've had some deeply disturbing ones over the last few days. I'm still holding my wife partially accountable for every terror that happens across my sleeping mind, as she still hasn't fulfilled her promise to make me a new dreamcatcher to replace the one we had hanging in our room back at the old apartment. I'd like a blue and beige one, please. :-)

Thimblerig

28288 / 50000 words. 57% done!

It seems my story “Seasonal Lending,” which appeared in The Sword Review back in May/07, has been chosen for inclusion in Double-Edged Publishing’s best-of-the-year anthology, Distant Passages, Volume 3. I’m happy to report that I’ll be sharing the TOC with a few talented folks from my f-list, namely: marshall_payne, ravenelectrick, and sacredmime. :-)

And in other writing news, my story “Patchwork” is currently live over at The Written Word. I hope you'll check it out! Just ignore the fact that the title is misspelled on the page. Hopefully it’ll get corrected soon.

I hate Duotrope's new icons.

Well I certainly didn't have to wait very long to hear back after the hold notice I mentioned a couple posts ago. My horror tale "Our Trespasses" has been accepted for inclusion in In Bad Dreams, Volume 2: Where Death Stalks. Pending edits, of course, and by the sounds of it, the edits are going to be on the heavy side. I guess I'll have to wait and see. Anyway, I'm pretty pumped about this. As far as I know, this anthology will be launching at the world fantasy convention in Calgary later this year. I'm still undecided as to whether I'm attending said convention, but if I do happen to be there, I'll have the opportunity to meet the editors and perhaps a few of the other contributors as well. This is my fourth sale in eleven days. Woot!

And in other happy news, my story "Unholy Fruit" is now live at The Drabblecast. Norm Sherman did an absolutely phenomenal job on the narration. I was smiling the whole way through. It's a weird thing, listening to your own work like that. Almost surreal. But super cool. I'll definitely be sending more stories Norm's way. He's a talented guy. I really do hope you'll have a listen. My story is probably seven or so minutes in. :)

I knew niacin caused skin flushing, but I didn't realize just how much flushing. I also didn't realize that if ingested with a hot beverage like, say, ginger tea, the side effects could be exacerbated. Note to self: Do your homework. Dosage is crucial. First came the red and itchy skin (it looked like my entire body had been severely sunburned). This lasted for approximately thirty minutes. Next came the chills, which, thankfully, passed within only fifteen minutes or so. Everything is back to normal now, save for the slight case of vertigo I was attempting to get rid of in the first place. Methinks the rest of the niacin will be headed for the garbage. Lesson learned.

In happier news, I received my contributor copies of Shimmer today. It's a beautiful thing to behold. I can't wait to read all the stories. I'm also anxious to see how "Penny Wise" fares with the various reviewers the magazine usually goes to. This is one of my personal favorites as far as my own stuff is concerned so I could see myself taking it a little hard if the story ends up getting knocked around a bit.  I guess we'll  have to wait and see.  Anyway, if you haven't purchased a copy or subscribed yet, I urge you to do so. Click here.

Received a hold notice today from In Bad Dreams: Volume 2. It seems there are 26 stories total now under consideration and the editor plans on taking approximately 12 of them, so it's looking like almost 50/50 odds. Fingers crossed. I realized something today after getting this note: My darker stories tend to be more favorably received than my lighter ones.  I'm not sure there would be an appreciable difference in sales statistics, but in the form rejection vs. personal rejection department, darkness wins hands down.

Heard back from Seth Crossman over at OG's Speculative Fiction today regarding my science fiction story "Lucidity." It seems he'd like to buy it for a forthcoming double issue. Woohoo! Seth had this to say about the piece: "I loved this story. Simply fantastic!"

This story was lost in no-response land for almost all of 2007, so it feels nice to finally find it a home.

Received some happy news in the inbox this morning but unfortunately I'm not supposed to talk about it just yet. I will say that it's a sale, but I'll have to leave it at that for the time being. :-)

On the progress front, work on the novel continues. The villain is a pretty sketchy character so far. I'm clear on his role as far as actions are concerned, but I'm still a bit hazy on motivation. I've got an idea for a past event that would have shaped him but I'm not sure how to go about revealing this information to the MC.

"Thimblerig"

18000 / 60000 words. 30% done!

No writing done today, but I did receive a bit of happy and unexpected news regarding my prose poem “Our Wings,” which is slated to appear in the December issue of Star*Line. The estimable Bruce Boston has apparently picked “Our Wings” as one of two Editor’s Choice pieces, which means that in addition to appearing in print in Star*Line, the poem will also be appearing online at the SFPA website. It also means I’ll be receiving twice the pay. :-)