Beware of Fire Wombats

Volume 13 of Bullet Points (“Combat Motivation”) is loose in the world, and I’m thrilled to be the lead story.

“On the Snark Watch” was written during my week-long workshop, Viable Paradise back in 2013 (!).  (I posted a VP retrospective here.) Basically, I was given a prompt (“Military SF under 5,000 words”) and a deadline (4 days). Oh, I also had to work in a randomly assigned object (a fuzzy pen).

I had never attempted MilSF before. Up to that point, I’d never written a short story in less than a fortnight. In the four days before deadline, I attended lectures, read, and critiqued my fellow workshop attendees. Of course, I let the story go to the last day. Then I wrote, panicked, ate lunch, and wrote some more. By 8pm, I had a story. With some polishing, I sold it to Perihelion. Years later, I came across Bullet Points. Figured they might buy a reprint.

And here we are. Check it out if you’re a fan of MilSF or revenge tales in general.

For the second round of stories this December, we look to Wyldblood Press. They published a number of my flash stories, and this time’s a bit different.

First off, Wyldblood 17 includes my holiday story, “‘Twas the Week Before Christmas,” which was originally written for a dark anthology. The anthology wasn’t interested, but Mark Bilsborough decided it would be perfect for the season. (Hint: Santa’s elves are not the happy folks you think they are.)

Second, Wyldblood Press published my first standalone novella, Between the Stars I Found Her. As the saying goes, this one was years in the making. It’s science fiction that deals with uploaded personalities, cloning, a world-spanning benign democracy, and a mystery involving an astronaut missing for a long, long time. (Hint: not everyone fits into this pseudo paradise.)

Both are available now through Wyldblood or Am*zon. You can get digital download in time for Christmas!

Enjoy!

I’ve been holding off on my 2025 Publications list because at least three of my stories were held back for Reasons. It was a slow year for publications and I have hope that December will reverse that trend.

The official list will have to wait a few more weeks, but in the meantime, let me start you out with something new over at Metastellar, “The Trickster at the Gate.”

This story was originally submitted to the Glasgow Worldcon fiction contest, and they turned me down. Fortunately, the folks at Metastellar picked it up.

Please enjoy this very short tale of First Contact.

A couple of years ago, my friend RB Wood was publishing a regular podcast called Sudden Fictions. Every month, he’d post prompts and take 4-5 flash stories that he’d narrate. When he asked for ghost-related stories, I decided to try a SF spin on the traditional subject of the poltergeist.

Once I did a little internet sleuthing to set the scene, the muse showed me the way. (A rare but welcome occurrence!)

Enjoy! Small Wonders Magazine

There is a lovely phrase when applied to avoid writing (although it may apply to other arts as well) – “cat waxing.”

Tonight was a specialized evening of cat waxing – statistics. It was my regular writing hangout, but folks were busy, and the house cleaner was banging about the place, etc. The Muse did not appear. So rather than pound out a scene that I would later delete, I checked my submissions stats.

All Hail The Submissions Grinder!

The date is lost to history, but I started using the Grinder for years, but didn’t really start tracking in earnest until about 15 years ago. Once I completed my liminal journey to Viable Paradise, it became my faithful, frustrating companion, reminding me of my trials, tribulations, and occasional triumph. That last bit is really important when ye olde Imposter Syndrome comes to visit.

As part of the statistical review, I discovered two new tabs for my Career Bingo card, namely 50th story sale and 600th Rejection! Woot!

There are still plenty of open tabs on that card. All I can do is write, submit, repeat as needed. As my VP oath demanded, I must send the Work forth (to paying markets only) until Hell won’t have it.

Excuse me while I send a fabulous bit of flash fiction out into the world. Again.

Highlights:

• Seeing so many trees again and the massive buildup of downtown in the past decade.
  
• Muppets and Puppets panel that went accidentally R-rated.
• Insightful workshop with Arley Sorg on finding your theme.
• Autographs with Nicola Griffith and Charlie Jane Anders.
• buying only 2 books!
• Readings from Nancy Kress, Alex Shvartsman, Cat Rambo, and Jordan Korella.
• Random friend encounters with special tip of the driving cap to AT Greenblatt and Casey Blair. We hadn’t seen each other in forever.
• Amidst some awkward glitches at the Hugo Awards, it was lovely to see the movie studios taken to task for consistently forgetting to send someone to collect their awards.
• Finally, the last panel on generating flash fiction in 5 minutes (don’t try this at home) featured one pro writer who unabashedly hungover from the post-award festivities.

Back to work tomorrow morning. But hey, they’ll be time for writing after.