Kevin Lucia's Blog, page 35

RoberCon, Anne Serling, Panels, TOMORROW

Tomorrow will mark a historic day in Binghamton genre history: our first speculative fiction conference, which of course makes all the sense in the world. This was Rod Serling's hometown, after all. Of all the places to host a speculative fiction conference, Binghamton makes the most sense. Here's some of the details below, from the RoberCon page of the Roberson Museum and Science Center:

We invite you to be part of Binghamton, NY’s first ever SciFi Convention being held at Roberson Museum and Science Center.  Roberson features great amenities with tremendous space including a three story museum, an historic mansion and a Digital Planetarium.  It’s the perfect setting as we host fans of every age and imagination.



RoberCon will feature a special guest appearance by Anne Serling, daughter of “The Twilight Zone” creator, Rod Serling. She will appear at RoberCon from 1-3pm offering a reading of her book “As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling.”  Serling will also participate in an audience Q&A and sign and sell copies of her book. 

A combination of over 30 business vendors and Fan Groups representing SciFi, fantasy, games, videos, comics, podcasts, art, steampunk, costuming and more will take part in the event at Roberson. 
RoberCon guests will be able to interact with vendors and fan groups, participate in a costume contest, enjoy multiple gaming opportunities, experience 17th Century battle and have access to Roberson’s various exhibitions.  The Bellydance Ensemble of the Southern Tier will also be hear at 11am to entertain our guests! Additionally, several SciFi enthusiasts will take part in a variety of panel discussions relating to local film making, SciFi literature, costume building, Star Wars, Star Trek,Doctor Who and the legacy of Rod Serling and “The Twilight Zone.” Special demonstrations will also take place in Roberson’s Digital Planetarium throughout the day. So the first SQUEE! worthy item is of course Anne Serling as our guest of honor. I hope to meet her and not act like a blubbering idiot, and get a copy of her memoir, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling. Also, I'll be speaking on the following panels: 12:00 - 1:00 From Star Wars to Superheroes: Myth in Modern Storytelling
Computer Lab (second floor)
Presenters: April L’Orange (moderator), Kevin Lucia, Chuck Rothman, Craig DeLancey
Everything old is new again. Whether it’s movies or TV, books or comics, fantasy or science fiction or something in between, some of the most powerful stories we tell incorporate elements of myth. We’ll talk about the empire myth that shows up from Star Wars to Dune, the golem story behind Frankenstein and The Terminator, Arthurian legend in Tolkien’s work and Babylon 5, and more. 2:00 - 3:00 Between the Covers (Or Not): The Changing Face of Book Publishing
Computer Lab (second floor)
Presenters: Joshua Palmatier (moderator), Jill Shultz, Paul Juser, Kevin Lucia, Carrie Cuinn
In many ways, the publishing industry didn’t change much between the Gutenberg printing press and the end of the 20th century. But in the last 10 or 15 years, all bets are off. Online bookstores and shrinking profit margins have created an environment where small publishers and indie authors have supplemented huge publishers with familiar names. A book may no longer be a chunk of paper sandwiched into a cover. Writers, editors, artists and publishers will talk about how the process of putting the book into the readers’ hands continues to transform.I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, also jazzed that many of my students will be attending. And no, I won't be speaking about horror at all, but the organizers of RoberCon invited me because they'd like to expand the convention to include horror, and we've even talked about me running RoberCon's horror track, so I'm excited to break some ground in that area.I'd heard somewhere RoberCon had sold out, but it doesn't say that on the website, so if you're local, try to register and come out. I'll have advance copies of Things Slip Through  that I'll be selling at a special convention rate, all day long. Hope to see folks there!

"Horror 101: This Apartment is HELL!" and Continuing Series on Horror

A few days ago I began a blog series on the importance of the horror genre and what it's capable of at Kristen Lamb's blog. Part One of "Why Is Horror So Important?" ran on Wednesday and Part Two ran on Thursday, and today should see the release of the next segment of the series, Part One of "Why Writing Good Horror is - and SHOULD BE - Hard."

Also, another segment of Horror 101 is up, a piece I affectionately call "This Apartment is Hell!" In it, I examine how the "the house" motif - or what Stephen King calls "The Bad Place" in Danse Macabre - is played out in apartments,  most notably in The Sentinel  by Jeffery Konvitz, The Brownstone , by Ken Eulo and Rosemary's Baby  by Ira Levin. My recommended additional readings in "the house" motif this month are Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan and No Doors, No Windows by Joe Schrieber. 


Now, I've gotta admit two things, here:
1. All the books in this month's segment could easily be cross-listed as "religious horror" with their themes of demon possession and satanic conspiracies. It's likely that when I move into that segment of horror, I'll revisit one or all of these novels and look at them from THAT perspective. 
2. I willingly shoe-horned Rosemary's Baby into this month's podcast. Admittedly, the conspiracy of those LIVING in that apartment building is the center of that novel's "evil force" and not the apartment building itself, but I offered up the premise that fellow tenants can simply be considered extensions of the "home" you're moving into, and went from there. Hope listeners will forgive me for the liberties taken, here.
Anyway, enjoy! 

"Why Is Horror Important?" - Guest Blog Series at Kristen Lamb's Blog

Yesterday began a blog series over at author and instructor Kristen Lamb's blog on my thoughts about the importance of the horror genre, and what it's capable of, and why good horror can be hard to write. Part One of "Why is Horror Important?" drew lots of great comments, and I hope today's Part Two will draw just as many.  So, come on over. Chime in on yesterday's post, and join today's conversation.

On Being Thankful In Spite Of It All

First, a couple news items. Lamplight Volume 1 has hit Amazon as a paperback, featuring my serial novella "And I Watered It, With Tears" as the lead story. It's one of the stories I'm proudest of, the most personal story I've ever written. I hope some folks will check it out, and with fiction by Ron Malfi, Kelli Owen, Bob Ford, Elizabeth Massie and tons of other folks, there's more than enough reason to snag a copy.

Second, the times and guests have been confirmed for the ninth annual Halloween Book Signing at the Wilkes, PA Barnes & Noble. This year boasts quite the list, especially with Brian Keene and Mary Sangiovanni joining us. Those two themselves makes this worth the trip.

Also, the first official review of my first collection of short fiction has popped up, and as first reviews go, it's quite the snapper. Here's a nice snippet:

In Things Slip Through Kevin Lucia has done a masterful job of weaving a common thread through a series of brilliant short stories. Though each tale could easily stand alone he has brought them together into a collection that’s as disturbing as it is captivating. He will delight you with a touch of the creeping horrors of H.P. Lovecraft and a giant handful of his own devious mind power.

Now, I'm not sure how much "devious mind power" I actually possess.  But I'm grateful for the kind words, hope to hear more, and it leads right into today's blog: that in spite of all the anxieties and conflicts and worries I expressed in Sunday's blog - about whether or not I'll ever "make it" or break into a larger audience or sell a short story at a "professional rate" or land even a mid-list novel deal, I'm intensely grateful for whatever little success I've achieved so far.
However, I decided to switch the title of this blog from "Being Content" to "Being Thankful" because I'm not content, yet. I'm not done. I've got more writing to do, more stories to submit, more markets to target. BUT, I am totally thankful for how things have turned out so far.
A box filled with my author copies of  Things Slip Through arrived last week. The cover is beautiful. The formatting of the book looks clean and smooth. Even the SIZE of the book blows me away. It's not that awkward trade-paperback size (so often found in the small press) that's too big to read with one hand. It's almost the size of an Angry Robot mass market paperback. This doesn't look like a small press book at all. It looks - it IS - high quality, professional work.
And I'm grateful that I landed with Crystal Lake Publishing. I've had the idea for this collection bouncing around the last three years or so. But I wanted to wait. When Crystal Lake approached me about publishing a collection of my work, I took a little bit of a risk. They were new. Only had two titles to their names. But I saw the authors they'd signed, and thought the venture worth the risk.
Seeing whose short fiction collections they've picked up along with mine - of both Gary McMahon and William Meikle - coupled with the wonderful end product and how preemptive editor Joe Mynhardt has been in marketing this book and putting up with me, I'd say this risk has turned out to be worth the taking, even without selling a single book. 
Things like profits and contracts and readerships are hard to control on the writers' end - maybe almost impossible to control. You have to be smart and aware when judging opportunities,  be wise in the choices you make and remain true to your voice and values, but in the end the ONLY thing you can control is what happens when you sit down every day and WRITE YOUR ASS OFF.
For the past year - roughly one year ago - I've done that with Things Slip Through. I collected the stories, drafted the collection, edited, edited, edited, and edited some more. I agonized, excised some stories, edited, added another story back in, edited it one last time...
And here it is.
A beautiful product. And the best part? I read it through the other day, and I don't hate it. For me, that's saying something...

To Be Honest With You...

...I've had a slightly difficult time writing, lately. Not writer's block, exactly. I kinda don't believe in writer's block, and besides, I don't ever get it. My problem is not coming up with an idea about what to write, most times, it's choosing between ideas. No, I've suffered from a slightly different problem, lately.

I kinda just...don't feel like writing. And because I get up every morning at 2:30 AM to write, when that alarm goes off and I don't feel like writing, at all...

I sorta roll over and go back to sleep.

Which I've done several times the past two weeks.

But I'm not overly worried. There are several factors playing into this. First of all, school just started back up two weeks ago. That's always draining, until I get into the swing of things. Second, I enjoyed an amazingly productive Spring/Summer. I finished off the collection, finished the second draft of Billy the Kid and sent it to beta readers, wrote three short stories and some flash fiction, and currently, I have two more short stories to be published in the next two months, the collection, a flash story and my serial novella were published just this last week, and I have three novellas sitting with BIG publishers right now...

So I'm kinda tired. A little drained. But also? I'm tired of something else, and I think I need to be honest about it.

I'm tired of writing 'on spec.' (on speculation). What that means is, most the stuff I write, I've got no publisher for. The story's in my head, I need to write it, so I do...with absolutely no guarantee it'll ever get published.

And...I'm sorta tired of it. Probably sounds spoiled and pretentious, but I really am tired of it. But when I mean tired, I don't mean disgusted or annoyed. I mean mentally and physically tired of it.

Here's something else to be honest about.  It may not seem like a big thing, but here it is, anyway: yes, I write for the love of writing, but also?

I just want people to read my stuff. That's why I write, too. Because I have stories to tell, and I want folks to read them. And honestly, I really wonder how many people ARE reading my stories. And...again, being honest...I think that's getting to me a little,  hurting my productivity. 

I'm writing on spec with no guarantee of  selling anything. I have no idea if anyone will ever read the stuff I'm writing. And, to be honest, I think it's wearing me down, a little.

In a recent interview Brian Keene said the following about writing:

Well, for anyone who is writing fiction or writing anything, really, their end goal and desire is to be read by others through publication. You’re not writing stories and then locking them away in a trunk. 

And the truth of that really hit me. Yes, I write because I love writing...but what if I never really gain an audience? What if no one really reads my stuff? What if I never develop relationships with quality publishers that will introduce me to readers? Will I keep writing, "just for the love of writing?" Even if no one is reading, and no one is really waiting to publish my work?

Maybe.

But probably not as much. Certainly not every day. And, sad as it is to say...maybe with not nearly as much passion. Because writing stories no one will ever read...

Well, c'mon. Let's be honest.

What's the point?

Which, of course, makes submitting to really small presses or self-publishing so tempting. But I won't go the first route. Because let's be honest - most small presses (especially the small, small presses and micro-presses) won't increase my readership one bit. They'll publish my novel, probably do a decent job with the editing and the cover, and that's about it. They won't expose me to any new readers.

On a side note, though: this gripe has NOTHING to do with Crystal Lake Publishing, the publisher of my collection. They've done an awesome job with the collection, which will be the focus of a companion blog in a few days entitled "Being Content In Spite of It All." Plus, considering the authors they're working with, they're definitely not a small, small, micro press.

Of course, I'm also not about to start self-publishing any time soon, either. Here's another snippet from Brian's interview that pretty much says why:

If you’re self-publishing, you have to create a business plan. You can’t just be the writer and write the book and throw it up there on Kindle or CreateSpace. You are your marketing department. You are your agent. You are designing your own ads. You are all of that. It’s a lot more involved than just writing the book...

And right now, I just don't have the time or start-up capital for that. (Not to mention the financial savvy). Not as a full-time teacher with two kids eight and under. I've got just enough time to write, and that's all. I've been thinking of self-publishing a few of the stories in the collection as an experiment, and to be honest, what little I've done there has been mind-boggling and exhausting, and those are short stories. I don't want to tangle with self-publishing a novel or novella, at ALL, right now. 

Of course, some of the more strident self-publishing aficionados will claim I'm just being a short-sighted, self-limiting moron by not self-publishing RIGHT NOW. But if I can't do it RIGHT, I'm not going to do it at all. 

So where does that leave me?

Tired. Tired and resting. No worries, though. If one of the two novellas I've been tinkering with  doesn't spark in the next week or so, I'll just dive back into Billy the Kid and edit, even though the beta readers haven't gotten back to me yet. It's always easier to edit something than write cold, and that book is so stinking big, it doesn't matter if the beta readers get back to me after I edit the whole thing. I'll still need their feedback.

But I'm not worried, or discontent. I'm just recharging my batteries, and as for being content, I'll write about that later this week. Until then...I'm gonna read something good. Charge those batteries back up for the next big run...

It's the Season of Kevin

Well, not exactly. But I do have two new things out there, and with the collection hitting Amazon in little over a month, my short story "Almost Home" coming out in Horror Library 5 soon, it almost feels that way. Anyway, two things for all of you this morning:

Dark Bits, a collection of dark flash fiction, is now available on Kindle, paperback, and a really reasonably priced hardcover. In some ways I'm especially proud of this story, because I so rarely write flash fiction, and this one just sort of popped into my head, whole. Also, it offers a stellar TOC I'm especially pleased to be a part of:

Dark Bits is a collection of 52 +1 horror flash fiction stories. Short, but not sweet, they move quick to grab you. Got a minute? Go ahead, try one. 

Angela Pritchett, Apple Ardent Scott, Bruce Boston, Bryce Hughes, Cameron Suey, Carson Buckingham, Chantal Noordeloos, Chantel Delulio, Cynthia Ray, Dane Hatchell, Darryl Dawson, David Bernstein, David Greske, Die Booth, Edd Vick, G.N. Braun, Guy Anthony De Marco, James Roy Daley, James S. Dorr, Jamie Lackey, Jeff Heimbuch, Jeremy C. Shipp, Jessica McHugh, Johannes Pinter, Kallirroe Agelopoulou, Kathryn Ptacek, Keith Armstrong, Kenneth W. Cain, Kevin David Anderson, Kevin Lucia, Mandy DeGeit, Mark C. Scioneaux, Mary Pletsch, Matthew Wilson, Max Booth III, Meriah L. Crawford, Michael H. Antonio, Michele Mixell, Randolph Andrews, Rebecca L. Brown, Richard Farren Barber, Robert Ford, Robert Smales, Robin Devereaux-Nelson, Sandy Shelonchik, Sheri White, Stephanie Jessop, Tina Rath, Tracy L. Carbone, Wesley Southard, William Gracey, William Meikle, William Whorton.

Also, Lamplight Volume One is available in paperback, featuring as the lead story my serial novella "And I Watered It With Tears." It's one of my favorite stories yet, and the most personal of anything I've written. AND, it also has a pretty slamming TOC:

This 450 page anthology of the first year of LampLight Magazine collects four amazing issues from September 2012 - June 2013. 

Features the complete serial novella "And I Watered It With Tears" by Kevin Lucia. 

Fiction and interviews with Robert Ford, Kelli Owen, Ronald Malfi, and Elizabeth Massie. 

J.F. Gonzalez takes us through the history of the genre with his Shadows in the Attic articles. LampLight classics bring you some of those past voices to experience again. 

Fiction by William Meikle, Nathan Yocum, Rahul Kanakia, Ian Creasey, Mandy DeGeit, D.J. Cockburn, Christopher Fryer, Christopher Kelly, Tim Lieder, Jamie Lackey, Matthew Warner, Sheri White, Dinos Kellis, S. R. Mastrantone, Mjke Wood, Delbert R. Gardner, Michele Mixell, Sarah Rhett, Armel Dagorn, E. Catherine Tobler.
So, there you go.  Some cool stuff from me. In October, Horror Library 5 will be out, featuring another one of my stories in which I really feel like I nailed it, "Almost Home." It's the horror story even my wife likes.  After that is the collection - with local signings starting the end of September, into October - and then its release after AnthoCon in November. And with two short stories and three novellas sitting with publishers, just a little nudge in the right direction for at least a few of those, and it really WILL be the Season of Kevin...

