Two Upcoming Anthology Releases With My Stories

Hello there- I've got stories in two different collections with other authors coming out soon.
They're both great, and worth checking out.

Busted! Arresting Stories from the Beat from Level Best Books will be released April 25, 2017.
It's a collection of law enforcement stories.

Level Best Books also produces the annual Best New England Crime Stories, and I've been in the collection every year for the past three years: Windward, Red Dawn, and Rogue Wave.

Next is the new collection from the Horror Writers of Maine, Northern Frights.
From Grinning Skull Press. 
If you like it scary, this one's for you!
No date for release yet, but it's coming soon!

First Story of the Year Published!

Hello All.
Am very happy to see my first published story of the year, One For the Road, in Crimson Streets.

Click here to read it.

And there's some terrific artwork- an illustration by the talented L. A. Spooner:

They tell me it's the last story of their first year of publication. Cool milestone.

Last year, my story Forever Amber was the last story ever accepted by the awesome ThugLit.
Would rather these excellent publications keep going!

And have three more stories sold that will be appearing in various publications ere long. Here's to a productive year!

New Story Out

My latest story is out at Over My Dead Body, an online magazine. And you can read it for free!

It's a pithy little gem, a flash crime story, short and to the point.

Hope you like it.

Don't forget-- if you want a chance at a number of free ebooks, we have a big holiday giveaway-- check out a previous post.

Charity Anthology is out!

It's out as of today!

Nightfalls: Notes from the end of the world (Kindle edition)
A charity anthology in which twenty-nine writers from three different countries present their unique visions of the end of the world in half a dozen genres.

Folks, some of these writers have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (a very prestigious literary award), and the stories are good ones. All the proceeds go towards a children's charity, so you get to help out while enjoying good writing.

Help spread the word and make it a better holiday for everyone.

Yeah, I've got a tale in here, and it's a good 'un- "Our Lady."

New Story and Win News Link

Big news this week-- my latest story "Our Lady" is coming out in the Nightfalls anthology,
where all proceeds go to a children's charity.

The other exciting news of the week is that my fellow  Briona Glen author  Cathy Dougherty and I are winners in the contest
"50 Great Writers You Should be Reading." 

Cathy is the author of In Polyester Pajamas.

New stories, lots of Work

Howdy. It's been a productive week- probably the previous vacation time helped to clear the mental buffers and pave way for this.

Sent a story off last Monday.

Tuesday, started a new story. Finished it on Wednesday and sent it off.

Thursday, saw a notice of a new anthology with specific instructions for what they wanted.
Got sparked, and began a new story, The Atomic Kid.

Four days of work, and I thought I'd nailed it by this afternoon. Then I noticed the required word count meant I had to add another half-story in. So I took another 5 hours (missing the Patriot's first regular-season game in the process) to finish up and submit. 5000 words is a good-size story.

All I can say is-- Phew!

I had a big list of things to get done. But it took all day to finish one thing. That's the way writing goes sometimes.

But I'm happy. This is what successfulw writers do.

That was my "weekend off". How was yours?

New Story

After a busy July, where I didn't get much new writing done, I buckled down this weekend-- and got a complete new story out, start to finish.

3600 words, and what I feel is a really good one. Am brain-tired but extremely pleased. Any time I can crank out a good story in two days, of a decent length, I'm a happy man.

Submitted it to the anthology Once Upon an Apocalypse.

And no, it's not a story about giant lobsters...

New Story, New Strategy

Whew! Just finished a big task. Earlier this week, I started a new story, "Ruination Beach," an apocalyptic tale.

I had no idea what to write, only the title. With that in mind, however, I did envision darkness, and so it proved true.

And so 'tis finished. Almost 5000 words, and a corker of a dark tale. Am amazed at how well it came out, once I buckled down to work. It's been months since I've written a new story.

In the past, I'd have fired up Ralan's and Duotrope and found a good market to submit to. It would be on its way already. But I have a new strategy.

I'm collecting groups of themed stories, putting them up for sale as mini-books. Like the very talented Katherine Tomlinson.

So instead of waiting many months to read this story, you should be able to see it fairly soon. Along with a number of other ones, some previously published, and some brand-new. Just a lot of technical issue to solve, lots of extra formatting to do.