Two posts in one day?  Say it ain’t so!  (But it is!)

Just received word that the first of my pork-related sci-fi series – “Stranded (with Pork Chop)” – will be appearing in the August 2011 issue of Electric Spec.

(Joking about that ‘series’ bit)

(Although….)

Just received word that my story “Prophecy Negotiations” will appear in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Humor ‘zine Space Squid.  Fall-ish is my current guesstimate (as always, I’ll toss up an update when its officially released into the wild).  Its a quick read and (hopefully) humorous – seemed like a good fit for Space Squid, so I was quite glad to see it land there.

No new sales to announce – but have I lost hope?  Occasionally!  I mean, no!

Actually, I feel like the last few months have been very productive.  I have six stories floating out there in the submission process, two of which have made it past the hordes of slush readers and are now in the mysterious ‘on hold’ phase.

There’s also another four stories that will join them by the end of August.  All four are in/near their final draft, and I must complete (kill) them by this deadline (soft fuzzy target area) or I fear they’ll drive me insane (um… insane).

Topping it all off, I’m writing a novel (book).  Well, sort of…

You see, I have a 35-45 minute drive to/from work each day.  So I picked up a voice recorder and dictation software (Dragon Naturally Speaking).  And, while I do have a sizeable chunk of a story written in just a few weeks of ‘free time’… well, let’s just say ‘story’ is describing it loosely (me and mister dictation are still working out the kinks:  so, no, I did not say ‘Mike will be able to skin care and time.. Stairways on, said, coming around quarter, this case I’ll.’).

That was day 1:  I’ve come a long way since then.

The issue I’m having right now is actually my setting.  This novel is based off of a short story I wrote – one set on Earth, circa, um… now.  And that’s how I started the novel.  But, about a chapter or so in, I decided I really didn’t like the setting, so I threw everyone back in time to the 1940s.  Much better setting (I thought), but then I ran into another issue:  Do I weave the story into real events, or do I do an alternate history.  Alternate history makes the most sense, I think (it gives me much more freedom), but, I’m not really familiar with alternate history novels, so the comfort level isn’t there.  So, now I’m thinking of taking it to a secondary world, where I would definitely feel the most comfortable writing.  And then I’m thinking, if I do a secondary world, maybe I take it back in technology level even farther…

(In any case, I’m pretty sure doing a find/replace with ‘gun’ and ‘sword’ is not the answer…)

Hopefully I have this ironed out sooner rather than later.

‘The Pale Farmer’ has found a home at Every Day Fiction.  I received the news Saturday night, and my story will be available tomorrow (here)!

Good to see this story in print:  It was nearly my first professional sale (made it to the final selection round at Flash Fiction Online), but bounced around for a while after that.

A link shall be added come tomorrow.  And hopefully ya’ll aren’t sick of vampire-ish stories (my story kinda falls under that umbrella… sorta…)

My story ‘Barren Sky’ found a home in Bull Spec.   I actually got the news about a week ago, but, for some reason, I delayed posting this.  I didn’t feel quite real, for some reason.  I don’t know, maybe I didn’t ever expect to make it to this point, but this is a pretty big deal:  My first ‘pro-rate’ sale.  And in an amazingly well put together ‘zine to boot.

This story should reach a much larger audience than my previous sales, which is great, but I do feel a bit nervous about the whole thing.  I guess that’s just how I work.  I mean, I’ll be reviewed, for one, and be placed alongside much bigger names than mine.  Not to mention I’m going to have to try to match this story in quality from this point forward…

In any event, I’ll have an updated link to the Bull Spec issue (available as both print and pdf) when it is available.  I don’t know the exact issue that it will appear in yet, but the Summer 2011 issue is a likely spot.

Another flash story of mine found a home, this one to the other ‘every day’ fiction site:  Everyday Weirdness

My story “Re:  The Peace Treaty” (a silly bit of nonsense) will be posted this coming Saturday the 18th.

That leaves very few flash stories still looking for a publication.  Now if I could just sell a longer story…

My new flash piece is up at Every Day Fiction:

http://www.everydayfiction.com/full-circle-by-rich-matrunick/

Free cookies to anyone that gives it five stars!

(Unfortunetely, they’re the nasty internet ‘cookies’)

(Fortunetely, they’re not actual cookies baked by me)

Here’s the skinny:  I stopped participating in the flash fiction contests at SFFWorld so I could concentrate on finishing one of the myriad of short stories I have started (and promptly abandoned) over the past few months.  The result:  it’s now September and I’ve written absolutely nothing over the past three months. 

I think I’ve come to realize that I do not work well without a deadline.  And, with that in mind, I’ve joined a local writers group.  The once a month meetings should give me incentive to finish those half completed short stories for review.  Should.

In other news, I did pick up another sale, this one to Every Day Fiction (http://www.everydayfiction.com/).  ‘Full Circle’ is a revised version of a story (‘Organ Donor’) I wrote over a year ago now.

Here we are, publication #4!  My first foray into horror – “The Unseen” - has been picked up by Pill Hill Press for their “Haunted” Anthology (for now, the link directs you to their home page… I’ll have a link to the anthology on my ‘Bookshelf’ once its available).

I had originally planned on looking for a home for “The Unseen” (as well as two other stories) tonight (June 1st) after I returned home from vacation.   However, for some reason, right before I left on Saturday, I squeezed in a few minutes to do a search on duotrope.com.  And, of the three stories I had available for submission, I only had time to do one before I left… and I chose my horror piece.

What I found was an anthology that not only fit the theme of my story, but had a deadline closing a mere two days later (May 31st).  I submitted, received an acceptance within a day, and am now one of the ‘editor’s choice’ feature stories for the anthology.  Had a waited until today, as I originally planned, I would have missed it completely.

Better to be lucky than good…

I had been searching for a good home for my Superhero origin story ‘Origin: Primal’ (catchy, no?) for a while now.  It was a story I had written over the summer last year, but really wanted to find something superhero specific, be that a magazine or anthology, to place it in.  I finally found one, brushed up the story a bit, and submitted.

Just two days later:  acceptance.  This Mutant Life (http://www.thismutantlife.com/) has decided to publish my story.  There’s an outside chance that I’ll make it into the May issue, but more than likely, I’ll see it in print come July.

This will be my first physical print publication – and that’s something that has me dancing on the table.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the exposure that an e’zine lends itself to… but there’s just something about that physical print issue.  I am officially worth the price of paper (next stop, balsa wood).

I’ve also been building up a new ‘Recommended Reading’ list.  Enjoy!
 ”Billy Boy” by Aaron Polson – Every Day Fiction
“Subderma” by Jacqueline West – Strangetastic
“Travelling by Petroglyph” by Ripley Patton – Flash Me Magazine
“The Zombie of His Early Days” by Tom Crosshill – Flash Fiction Online

Lots of flash in that collection.  There’s a bunch of short stories I’d love to link, but they’re all in the March-April print issue of F&SF (http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/current.htm).  If you’ve considered picking up a copy, I’ll tell you its most certainly worth it – (Waiting for the Phone to Ring, Class Trip, and Blue Fire are at the top of my list).