Many of my posts lately have been about conventions and publishing, but most of my time is spent writing, so what about that?

I spent much of the last half of 2015 writing and revising a short novel, about 51,000 words. Non-writers will wonder, “How long is that in pages?” Well, it’s longer than The Great Gatsby or Slaughterhouse Five, but by the standards of today’s publishing environment, 51k words is an odd length. It’s too long to be a novella (17,500 words up to 40k), so while it’s technically a novel, most agents and publishers want to see something like 80-100k word novels.

This project is on submission to a publisher that seems not to mind the in-between length, so we’ll see what happens with that.

I’ve really enjoyed working longer, and intend to start a full-length novel early in 2016, after I finish writing four stories for anthology projects to which I’ve been invited to submit.

I haven’t had quite as many stories lined up for publication in 2015, due to spending much of 2014 wrapping up my first collection, which should appear in 2016. I hope to be able to say more about that before too much longer.

I’ve been given the go-ahead to announce that my story “The Slipping of Stones” will appear in the next issue of STRANGE AEONS.

This will be issue #17, the interim issue after Ted E. Grau​ stepped down as SA’s Fiction Editor with #16 and Justin Steele​ took over with #18. I thank interim Fiction Editor Kelly Young​ for the opportunity.

The new anthology Surreal Worlds is now available from editor Sean Leonard and Bizarro Pulp Press. I just received my contributor copy, which looks great!

Surreal Worlds includes my story, “Jewels and False Memories: The Origins of a Lunatic.”

It can be ordered from Amazon:

Table of contents:

Steve Rasnic Tem – Paula Breaks
John Palisano – The BiPolar Express
Gabino Iglesias – aaaaaaaaa
Robin Wyatt Dunn – A Shadow of a Princess’s Dream
Bruce Boston – Surreal Chess
Rhys Hughes – Bones of Jones
R.A. Harris – The Noise that Stains
Seb Doubinsky – Goodbye Babylon (excerpt)
Thomas Logan – The Continued Instances of George Marthis within the Singularity, wherein the Instance Knows No Rules (George is Old When Our Story Starts)
Daniel Vlasaty – Everything is Colors, All of Them
Michael Griffin – Jewels and False Memories: The Origins of a Lunatic
Max Booth III – One Day I’ll Quit this Job and Rule the World
Dustin Reade – House Party
Adrian Ludens – I Can Do What I Need to in the Dark
Andrew Wayne Adams – Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
Wol-vriey – The End of the World Pie
Allen Griffin – I, Autocorrect
Tom Bradley – Mr. Fuck You, Okay?
Chantal Noordeloos – Labels
Don Webb – The Last God
Bob Ritchie – The Mahler Stream
Eli Wilde – Snowflakes Falling, Pages Turning
Antonio Magogoli – The Inmost Plague Bell Swims
Chris Kelso – The Statement of Tom Tryout
Carter Rydr – Pain Pig’s Pilgrimage

Time for a quick update. I haven’t posted since CthulhuCon last month, having kept busy with life and reading and writing.

Lately I’m working on a long novella. Several times in the past few years I’ve had good luck with picking up one of my abandoned short stories and thinking about why I never finished it. In many cases, the problem was that the story I wanted to tell needed to be longer than a short story. From my perspective of 2011-2013, when I first tried to write these things, I wasn’t sure how or where to publish anything longer than 6,000 words or so. Now I realize some of these story concepts need to be novellas or novels. I’m now ready to write longer, as these ideas require.

The first example of this was Far From Streets (published in a 2014 Dunhams Manor Press chapbook, and now out of print, but it should appear in my upcoming first collection). The next was an even longer (39k words, very nearly a short novel) novella I intend to close that collection.

The first collection is complete, no room to add anything more. This new piece is something I’m writing without any specific plan for where to send it, or how I hope to see it published. It’s been a long time since I wrote anything that way.

I should finish this in a month or so, then I intend to return to a new long novella I intended to write near the end of last year.

The next few months will be busy with convention-going activities:

ReaderCon in July

NecronomiCon in August

H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in October.

I’m looking forward to these events, especially for the opportunity to see friends.

It will also be a summer full of publications.

Xnoybis #1 just came out, with my story “The Tidal Pull of Salt and Sand.”

Very soon we should see Surreal Worlds, including my story “Jewels and False Memories: Origins of a Lunatic.”

Also coming soon, A Mythos Grimmly and my story “Apprentice, Muse and Mancer.”

Several books in which my work appears should debut at NecronomiCon.

Cthulhu Fhtagn! (Word Horde) including “Delirium Sings at the Maelstrom Window”

Autumn Cthulhu from Lovecraft eZine Press includes “The Smoke Lodge”

I’m hoping Leaves of a Necronomicon is still forthcoming from Chaosium. This includes my story “Miles and Kathrine at the Crimson”

I also have one more short piece in another still-secret book that will be released at NecronomiCon, but hasn’t been announced yet. Soon, I hope!

Another of my stories has been accepted for publication, but I haven’t signed the contract yet so can’t name the story or the magazine yet. It’s a good one.

And as always, other items are out on submission for which I have hope of future good news leading to more announcements!