Remember last time I told you I was writing fiction? Me neither. It's getting to be a problem, this self-consciousness about self-promotion. My reviewer cred is better than ever, but people forget that writing stories is my principal concern. It might surprise you, but it's my principal output too. I do write more fiction than I write blog posts. But between the stories that deserve to see the light of day, those who get rejected and those I destroy in bursts of anger against myself, the market only gets the best.
Here's one coming up, for you. I have a story in the newest BEAT TO A PULP anthology called Superhero, which is going to hit the market in a week or two. I'm very glad to collaborate with David Cranmer again, who is building for himself a small empire of pulp fiction. He's a man who likes to do things the right way, so I'm very proud to be under his banner again. I wrote this story last January and it was fun to do, because I had to work from a prompt, rather than from thin air. To give you a hint at what this story will be like, think The Punisher meets Snake Plissken. I'm not saying more than that. You'll have to read BEAT TO A PULP: SUPERHERO to find out. For more information about the anthology, you can visit David's blog.
I'll have three, maybe four more stories out before the end of the year, but expect me to go under the radar for a while. I'm working on a longer project, who may or may not turn out to be a novel. After going through a creative desert for about three months, I've adopted the Chris F. Holm writing method and so far, this is working out quite well. Open the WIP once a day, hammer down as many words as you can, but keep the long writing binges for the week-end. Overall, it's less time to write, but it's better structured and therefore more successful on a creative aspect. Investing ten bucks in Freedom also turned out to be a great idea. Yesterday evening, I popped 1700 words in 90 minutes and I was rather happy with it.
Friend of Dead End Follies Richard Godwin has released his terrifying novel APOSTLE RISING in eBook this week. You can get it from Amazon US or Amazon UK, at your discretion, for a very reasonable price. For those who don't know who Richard Godwin is yet, he simply is one of the best dark fiction/horror writer working today. APOSTLE RISING is so disturbing, it makes you wonder if there's something wrong with the guy writing it. But let me reassure you, Richard's the man. He just has a very wild imagination that happens to venture into the darkest places. If you're into dark stuff, it doesn't get much darker than a Godwin novel.
If you happen to own a Kindle and love crime fiction, this is a good time of the year. The two most dynamic Indie publishing companies Blasted Heath and Snubnose Press. I had much of their material up for review next fall, but among the books I'm the most excited about are The new Gerard Brennan FIREPROOF, Jedidiah Ayres' short sotry collection A F*CKLOAD OF SHORTS (FINALLY a 100% Ayres collection), Aaron Philip Clark's sequel to THE SCIENCE OF PAUL and Heath Lowrance's new novel. Keep your eyes out, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of goodies will hit the market this Fall.