I'm currently on the train back from Nine Worlds, which was for the most part a lot of fun, but which I'm at this precise moment too tired, hungover, and not-quite-sure-of-exactly-what-I-thought to try and blog about. So here's one I prepared earlier...
I remember writing quite a grumbly post when I got my first short story acceptance of 2014, that being Twitcher to the fine folks at Pseudopod, thanks to the fact that it came in goddamn May and four and a bit months is a fair while to go without a sale. (In fact it had been quite a bit more than that because the tail end of 2013 hadn't been exactly brilliant either.) Well, it's August now and I'm grumbling substantially less. In fact if things were to keep on like the last couple of months then I'd be happy indeed ... which of course they probably won't, so I'd better get my positivism in while I can:
- First up I sold Twilight For the Nightingale, the story I'd been unhelpfully referring to as my homoerotic supervillain story, to Resurrection House's forthcoming XIII anthology. I'm hopeful that this will be one of those rare perfect pairings of story and market, because it sounds like it's going to be a terrifically bonkers book. I mean, you know when editors normally say they want something a bit like Neil Gaiman or whatever? Mark Teppo name-checked Kafka, Gene Wolfe, Darren Aronofsky and David Lynch. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this one.
- Out of the blue I got some good news, not to mention a little unexpected cash, when Kat Rocha of 01 Publishing got in touch to say that the previously e-book only Whispers From the Abyss collection, which includes my My Friend Fishfinger By Daisy, Age 7, had done well enough to warrant a print edition. As I've noted before now, this was a terrific little collection and deserves to do well. I've since discovered that 01 have run a Kickstarter for the project, which has finished now but remains well worth checking out for its fantastic trailer. If I wasn't due two copies as a contributor then I suspect this would have been the first Kickstarter I got actively involved with, because I want me a Star Spawn poster something bad.
- Soon after that I got my quickest ever acceptance, when relatively new outfit Eldritch Press got back to me within four hours to say that they'd like to take my story Br(other) for their upcoming Our World of Horror anthology. I genuinely assumed this was some sort of mistake until the contract came through, because four hours. That's barely even a real amount of time. I mean, I've spent that long in the shower before now. Anyway, if the cover art is anything to go by then this one is going by both great and seriously warped.
- I realised that I might as well send one of the short comic scripts I've been sitting on for years to Futurequake, who published a couple of my early efforts in that department a few years back. The one I opted for was a story called Conservationists,which I'm hopeful may be the only occasion of anyone telling an alien invasion story through the eyes of an urban fox. It's a frankly insane, completely dialogue-free bit of work, and I can't wait to see what an artist makes of it.
- Last but not least, and unusually up to the minute in that I only found out three hours ago, but Jonathan Green, official Nicest Man in Fantasy (and yet, paradoxically, the world's meanest Just a Minute player), let me know that he'll be using my The Shark in the Heart for his forthcoming-next-year-from-Snow Books anthology Sharkpunk.
Because yes, apparently, now that's a thing.
So there we go. I'm still way behind on my target for this year, which should theoretically be going really well due to all the additional time I have and in fact is going worse than last year, when I had hardly any time at all. But a couple of good months surely does take the edge off, and who knows? There may yet come another surge of goodnewsery before the year is out.
I remember writing quite a grumbly post when I got my first short story acceptance of 2014, that being Twitcher to the fine folks at Pseudopod, thanks to the fact that it came in goddamn May and four and a bit months is a fair while to go without a sale. (In fact it had been quite a bit more than that because the tail end of 2013 hadn't been exactly brilliant either.) Well, it's August now and I'm grumbling substantially less. In fact if things were to keep on like the last couple of months then I'd be happy indeed ... which of course they probably won't, so I'd better get my positivism in while I can:
- First up I sold Twilight For the Nightingale, the story I'd been unhelpfully referring to as my homoerotic supervillain story, to Resurrection House's forthcoming XIII anthology. I'm hopeful that this will be one of those rare perfect pairings of story and market, because it sounds like it's going to be a terrifically bonkers book. I mean, you know when editors normally say they want something a bit like Neil Gaiman or whatever? Mark Teppo name-checked Kafka, Gene Wolfe, Darren Aronofsky and David Lynch. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this one.
- Out of the blue I got some good news, not to mention a little unexpected cash, when Kat Rocha of 01 Publishing got in touch to say that the previously e-book only Whispers From the Abyss collection, which includes my My Friend Fishfinger By Daisy, Age 7, had done well enough to warrant a print edition. As I've noted before now, this was a terrific little collection and deserves to do well. I've since discovered that 01 have run a Kickstarter for the project, which has finished now but remains well worth checking out for its fantastic trailer. If I wasn't due two copies as a contributor then I suspect this would have been the first Kickstarter I got actively involved with, because I want me a Star Spawn poster something bad.
- Soon after that I got my quickest ever acceptance, when relatively new outfit Eldritch Press got back to me within four hours to say that they'd like to take my story Br(other) for their upcoming Our World of Horror anthology. I genuinely assumed this was some sort of mistake until the contract came through, because four hours. That's barely even a real amount of time. I mean, I've spent that long in the shower before now. Anyway, if the cover art is anything to go by then this one is going by both great and seriously warped.
- I realised that I might as well send one of the short comic scripts I've been sitting on for years to Futurequake, who published a couple of my early efforts in that department a few years back. The one I opted for was a story called Conservationists,which I'm hopeful may be the only occasion of anyone telling an alien invasion story through the eyes of an urban fox. It's a frankly insane, completely dialogue-free bit of work, and I can't wait to see what an artist makes of it.
- Last but not least, and unusually up to the minute in that I only found out three hours ago, but Jonathan Green, official Nicest Man in Fantasy (and yet, paradoxically, the world's meanest Just a Minute player), let me know that he'll be using my The Shark in the Heart for his forthcoming-next-year-from-Snow Books anthology Sharkpunk.
Because yes, apparently, now that's a thing.
So there we go. I'm still way behind on my target for this year, which should theoretically be going really well due to all the additional time I have and in fact is going worse than last year, when I had hardly any time at all. But a couple of good months surely does take the edge off, and who knows? There may yet come another surge of goodnewsery before the year is out.
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