"An Honest Lie" is for sale

If you are going to buy it, buy it here. Each purchase through this link counts as five hundred votes for me in the publishing deal contest. If I win, we could see either Storm Summer, or All Along the Pacific, or less likely, The Mechanical Ghost published.

With my begging out of the way, I'm back to work. I have 1700 words to get done today on the book, but I'd like to do 2500, which would put me at a solid one quarter of the word count. I might also take a little trip down Highway 23 to do some fact finding. First, we're going to buy a picnic at Steins on Magazine Street, I think. Pat is really looking forward to the tongue sandwiches; his grandfather used to make them for him. I think I'll go with corned beef, or maybe a bagel with salmon cream cheese. But I will definitely get some cheesecake to wash it all down.

Vote for me at An Honest Lie!

I have a story, "Gran's Prophesy," coming out in a few days in the anthology, An Honest Lie. The publisher has set up a Web site. If you visit it and leave a comment after my excerpt, I get one vote. In a couple days, if you buy the book through that portal, I get five hundred votes. The author with the most votes gets a publishing contract, so please help me out. Vote here and buy a copy of the book when it goes live later this week.

Thema submission accepted

Thema is a literary journal based out of Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. The super concept of this mag is to give writers a strange theme for every issue.

The theme I wrote for was "The Dean's Cat." I composed a story, from the point of view of the cat, about some research assistants that build a Shrodinger's Box and, as a prank, put the dean's cat inside. It will be released in the upcoming issue of the journal. Please order a copy or, better yet, get a subscription to the journal.

Acceptance in a heavy metal horror anthology

A few months back, my friend Brett pointed me in the direction of some great Norwegian black metal. That led to a story which mixes new-Norse mythology, a drunk record store clerk, and a voodoo priestess: "The Curse of the Son of Fenrir." It will be coming out in an ebook anthology from Rymfire eBooks. I get into quite a few anthologies, but I'm really excited to see what the other writers did with this theme. I had a lot of fun writing the story.

"Things We Are Not" now available

Please order your choice of version. So many to choose from! You'll find a file or hard copy to fit your needs.

NaNoWriMo

I'm waiting nervously for November. Given my recent track record with writing while working, I doubt I'm going to be able to finish the entire 50,000 words in one month. I haven't even finished my background reading, let alone taken the trip out to see the old zeppelins' hangers out in Houma. Or taken the trip to check out the oyster boats along the coast. All of these things are intrinsic to my story, and I've only got about two weekends left before it's time to buckle down for the writing.

I suppose I could cheat. I could leave details deliberately vague, or even put wrong stuff in, and go back and check the veracity and flesh stuff out later, but I think that's cheating. It doesn't make me feel right...

Sigh...

Yes, I have slacked. I have been slacking. I will slack. Christ, it's hard to write when I have to commute and work a full day. Plus, Saints' football takes up three of my Sunday work hours and will until the Superbowl this year (fingers crossed), and then at the end of this month the Hornets' preseason starts and there goes two or three more nights as week.

That being said, I did get proofs for the first edition of An Honest Lie, and they look super. I can't wait to get hard copies. Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas?