This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING: The King of Lies by John Hart. I love Hart's writing style, deluded narrators and dysfunctional families, so this was always going to be right up my alley.

Short stories: 98 - 109 of 500. Faves this week:

Sun Dogs by Brooke Bolander at Lightspeed
Gorgeous story about Laika, the dog sent into space in 1957. I have a weakness for unusual POVs, and this is a great one, managing to describe both a familiar environment and an imagined one through the filter of what is effectively an alien consciousness. The dog's experiences and memories are heartbreaking, tempered by an unexpected but highly satisfying happy ending.

In Metal, In Bone by An Owomoyela at Eclipse Online
Quietly emotional story describing the tragedy of war that's both bleak and beautiful.

The Life and Deaths of Rachel Long by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - self-pubbed
Atmospheric and evocative piece about the power of music, idealism and obsession. Manages neatly to be uplifting and unsettling at the same time.

WRITING: Revising 'Can't See a Good Thing,' a 2,537 word near-future SF, and writing 'Sweetie,' a new 1,600 word horror about a man and his tarantula.

WATCHING: The Following. Still loving it, but every ep I have to work all over again to believe the central premise that Carroll's cult exists at all. 'We all want somewhere to belong,' says Parker, and yes, that's probably true--except, surely, for sociopathic serial killers, who are not usually known for team spirit and playing well with others? Putting this lot together should be like herding cats--surely the wheels have got to start coming off this well-oiled machine soon?

LISTENING TO: All You Need is Now by Duran Duran. One of my favourite albums of theirs, this makes  great exercise music. Repeated plays of 'Being Followed' definitely influenced the paranoid vibe of the SF story.

CHECKING OUT: Wattpad. Anyone have any experience, either as writer or reader? On my first browse around, I saw a lot of nifty cover art but... maybe not so much nifty writing?

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING:
Whiskey Sour by JA Konrath. I do like a good female tough-guy, and this fast-moving pulp detective novel has a great one in Lt. Jack Daniels.

Short stories: 87 - 97 of 500. Faves this week are both from Apex:

If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky 
Not a new core plot (is there such a thing?) but a fresh execution - beautiful, in a whimsically melancholic way.

Death Comes Sideways to the Mall by William Alexander
Fun story with darker undertones, in an absurdist mundane way that reminded me of Kelly Link.

WRITING: A 2,700 word SF horror.

WATCHING: Avengers Assemble. Before I saw it, I expected I would like it a lot more than I actually did. And on rewatching, I realised I'd remembered liking it a lot more than I actually did. Hmm. I'm not sure why. I love Mark Ruffalo's Hulk and Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, and I like all the others, so I'm not quite sure why it always ends up feeling like less than the sum of its parts. Maybe because I never read the comics so don't bring any history/resonance to it?  I'm sure people who never watched Firefly probably think Serenity is a good film, but if you're already a fan then it makes it better?

VOTING ON: The Pseudopod Flash Fiction Contest. You need to join the Escape Artist forum to view the stories and comments, but it's easily done and well worth it-- it's fascinating to see people's comments on not only the stories themselves, but how they decided which ones to vote for, & how it's not always the ones they expect.

PUBLISHING:  Comic fantasy 'Not the Pizza Girl' at one of my very favourite story sites, Every Day Fiction. Since I used to be a mobile beautician, and on many occasions drove miles to a client's house only to find they'd completely forgotten having booked me, I completely share Lisa's frustration here :)

New story at Every Day Fiction - Not the Pizza Girl

My W1S1 from Week 15 last year: a comic fantasy about an accidental demonic infestation in Essex. Because, you know, that happens :)

Not the Pizza Girl

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

WATCHING:
Blade Trinity: Damn, but I love this film. Wesley Snipes is fabulously badass, Ryan Reynolds lets rip with some of the most amusing profanity since Dexter's Debra Morgan, and Dominic Purcell is the most glorious Dracula ever. His face when he's in the goth shop (vampire vibrators!) is priceless. Also love the moment when they give Blade the Dracula comic--very Lost Boys. 

