Beggars Can Be Choosers

I'm pleased to announce my novelette "Through the Guts of a Beggar" is now available for download. From the introduction:

In high school I’d written a horror short story called “In the Tall Grass.” As is the case with almost all of my early work, it evolved through the years and was expanded into a 10,000-word novelette called “Through the Guts of a Beggar.” It was eventually accepted for the pulpy monster horror anthology Tooth & Claw, edited by J. F. Gonzalez and Garrett Peck. The response to the anthology was greater than the editors had at first anticipated, and so they decided to split the anthology into two volumes. The first was released in 2002, with the idea that the second volume—containing my novelette—would be released the next year.

Unfortunately, the publisher folded before the second volume could be released. At the time there was talk the second volume might see the light of day elsewhere, but then more years passed and it became clear my novelette was now homeless. And as I was working on other projects and placed the novelette on a backburner, it remained homeless until now, where I’m presenting it as a free e-book.

With recent talks of enhanced e-books, I wanted to try something different with this project. The original story by itself is available for free download at Smashwords on almost every format imaginable. There is also a special edition, which contains an alternate ending (3,000 words), as well as two bonus short stories: "Dead Weight," which originally appeared in Fifty-Two Stitches, and "Castle Hybrid," which originally appeared in Allen K's Inhuman Magazine, and which is the author's preferred version. Both combined makes about 5,000 words, meaning the special edition includes the original 10,000-word novelette, as well as nearly 8,000 more words. This special edition can be downloaded at Smashwords and at the Kindle Store for 99 cents.

Here's the simple description of the novelette:

Josh wakes up one morning to find his ten-year-old brother filling in a grave in the backyard. From there, the day just gets worse.

Basically, if you like pulpy monster horror, this might be your thing. If you don't like pulpy monster horror, this might not be your thing. But as they say, you won't know until you try it. So go ahead and try it.

The Express Lane Is Now Open

David Erlewine is a madman. I say that with the utmost respect. The man works a full-time government job, has a family, and is active all over the Internet at different writing sites. Not only that, he's constantly producing work. Don't believe me? Sign onto Facebook in the middle of the night, you're apt to see him online. I swear, the man never sleeps.

In case you didn't know, Dave is also the flash fiction editor at jmww. Their most recent issue (which just happened to launch today) is a special flash issue edited solely by Dave. It's stocked full of some really great writers. You've got Matt Bell, Erin Fitzgerald, Roxane Gay, Scott Garson, Ben Loory, and a slew of other names you no doubt recognize. Dave was thoughtful enough to want to represent hint fiction in the mix, so you'll also find my story "10 Items or Less." It is, as usual, a rather dark tiny piece.

Keep Honking, I'm Reloading

My story "An Insurrection" is up today at Necessary Fiction. I'd be lying if I said I didn't like this story a lot. I'm very happy to have finally placed it, and with such a great market -- big thanks to Steve Himmer for not only accepting it, but for helping me make it better -- yet something does worry me. You see, the story is about 2,000 words, one of the longest pieces of fiction I've published in the past year. If it were in a print magazine, I wouldn't be too worried, as longer fiction is suited for print magazines, but this story is online, and you know how people are with their short attention spans ... Anyway, please do check it out if and when you get the chance. Like I said, I like it a lot. Hopefully you will too.

March Madness Begins

Ever notice how in almost every magazine's writer's guidelines you'll find the ubiquitous phrase: "We want your best work." Like that's really going to stop writers from submitting shitty stuff. Or what -- are those writers with the shitty stuff only submitting to the markets that don't put that in their guidelines? Come to think of it, I think I even included that "we want your best work" line in the guidelines for the anthology. Obviously not many people followed that, but oh well.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea. But last week I saw a listing for a new print magazine that plans to publish in -- get this -- April. It pays twenty bucks. Thing is, this magazine doesn't have a website, at least not one I could find. Hmm, okay. I Googled the editor's name to see what would come up, but hardly anything did. So you have a brand new magazine that you hope to publish within two months but you don't have a website yet? How, exactly, are readers (let's assume of course there are people interested in not just buying a copy, but actually reading it) supposed to order? Yeah ... thanks but no thanks.

