Thursday, October 13, 2011
New Pulp Fiction
New Pulp Fiction is looking for a review editor. There's no mention of pay, but I know there's quite a few of you out there who review pulp fiction and might be interested in the opportunity. http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2011/10/review-editor-needed.html
Market News
Thrillers, Killers, and Chillers has put out a call for Halloween stories of 1000 words or less with a October 25 deadline. http://thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.com/2011/10/hellicious-halloween.html
A new humor zine called The Laughter Shack is set to launch soon. This is a non-paying market looking for humorous shorts of 500 words or less. http://thelaughtershack.blogspot.com Friend of the blog Dave Barber is the wizard behind the curtain here.
There's a new epublisher getting set to launch on November 1 called Blasted Heath. They've already got books set to go. You can find the press release and more details here http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-name-in-digital-publishing-is.html Al Guthrie and Kyle MacRae are the publishers.
Trestle Press has been making a splash with their ebooks since they launched earlier this year. http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com While I can't find their pay rates on the site, they do have a call out for a new anthology series of International Noir/Hardboiled crime stories. Author names connected with this press are ones familiar in the crime community like Nigel Bird, BR Stateham, Paul Brazill, and Richard Godwin. You can find much of the work published by this press reviewed here http://santsrants.blogspot.com
A new humor zine called The Laughter Shack is set to launch soon. This is a non-paying market looking for humorous shorts of 500 words or less. http://thelaughtershack.blogspot.com Friend of the blog Dave Barber is the wizard behind the curtain here.
There's a new epublisher getting set to launch on November 1 called Blasted Heath. They've already got books set to go. You can find the press release and more details here http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-name-in-digital-publishing-is.html Al Guthrie and Kyle MacRae are the publishers.
Trestle Press has been making a splash with their ebooks since they launched earlier this year. http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com While I can't find their pay rates on the site, they do have a call out for a new anthology series of International Noir/Hardboiled crime stories. Author names connected with this press are ones familiar in the crime community like Nigel Bird, BR Stateham, Paul Brazill, and Richard Godwin. You can find much of the work published by this press reviewed here http://santsrants.blogspot.com
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Patti Abbott
Short story writer, Patti Abbott, and I have been sharing the pages of online zines for several years now, and I'm a big fan of her work. So it's with great pleasure that I get to tell you that Snubnose Press has just released her first collection of short stories, "Monkey Justice: Stories". We're Snoopy dancing here at the corner for our friend, Patti!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Justice-Stories-ebook/dp/B005UOR9UK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318420618&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Justice-Stories-ebook/dp/B005UOR9UK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318420618&sr=1-1
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I Love the Smell of Fresh Print
I'm enjoying the fact that some of the new editors/publishers are putting their zines out in print. There's just something about holding those pages in your hands that you can't quite capture with electronic publishing. That said, the fall issue of Needle mag has hit the streets, you can find it here http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/needle-magazine---fall-2011/17969572 And if you still want your electronic fix, the very first issue is now available for your ereader at that link.
Another first time print magazine is Pulp Modern and you can find a review by Thomas Pluck here http://www.pluckyoutoo.com/2011/10/review-pulp-modern-autumn-2011.html
Another first time print magazine is Pulp Modern and you can find a review by Thomas Pluck here http://www.pluckyoutoo.com/2011/10/review-pulp-modern-autumn-2011.html
Sunday, October 9, 2011
We've Got Shorts!
Here a collection, there an anthology. Short stories are out there folks and finding them isn't all that hard anymore. Don't believe me? Well, David Cranmer posted a list of seven books worth your time and all but two are collected short stories. http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/2011/10/seven-books-worth-your-time.html
Back a year or so ago, Brian Lindenmuth thought the online zines should put together anthologies of their stories so they wouldn't be lost forever. Well, guess what, it's happening! You've got Beat to a Pulp: Round One out there with number two coming out later this year. Crime Factory has issued Crime Factory: The First Shift and Pulp Metal just published Laughing at the Death Grin. All available at Amazon.com in both print and e-reader format.
And reviews! There are more and more sites posting reviews of these anthologies.
Darren Sant reviews Pulp Ink here http://santsrants.blogspot.com/2011/10/pulp-ink-anthology-edited-by-nigel-bird.html
Nigel Bird reviews Keith Rawson's The Chaos We Know http://nigelpbird.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-mans-opinion-chaos-we-know-by-keith.html
Chris Rhatigan reviews Toxic Reality by Katherine Tomlinson http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com/2011/10/toxic-reality-katherine-tomlinson.html
And that, folks, is just the tip of the iceberg. Word of mouth about all these great stories is avalanching across the Internet faster than they're being published. Oh yeah, it's a great and wonderful time to be a short story writer!!
