2017: The Year of the Step Up

Hello all and Happy Holidays.

Firstly, I have a new story out. Yay! Normally at this time of year I do a review of the year and post up an old story for you. But today I happen to have a new story out from the wonderful people at Fireside Fiction. It's called Rab the Giant and Witch of the Waterfall and it is available to read for free here  right now. It's a wee story about the monsters of yore and how they get on in the modern world. It features cake.

Go, enjoy, I'll see you later if you feel the urge to come back for more of my drivel.

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Oh, hello, thanks for coming back. Hope you liked it. If you did, please do consider chipping some money towards Fireside to help cover their costs. It all helps towards them providing more and better stories.

I've been attending story telling events of late and a lot of their stories are traditional fairy tale type stories. They all start wth 'Once upon a time' and have a moral and this was my attempt to do something similar. With luck and some insightful critiques from the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle I'm feel I've got a fair way towards that.

Also, did you see the illustration they gave my story? How flipping wonderous is that? By Marianne Khalil and I'm not sure I can quite express how awed and overjoyed I am to look upon it.

Anyway, now that I've calmed down from my great excitement let's turn to my more normal end of year review thingy.

Until quite recently it was looking like a quiet year. I had a story out in KZine way back in January but there has been a wee flurry recently. Obviously there is this new story out but I've also been told another three have been accepted for publication. A flash piece on the dangers of ancient technology, a bit of far future action with musings on memory and a second story to Fireside featuring a university library janitor and his talking cat.
Expect to get spammed by me when those appear, hopefully next year.

Another thing of note is that back in October I celebrated five years since my first publication. That was The Greatest Rocketman, published by Sein und Werden and you can read it here as a previous year's Christmas present story. As such I thought I'd do a wee roundup of how those five years have gone, with a graph (ooo).

Mostly what this graph shows is that I hate Microsoft's Excel and can't get it to do what I want, but it does also show that, after my best year for number of publications in 2013, I only just got away without a complete Granny in 2014.
This being a good reminder to myself that one good year does not mean that the next will be similar. Those laurels must remain un-rested-upon.

Which, obviously, means I need to get my finger out and write more to hawk around next year.

Still, if, five years ago, you'd told me I'd have seen this much success with my wee writing hobby I'd have laughed right in your face. If you suggest I might even do similar in the next five years I will still laugh in your face.

Any roads, thanks to everyone who has helped me by reading or critiquing or publishing my nonsense. You're all lovely people.

Writing on the shoulders of giants

I've sold a story!

Very pleased to be able to say that Fireside Fiction have bought a story from me called Rab the giant versus the witch of the waterfall. They have an announcement here

It's a modern fairy tale featuring giants and witches (obvs) and is silly. I hope you like it when they publish it.

I'm pleased for many reasons. They are good people with a politics I like. They publish wonderful stories. It's a fun, daft story which makes me smile. And they pay at a professional level.

Payment is always nice, exposure gets you arrested, but there is a definition by the SFWA of what counts as a professional pay scale and this is the first time I have sold at that level. Normally it's a token fiver and a comp copy, which is always appreciated, but for someone to like something enough to pay the pro rate is such a wonderful boost and write the shock.

Probably the only time I'll make this level but, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be smug about it for a bit.

It's always colder in your memory

Hello dear people. In this time of strife and upheaval let me ignore all that for a moment and tell you of an incident that happened to me when I was but a wee child and growing up in Ayrshire, the land of Burns, cows and decayed towns. But not here, oh no.

Rather, why not pop along to KZine where, in their latest issue, I have a new story all about said incident. There is mystery, weather and half a dozen rolls. Can you spot the point where I may have slightly embellished the story from its real life origins?

KZine is a Kindle based magazine but I see that they have started on-demand physical copies, if that's your thing. May have to get one for my brag shelf.

Also, while you are there and if you have not already,  you could pick up issue 15 where I previously had a story about the apocalypse.
Sorry if it comes over as a bit too topical at present.

Anyhoo, hope you enjoy these. I now have the rest of the year stretching out before me as a blank canvas with no future publishings planned, so I'd better get my finger out and write more.

Ta-ra for now.