Oy, Such a Compliment That Was!

Although I mentioned it on Facebook, I refrained from mentioning specifics about my latest short story acceptance here because this is where I make my "official announcements" and I had not yet sent in my signed contract.  There's also the little matter of not wanting to jinx anything because, to be blunt, it's been a while since I've had anything accepted. However, this hasn't been a total surprise since, as I advised my Facebook friends, I tend to have better luck in the Fall.

I did make a brief mention of the story's acceptance in my post from September 28th post so maybe consider this the sequel to that award-winning piece of quasi-journalistic excellence. The story is titled, "Gorgon Not Forgotten" (hee-hee get it?) and it was accepted by Left Hand Publishing. Once I sent in my signed contract, biography and picture (ugh!) they replied with the suggested edits.

There were hardly any.

Not to brag, but the publisher of my first novel used to say I was the easiest person to edit because my first drafts tended to read like final ones. That didn't mean changes weren't necessary or that there was no room for improvement. It just meant my narrative structure was relatively strong and the requisite flow and plot progression weren't in need of repair. This may be telling stories out of school as they used to say but I don't normally start writing until I either have a complete vision in my head or, when I don't have one, I stop and start a lot rather than simply rushing through a first draft. That's an unusual technique and not one I necessarily recommend to others. The conventional wisdom is to not do what I do but I have found that I am less likely to finish the work if I don't push myself to make it final draft worthy the first time.

I am not, repeat not, arrogant enough to believe a prospective editor will see it that way. I am also one of the easiest people to request rewrites and edits from. Every word is not precious and sometimes one must indeed kill their darlings if they want to see one's work in print. If you don't agree, don't accept the offer.

When I opened the returned document containing my story and its suggested edits, I saw the following note in the right-hand corner:

"Hi Christopher. Excellent story and a pristine manuscript. As your story was being reviewed by the scorers, it was noted a couple of times that by changing just a few words, you could keep the progeny genderless. As you read through your manuscript again, try to forget whether it’s a he or a she. You’ll see how it adds another layer to your piece.
If you do not like that idea, just “reject” the couple of changes that we made.Thank you for a great read. Nice working with you on this project."

The note was followed by a handful of suggested grammatical changes. Personal feedback is rare enough in this field and any is appreciated, even if it's not positive. To receive positive feedback thanking me? That's yuge! Not to mention the amount of compliments contained in that one paragraph. Knowing that more than one person read it and found enough merit to agree it was publishable makes any semblance of impostor syndrome vanish like flatulence in a summer breeze.

More on that actual publication date when I know more on the actual...publication...you know what I mean!

Short Stories No Longer Available.

It always saddens me when something I had published is no longer available to be purchased. And since most of my work has been published by tiny publishing houses, many of which closed their doors after just a few years of operation, the likelihood of not being able to find my work is greater than hoped. This is especially true of work that was only published in print form but it is by far not exclusively the case.

I've been fortunate enough to have published and, in some cases, republished well over three dozen short stories and two novels. The story count might be even higher than that now but I'm not obsessive about counting. Thankfully, the majority of my work can still be found.

Unfortunately, sometimes a publisher doesn't simply cease publishing. Sometimes they vanish like the proverbial fart upon yon breeze. Such was the case with the publisher of SciFan Magazine, the first publication to print a story of mine. I submitted a second story to the publisher only to soon realize he was more interested in promoting his own science fiction novel than in continuing to publish a high-quality magazine.  And it was high-quality. You can see by clicking here that SciFan is no more.

The story SciFan published, "No More Goodbyes," was not one I consider among my best, although I'm still rather fond of it. One story I do consider one of my best appeared in the anthology, "The Good Fight" concerning a superhero called Vanishing Act who discovers that the battle against evil isn't necessarily one he should be waging. That story is now out of print and I feel it deserves further consideration.

Perhaps the most painful loss is my beloved The Darkness Internal. Aussie publisher and friend Mark Turner ran out of funds after a rather impressive dual run of his main Voluted Tales Magazine and my imprint, named above. I got to publish six issues before the inevitable ax descended and, for several years afterwards and to the surprise of Mark, the issues remained online. I foolishly allowed myself to believe they always would be but the links no longer work. Now the only record of The Darkness Internal's existence can be found on blogs such as this one and this one.

It's sad to see a publication that included one's work gone into the ether; it happens to even the most famous authors. But when it's something I worked on from conception to inception, I can't deny that it hurts. I wish I'd thought of compiling the better stories into a self-published "Best of" but alas, I did not.

For those who may not be aware, most short stories, still available or not, become available to the author again within a year of publication. So, those stories that are no longer available could have been shopped around to others while they were still actively able to be purchased. A few were, actually.

