First Sale of 2013: "Three Times a Killer" to Plan B Magazine

I got word today that my short story "Three Times a Killer" has been accepted for publication by Plan B Magazine. Plan B is a new crime/mystery semi-pro ezine. As I've discussed before, there's a real dearth of good markets for mystery short fiction and I hope to see Plan B have a long and healthy lifetime. I'm very pleased to have had a story selected for publication by them.

This story relates to another story of mine. The protagonist of both this and "Levels of Trust" is Lawrence Thomas; the two stories are set at very different points of the man's life. "Three Times a Killer" is from when Lawrence was just barely an adult while "Levels of Trust" is set when he is a widower with a young child. I like the character and suspect I'll write a few more stories about him over time.

I've been a bit less-than-industrious about having stories circulating the past few months which has led to a slowdown in sales. I've been trying to be better about that this month and I'm quite happy that it paid off with the sale of "Three Times a Killer."

I'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as it's available to read.

Quick February Goal Update

I'm still on hiatus.

If anything, my hiatus has gotten even more hiatus-y. On top of the previously-existing issues I've been navigating, my father-in-law had a medical issue and my wife has been away helping tend to his and her mother's needs.

But I'm still plugging away with things, though still slower than I would like. Here are my goal statuses for February with about 1/4 of the month remaining.

1. Submit three stories for the first time. - 0 for 3. Really? Yes. Really.
   
2. Read twenty-five short stories. - Nicely on the way to this goal. I'm at 20 for the month. Yay!
   
3. Develop a convention schedule for the year. - Not done yet. If this slips to March, I won't be too upset.
4. Reply to all Kazka Press flash fiction submissions by the 24th. - Well on my way to having this done. Will get it done barring a true surprise in my schedule.
   
5. Make twenty submissions of non-reprint stories. - I'll either make this or come close. I'm at 15 right now and should be able to get to 20.

So, other than the struggle to actually get new stories out the door, I feel good about how the month has been going. As always, onward!

February Issue of Kazka Press is Live

The February issue of flash fiction presented by Kazka Press -- three short stories on the theme of "An Undelivered Valentine" -- is now live on the Kazka site.

This is the first issue since I came on board as the editor for these monthly Kazka Press features and I'm very pleased with the three stories which we were able to present to our readers. I hope that you'll check out the stories and that you enjoy reading them.

If you're interested in submitting a story for consideration in March's issue, the theme is "Spring Training" and the deadline is February 20th. Submission guidelines are here. I intend to interpret the theme broadly, so don't feel limited to the first-thought baseball connotations of that phrase.

"Back to School" in Plasma Frequency Issue #4

When 2012 ended, I had quite a few stories which had sold but not yet seen publication. So far I haven't sold a story yet in 2013, but as a result of having those pending stories out there from 2012, I've had five short stories released so far in the first 35 days of this year. I'm not going to keep up that story-publication-a-week thing for long, but it's been fun to share while it's lasted.

Today, Plasma Frequency Magazine released their fourth issue and it includes my short story "Back to School." This was one of the first stories I wrote in 2011, when I got back into writing, and it was originally an attempt at sort of a Garrison Keillor vibe with zombie teachers. Yep. Zombie Teachers.

The story got edited a bit here and there along the way, and I don't know if much of the GK sensibility remains, but I'm fond of this little story and glad that it found a home. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

"Taking Chances" Out in Issue #5 of Kzine and Blog Semi-Hiatus

Within the last week or so, issue #5 of Kzine was released. Kzine is a tri-annual publication for the Kindle with science fiction, fantasy, and mystery short fiction originating from the United Kingdom. My mystery story "Taking Chances" is included in this issue along with stories by seven other authors including M. Bennardo.

Also, I'm in the process of trying to get caught up on a variety of things. So, for the month of February, I'll be blogging on an irregular schedule. Basically, if I have news, I'll blog about it. I'll blog mid-month about my February goal progress and I'll blog toward the end of the month to finalize February goals and start March goals. And if I have something I feel like saying, then I'll blog about that, too. But posting will probably be fairly infrequent this month.

I am keeping up with regularly writing and doing other legitimately writing-related work. I'm just trying to get everything properly balanced and it's not always as easy as it sounds.

Best of luck to everyone else working on writing or other goals during February!