Back a year or so ago, Brian Lindenmuth thought the online zines should put together anthologies of their stories so they wouldn't be lost forever. Well, guess what, it's happening! You've got Beat to a Pulp: Round One out there with number two coming out later this year. Crime Factory has issued Crime Factory: The First Shift and Pulp Metal just published Laughing at the Death Grin. All available at Amazon.com in both print and e-reader format.
And reviews! There are more and more sites posting reviews of these anthologies.
Darren Sant reviews Pulp Ink here http://santsrants.blogspot.com/2011/10/pulp-ink-anthology-edited-by-nigel-bird.html
Nigel Bird reviews Keith Rawson's The Chaos We Know http://nigelpbird.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-mans-opinion-chaos-we-know-by-keith.html
Chris Rhatigan reviews Toxic Reality by Katherine Tomlinson http://death-by-killing.blogspot.com/2011/10/toxic-reality-katherine-tomlinson.html
And that, folks, is just the tip of the iceberg. Word of mouth about all these great stories is avalanching across the Internet faster than they're being published. Oh yeah, it's a great and wonderful time to be a short story writer!!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Learning from Reviews
Being a writer, means learning to keep your mind open so you can learn how to do your job better. And reviews are a part of that learning process. I love reading reviews that take a story apart to show you both the good and the bad. Good reviews are similar to writing critiques but at least with a crit, the writer is expecting you to find fault. Once a story is published, well, what's to criticize? Sometimes a great deal.
Over at Spinetingler, Nick Mamatas did a review of "Three Theories of the Murder of John Wiley" by J. David Osborne. He picked the story apart, told what didn't work for him and what did. A commenter told him to "go fuck himself". But the part of the story he picked apart is something that writers need to watch out for in their stories. Making sure the story is believable and that the story flows properly from scene to scene. I got what Nick was saying because it's a problem I have in my own work and something that I have to check for in the editing and rewriting.
You know what I'm talking about, those moments in a story when a reader scratches his head and wonders how they got there. A good example? You have two men sitting at the dinner table arguing. Next scene they're standing toe to toe and throwing punches. Okay, when exactly did they stand up? It's those little things that trip up a story. And Nick made a valid point of calling the writer on it. And it's something a good editor should have caught.
Writing for online publications, I discovered that not all editors are created equal, some will go the distance to make your story great and others will just publish whatever you send them. So, I learned early on that I needed to be both writer and editor if I wanted my stories to be good. A good writer doesn't depend on an editor to find the flaws, but a good editor should catch what the writer doesn't.
So you writers out there. Don't just write great scenes, make sure they flow one into the next with a believable continuity. It's in your own best interest. And editors will love you for it.
Oh, and Nick's review is here if you'd like to read it. http://www.spinetinglermag.com/tag/warmed-and-bound
Over at Spinetingler, Nick Mamatas did a review of "Three Theories of the Murder of John Wiley" by J. David Osborne. He picked the story apart, told what didn't work for him and what did. A commenter told him to "go fuck himself". But the part of the story he picked apart is something that writers need to watch out for in their stories. Making sure the story is believable and that the story flows properly from scene to scene. I got what Nick was saying because it's a problem I have in my own work and something that I have to check for in the editing and rewriting.
You know what I'm talking about, those moments in a story when a reader scratches his head and wonders how they got there. A good example? You have two men sitting at the dinner table arguing. Next scene they're standing toe to toe and throwing punches. Okay, when exactly did they stand up? It's those little things that trip up a story. And Nick made a valid point of calling the writer on it. And it's something a good editor should have caught.
Writing for online publications, I discovered that not all editors are created equal, some will go the distance to make your story great and others will just publish whatever you send them. So, I learned early on that I needed to be both writer and editor if I wanted my stories to be good. A good writer doesn't depend on an editor to find the flaws, but a good editor should catch what the writer doesn't.
So you writers out there. Don't just write great scenes, make sure they flow one into the next with a believable continuity. It's in your own best interest. And editors will love you for it.
Oh, and Nick's review is here if you'd like to read it. http://www.spinetinglermag.com/tag/warmed-and-bound
Friday, October 7, 2011
KHP Books
KHP Books is an e-book publisher that's been in operation since 2002. They have opened up three of their imprints for submissions through the end of October. They're looking for dark/horror across the genres of 30,000 to 100,000 words. This is a royalty paying publisher with a 50% of net payment to the authors. The imprints that are open are:
Black Death Books
Skullvines Press
Blasphemous Books
You can find the details here http://khpbooks.com/submissions
Black Death Books
Skullvines Press
Blasphemous Books
You can find the details here http://khpbooks.com/submissions
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