Read this and tell me what it says

My apologies to A. Mannette Ansay for stealing her short story collection for the title of my post today. My story Wine For Two is up on Ruthless Peoples Magazine today, issue three. Go ahead an download it and tell me what you think, unless it isn't very nice and then just keep your opinion to yourself (just kidding, I want to know how to make the next one better.) You might note that they actually listed it as a romance. I had to laugh. Something I never thought I would have listed behind my name, and with good reason.

Also you should read Aaron Polson's short on EDF today.

Yesterday I took a day off, I didn't want to write I wanted to drive. Somewhere I have never been. This is hard for me to do in a very limited amount of time as I have taken almost every highway, biway and gravel road south of interstate 80 in Iowa and a good chunk of them north of it. Lucky for me I have never been to Northwest Iowa so in a couple of hours I was out of familier territory and into new scenery. It was beautiful, flowing glacial hills and flat plains that seemed to stretch forever. I showed my son some turtles in a farm pond and just enjoyed the time out. I considered it a re-charging time for my creative batteries. I was also looking for new landscapes and settings to showcase in my fiction.

I had better get going, it is raining today so I know I will be able to spend a good chunk of time in front of a keyboard when the boy goes down for a nap.

End of a long journey

The Glass Jar has been picked up for publication in the October issue of Fissure magazine. I wouldn't have written about this, but this story started 12 years ago. I was still in college for God's sake. It has undergone more revisions than anything else I have ever written and even underwent more revisions while it was under consideration from this editor (bless her soul). I believe this story is the first rejection I ever received, a personalized rejection from Gordon Van Gelder (which still sits in a file in my cabinet) at F&SF. Still I knew it would find a home and it has. I look forward to seeing how it is presented and even more thankful that this story's journey is at an end.

Now to the business at hand. I think I have a good start on a 16-20,000 word MG story as I plug away on another MG adventure which is looking to be about 28,000 words long. nothing like spreading yourself thin. My short story front is thin right now. I have a couple of ghost stories sloshing around my skull, aging like a fine whiskey. I hope they don't turn rancid on me before I tap my brain and release them into my electronic shotglass.

Hope everyone has a good day, it is Friday after all. Pour yourself a cold one and belly up to the keyboard and have some fun today.

Oh, and before I forget, I will be posting this next week as well, Ruthless Peoples Magazine comes out with issue number 3 next week (the 14th to be exact) and my story "Wine for Two" is featured. I hope everyone downloads it and lets me know what they think. It is a little different than my usual. Don't worry, I will remind everyone when it comes out.

Good Weekend

I have to say, in between the kids whining and not sleeping and the housework and everything else we like to call life, I had a good weekend.

I managed to get a window replaced in the boy's bedroom (we still don't know how it broke) and change the oil in the van. We got two year pics taken of the boy and some pretty cute pics of both kids together. We had good pizza (if you are ever in Des Moines you need to go to The Tavern, they have 3 locations) and I visited a bookstore that didn't have the book I was looking for. Talked to a guy who makes pens for a living (they aren't cheap but they sure are pretty) and managed to visit the mother in law where she made us an awesome dinner. To top it all off I got my 3rd acceptance for the year. (Yippee!)

I finally sold Wine For Two. This is a story that Crazyhorse magazine held on to for 9 months (maybe it was ten. I will have to look). It sold to Ruthless People mag. It is an unconventional story with a haunting and a love story and nothing at all like anything else I have ever written. It is also the only story I have written that my wife genuinely likes, if that tells you anything.

Still riding the high and have a lot of work to do this week. Maybe this will be the week that I finish the first draft of my still untitled novella. Have a great Monday.