Bad Idea

I just clicked the link provided by a certain anthology to check the status of one's submission and discovered my story is number 973 in the queue. Given that the deadline has passed and they've already been reading for a while, and that most places will be going to commissioned writers, well, wow, I'm not sure even my dreamiest optimism can sustain the hope of a sale there. I should have let it be and simply wandered about in blissful ignorance thinking that maybe, just maybe I'd come home one night to an email...

No matter. It's June! That means that the Aliens:Recent Encounters anthology will be out in 2 weeks (hurrah!), and that the Bram Stoker Awards will soon be announced (go, Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, go!). Who knows what other good things might happen? Well, not another ASIM sale, not this month anyway - I just got a bounceback there.

Anyway, onwards and upwards.

973. Wow.

It's Official Now

Suddenly remembering the date, I popped across to the HWA site and have a quick look at the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot before hitting the sack, and in a must-share-right-now moment, to my delight I discovered that Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, edited by Eric J. Guignard, is now officially a Bram Stoker Award Nominee in the Superior Achievement in Anthology category. How cool is that?


A huge congratulations to Eric J. Guignard for pulling it all together.

Good luck, DToLC.

Now, where's my bed?

Whale of a Week

Some weeks are dull affairs, just a matter of ploughing onwards through Real World crap and waiting for things to improve. Other weeks are so full of writerly good stuff that you want to frame them and hang them on the wall so they can cheer you up when you're having one of the aforementioned weeks.

Anyway, close on the heels of the stunning TOC bulletin of a few days ago comes the news (thank you, Steve, for pointing it out) that the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot has been posted here by the Horror Writers Association, and if you scroll down to the anthology section, you'll see a certain book that includes a certain short story of mine.

I'll say no more for now, except "Go, you good book, go!". Let's wait patiently for the Final Ballot to be announced on February 23.

Still, it's pretty exciting.

Another One!

Some of you may be getting a little tired of this, but me, never!

Eric J. Guignard sent an addendum to yesterday's email noting another nice review, hot off the press, of Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations. It's from Michael R Collings, a Senior Publications Editor for JournalStone Publishing, an Emeritus professor of English, popular author of best-selling horror novels and GOH at the last World Horror Convention. You can read it HERE.

And yes, he mentions me - why else would I be so excited and divert from my morning routine to immediately post this?

The twenty-five stories, all by fine writers with a careful eye toward craft and artistry, range from the quietly atmospheric to the overtly horrific…ribcages erupting from the living bodies of men. Some incorporate traditional horrors, such as ghosts and Lovecraftian behemoths; others introduce entirely new levels of creatures and creations. In Caw Miller’s “The Small, Black God,” a stone statue becomes the instrument of vengeance and death. In Rob Rosen’s “Buried Treasure,” the treasure found in the northern desert wastes is both that which is sought and something more. Gitte Christensen’s “Whale of a Time” evokes another time and place while simultaneously playing with multiple levels of a manipulated reality. Andrew S. Williams’ “The Talisman of Hatra” subsumes overt horror beneath a challenging story of love and betrayal. Jonathan Vos Post’s “Sumeria to the Stars” transforms the starkness of mathematics into possibilities almost—but not quite—beyond imagining; in its closing lines, it provides a counterpoise to Bruce L. Priddy’s re-creation of ancient epic in “Gilgamesh and the Mountain.”

Anyway, as said, I'll never get tired of this. It still amazes me that a story one has worked on for ages mostly in isolation, all the while wondering whether anyone else will want to spend a portion of their precious time with your creation, is actually being read by real live people out there in the great big world, and that some of them are actually really enjoying it! Talk about a warm fuzzy feeling deep in the cockles of my writerly heart. And (she said smugly) I do think WOT is doing rather well for a story that was rejected 11 times before Eric enthusiastically snapped it up. Lesson learnt: you either click with editors and readers when you do these riskier pieces, or you don't. Must remember this.

Now, must return to my trusty writing keyboard (with a smile on my face). I'll be back to blog later. Maybe.

Just Call Me the Comic Relief

 

Thanks to another of Eric J Guignard's fantastic updating emails, I've been alerted to four more reviews for Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, all of which praise the diversity of the stories and comment on how they appeal to our sense of adventure and wonder. Check them out. They're right about the anthology being a good read.


One review is over at Onetitle Magazine: http://onetitle.ca/dark-tales-of-lost-civilizations

Another is over at Literary Mayhem:

http://literarymayhem.com/wordpress/2012/09/19/book-review-dark-tales-of-lost-civilizations-edited-by-eric-j-guignard/#.UFmma66tV0w

And then - drumroll, please - there are the two reviews that mention ME! They don't say a lot, but they DO mention me.

The first is in a Black Gate review (Black Gate! Whoo-hoo!) HERE where, amidst all the praise for other contributors, they sneak in:
 

Nor is it just the lost civilizations themselves that are varied. Rather, it is the changing mood and tone that keeps this anthology so fresh. The reader assumes there will be horror (since it is mentioned in the subtitle) and will not be disappointed by Chelsea Armstrong’s “The Nightmare Orchestra”. The reader also suspects there will be something spooky, and Joe R. Lansdale provides a deliciously creepy yarn in “The Tall Grass”.

But most readers will not expect a laugh-out-loud futuristic comedy like Gitte Christenson’s “Whale of a Time”.


Then, over at Nameless Magazine, there's this very cool line:

Geeks will get a kick out of "Whale of a Time" from Australian science fiction writer Gitte Christensen, where virtual reality is no longer virtual and user groups run amuck.

So, more things to make me smile this week. Nice.

Racy Review

Eric J. Guignard, in another of his updating emails, has just brought to my attention that there's a lengthy review for Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations here over at Biblio Babes. The reviewer has actually gone to the bother of writing something about each story and her reaction to it in her own inimitable style. Overall, she gives the book a 8/10 rating.

And how did my futuristic, underwater, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, steampunk story Whale of a Time fare? Well, her review includes this pearl of a sentence : All I have to say is that this was weird as fuck and boatloads of fun.

That made me laugh. I'm thinking I should put it on a promotional t-shirt.

Plugging Away

One of the best things about getting a story into the Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations anthology has been the way the editor, Eric J. Guignard, has kept us humble contributing scribes in the loop about its progress every step of the way. Yesterday I received one of his updating emails with the following news:

1) Dark Moon Books has just released the e-book format of Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations for sale. Priced at just $3.99,  you can purchase the e-book at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble (BN.com).
 
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tales-Lost-Civilizations-ebook/dp/B008NC8SEW/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342932080&sr=1-1&keywords=Dark+Tales+of+Lost+Civilizations .

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-tales-of-lost-civilizations-eric-j-guignard/1108924742?ean=9780983433590

2) Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations has already received several nominations for the Bram Stoker Awards in the Best Horror Anthology of the Year category.

3) Goodreads, partnered with Listopia, is running a friendly contest ranking 'Best Horror Anthologies'. Eric wrote yesterday that is was currently #4, but when I checked here, it was actually #3. Go book!  

4) And the good reviews keep coming in:
 http://zombiecoffeepress.com/2012/06/29/for-your-reading-pleasure-5/

http://www.monsterlibrarian.com/anthologies.htm#Dark_Tales_of_Lost_Civilizations

http://thegingernutcase.blogspot.com/2012/04/dark-tales-of-lost-civilisations.html#!/2012/04/dark-tales-of-lost-civilisations.html

http://www.countgore.com/Tomb.htm

It continues to be an amazing experience to be part of this great anthology, and to share its pages with such fantastic writers. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of reading it! And, if afterwards you feel so inclined, please leave a review at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads. It would be very much appreciated.

And now for the Real World, after 2 months in the la la land of recuperating. Must get ready. Must catch train.

Okay, I can do this. I can...

