Looking Ahead in 2014

This is going to be a bit of ramble.

     We're a month and change into 2014 and I finally have a chance to breath. Last two months have been busy with another project and my chances to writing has suffered. I don't regret it, as I was helping someone with their dream and that makes things okay. Now it's time to get back to writing and taking stock of what I've got pending.

     NaNo left me with three finished short stories, a hefty partially-complete novella, and a smattering of ideas that need to be expanded upon. I just finished taking two of the short stories and pulling them out of Scrivner and into a file for submission. They were destined for calls, but those have passed, so now I'm working on finding them a new home. Each needs a complete edit pass on them and then shipped them off to beta readers for review. More of my urban fantasy faerie tales, including Tamer, Beast, and The Princess from previously published stories.

     The past two months has seen five short stories go into print, either dead tree or e-book. That brings the total to eight since I started this back in February 2012. Two years. It's been an interesting haul, but I want more. "Fire and Frost" went to a professional for editing and review. I got a lot of good praise and a dose of good advice. Now I've got to take it all, revise the story, add more words, and then send it out. I can do this. I can get it published. That's the next milestone for me and time to get serious about it. That also leaves my 2013 NaNo effort, Oath of Fire, which needs at least another 10-15k words to complete. I've got the ending written for once, even if it's not a whole story.

     Another bit that's spurring me on is all the stuff in my head. It wants to be told. All the characters are asking for screen time to tell their tales and the queue gets longer each week. "Oath of Fire" is the origin story for my main character, who features prominently in "Fire and Frost", which is eleven years in the future and there's a handful of tales that have been published that fit between those points of time [Broken Horn, The Dank, Knife's Edge]. Add to that is the Tamer/Beast/Princess stories [The Flowering Princess of Dreams, The Tamer of Beasts] which are nominally set in the same "universe". Yes, there's a chance of a cross-over, but its not joined in queue yet just loitering in the background. Then there's "The Crew", which got rejected on one hand, yet possibly accepted on the other hand to a different, yet related, publication. I sent out a query again to see if the offer is still open. If so, that means a reformatting of the story, but no major edits, just tweaks.

     So, here's the list of current stories in publication which can be found on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Nobles. Theses are in no particular order. A special mention to Weldon Burge of Smart Rhino for taking a gamble on an unknown author with a story about a boy and his ax. Thanks for the acceptance.

"The Dank" in Fossil Lake, An Anthology of the Aberrant [Daverana Enterprises]
"GRONK!" in ATTACK! of the B-Movie Monsters [Grinning Skull Press]
"The Tamer of Beasts" in A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court [Seventh Star Press]
"The Flowering Princess of Dreams" in Someone Wicked [Smart Rhino Publications]
"Broken Hron" in Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac [Alchemy Press]
"Knife's Edge" in 66 Sex Club [Scarlet Petals Press] [NSFW]
"Perfection" in Zippered Flesh 2 [Smart Rhino Publications]
"Madame" in Uncommon Assassins [Smart Rhino Publications]