Supernatural Season 6: In the 'what's your favourite show ever' stakes, the answer would have to be Buffy. There are also very special places in my heart for Prison Break and Life on Mars. But although I was never in the fandom, the show I probably rewatch the most is Supernatural. If shows are like relationships, this is the friend I hung out with for a few years before realising I'd fallen in love. One of my favourite things about Season 6 is Soulless!Sam--I like the way that they didn't make him into a different character altogether--an evil Hyde, or Angelus. Instead, he's recognisably still Sam, just a super-pragmatic and  ruthless version. And frequently hilarious, too. The scene in the UFO-abduction ep, where Dean is fleeing for his life through a cornfield, yelling about anal probes, and Sam is listening to him on the phone while sitting in the bar, going, 'Yeah, another beer, please,' is hysterical.

WRITING: A 3.5k SF thriller.

SHUDDERING AT: Tarantula growing antlers. Sometimes, Nature totally does horror writers' jobs for them.

LOOKING FOR: Kurt Vonnegut recs. What's the next best one to read, after Slaughterhouse Five?

CREATING: Cover art for my crime flash fiction collection, Shallow Cuts. Coming soon!

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING: The English Monster, by Lloyd Shepherd. From the first 50 pages, I think I'm going to like it. Nicely described, atmospheric, intriguing setup.

Short stories: 80-86 of 500. Faves this week are:

The Infill Trait by CC Finlay at Lightspeed.
A really interesting Military Experiment Gone Wrong story with a wonderful, fracturing, freewheeling voice perfectly suited to the increasingly lost and paranoid narrator.

The Finite Canvas by Brit Mandelo at Tor.com
Beautifully-judged story of murder, betrayal and (possible) redemption with both a gripping plot and complex, layered characterisation.

WRITING: A horror short about an empathic child and a humour SF flash about memory and blackmail.

WATCHING:

• Nashville. From the first two eps, I like it a lot. Good characters, interesting situation, murky backstory, hints of nefarious deeds in the offing. And I like the music, too, which I didn't expect to.
• The original Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes TV series. I never saw this show, saw any of the films or read any of the Conan Doyle stories, until after I'd already seen the Cumberbatch reboot and Elementary--both of which I love. It led to the strange effect of watching this and having my first reaction be, 'Ooh, a version where Sherlock and Watson are both Victorian gentlemen! How radical.' And then I facepalm because, yeah. 

WISHING I HADN'T CLICKED ON: This. Why did I do it? I really, really, did not need to see this.

SELLING: 'Not the Pizza Girl,' a comic fantasy about an uninvited party guest to Every Day Fiction (it's due to run on March 11th) and 'You Don't Want What I Get,' a horror about monsters and gangsters, to Untied Shoelaces of the Mind (it'll run when Issue #8 is filled). I like getting too use this category!

WEEKENDING: in Edinburgh, since my husband had to go up anyway, for work. Touristing, whisky-sampling and taking plenty of photos of spooky alleys and graveyards, to be used as future book covers :)

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING: The Harlequin by Laurell K Hamilton. I can't seem to quit this series, although I'm not entirely sure why. Possibly it's two parts nostalgia, one part car-crash voyeurism and one part instruction of the 'what not to do' variety. This one has Edward, which is always good value, and it also has more talking than sex, which hasn't been the case for a while. I just wish so much of the talking wasn't slut-shaming.

Short Stories: 69-80 of 500. Faves this week:

The Wanderers, by Bonnie Jo Shufflebeam at Clarkesworld 
The voice is wonderful, with just the right amount of 'offness' to be credible and intriguing without becoming incomprehensible. There's a dark sense of glee in the narrator's anticipation of violence, and an unexpected pathos when it doesn't pan out--like a little boy crying because the flies he was going to pull the wings off are already dead.

I Heard You Got a Cat, I Heart You Named Him Charles by M. Bennardo at Daily Science Fiction.
A perfect flash, with so much story told in so few words.  Plus, this is creepy with a capital CREEP.

WRITING: A 4k contemporary fantasy about a goddess who goes for life coaching.

WATCHING: 

• Django Unchained, which I thought was tremendous: some absolutely wonderful performances. 
• The first Black Mirror, 'Be Right Back'. The central idea was almost identical to that used in Caprica, but--possibly because this was so much more 'right around the corner'-- it was far, far creepier here. I spent most of it cowering, yelling 'haven't you ever seen any piece of science fiction EVER? This stuff Does Not End Well.' The actual ending, although still very unsettling, came as kind of a relief. 
• The Losers, which was a very generic action film but really made me miss John Winchester. 