Smiley Face

I've just discovered that a second complete stranger that I don't know, not even a tiny little bit, has mentioned here that my story Whale of a Time in Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations was a favourite. He writes:

My favorites include Gitte Christensen’s future vision in which humanity has divided into voluntary yet contract-based subcultures (in this case, a group of ocean-exploring steampunks); and a very smooth weird-West ghost story by Joe Lansdale.

Nifty (I like that he snuck in the word steampunk, because after I wrote it I thought Is it? Have I actually, without definitively setting out to do so, written a steampunk story? ) And to think I almost didn't submit this story after its many rejections. It just goes to show, you never know.

Now, gotta rush. Pop culture beckons and I have to get ready for a pickup.

End of the Month Report: March 2012

Submissions:3
Rejections: 3
Acceptances: 0
Published: 1 (Whale of a Time in Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations)
Stories out in the wild: 11
New stories completed: 1 (Just subbed it)
Mood: Distracted by too many Real World matters at the moment.

All Weeks Should End Like This

All over the big, worldwide Internet, science fiction names are responding to Christopher Priest's post about this year's line up for the Arthur A. Clarke Award, who should and shouldn't be on the list, and who should or shouldn't win.

It's stratospheric stuff beyond my ken.

Here in my humble corner of cyberspace, I'm just deliriously happy that over at the Goodreads page for Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations a reader, a complete stranger, mentioned that my story Whale of a Time was one of her favourites in the anthology.

All Weeks Should Start Like This

After an all-dayer at the Arvo Job, I came home to two packages wedged between the fly screen and front door. Could they be, could they be...?

Yes! It was book bounty from the US! My copies of Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations had arrived. I quickly ripped open the packages, fondled the books, and discovered to my surprise that there were introductions to go with each story. I quickly located my own story, as you do. With lovely phrases like cheeky and smart and Gitte Christensen, whose crisp prose is as fun to read as it is thoughtful, and a description of the story as reading a bit like a sensationalist harlequin novel, well, come what may, I'll be grinning all week.

Dark Sales

DARK TALES OF LOST CIVILIZATIONS was just released for sale over the weekend! It includes my SF story Whale of a Time.
If you so choose, you can buy this fine tome directly at AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tales-Lost-Civilizations-Guignard/dp/0983433593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330829070&sr=8-1
Or pop over and put in an order for this magnificent volume at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-tales-of-lost-civilizations-eric-j-guignard/1038890509?ean=9780983433590&itm=1&usri=dark+tales+of+lost+civilizations

Pithy Promotion

A promo page for the upcoming 'Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations' anthology is up and running here. Wow, just look at those names!

My copy will be winging it's way across the world to me in April - I can hardly wait!

Onwards to one thousand?

This is my five hundred and first post. Given that when I tentatively started this blog back in January 2010, I didn't think I'd make it to February 2010, that's not bad. Since it looks like something I'll keep doing for the foreseeable future, I've been wondering whether I should, you know, redecorate it. Make it spiffier. Get in a consultant and a colour coordinator. Something to think about.

Anyway, to mark the occasion, let me share some news that's making me go tee hee with quiet glee. Go take a look at the cover art for the upcoming anthology Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations. See a familiar name there amongst those impressive others? Tee hee. And one of the stories mentioned on the back cover is mine. Tee hee. I'm actually a bit flummoxed. Happy, but flummoxed.

Now that's a nice start to the week. :)

Put on your pith helmet

With much whooping, I can now officially announce that my story Whale of a Time** will appear in the anthology 'Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations', edited by Eric J Guignard. This anthology is a collection of dark tales of Horror, Speculative Fiction and Science Fiction relating to civilizations that are lost, or have been forgotten, or have been rediscovered, or perhaps merely spoken about in great and fearful whispers.

It will be published by Dark Moon Books, and be released next spring (US) for the 2012 World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City.

So I've got the hat, but where did I park my Lear Jet?

**And yes, there are cetaceans in this story, Jim, but not as we know them.