Accepted!

Victory dance time!
A Splash of Orange was a winner and one of fourteen stories chosen for the ReadMe Publishing sci-fi anthology What If?
The book is scheduled to go to print in October and will be available on Amazon and the usual places thereafter. I'm very, very happy this particular story made it!

Here's the full list of futuristic tales chosen for the collection -

1 Extra Good Care – By Valerie Hodge

2 Not Your Ordinary Little Green Men – By Kelli Wilkins

3 Danger, Maybe – By Marian Powell

4 The Rocket Ship – By Ian Lamberto

5 The House That Doomsday Built – By Justin Woolley

6 Journey to the Surface – By Dixie Sorensen

7 The Last Soldier – By John J. Rust

8 What if Rose Was Right – By Grace Gannon Rudolph

9 Herd Mentality – By Paul A. Freeman

10 Precipitation and Devotion – By Stevie Poppe

11 A Splash of Orange – By Harper Hull

12 Austin 2009 – By Derek Rutherford

13 We Don't Do Windshields – By Don Magin

14 Teleporter – By Jennifer Caddell

ReadMe Publishing

Newsfest/50 Grand

Lots of writing and subs going on, as usual

Good news

A Splash of Orange made it to the final round of a sci-fi story contest, so fingers crossed there.

Also, one of the writing groups I am part of is sending out manuscripts for a 50-story collection with several stories by each of us. It is codenamed Fifty Grand and is a very strong anthology covering all sorts of genres. I have 4 stories involved. And with a bunch of us behind it, it will get a good push until it reaches the right hands. Excited about this! Starting with UK based publishers as most of the collective are based in England, and I think all of us are actually British by birth.

Undead Yay!

Two pieces accepted for a zombie poetry anthology - seriously!

Ten Little Zombies - a childlike, nursery-rhyme death spree in 10 stanzas.

The Undead Shall Have No Dominion - hardcore serious time! Inspired by the Dylan Thomas poem with a similar name only, er, about zombies.

The shuffling ghouls are being good to me at the moment.

In other news -

A Splash Of Orange was returned to me with a very, very nice long letter of mainly praise but, as I sort of feared, the ending was too 'out there' for them. Which is fair enough, I suspected the grand finale may be a little too much. Into the rewrite folder!

New stuff - a short story called Judas at The Gates of Hell which has nothing to do with Iscariot or Hell. It actually ended up being a steampunk piece that reads like the beginning of some mammoth trilogy in the manner of The Dark Tower. It was far too fun to write so must be crap! I'd like to see where the main protagonist goes though.

Worst Month Ever

Long time, I know.

I finally went ahead and seriously tried to quit smoking, 3 years later than I intended but a year sooner than I expected :)
It has been (and still is) awful. I'm on day 22 without a smoke, symptoms du jour included throwing up, migraines and possibly blacking out for 2 hours. Still not sure about that one.

I felt a hundred times better when I was lighting up. I know it will be worth it, but the journey to get there is horrible.

Anyway, writing stuff. I can barely read a book right now, let alone write anything. I have been keeping up with the little 1000 worder contests that a writers forum I frequent run every week. I've come up with little pieces including one about a psychic on the Titanic, (A Great & Terrible Gesture) one about a loving couple's last morning on Earth (Terminal Sunday) and my favourite, God's Librarian, a tale of how higher powers look after the world's great and classic authors until they can write their master work.

Summary: Yes, I am alive and hope to be back up to speed really soon.

Rough Terrain

A Splash Of Orange is submitted.
It took me pretty much a full 2 days and nights of editing 3000 words but I really, really like it.
I don't want to see it again for a long time but I really, really like it :)
It has been sent to an excellent old-school Sci-Fi magazine called Ray Gun Revival. Fingers crossed.

Next, finish up the Chester ghost story.
I also have an idea based on a ridiculous thing I said once about building a town especially for midgets. We'll see where that goes....

And Home Again...

OK, A Splash Of Orange is done, it's now 'in the drawer' for a bit before I go back and edit it heavily. Oh, these plastic toys pretty much represent how I picture the cosmonauts in these stories, very old school, retro-heavy futuristic chic.
Fishbowl helmets, clunky boots and comic book lazer guns.
Looking through some open markets now and seeing who would be best to send a surreal, psychological sci-fi to, with the intent of there being more in the future.

Yesterday I banged out a new story in a new setting. I think it's going to be titled On Royal Land but I'm not convinced. I have a new character, a just-teenage schoolboy living in one of England's most haunted little towns. I think he'll show up again, and live through the ghost stories I grew up surrounded by and hearing. Autobiographical mythology, yes, but the character himself is based on various friends and family, not on myself.

Bang!

Sign Language - accepted!

I just did a little dance