Like flippin' busses

 Why yes, it is a non-end of year post. How bizarre.

And in this case it is to crow mightily while also banging the drum for persistence.

You know that old line about you wait ages and then three busses turn up at once? Well it appears to hold true for writing of short fiction too. Looking back at my tracker I see that I had three acceptances at the start of 2021 and then absolutely nothing until now, when I've suddenly had another three. 

As an average, this is brilliant and better than I could have hoped or deserved. As encouragement to keep going during those dark days of last year it's of no use what so ever. It felt like I'd seen the best of my stuff out there and that what I had left was the dross. I'd surfed my luck as far as I could. On several occasions I considered the idea of looking for a different hobby and when volunteering for the recent Eastercon I very nearly didn't put down that I wrote as it felt like a self-aggrandisement. Which would have been a shame as I ended up on a very nice panel about writing groups.

The secret to this feast and famine appears to be persistence. The most obvious of this being the third acceptance which, according to Submission Grinder, I have submitted 34 times (!) before it being picked up.

Further to that, in both 2021 and 2022 I submitted over 80 times each, cycling through 15 stories, which, if nothing else, is an exercise in playing the odds where you eventually find the one editor who is having a moment of weakness.

What does this say about the world of short fiction publishing? That somewhere out in that wide world there absolutely is an editor who will pay you money for your story. But by no means will you find them quickly. All you can do is keep writing, keep submitting and never consider a story dead just because you've had a formal rejection from four markets on the bounce. Your story will find a home.

Oh, and, if you can, find yourself a supportive writing group. They can tell you a lot about your writing and the submission process but also a good one will keep you going through those many, many rejections.

Low risk reading for the win!

I have a new story coming out soon in a wee Canadian anthology called A Quiet Afternoon 2 and they've just opened their site for pre-orders. You can find it here

The anthology is a collection of relaxed stories ideal for a restful afternoon, something we could all do with these days. Apparently they had volume 1 out last year as a response to the pandemic and you can still find it on their website should you be in need of additional emergency sitting down.

My story is a partner to one I had published in Fireside back in December 2017 in that it features Rab the Giant again, this time having to deal with some problematic neighbours and his prejudices and assumptions. 

I like this one a lot and am very glad it's found a home, especially in something quite so suited to my interests of having a nice sit down and not getting wound up. Especially nice is that the publishers will make a donation to a local Canadian charity out of the proceeds so go on, look it up.

I hope you like it.

Special Glaswegian Offer: Due to the relaxed and Canadian nature of the anthology they asked me to tone down the language from it's Glaswegian default but if anyone wants to know how the original sounded I'm perfectly happy to come round your house and shout the obscenity at you from the street.

Sacrificial Gasoline

 

It's a new story! 

I'm very pleased to report that my story, Sacrificial Gasoline, has appeared in this wonderful publication, New Maps. You can find them here

New Maps showcases 'de-industrial' fiction and if you want more information on what that is, they have a great editorial all about it in the issue. Basically it's stories of the near future where humanity is struggling with the end of out current profligate pillaging of the planet and turning to a different way of living, whatever that may be. But not with some magic Start Trek clean energy gixmo. In my case, it's a tale told by an old granny of her childhood which is a generation or two from now.

I first wrote this quite a few years back and it has gone through a number of evolutions before finding it's home but probably the thing that distresses me the most about it is that its politics (and the politician in it) are only more relevant than they were then.

And finally a wee note on the inspiration for this story. It's often hard to know what, exactly, triggered an idea but in this case I can point to the album Songs From The Floodplain by Jon Boden. It's a (very good) album set in a similar de-industrial world and got my brain working great style. I highly recommend it and it's follow up Afterglow if you like the ideas in this magazine and/or English folk. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the story, for all its grim settings.

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.

...

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.

Two posts in a year? By jingo!

No, I'm as surprised as you that I have something to say more than once in a year.

Anyhoo, first things first. Come the 28th of May, point your Kindles and other electronic reading doohickeys at Kzine where you will find me getting a story published in their Issue 15. I am deeply pleased that they have chosen to publish my story about the apocalypse, the food chain and Scottish West Coast holidays. It's called More Certainty In Your Shopping and sits alongside some fine other stories. I hope you enjoy.

In other excitable news, I've just had my story accepted for the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle Anniversary Anthology. The circle, who have to read early drafts of all my nonsense, are thirty years old this year and to celebrate are bringing out an anthology of stories by authors who have, at some point, been members. It will feature stories from the likes of Neil Williamson, Bill King, Hal Duncan, Gary Gibson and Louise Welsh, which does make me wonder how I got in.
Very excited to be in this and fear not, I'll be going on about it for long and weary when it comes out in the autumn.

I think we can safely say I like May. The sun is out, the flowers are blooming, the barbeque is on and I can pretend I am a real writer for a while.

UPDATE: Bus-like, more news appears. If you will be at Satellite 5 this weekend, why not come along to the reading at 8 on Saturday night. Lots of excellent stuff will be read and it very much like like I'll be joining in. Hope to see you there.

Mud, mud, glorious mud

Well lummee!

The purple patch is now looking like a small purple lawn as the fine people in charge of an anthology called Caledonia Dreamin have accepted my story.

Excitingly, the last plan I heard featured launching the anthology at World Fantasy Con, which I will be at, so I may get the chance to stand beside it and grin like a non-speaking Terrileptil.

In other news, I heard that the Crossed Genres anthology, Oomph. Is delayed due to ill-health. Hopefully everyone there is better now but rest assured, when it comes out, I will annoy you all about it.

Well, suppose I better go and write something new now. Preferably not something it turns out is due to be released as a film very soon.

The Purple Patch Continues

I've been oddly hanging back on announcing this one (damn weirdy paranoia) but last weekend I had another acceptance, this time from some lovely people at Crossed Genres. They are putting together a superhero anthology and I felt it needed some mention of Nitshill Bowling Club.

It appears to be another step along my educational road as they talked of "Edits" which makes it all sound oh so much more real.

Anyway, this now, frighteningly, makes four on the bounce and probably means that Karma is going to destroy the next few attempts so hard the collateral damage will burn down a library.

The 15th of December

Not technically out until Friday but to my great joy, Morpheus Tales have released their Apocalypse Special which includes my wee short, The 15th of December.
You can see a preview here and if it interests you can buy the ebook at Smashwords or the real thing at Lulu.

Warning, may contain beer and Norwich.

First Post

Hello and welcome.

Last week I had the great news that I was to get my second short story published in Morpheus Tales Following that I decided that, should I get a third story published, I would setup one of these here blog things to track these.

To my great surprise this point rolled around much quicker than I could have expected and the wise and good of Unspoken Water have accepted a wee story about the WI.

So here is the blog. I'm learning how these things work so let me know if I can do things better.