If for an obscure purpose, you ever start writing short stories and intent to publish them, you will notice a certain pattern. For months, nothing you've landed will get published and no one will hear about you. People will start asking if you gave up writing. They will ask you that question so much, you will start doubting yourself. "Am I writing enough?" and "Shouldn't I strive for publication more? and "Who am I, really?" are questions that will start cruelly waltzing in your head.
But in this business, things come out in clusters. There are two phases in a writer's life. The writing and the publishing one. During the writing phase, you live with your characters, like the proverbial invisible roommate that you are. When you're done, submit and go back the make-believe world right away. You never really stop writing, but every six months or so, you get into the publishing phase. The hard-working, hard-living creatures that are editors get their magazines on the shelves and you have to come out from hiding and promote your work.
About ten days ago, BEAT TO A PULP: SUPERHERO came out, featuring my story DOBERMAN: THIRD PARTY LAW ENFORCEMENT. It's sort of my love-letter to Snake Plissken and Batman all at once. It ranges more towards the "very heroic person battling supervillain" than a full-fledged superhero story, but most of these stories are. I'm very happy to be collaborating with David Cranmer's terrific outfit once again. Beat to a Pulp does a tremendous job at bringing back kickass literature at affordable prices. I believe in what he's doing and I'm excited to be a part of the movement. If you want to be too, buy, read, review his Beat to a Pulp books or just share the word.
I have other stories coming up. Soon. First stop next week, Near to the Knuckle. They will publish my story THE DEVIL'S SHINBONE, which came to mean a lot to me. I wrote it last June for the Watery Grave Invitational and it didn't rank. So I corrected a few things and offered it to a well-known paper publication, which rejected it. The editor told me the story was good, but that it went down the toilet bowl towards the end. You know what? He was right. I pulled up my sleeves and reworked the bits I thought didn't work. I sent it to Darren Sant's eZine and he accepted without second thought. This is a great, up-and-coming zine that features writers like Chris Rhatigan, David Barber, B.R Stateham, Graham Smith and AJ Hayes, so I'm proud to add my name theirs.
Later next week, OFF THE RECORD 2 : AT THE MOVIES is coming out, edited by veterans Luca Veste and Paul D. Brazill. My story WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S will be featured. It's featuring other great picks like R. Thomas Brown's LOST HIGHWAY and AJ Hayes's DEAD MAN (fuck, I love that movie). I'll order the paperback copy, you?
I got two more stories up in the air. One in submission and the other for the new volume of a well-known anthology. If everything works fine, it will be the longest thing I've ever published. It's not THAT long, it's six thousand words, but still. It's twice as long as my longest publication. Went out of my comfort zone big time on this one. It looks like I've been spending all my time writing shorts, I know, but those stories, I wrote from January to August. It's just all coming out at the same time. I'm six thousand words down into what could be a novel too and Josie is out on a business trip until Sunday. So it's write or die for me until then.