Sunday, February 24, 2019

TWO Nominations for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards!!

I was gone all day yesterday, and came back to find that I’d been nominated for TWO Categories for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards®

What a day! (coached two AYSO soccer games, one of which my son scored a huge goal(!); helped out with a Cub Scouts event in advance of my son graduating into Boy Scouts; entertained visiting family; and it’s my daughter’s birthday(!), and THEN THIS NEWS!)

I received nominations for Superior Achievement in an Anthology for: A WORLD OF HORROR (publ. Dark Moon Books), and also Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection for THAT WHICH GROWS WILD (publ. Cemetery Dance Publications), which is my baby!!!

Shocked, thrilled, elated, and more… so much more! AND IMMENSE CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OTHER NOMINEES ON THIS BALLOT!

If one is judged by the company they keep, I have bested my highest writing aspirations (well, most of them!).

Read the full ballot here, and wish me good fortune alongside so many well-esteemed peers: www.horror.org/2018-bram-stoker-awards-final-ballot/

Thank you to the Horror Writers Association, who have been an immense resource of technical information, guidance, and insight.




Friday, February 22, 2019

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Just Signed for My FIRST NOVEL!


It’s not quite the announcement of a new child, but near enough, with a Summer, 2019 delivery date:

JUST SIGNED THE PUBLISHING CONTRACT FOR MY FIRST FULL-LENGTH NOVEL WITH JOURNALSTONE PUBLISHING!!

Thank you to publisher, Christopher C. Payne, acquisitions editor Jess Landry, and copy editor Scarlett Algee, whom I’m working through edits with now.

At a healthy 120,000 words, and in the process of being named/ re-named (from working title, CROSSBUCK 'BO), here’s a summary:

A Depression-era hobo rides the rails and learns the underlying Hobo Code is a secret language that leads into the world of shared memories, where whoever is remembered strongest—whether by trickery, violence, or daring—can change history and alter the lives of the living.

That is all.


Monday, February 11, 2019

February, 2019 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

February, 2019
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)


The People's Preservatory (formerly The Cockroach Conservatory)
https://cockroachconservatory.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-peoples-preservatory-is-now-open.html
Payment: 8 cents a word (poetry up to $1 per line)
Story Length: up to 3,000 words
Deadline: March 15, 2019
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Non-themed, including weird, humor, sci fi, horror, fantasy, genre stuff, literary things. Silly and smart.


Galaxy’s Edge Magazine
http://www.galaxysedge.com/submissions/
Payment: 7 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words (though less is better)
Deadline: intermittent
Reprints?: No
Response: 6 weeks
Description: Science Fiction and Fantasy stories in all sub-genres (No horror).


Analog Science Fiction and Fact
https://www.analogsf.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
Payment: 8–10 cents a word (9 cents a word for non-fiction)
Story Length: up to 20,000 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: 2–3 months
Description: Science fiction stories in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse.


Nox Pareidolia (anthology by Nightscape Press)
www.nightscapepress.pub/p/submissions.html
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: up to 6,000 words
Deadline: OPEN: April 1 – April 30, 2019
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Heavily inspired by Robert Aickman's fiction, but openly interpreted theme of ambiguous horror/weird fiction. Whether it be ambiguously supernatural or whether what exactly has or is happening is ambiguous, or any creative idea playing off of ambiguity could be interesting to see explored. But the element that is ambiguous must be intrinsic to the story.


Drabblecast (online speculative fiction magazine and podcast)
https://www.drabblecast.org/submissions
Payment: 6 cents a word (3 cents a word for reprints)
Story Length: 500–4,000 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Up to 3 months
Description: “Strange Stories for Strange Listeners,” often also classified as “Weird Fiction” … or any and all genres, but largely centers around those of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.


Beneath Ceaseless Skies
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: Up to 15,000 words
Deadline: None at present. Closes intermittently
Reprints?: No
Response: Two to seven weeks
Description: “Literary adventure fantasy”: stories with a secondary-world setting and some traditional or classic fantasy feel, but written with a literary approach. We want stories set in what Tolkien called a “secondary world”: some other world that is different from our own primary world in some way. It could be different in terms of zoology (non-human creatures), ecology (climate), or physical laws (the presence of magic). It could be set on Earth but an Earth different from our primary world in terms of time (the historical past) or history (alternate history). It could have a “pre-tech” level of technology, or steampunk technology, or magic as technology, or anything else that’s not advanced or modern technology. However, the setting should contain some element that is in some way fantastical.




***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

Hatchet Job (Lethe Press)
https://www.lethepressbooks.com/call-for-submissions.html#/
Payment: 4 cents a word (2 cents a word, reprints)
Story Length: up to 10,000 words
Deadline: April 30, 2019
Reprints?: Yes
Response: unknown
Description: Stories of axe murderers! Stories need not focus solely on this antagonist, but all stories must somehow involve this threat or concept. Most of the book will be reprints – for which we are offering 2 cents a word. Original work pays 4 cents a word but first query the editor with a synopsis.


Triangulation (Parsec Ink)
http://parsecink.com/submission-guidelines
Payment: 4 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: February 28, 2019
Reprints?: No
Response: March 31, 2019
Description: Triangulation: Dark Skies is a celebration of the natural beauty of the night sky. We are looking for speculative tales that feature a sky full of stars as a meaningful element of the story. Take us to other times and other worlds, or show us our own place in the universe and explore our ability, as sentient beings, to see out into the depths of space. If you dare, explore what it might mean to lose that ability.