All the Little Secrets…

So tonight was the second time I have been left alone with both of the kids since Benjamin was born a little over 3 weeks ago.  The first time wasn’t so bad, but tonight was a doozy.  (You know it’s bad when I pull out a term like “doozy”).  Emma, our daughter, was crying because she apparently now hates bedtime and Benjamin was crying because the beast that is his stomach demands to be fed every 90 minutes or so.

Usually, this would have driven me pretty close to insane.  However, the acceptance in my inbox this afternoon did a lot to help.

My story “All the Little Secrets” has been accepted by The Edge of Propinquity.  For those of you who missed the explanation of this story a few posts back, it was one of my many attempts at a literary story with horror and sci-fi elements to it.  It is also mostly the internal dilemma of one man while at work…but he has a pretty interesting job which, I believe, makes the story readable.

According to the contract, this one will be up in July.  I will obviously keep you all posted.

Oh and also, I am scheduled to see some preliminary art for the first few panels of issue #1 of Birdwatching From Mars this week, so I’m excited about that as well.

Now to try to squeeze in an hour or so of editing on The Bleeding Room.

Inbox fixed

After complaning about a lack of responses yesterday, I received two of them this morning.

One was a rejection for my story “The Mannerisms of Runners” which was turned away from the guys over at Brain Harvest. I have since tidied it up and am looking elsewhere to send it. This story had already made the transition from 2,200 word short story to 635 word flash very nicely. If it doesn’t sell in the near future, it may also have to endure the transition to poem. (By the way, it seems as if I am running out of places to send flash fiction. Anyone got any suggestions)?

The other response came from the fine folks at The New Bedlam Project. For those of you that have expressed confusion in the comments sections of a few posts over the past week or so, THIS is the project that was shrouded in secrecy. I, as well as a few other writers, were approached to contribute stories for the first edition of the project and my story, “In the Broken Arms of Sleep” will be included. I’m very excited about this acceptance for two reasons:

     1 -It gave me a reason to use a very odd plot that I had been having a hard time finding a home for

     2 – It was the first time I had ever been approached to contribute material (a very cool addition to this…3 days after receiving this request, I got another that, I’m afraid, will have to remain a secret until the end of May or so).

So yes, apparently the cure for getting no responses on your stories is to openly complain about it on your blog.  And if you don’t have a blog, I recommend you get one.  All the cool kids are doing it.

They’re also on Twitter, where I have been a member for about 2 months but keep forgetting to broadcast to everyone.  Find and follow me under the name bnapier.

Oh, and, as if I didn’t have enough going on, I have recently become involved in Absolute Minimum.  Check it out if you get a chance and, better yet, send us something!

…and September ends with a BANG

Everyone else does this sort of thing for their end of the month round up and I always enjoy reading such posts.  So I thought I’d give it a go.  Keep in mind that the month of September was spent in a mad frenzy to try to find work, so writing took a bit of a back seat.  So anyway, September’s writing tally looks like this:

“Accidental Deaths of the Dying and the Dead” was picked up by Arkham Tales.

Wrote the short story “The Drums Will Take You There” and subbed it to Dia de los Meurtos

Wrote a very surreal flash peice that’s a curious mix of a prose poem and train of thought fiction called “The Waiting” and subbed it to Every Day Fiction.

Got a hold request for my story “Jinx”

Wrote a measly 3,700 words on Broken Skies.

Did extensive editing on Hell on Earth, Book 2 and realized that I may never finish it.

And then there’s the news that I’m BURSTING to talk about but I refuse to do so in the fear of ruining it by over-exciting myself.  I will simply say this…the final day of September seems like a very jumbled blur to me.  It involves 2 lengthy phone conversations regarding something I have been tinkering with and writing on for about 2 years.  I have another such conversation scheduled for today with the same people about the same project and it has the potential to be HUGE.  But I’m not giving my hopes up yet.  Rest assured, if things go well, I will post it here.  This is big…so big that part of me is thinking that there has been a mistake…that this is too good to be true.  I am so nervous that I only had 2 cups of coffee this morning despite the fact that thoughts of the scheduled phone conversation (which I will be having in about 4 hours) kept me up most of the night.

Curious yet?  Sorry…but all will be revealed soon enough.  In the meantime, wish me luck!

“Accidents…” will happen

I got the great news over the weekend: my short story “Accidental Deaths of the Dying and the Dead” will be published in Arkham Tales.

I had a blast with this story.  It was initially written in the hopes of getting into Dark Jesters but it wasn’t nearly comical enough.  So when I got that rejection, I took the supposed-to-be-funny stuff out and made it a bit more morbid.  That is the incarnation of the story that you will soon find in Arkham Tales.

This was a pleasant way to temporarily make me forget about the whole unemployment thing…

A two’fer

In what is one of the better ways to finish off an otherwise distressing week, I have had a SECOND story accepted into the Northern Haunts anthology!  This story, “When the Dead Carry Us Away” is one of those rare occasions where I actually sort of spooked myself while writing it.

Anyway, because I really don’t like posting short posts, I’ll send you into your weekend with a video clip a writer-friend of mine sent me.  Enjoy…both the video and the Tim Burton-on-acid type nightmares that are sure to follow.  (In all seriousness…if you’re prone to seizures or get creeped out easily, ye be warned…)

Oh, and be sure to cast your votes: is the creator of this thing a genius or severely unhinged?  Or both?

The Good Luck Vacation

We just got back from vacation. I’m tanned, relaxed and, more importantly, tired.  I am absolutely beat and, after having unpacked everything with my wife, am ready for bed. Still, fatigue and the end of the vacation aside, there is much to rejoice over. Not only was I away from work for a week and constantly in a pool or on the beach, but I also managed to get two acceptances within a period of 3 days. (Note: I am aware that my previous post stated that I would try my best to not check my e-mail while on vacation but my will is apparently very weak).

The first acceptance was for my story “Tricks of Shadow and Light” which will be included in SpecFicWorld’s It Came From Planet Mars anthology.  I’m very excited about this one because the story has been with me for a while but I never had the guts to write it until this anthology came around.

The second was for my story “Grave Seasons” which will be featured in the summer edition of Southern Fried Weirdness.  It’s loosely based on my fascination of the real-life zombie rituals that are practiced in Haiti and some odd southern cultural history.  Sort of.

During this week, I also learned that the set-up for Blood Routes is coming along nicely and a start-up for the first post/section should be coming soon.

Now to sleep and prepare for my return to normalcy.  I just home my return to work does not end this streak of good writing fortune.

First acceptance of ‘08

As always, I checked my e-mail the moment I arrived to work this morning. I do this quite a bit (as in about 10-20 times a day) when I have many subs floating around in limbo. And sitting in my In Box this morning was a mail from Shroud.

My short story/flash piece “Bogg’s Island” has been accepted for their Northern Haunts anthology!  Notice that in the title of this post I said “first acceptance”…that is because all proceeds from the anthology are going to the American Cancer Society and I plan on donating the money I would receive for the story to their cause.  So while it’s technically the first “sale” for me of ‘08, someone else will be getting the money.

Peeking around the horror forums, this anthology seems to be generating quite the buzz due to the subject matter and setup.  If you’re unfamiliar with it, go HERE, scroll down a ways, and check it out.