A Taste of Friendship: Personal Bests Journal, Issue

My darkly humorous story, "A Taste of Friendship", first published in "Vortex: The Inner Circle Writers' Group Literary Anthology, 2018”, by Clarendon House Publishing, as been accepted as a reprint to appear in David Gardiner's forthcoming "Personal Bests Journal: Issue 3".

My story Pregenesis featured in Personal Bests Journal. Issue 1.  

Scifaikuest: "Fear Unmasked"

Indie speculative fiction publisher, HIRAETH PUBLISHING, has accepted my 100-word drabbun, entitled, "Fear Unmasked", for their online/print magazine, "Scifaikuest".

A haibun is a hybrid story and poem, consisting of a pargraph of prose concluding with a connected haiku. A drabble is a 100-word story. Combine the two, and you get a "drabbun", which is a 100-word story which concludes as a haiku (without exceeding the same 100 words).

13 Lives of Alice

I wrote one of the thirteen bizarre chapters in this 13-author collaboration led by co-author, D.J. Elton. Naturally, my own chapter (Watership Sideways) will include a Carrollesque poem or two. The book also features some interior illustrations. I can't wait to get my own copy. :)

13 LIVES OF ALICE - COMING SOON from BLACK HARE PRESS
https://books2read.com/13-lives-of-alice
Alice in Wonderland rehashed for grown-ups.
Alice in Wonderland as you’ve never seen her before. Vampires, werewolves, witches, robots, ghosts, and aliens…and even a few dalliances with romance…
But will she ever get home?
Alice is well-known for her adventures in odd places, and her battles with terrifying creatures. She always overcomes the ferocious forces that try to destroy her—she’s a timeless A-list heroine, after all.
And now she’s all grown up, the adventures haven’t stopped.
But can Alice still survive the challenges as she did as a child? Can she work her way through a range of speculative fiction genre stories, each with its own major confrontation?
What significance does the White Rabbit hold? Will he…can he?…help her get home?
And when Alice finally confronts her thirteenth nemesis, does she have the courage to face fear itself?
#WritingCommunity #bookbloggers #bookblast #shortstories #amwriting #horror #darkfantasy #amreading #paranormal #writerslife #anthology #indieauthor #comingsoon #Amazon #kobo #nook #aliceinwonderland #blackharepress #holidayseason #shopindiebooks

As promised back in September, two of my best works about "Journeys" have been reprinted alongside similarly strong pieces by other great authors and poets for this charity anthology, benefiting Doctors Without Borders. You can purchase a copy on Amazon here:

"Dark Trek" is a action-horror story about the obstacle-strewn journey of a young woman to 

reach shelter of .her fiancé's cabin in the woods after a nuclear attack, first published in the monthly ezine, World of Myth Magazine.

"The Right Stuff" is a long-form comic adventure poem about the journey of an "old school" astronaut to explore a mysterious object in the Oort Cloud, first published in the quarterly ezine, NewMyths. 

 

Horror Tree Submission: Zombie Epistolary

 In other publishing news, I submitted three, connected zombie drabbles to Horror Tree's "Trembling with Fear/Unholy Trinity" feature, and received a tentative acceptance, requesting edits. 

[Update: the trio were accepted, with publication expected on December 24th].

Besides the zombie theme, the three drabbles were related only by the novelty of their epistolary format. However, the editors suggested a way I could make two of the three related. I therefore wrote a new drabble to subsitute for the last drabble, establishing a firm relationship between the three.

The submission is still pending, however. I don't yet know whether my revised submission will be accepted. Horror Tree has published two prior drabble-trios, and the results were included in a subsequent year-end anthology: Trembling With Fear: More Tales from the Tree,Volume 2. I would like to be in another one, someday.

Rise and Fall: Breaking Rules Europe

I'm sorry to have submitted only one drabble (so far) to this anthology, "Birth of the Mountain-Valley Nation"

but I'm proud to announce it was accepted. I will share any updates including the purchase links as they become available.

Unity Volume 2: Angelic Series

 My contribution to the charity anthology Unity Volume 2 (proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders) will contain six angel-themed pieces! 

• Two cartoons: "2 Heaven" and "2 Tickets to Paradise";
• Three poems: "Where Angels Dance" (light verse); "Body of Proof" (a sonnet); and "Not the Whole Angel" (one of my best-liked poems, also technically a reprint*); and
• One short story (horror): "Wings of Hope", originally published in "Full Metal Horror 2" by Zombie Pirate Publishing, who have published several of my stories.

An anthology definitely worth owning, I'll post the purchase link when available. Meanwhile, here is the link to Unity, Volume 1 (also a charity volume for DwoB)

*Not the Whole Angel was first published in Dastaan World Chapter 4: Dreamscape, Sept. 16, 2018, on page 50. The once-free magazine is now defunct, and archive copies are only available for a fee.