WONDERING:

• When you hear a cover version of a song before the original, do you tend to prefer the cover?
• What percentage, roughly, of the stories in any given issue of a magazine would you buy for your own, if you had one?

BEING GRATEFUL FOR: the fact that beginners can benefit from the wisdom of those who came before us, like this by Helena Bell on cover letters. Gotta love the Internet!

PUBLISHING: What Doesn't Kill You, a 4,500 dark fantasy from Transient Tales Vol 1, as a standalone e-short. It's great that we can now release stories individually, like singles, as a taster. Gotta love the Internet part 2! (Link goes to Smashwords: Amazon in progress)

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING: Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. I found this easy to appreciate and admire, but a little less easy to love.

Short stories:  63 - 68 of 500. Faves this week both come from Daily Science Fiction:

The Needs of Hollow Men by K A Rundell: I love empath stories, and this is a good one. Excellent internal descriptions and an unexpectedly sweet finish.

For the People by Ronald D Ferguson: If you can buy the premise (and in the increasingly-virtual world, it gets easier each day) this is a satisfying story.

WRITING: a 3.5k cannibal horror story, plus 2k of a lightly-comic superhero story.

WATCHING: The Following, with Kevin Back and James Purefoy. Some of my top narrative kinks are charismatic sociopaths, manipulative puppetmasters, broken obsessives and people who go to insane lengths. This show was MADE for me. Also Rizzoli and Isles, which I love more and more each ep. It's so nice to see a female bromance (is there a word for this?) for a change.

LISTENING TO: Battle Born, by The Killers. Great album, IMO their best since Hot Fuss.

SHOPPING FOR: my holiday: Muse, The Killers, Slipknot and Rammstein t-shirts. Roll on New York!

WORRYING ABOUT: having a money spider lay eggs in my brain after I tried to lift it out of my hair and accidentally snorted it up my nose instead.

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING: Locke & Key Vol 4, Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. Love, love LOVE this series. Fantastic artwork, brilliant story. Wonderful sense of menace throughout. Highly recommended.

Short stories: 51 - 62 of 500. Favourite this week was
Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabet Songs of Love, by Merrie Haskell at Apex
Sweet robot love story in an interesting setting. How can you not love a character called Robot!Ophelia?

WRITING: A 2.5k horror-y, slipstream-y story with an unreliable, secretive narrator. Could be too oblique? We'll see.

WATCHING: 'Ricochet,' Dude, that was not a good film. Julie Benz and Gary Cole are always good value, but that was the only upside. Normally this kind of twisty-suspense story relies a lot on misdirection, but this was so badly put together that I had no idea where it was trying to direct me in the first place. Out of many, many issues, what bugged me the most was (!!SPOILER WARNING!!) that when Elise fakes her own death, a body is fished out of the river wearing her dress, and identified as her. And this poor woman, who was presumably murdered to make this possible (unless Elise keeps a stash of dead clones on ice, in case they come in handy?) is never mentioned again, by anybody--not even the supposed-good-guy cops. I just kept thinking, doesn't anyone care about her? Was she just the wrong lookalike in the wrong place? Maybe there's a companion-piece story in there, telling her side.

QUOTING: Dean Wesley Smith: 'The truth is that the best way to sell books is to write a lot, work on learning how to be a better storyteller constantly, get your work in front of editors, readers or both, and plan for the long haul.' You can't argue with that.

TAKING: Dean Wesley Smith's advice to Think Like A Publisher and set my production schedule & deadlines for the rest of the year. Publisher-Me is happy. Writer-Me is gibbering in terror. If I'd known I was going to be such a hard-ass boss, I might  have re-thought this gig.

LISTENING TO: my favourite TV theme music, from Romanzo Criminale - you can hear it from 3.30 to 6.00 on  this clip

WISHING: that this was real. If someone could just nip through a wormhole into the parallel universe where it exists and pick me up the boxset, that'd be awesome. Ta.

This Week, I Have Been Mostly

READING: Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. Privilege subtext, where the reader knows more than the character, is a great storytelling technique, but it's slightly overdone here -- rather than me feel superior and creating tension, it made Dex come across as a little obtuse. But that said, I do love this series and it's fun to see characters, such as Doakes, that aren't in the TV show any more.

