Vote for Girl Power!

Sorcerous Signals has a voting page where you can vote for Girl Power. It already seems to have eight votes, so if everyone who reads this blog goes there and votes for it too, it might even reach double digits!

PMCT Conclusion Published.

Part 5 of Pardon Me, Coming Through has now been released to the wild by Infinitas. After a tantalising five months, I hope the ending has the punch to meet your expectations.

I origially envisioned the story as the start to a novel, but I'm so busy with the three other novels I'm chipping away at (and the tyranny of Normal Life) that it'll never happen. Maybe a novella sometime...

AHWA Commendation

The Australian Horror Writers Association has just judged their 2008 Flash & Short fiction competition, and my Pacific Highway themed story The Biting of Nails came up for a commendation! I didn't think it had the layers or resonation to win, so I didn't have high hopes for it. This is a pleasant surprise.

I should also point out that fellow writer Christian Girard came up with an er.. killer title for the story: Speed Demon, but I moved this title into the story instead, for two reasons. One, the story starts out realistic and then punches into speculative, and the title would have clued the reader in, and two, it made the protag's final revelations that much stronger.

While it was great getting a commendation (ie being in the top 5 out of 100 or so), it means that the story hasn't actually been accepted for publication, and now I have to send it out. Psst! Wanna buy a story?

Girl Power (finally) published!

Well, it's been a long road but my comic fantasy Girl Power finally found its way into a publication at Sorcerous Signals.

The story of the story:

I wrote it.
It was critiqued by my colleagues in the Prose Nest at AuthorsByDesign.com.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected again.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was accepted by ShadowSword Magazine!
Then months went by (which is normal, to inform non-writers)
Then a notice appeared on the ShadowSword Magazine web site that they'd gone out of business.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected again.
Then it appeared on an honourable mentions list in Allegory Magazine (who had rejected it. WTF?)
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected again.
Then the rejection was rejected- they'd made a mistake!
Then came the usual rewrites, etc.
Then TODAY it's finally been published!

So after a lead up like that, what are you waiting for? Click on the pic of Noelene and Shaz, and go read it!

PMCT part 4 Published

Part 4 of Pardon Me, Coming Through is now online at the Infinitas site.

PMCT Part 3 Published

Part 3 of Pardon Me, Coming Through is now online at the Infinitas site.

You finally get to see the other side of the dimensional membrane for the first time. Where/When/What could it be?

Comp entry

Well, the Australian Horror Writers Association has their competition on again this year. I came second in the 2005 flash comp, won the 2006 flash comp, then didn't enter in 2007, so I thought I'd better do something this year.

I've written a story about deaths on the Pacific Highway, set at a particular point on it that I saw a lot growing up. If you click here you can see a bridge to the left with a sharp bend on the left side of it, on the Old Pacific Highway. The reason that section is now the old Pacific Highway is that it was a nasty black spot. A family friend's brother died there when his tractor went into the river, and they get a mention.

I'm not sure the story has the legs to win a comp, but you'll never, never winnit if you never, never submit.