News:

My story “Drip” is featured in That Old House: The Bathroom, which is a collection of stories that take place in a bathroom. One of the requirements of the call was that there be no gross horror, so it won’t be that sort of horror. I actually made a point to write Drip in a more poetic style, because there’s beauty in bathrooms, too.

Right now, it’s only available as e-book, because Ingram Spark is throttling indie publishers everywhere, slowing down to a bloody crawl and being pissants with their customer service. I don’t even use them, and I’m pissed. Like, I’m sorry, do you want Amazon to be the only game in town?

Hopefully, the paperback will be available soon.

After such a great last week with some dream acceptances, this week had a few gut punches (although one of those gut punches came in the form of a great personal rejection).

My acceptance rate right now is about ten percent of what I submit, which doesn’t seem to be atypical, and most of it flash/near-flash length for lower pay. There’s no guarantees, there’s no coasting, at least not for me at this time. Ninety percent rejection is just part of the game, and it doesn’t bother me much anymore. I give myself up to thirty minutes of mourning. Then I take what didn’t work for one publisher and try to figure out who to send it to next. One of those rejected pieces was already marked for another market if it didn’t make it.

Some writers simultaneously submit, and maybe that would make more business sense, but it seems a bit of a gamble for me, especially if you sim sub for drastically different pay rates and the lower pay rate accepts it first, but you don’t know if the other market will accept it at all. I’d rather just write a lot and send things out one at a time so I know exactly what I’m getting into.

Works in Progress:

I finished writing and editing the last patch of short stories for some August submission calls.

Now I’m a chapter into my first of two edits on Crooked House (Thorns 5), which I need to send my editors in August. It’s the shortest of the Thorns novel, which doesn’t mean it’s short. I do love the process of cutting a novel, though, even more than short stories.

After Crooked House, I’ll tackle the double edits of a short novel/novella, which will include a slight rewrite. But that won’t be for a bit, since Crooked House will take up a lot of time.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire

Music I’m Listening To:

American Idol cover singles
All I Ever Wanted by Kelly Clarkson
All of Me by Mandy Harvey
“Mystery” by Hugh Laurie

Things I’m Watching:

Scream series
CSI series
Great British Baking Show: Junior Bake-Off series
Blacklist series
Young Sheldon series
Triangle movie
Snow White and the Huntsman movie
Old movie

Poem of the Week:

i don’t think i ask for much
cool sheets and empty room
empty bed under the covers
until my toes wiggle not
scrabble against the fitted

a long sleep in a cold room
cold cold empty empty room
cold cold empty empty dreams
not a single scream in the dark
or in the sweat-stained tangle
of the desperate savior of a dawn

every night i am denied
every night i am pursued
every night the darkness writhes
with shadow and blacklight forms
floating in the air in my eye
i am why we can’t have nice things