Writers of the Future Contest

I failed to mention that I was a semi-finalist of the Writers of the Future Contest last year, fourth quarter, 2012. That means I made it within the top 16 stories and, considering there were as many as 2,000 submissions, that's pretty neat! Though officially it still counts as losing, I did get a personal critique from award winning, NY Times best selling writer, David Farland. This was what he had to say:

"First, congratulations on being a semi-finalist this quarter. The competition was tough, and this [story] came very close to being a finalist ... [The] sense of humor that you displayed got me hooked in paragraph one, and I read it to the end and found that it was quite touching. So this is publishable as it stands ... [It] was quite effective. Congratulations on a fine story."

I was very flattered by his comments, and very appreciative of his and Joni Labaqui's time. Still looking for a publisher for this story, but I'm confident I'll find someone soon. If you're interested, the results have been posted: here.

The cover for Penumbra's February 2013 zombie issue

My story "Midnight Visitors" will be released February 1st, 2013 in the Penumbra zombie themed issue. I'd mentioned this before, but the cover image was finally released since then:

Guest blogging at Penumbra eMag

Hey readers, few and all. In case you hadn't already read it elsewhere, my guest blog has been posted to Penumbra eMag. It's called "Philosophy and Fiction." Enjoy.

Speaking of Penumbra, I saw the cover for the next issue which contains my story "Midnight Visitors" and it looks pretty cool. When I get the go ahead I'm going to post a copy of it here.

Writing Update

I have exactly 22 stories ready or almost ready for submitting. Of those 22:

19 - are already in the marketplace
02 - are waiting for good markets to open
01 - is almost finished

Of those 19 submissions in the marketplace:
13 - are at pro markets
06 - are at semi-pro markets
01 - was previously sold and is at an audio-only market
01 - is in the second round of consideration

Between my last posted submission stats and now, I had dropped down to around 4 submissions out at once. It took a lot of energy, and writing a few new stories, to get my stats back up--especially since I trunked a few and sold some others. Kind of proud of myself.

Space & Time Magazine

I just got my contract from Space & Time and sent it back out to them. After the week their website was down, I was beginning to fear they'd folded without a sign. Glad to know that's not true. I also learned from the contract that I can expect my issue to drop sometime between now and 2015. No joke! Not that I'm complaining. The moment I get that fresh printed copy in my little hands, all the months or years of waiting will feel like seconds. Granted, it'll feel like something between 1 and 64,281,600 seconds, but still!

Penumbra Part 2 - Zombies

I'm not a huge fan of prompts and themes, but Penumbra's February zombie themed issue was too tempting to pass up. Like (probably far too) many people, I'm a zombie fan. I've loved that sub-genre of horror ever since I first saw Night of the Living Dead on TV when I was eight, and the love was cemented around ten when I found a two-pack of Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead on VHS. Since then I've seen several dozen zombie flicks (mostly on DVD, most of them terrible), read a few zombie tales (novels and short stories), dressed up as a zombie twice (for good reasons, not just for the hell of it), and participated in a zombie walk at Monroeville Mall where the original Dawn of the Dead was filmed. In other words, I was well versed on the lore and felt I could make a contribution to the genre.

However, the prompt was to give Penumbra something different, not just the standard trope of shuffling corpses brought back from the dead by magic or radiation or a virus. So I probed the darkest recesses of my soul (which is apparently somewhere in my frontal lobe) and found something surprising. It was definitely different than what I'd seen and read before, but how original it happens to be will be left for the reader to decide. In any case, I submitted it.

Fast forward ten whole days to yesterday when I got my response email from Penumbra. As any writer knows, ten days in the writing world is too short for good news. The most you could expect was a rejection, or a bump up to a higher round of consideration. When I opened it, I was hesitant, preparing myself for the worst. However, it was an acceptance! Celebration and alerting my family and friends commenced, followed by a signed contract. There were apparently 600 fiction submissions to this theme, and only around five were purchased. I'm happy to be a part of that select group.

Look for the issue to drop sometime in February at Penumbra Emag!

Story sale

Penumbra Emag has picked up my story "A House in the Woods" for it's Ray Bradbury themed January 2013 issue. Very excited about that! This marks my second "pro-rate" sale, which is writer talk for markets that pay 5 cents or more a word. It'll be available from Penumbra, and I believe most major online retailers, including Amazon.com. Here's a sneak peak of the cover: