A Trail of Publishing Part 1

The other day I took a look back at how my writing career has progressed. I had written a considerable amount of non-fiction in my day job, and had a lengthy stack of novel manuscripts and short stories rejected, but my first pieces of fiction that saw the light of day (I don’t count the high school yearbooks, one short story, one illustration) were in a collection of shorts self-published in 2005 by the writing workshop I belonged to. Titled “Pieces of Eight,” because eight of us participated, my efforts included “After the Hop,” a light sci-fi tale, “Lost…Gull Harbour,” a true story about how I almost drowned my brother during my first attempt to voyage any distance in my first sailboat, and “History’s Rumours,” my first and only attempt at an epic poem. If this effort taught me one thing, it was the necessity of having a good editor.

My next “success” arrived in 2006 when I took first place in the Canadian Authors Association national short story contest with a romantic ghost story, “Midnight,” and was published in the Canwrite anthology that year.

My next writing luck came in 2010 with the publication of a short story; “Chrysalis,” in an anthology of vampire tales titled “Evolve” and put out by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. I got to go to the World Horror Con in Brighton England that year when the book was launched. I even got to waive at Neil Gaiman.

Somewhere during this time I took a break from fiction to co-operate with two other writers to create a full-length book, “Rotary Club of Winnipeg, 100 Years of Service.”

During this period I was still churning out short stories, novels, and novellas, and filling closets with rejected manuscripts. Then, in 2011 I met with a publisher at a con, apparently was fast enough on my feet to answer her questions, and while in Nova Scotia on a summer holiday trip, received word she was sending me a contract. Welcome to the Champagne Book Group!

“The Dark Lady,” a medieval-style fantasy novel was published in February of 2012.

“Housetrap,” a fantasy detective novella was published in December 2012.

“The Queen’s Pawn,” another medieval-style fantasy novel was published in May of 2013.

These were followed in quick succession by three more Housetrap Chronicles fantasy detective novellas:

“Dial M for Mudder” in July 2013, “House on Hollow Hill” in September 2013, and “Hounds of Basalt Ville” in November of 2013. I don’t really write this fast, you may suspect I had quite a pile of completed material I could readily draw on by this time.