Short stories: up to 50 of 500. Faves include:

Child-Empress of Mars by Theodora Goss reprinted at Lightspeed
I've never read the 'Mars adventure' stories that this is riffing off (note to self: you should rectify that) but it was still interesting to see this kind of thing done from the aliens' perspective, and I liked the themes of performance and storytelling. The world-building initially seemed random and overwhelming, but quickly became charming.

Dysphonia in D Minor by Damien Walters Grintalis at Strange Horizons
Sweetly melancholy story of love and destruction, using an interesting song-creates-buildings metaphor as backdrop. It's a shame we don't find out more about Lucia's motivations, but it's still an effective story.


WRITING: a short SF tale set on a red planet and featuring the theme of 'wherever you go, there you are'. Which is not necessarily a good thing.

WATCHING: Utopia, on Channel 4. Only seen the pilot, but what a pilot it was. Interesting, diverse characters, an involved plot, great bad guys and a nightmarish, creepy vibe. Definitely coming back for more.






LEARNING: how to create epub and mobi files by hand, without using conversion software. It takes a while to get your head round it, and it's fiddly, but once you've got the basic structure (and templates) down, it's not that hard. And you know you're getting nice, clean, stable ebooks that a) do what you want them to do and b) are easily updated with new links etc. It takes time, but it's worth it. Which leads on to:





PUBLISHING: Transient Tales Volumes 1 and 2 - 20k collections of short SF, fantasy & horror stories.

Volume 1: Amazon UK / Amazon US / Smashwords / Kobo

Volume 2: Amazon UK / Amazon US / Smashwords





FINDING USEFUL: The Submission Grinder by Diabolical Plots. I always kept my subs on a spreadsheet (because, spreadsheets!) so I didn't feel the loss of Duotrope that much, but I did miss that sense of being in a Rejections Submissions Gang. It's nice to see all the reports coming in -- makes it feel that much less lonely.

WORKING WITH:  the Vampires Tarot of the Eternal Night, which gives surprisingly upbeat, positive, self-help style readings. It creates a bit of cognitive dissonance to get a 'Woo, yeah, you can do it!' pep talk from vampires, but I like it.

Transient Tales Volume 2 now available

From  Amazon UK / Amazon US / Smashwords  (Kobo pending)

Learning to do all this stuff by hand has been a challenge, but one I've thoroughly enjoyed. I once did one of those 'Are you right or left brained?' tests and came out squarely in the middle, so my brain loves both the unrestrained wildness of writing the stories and the ordered, logical process of making them look pretty. Which is quite handy for a self-publisher :)

Transient Tales Volume 1 Now Available

From Amazon UK / Amazon US / Smashwords

I feel like a very proud parent :)

Now to crack on with formatting Volume 2!

This Week, I Have Been Mostly...

READING:
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Nice to see a book live up to the hype for once. Loved every calculating, misdirecting, manipulative line.

Short stories: Up to 40 of my 500 target for the year. Faves:

Final Corrections, Pittsburgh Times-Dispatch by M Bennardo  at Daily Science Fiction
This is great fun, with a tremendous dry sense of humour. Original format, and a lovely example of what flash does best: telling you the story without actually telling you the story.

The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairytale of Economics by Daniel Abraham, reprinted at Lightspeed
This kind of reminded me of a serious Discworld story. Thoughtful and entertaining, and just goes to show what you can do with Word of the Day-style prompts.

Luna e Volk by Mercedes Yardley in Beautiful Sorrows
Not everything in this collection  has worked for me so far, but this was gorgeous--a poetically violent and tragic love story.

WRITING:
A 5k horror story about two sisters and an ill-judged deal with a demon. Just Say No, kids.

WATCHING:
American Horror Story: Asylum. When you find yourself watching from behind a cushion, muttering, 'Please don't let the deranged Nazi rape the dead nun,' this is the only show it can be. It's a mad mix of every horror trope there's ever been, and I love it to death.

DISCOVERING:
That it looks like JJ Abrams is going to direct the new Star Wars films, and a fair few people seem to think this is not good because he fucked up the Star Trek reboot. Yikes, did he? I thought that film was brilliant! It always worries me when that kind of thing happens, because I think, what did I miss?

