Monday, December 20, 2010

The year in review, and looking forward to next year...

Not a bad year, writing wise (and otherwise actually..). It kicked off in style with a rare burst of activity that saw me submitting three different stories by the end of January; two of which have since been published:

"Something Unpleasant" - in Masters of Horror: The Anthology
"Miramar is Possum Free" - in A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction

Inspired by these successes, I managed to finish two other short stories (involving a lot of re-writing):

"Everybody goes to hell" - wild west horror, submitted and waiting for responses...
"The Big Three-oh" - hard-ish, future war sci-fi, already rejected twice (which was quick) but submitted again and waiting...

And, I managed to find a home for a story I wrote about 4 years ago:

"Trip Hawker and the Asteroid of Vengeance" - to be published in Rockets, Swords and Rainbows: New Tales of Science Fiction

AND - I actually got paid for both published stories - I won't be giving up my day job anytime soon, but hey, I'm a PRO.

Of course, my greatest achievement was assisting in my wife's baby (due mid-January).

Coming up for next year...

Finish and submit my superhero story - when I saw the call for submissions, the story just jumped into my head, supporting cast and backstory have followed very easily...now all I have to do is cram it all in to 5000 words. Deadline is March, but it would be good to have a first draft done in the next couple of days...

Conitnue with my sci-fi novel - fitting in around the demands of a new baby.

And, of course, help my wife give birth (as much as one can..), and all the fun stuff that comes with a new baby.

And today's Drabble - hmm, Xmassy theme....

Flehm was a miserable sod; worse at Xmas. The Under-Scroggins at Flehm’s Grommitworks had to work through with fewer breaks. On Boxing Day the sadistic swine would always fire someone at random.
So Flehm chucked a dart, as usual while blindfolded, onto the crowded factory floor. Deggles, a worker of some fifty years got it, literally, in the neck.
Poetically, Deggles killed Flehm by sticking a javelin through his head. Flehm stayed miserable to his painful end.
The authorities drowned Deggles in a vat of cider, but, by golly, he died happy. Sometimes, you’ve just got to do what’s right.

And a very Merry Xmas to all...

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Foreign Country Podcast and an "ACCEPTANCE"!!!!

Thanks to the efforts of Matt Cowans, you can now hear my reading of "Miramar is Possum Free" as part of a Foreign Country podcast:

http://mattcowens.podbean.com/2010/11/13/a-foreign-country-new-zealand-speculative-fiction/

The podcast also contains Ripley Patton's competition winning "The Future of the Sky".

That's the first time I've read and recorded one of my stories - always weird hearing my own voice, and weirder when I'm attempting angry Aussie or Brazilian accents. And you'll just have to accept that I have performed the mutant possum accent perfectly - that is how they really speak, honest.

So huge thanks to Matt for putting the whole thing together and sticking on the web.

Other news...

My story "Trip Hawker and the Asteroid of Vengeance" has been accepted for an anthology called "Rockets, Swords and Rainbows- New Tales of Science Fiction", to be published next year by the sci-fi offshoot of the Library of the Living Dead Press. As a rule, it's a site big on zombies but they're happy to branch out into all kinds of pulp, genre stuff.

I wrote the Trip Hawker story about 4 years ago (at least in its first form). Spec Fic NZ's newsletter had the submission details and it just clicked that it would be the ideal place for it.

So, to pay tribute to the zombie-lovers of "Library of the Living Dead", here's 100 words of zombie action:

The undead lurched towards Brian and Jess. She climbed up some scaffolding and Brian followed. It creaked.
“It’ll break,” she shrieked. “Stay there. Fight them.”
“No way,” he shouted. The scaffolding wobbled.
Two zombies lurched forward, grabbing at their feet. Jess screamed and kicked Brian.
He fell between the two zombies. In a moment one had bit into his neck.
The pain was furious, filling his soul. His blood pumped out. The cold, alien virus streamed in.
Brian died.
The zombie dropped his dead flesh; turning back to the girl.
Brian felt hungry. He saw Jess and licked his lips.