This of course begs the question: in today's modern era, does every writer need a website? Not necessarily, though some kind of web presence would be preferable. But a magazine or publisher -- do they need a website? Um, that would be a most definite yes.

Recently I borrowed a bunch of burned DVDs from a friend of mine. Last night my wife and I watched Hostage. Or tried to watch it. Everything was fine until the very last few minutes of the movie, where it skipped to the ending credits. Nothing I could do would give us those last few minutes. I'd seen the movie before, so I wasn't too bummed, but this was my wife's first time watching it and she wasn't a happy camper. Not after investing over an hour and a half into a movie and then being thwarted out of the last couple minutes. But I guess that's just a risk you take when watching burned DVDs. If you listen carefully, you can hear the FBI sniggering ...

By now I'm sure everyone's seen that post about a bunch of famous writers' ten rules for writing. My favorite from the whole bunch is Philip Pullman's:

My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.

I have to smile every time I read that line. On a personal level I've found it to be more and more true lately, in terms of writing flash and short stories. I have fun writing them, I like having them accepted and then published, and I love when I hear from people who've read them. But honestly? It's all very distracting from bigger projects that actually carry more weight. Not that flash and short stories aren't important, but right now I need to focus on projects that will, hopefully, bring in some money. Not "proper work" yet by any means, but one can always dream.

I have some stories coming out this month, about four or five if I'm not mistaken. And looking at them, it seems these are all "realistic" stories. Or "traditional" stories. Or whatever you want to call them. Basically, if you like your stories weird and off-beat and speculative, you'll have to look elsewhere. You ain't gonna find 'em here (or wherever they're published).

The first is up today at Emprise Review. It's called "Point of View." It appears along with stories by Gay Degani and a bunch of other writers you probably recognize. My thanks to Roxane Gay and Patrick McAllaster for being kind enough to publish the piece. Later this week I'll write a bit more about where the story came from, but for now, enjoy.

An "Incomplete" Contest

The Best of Every Day Fiction Two is now available, which features my story "Incomplete" along with 99 other fine stories published last year at Every Day Fiction. I'm honored to have been included. My thanks to Jordan Lapp, Camille Gooderham Campbell, and Steven Smethurst for not just putting together this collection of stories, but for keeping EDF running strong into the future. You can order a copy of the anthology here; it comes in two formats, trade paperback and hardcover.

Or, if you'd like to test Lady Luck, you can win a free copy signed by me.

In the past, I've asked readers to put something in the comments section of a post and then picked a random winner. This time around I've decided to mix things up. This particular contest will be strictly done via Twitter.

I like Twitter a lot. It's a great platform when used correctly. The best part about it is you can get information out to a large amount of people very quickly. And how is this done? Why, by the almighty retweet button, of course.

So here's what I'm going to do. Some time Monday I will post something on Twitter (you'll be able to tell when it's for the contest). All I'm asking is for you to retweet that particular post (preferably the "new" version retweet, as it'll be easier to track). The contest will end Tuesday at midnight here on the east coast. Then I'll pick a random winner from everyone who retweeted and announce it here Wednesday. That person will receive a free signed trade paperback copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction Two.

But wait -- there's more!

Right now I have almost 300 "followers" on Twitter. You have to figure that at least 90% of them are spambots. So that leaves about 30 people who are actually paying attention me. So if at least 30 people retweet my particular post (they don't even have to be "followers"), then I'll up the ante and send the winner a signed hardcover copy instead.

Yes, yes, there is the chance that nobody retweets, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. In the past year I've been playing around with different forms of self-promotion, and maybe this will work, maybe it won't. Guess we'll see come midnight Tuesday, huh?