LEARNING:
How to code html, and build epub & mobi files by hand. It's been a hell of a learning curve, but I think I just about climbed it.

WANTING:
One of these: zombie teddy bear How awesome?

Transient Tales series - cover art

Covers for the first two volumes in my Transient Tales series of short stories. They're due to be available at Amazon etc by the end of the month.

This is all very exciting! As Dean Wesley Smith says, I love this new world of publishing.

New story at Every Day Fiction

I love EDF, and it's always a thrill to have a story there.

Out Shopping in Hyperspace - 594 words - SF
'Space vegetables?' Joe shook his head. 'You're such a baby, Mia.'

2012 Stats

Total pieces written: 95 (63 flash, 30 short stories, 1 novelette)

Rewritten or scrapped: 30
Published: 22
Awaiting publication: 1
Banked for collections: 26
In Revision: 4

Submissions: 124
Acceptances: 23
Rejections: 96
Pending responses: 12 (3 at 2nd round stage)
Sales: 5 (1 pro, 1 semi-pro, 3 token)

W1S1: 42 weeks out of 52

I don't think that's too shabby, but it can (of course) always be better! I want to write more shorts than flash next year, a couple of novelettes and at least one novella. And make 200 subs.

Onwards!

New Story at Yellow Mama

Issue #35 of Yellow Mama is out now, including my 1,165 word crime story 'Like a Boss'

There's a very sensible bit of advice that says you should always make sure your second-in-command knows what's going on, in case you get hit by a bus--or a massive heart attack. Jay's boss didn't follow that advice, and now Jay finds himself at a bit of a disadvantage...


The office safe was empty except for a folded bundle of notes that might just about have paid for a couple rounds of beers, his home safe had some fake ID and a rumpled picture of ex-wife number three, the one who disappeared with the alligator wrestler down Florida.  And that was all.  So where in hell was the rest of the stuff?  

Read the rest at Yellow Mama #35

New story in Penumbra eMag

The December issue of the wonderful  Penumbra eMag , from Musa Publishing, is out now. The theme for this issue is 'Utopia,' and it includes my story 'For Your Safety and Comfort,  Please Keep Arms, Legs and Tentacles Inside the Car At All Times' 

This is a story about finding God. Not in the usual sense of undergoing a religious conversion, but literally discovering the omnipotent creator of the universe. During a house clearance in Balham.

'God,' Katie said. 'Actual, biblical God.' 

'I know. But it's amazing what you can find tucked away in these places, sometimes. And that old lady was one hell of a hoarder. I wouldn't exactly say biblical, though―we're not talking about the old man in the flowing robes and long white beard. It's more of a... well, a...' she trailed off.

'A trickster coyote? A shower of gold? Alanis Morisette?'

'No, no,' Lia said. 'Nothing like that. It's more like... okay, remember my Great Aunt Doris, the one with all the tea cosies? Try to imagine a cross between her, that security guard who arrested us for shoplifting eyebrow pencils out of Superdrug when we were kids, and the Grand Canyon.'

Katie dutifully tried to imagine this. She failed. 

Read the story in vol 2, issue 3 here

New story at Roar and Thunder

I have a new SF teleportation story up now at the wonderful Roar and Thunder:

Meredith Said - SF - 1,639 words

Meredith said that he should always remember that history gets written by the winners, and that what was in the books wasn't always how it actually happened in real life.  

This story was inspired by watching the Doctor Who episode 'The Beast Below.' What I took away from the ep was how sorry I felt for the poor space whale, and it struck me that first contact with an alien could very well end up being a lot less about awe and wonder and more about the opportunity for profit.

New story at Apocrypha and Abstractions

I have a new flash up today at the wonderful Apocrypha and Abstractions - tasty little mouthfuls of story.

Leap of Faith - SF - 150 words
They say Icarus's sin was hubris.

New story at Morpheus Tales

My mid-apocalypse story 'No Past, No Future, Just Now,' is out now in issue #18 of the wonderful Morpheus Tales.

Preview
Print version
Kindle version

My contributor's copy is shiny and beautiful - while I love my Kindle with a fiery passion, there's still something special about print :)