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself....(Because This Is Why I Don't Write Christian Fiction)

Brian Keene has posted a blog of a speech he gave recently at the  C3 Writers Conference about his career and why he still perseveres as a professional, full-time writer despite all its hardships. There are some pretty good nuggets of wisdom in there. For example, some of the reasons why he keeps at a full-time writing career, despite the pitfalls:

I continue to do it because the rewards are unlike those of any other profession I know. And I continue to do it because I can’t do anything else. I can’t not write. I’ve always liked my friend Tom Piccirilli’s description of this condition: If you’re stranded alone on a desert island, and you spend your time writing stories in the sand with a stick, then you’re meant to be a writer.

And I do it for the young mother who contacted me on Twitter, and told me that her infant son had a brain tumor, and she was living at the hospital with him, and the only thing that kept her going in those long dark hours were my books. Apparently, she read through my entire backlist during that time.

I do it for the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere who get so excited when a new book comes out. The soldiers who nicknamed everyone in their squad after characters from my books. The marines who started a Brian Keene book club. The airmen of Whiteman Air Force Base’s 509th Logistics who pooled their own money together and had a beautiful award fashioned for me simply because my book donations had boosted their morale.

I do it for the parents who’ve told me that Dark Hollow helped them grieve the loss of their child, and helped them talk to their significant others about that grief. I do it for the readers who’ve told me how Ghoul helped them come to terms with their abusive childhoods. And the dozens of single or divorced fathers who told me that The Rising made them rededicate themselves to their kids.

And the dozens of inmates who write me letters saying they never liked to read until they got to prison and discovered my books. 

I've thought long and hard about my writing career and the future and, well...money, and how much money I DON'T really earn from writing (as of yet) and how I'd like to earn more money in the future, and whether or not I'll ever become a full-time writer. The earning money part - can't really control that, can I? I can only keep writing and striving to improve, keep submitting and keep working every single day.

And honestly, I'm still divided as to whether or not I'd choose to write full-time, even should the chance come to me. I'm not going to say I'd never write full-time, because I don't think I can definitively say WHAT I'd do until that moment comes to me. The best case scenario, IMHO, would writing ALMOST full-time but keeping a teaching position somewhere, be it part-time at the high school level, or as an adjunct at the collegiate level (because honestly, I can't NOT teach, either). As Brian states in his post, finances can be pretty precarious relying SOLELY on writing for an income, and I'm not sure I'd ever feel comfortable doing that.

But the fans.

Having people like your work - a lot of people - and emailing you about it? Sharing testimonies of what your work means to them?

Priceless.

Because as Brian stated, writing is a solitary exercise. Sometimes I feel like I'm in this deep hole and everything I write stays in that deep hole and no one ever reads it. Part of this, of course, is because I'm published mostly in the small press, presently. My work hasn't made its way to many people. Hopefully, someday that will change. But regardless, folks reading your work, enjoying it, saying they want more?

It's one of those small things that keep all writers writing. Brian's correct in his blog - if you're a writer, you write because you HAVE TO. But getting reader feedback, a lot of it? It may sound weird (and maybe I'm only saying this because I've made only a little money writing and because we only have a little money as a family money itself doesn't seem to have much "value" to me), but I think I'd much rather have lots of reader feedback than much money. Of course, if lots of people were buying my stuff in order to GIVE me lots of reader feedback, I suppose the money would come, too. 

But still. I think, in my heart, I value the thought of people really liking my work and telling others about it more than I value a $ sign.

However, Brian's blog really crystallized my thoughts about something completely different - the real reason why I never pursued a career in the CBA (Christian Bookseller Association) writing "christian fiction." Before we continue, however, to be clear: I'm not bashing the CBA or Christian Fiction. I've moved past that phase. People feel called to write Christian Fiction, there's a market for that genre, and publishers to supply that need, and publishers who feel called to publish that kind of fiction. It exists because it should, and that's fine.

But I didn't ever want to write Christian Fiction, or even be a Christian Writer. I am a Christian. And I am a writer. Faith plays a large role in my life. My life largely impacts my writing. And because of that, you'll see strains of faith and concepts of "something larger" or a "Higher Order" often in my fiction. Not always, but often.

