2018 came and went, and what a great writing year it was!

Since the last update in early October (!), quite a lot has happened.

New Publications

• Family Business, Coffin Bell, Issue 2.1, January 1, 2019. (horror)
• Waterfall, The Ginger Collect, Issue 8, December 21, 2018. (fairy tale)
  [Author interview here]
• Troo Raccoon, Unfit Magazine, Volume 2, 2018. (sci-fi)
• Mildew, The Whisper Place (Ellipsis Zine: Four), October 29, 2018. (anthology) (surrealism) Nominated for the Pushcart Prize (link)
• Daddy’s Home, 50-Word Stories, October 26, 2018. (sci-fi)
• Propolis, Trembling with Fear, October 21, 2018. (sci-fi)
• The Weave, Martian, October 15, 2018. (sci-fi)
  [Author interview here]

Honors

I got nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Ellipsis Zine for my story “Mildew,” which made me really happy. It’s one of my favorite stories and I’m glad it was one of Ellipsis Zine‘s, too.

Acceptances

Unfortunately, the anthology Drabbledark II  ended up not being funded, so the stories were released back to the authors. I am happy that my dark sci-fi drabble “The Flask” found a great new home at Trembling with Fear and will appear online in the next couple of months.

Submissions

According to The Grinder:

2018

Submissions: 91

Acceptances: 20

Rejections: 55

2019 so far

Submissions: 17 (Pending: 9)

Acceptances: 1

Rejections: 12

I have written three new pieces over the past three weeks: two long flashes (~1000 words) and a short story of 2.6k words; I admit it was nice to get comfortable and stretch a little. There probably won’t be many more than  these three before May, as I have an unusually high workload plus a work trip every month well into the summer. But I plan on keeping the juices flowing by writing some drabbles and maybe vss365 on Twitter.

Goals for 2019

Ideally, I would like to make a pro sale this year (which is needed to become an associate  member of SFWA and/or HWA and/or join Codex). While this might happen, it also might not, so it’s partially out of my hands.

However, the goals that are within my control are to:

• Keep reading short fiction, and broadly so, in terms of both genre and style
• Keep working; keep getting better
• Write a few more longer pieces (2-4k words)
• Write some nonfiction, humor, and/or literary pieces in addition to focus on speculative fiction
• Try for more anthologies. Try not to skip The Molotov Cocktail contests
• Keep improving knowledge of the publishing landscape. Consistently target selective markets — don’t self-reject!