In the end, however, I just want to write fiction about being human, because that's what we can ALL relate to. I've never felt the desire to share creeds or doctrines or instruct anyone or tell anyone how to live their life or make huge, sweeping, ground-shaking remarks about politics or religion or what's going on in the world with Bush/Obama/Whomever Gets Elected Next, foreign policy, the economy, the End Times, or whatever. 

I just want to write stuff. I want to make up cool stuff, but I also want that cool stuff to run the spectrum of emotions, I want it comment on the human experience, and I hope somewhere along the way people will read my stuff and like some of it. 

And it's the same with my blog. When I rebooted this thing almost three years ago I decided to only blog about personal stuff - family, friends, children - and cool stuff I liked, along with writing updates. I have no grand statements to make here. Nothing to debate, very few writing tips (because every writer in the world blogs writing tips) no insightful interviews with other authors (same reason), nothing controversial, really, because I'm not a controversial guy. 

I just want to write. I want to write strange and weird and dark (sometimes) and melancholy but hopeful and wonderful stories.  So writing "Christian Fiction" to only Christians (because that's what Christian Fiction largely does, let's be honest) never really appealed to me. But lately, to be fair, that's how I've sorta felt about writing horror, especially my novellas and novels. Because they're weird and strange stories, they fit the horror genre. But what I really want to do?

Really?

Brian managed to capture it perfectly here:

Our job, (writers) regardless of whether we are writing crime or horror or science fiction or westerns or romance or any other genre, is to examine the human condition.... As writers, we must go beyond Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat , Christian or Muslim, Jew or Hindu, Black or White. We must transcend politics, religion, race, sexual orientation, nationalism, patriotism, and every other -ism and communicate the one thing we all have in common — our humanity. What it is to be human.

And that, in a nutshell, describes perfectly what I want to do. My faith and worldview will always impact my writing, but mostly in its tone and flavor, and hopefully in subtle ways. 

Which, of course, doesn't mean I can't write a "Christian" novel. The Exorcist  by William Peter Blatty is one of the best "Christian" novels I've ever read. Brian Keene's own Take the Long Way Home , a wrenching story about the immediate aftermath of The Rapture is also excellent. Both of these works are Christian-themed and well written, and neither of them denigrate faith in any way...but they're written from a human perspective. 

And, regardless of what faith we are or what we believe...or don't believe...that's what we all ARE. Human. And we all believe something, we all fear things, we all pursue things and love things and have lost things and we've all risen in triumph and stumbled and fallen in defeat.

And the best aim of fiction is to - along with entertaining, delighting, and inspiring to wonder - is comment on what all of that means, for all of us.

Which, in end, is all I've really ever wanted to do.

RoberCon

I'm really pumped to have been invited as a guest to Binghamton's first ever Con, RoberCon, which will be held at the Roberson Museum and Science Center. The birthplace and hometown of Rod Serling (creator of The Twilight Zone) deserves a spec-fic Con, and it's great to see one finally born. 

It's only a one-day event this year, but talk has already begun of expanding it and it's scope to also include horror next year, hence the invite of yours truly. I'll be on two panels: "From Star Wars to Superheroes: Myth in Storytelling" at 12:00 and "The Changing Face of Publishing" at 2:00. Also, I'll be signing advance copies of my collection Things Slip Through  throughout the day, so any local folks, I'd love to see you there. 

The biggest event of the day, honestly, will be guest of honor Anne Serling's Q & A and her reading from As I Knew Him, My Dad, Rod Serling. You can be sure that when I'm not at my panels, I'll be there, snagging a copy of her book, too.

Here's hoping that this Con will grow and thrive in the years to come.

On How I Just Need to Suck It Up and Keep Trying

So I' m in an odd position, for me.  I have a short fiction collection coming out in November, a short story in Horror Library, Volume 5 in October, a short story in Anthology Year Two: Inner Demons Out coming in November, some flash fiction just come out in Dark Bits , and I have two short stories sitting with publishers (one in the maybe pile of a pro-pay) and three novellas with two different major publishers. Billy the Kid: Down in the Dark is with beta readers, and another potential novella idea hit me this morning.

This all sounds like great stuff, right?

And mostly, it IS.

Except for the worry that all my irons in the fire will end up cold, dead,  and rejected. See, I have this little problem: I have little or no real confidence in my own writing, at all. Especially short fiction. I've been told over and over again by very credible sources that I'm a good writer, a better than average writer, and the reality is, of course, that EVERYONE needs to get rejected sometime, and I'm hardly going to skip all that...

But, I have this other little problem: I GIVE UP TOO EASILY. Especially when things get rejected.

And that's gotta stop.

I gotta stop putting my head in the sand when I get rejected. What I need to do - should these short stories and novellas get rejected - is suck it up, keep trying, and get them back out in the market soon as possible. And to cut to the quick: no, I'm not ready to self-publish. I don't think I have enough street cred to go that route, yet, and more importantly - I don't have the cash. We're on a pretty strict budget around here, and I just don't feel comfortable taking a financial risk with no guarantees.

So I need to suck it up. If my story to the pro-pay is rejected, I need to get it right back out there again. Same with my Lovecraftian story. Same with those novellas. Bottom line is, if all those things get rejected, I still have five finished projects - that are FINISHED - that can be sent elsewhere.

This, of course, is the part of writing that sucks. And I'm not so good at it. Not that I don't handle rejection well, in that I don't want to face critique, or think my writing is "all that" and how dare you reject me? The opposite, actually. When I get rejected, I just kinda hang my head and get all depressed. And that's NOT the way to go.  I need to keep submitting, keep writing, and keep submitting. 

Honestly? The writing part is EASY. I love that. That's one of the most enjoyable parts of the day. The submitting?

The waiting?

The rejection, and then the inevitable re-submitting and waiting again?

Yeah.

That part I hate.

But I've really got to get over it. If these things get rejected, I gotta suck it up, keep writing  and more importantly, KEEP SUBMITTING.

There. 

I feel a little better.  Now, off to read and then bed, so I can get up tomorrow, face my email and potential rejections like a man, and keep writing.

That, and worry endlessly about what the advance reviewers will think of the collection...

"Just A Dream" in DARK BITS

Anyone familiar with me knows my tendency to a high word count, (we won't talk about how long my first first draft for Hiram Grange was, nor will we discuss the length of my first draft for Billy the Kid: Down in the Dark), so it probably comes as no surprise that I don't write flash fiction very often. 

However, rarely one of this nice, concise little baddies drops into my brain whole, as it did with "Just A Dream" featured in  Apokrupha's first anthology, Dark Bits, available at both Smashwords and Amazon. And literally, I DID actually dream this, and was lucky enough to get it down the day after.

Also, it's got a pretty awesome TOC, featuring a lot of "the usual suspects" I seem to be making the rounds with lately, as well as top-tier folks like Bruce Boston, Kathy Ptacek, Jeremy C. Shipp, Willie Miekle and others. Check it out, and order it today!




Dark Bits is a collection of 52+1 horror flash fiction stories. Short, but not sweet, they move quick to grab you. Got a minute? Go ahead, try one.
Authors:
Angela Pritchett, Apple Ardent Scott, Bruce Boston, Bryce Hughes, Cameron Suey, Carson Buckingham, Chantal Noordeloos, Chantel Delulio, Cynthia Ray, Dane Hatchell, Darryl Dawson, David Bernstein, David Greske, Die Booth, Edd Vick, G.N. Braun, Guy Anthony De Marco, James Roy Daley, James S. Dorr, Jamie Lackey, Jeff Heimbuch, Jeremy C. Shipp, Jessica McHugh, Johannes Pinter, Kallirroe Agelopoulou, Kathryn Ptacek, Keith Armstrong, Kenneth W. Cain, Kevin David Anderson, Kevin Lucia, Mandy DeGeit, Mark C. Scioneaux, Mary Pletsch, Matthew Wilson, Max Booth III, Meriah L. Crawford, Michael H. Antonio, Michele Mixell, Randolph Andrews, Rebecca L. Brown, Richard Farren Barber, Robert Ford, Robert Smales, Robin Devereaux-Nelson, Sandy Shelonchik, Sheri White, Stephanie Jessop, Tina Rath, Tracy L. Carbone, Wesley Southard, William Gracey, William Meikle, William Whorton