As an author, I feel duty-bound to send work I have confidence back out for further consideration. And at some point, they will be collected in a short collection that will also one day go out of print.

Small Presses (A Brief Thought-Stream)

I subscribe to a certain weekly email newsletter that graciously provides lists of upcoming anthologies that are open to submissions. Most of my recent published work has been due to this list, so my gratitude is boundless. Therefore, please note this is not in any way a criticism of the compiler(s) of the weekly list. Instead, it's an observation about the level of expectation smaller publishers often have when it comes to their anthologies.

Anyone who has submitted fiction knows the pay-scale isn't exactly encouraging. There's a double-edged sword these days. There are more markets looking for work than ever before (I refuse to refer to my work or the work of others as "content") and the Internet has made it the easiest it's ever been to submit to them. So on the up side, it rarely costs anything to send out one's stories. No more self-addressed stamped envelopes, for the most part. On the down side, however, the innumerable smaller publishers can't afford to pay very much.

That's perfectly understandable. And while the amount of money involved should not dictate the quality of what they're seeking (I know this flies in the face of supposed conventional capitalistic wisdom) it should dictate what they require in addition to receiving said work.

What I'm getting at, quite simply, is if you can only pay someone twenty dollars for their hard work, don't also expect them to do additional work before you will even deign to consider reading it.
That is not a privilege you should possess until you can at least pay semi-pro rates.

I don't write this as someone who hasn't been on the other side of the submission wall. I have edited and published a magazine as well as two anthologies and never once did I require anything further than the story itself and any agreed upon edits/rewrites. I certainly wasn't full of myself enough to require a written proposal before I would even read their work. Why not charge a submission fee while you're at it?

Better yet, here's a urine sample and a list of the last five people I slept with.

I'm all for lofty goal-setting and aspirations of literary godhood, but come on. Twenty bucks barely fills most gas tanks these days. The "exposure" claim has been debunked far too many times for me to lend it any credence. Publishers are not supposed to remind us of employers that act like their workers should be grateful for minimum wage despite it being a law they have no choice but to observe.

You're supposed to be better than those low-lives. You're supposed to understand what writers go through both professionally and personally. Since your reach exceeds your grasp, try wrapping your hands around a big pile of perspective and get over yourselves~

***FREE FICTION TIME***

I'm not generally fond of the fact that some of my work can be found free with the mildest effort, despite the fact that it's often work appearing in an anthology that is supposed to be purchased. However, I'm feeling generous today and, if I may be frank, I was never paid for this particular story anyway.

Don't worry. I wasn't stiffed. It was simply not a paying anthology. It was submitted to an editor of whom I'd been rather fond during her time at another publisher that was no longer in business. It would appear that the newer publisher hath met a similar fate. I can't find anything beyond 2017 on their website.

So, the fact that story rights revert to the author after six months unless otherwise stipulated and combined with the defunct status of the publisher renders me guilt-free. I could have posted it on my Patreon page but I don't want people to start feeling like I don't ever share my work on here anymore.

Below is the cover of the anthology.

Click here to read my story and, apparently, every other story in the anthology. 

Shameless Self-Promotion and why I still avoid it.

Yesterday I was chided by a co-worker as we walked into one of the libraries I work for to start our day. She and I have worked together for at least two years  now if not longer and somehow she had never heard that I was a published author.

Keep in mind, this is a library. A place that could potentially carry my work and larger collections containing my contributions. Most of the people I work with know I'm a writer, although some of them may not know how much I've actually had published. Some of you are probably reading this in disbelief, thinking about how if you were a published author, everybody would know about it. I have no problem with that, it's just not how I have chosen to live my life.

I am by no means an extremist, however. I have a colleague from my old writing workshop days who doesn't tell co-workers anything about her secret identity as a published author. She prefers to keep the two parts of herself separate. I don't mind mixing them because, to my way of thinking, they aren't separate.

Being an author isn't a "side-hustle," that loathsome, ubiquitous expressions notwithstanding. It is the direct end result of being a writer. The author completes his or her work and sees it published and, gods willing, read by at least one dedicated, lonely individual out there living in a Unabomber-style shack, with apologies to The Simpsons. It is the final manifestation of all those undeniable creative urges we have felt since we can remember. The need to tell a story, to express one's self, cannot be reduced to a mere "hustle" to obtain extra cash. We'll leave that to dubious success stories such as the so-called "Food Babe and this guy.

So, when pressed to talk about my writing, a small part of me feels like a cheap huckster if I go too far, which I define as mentioning all the low, low prices my work can be purchased for if you just act now! 

What do I look like, one of those brazen self-publishing fanatics who fell for the algorithm-manipulating strategy of the mid-2000s?

I suspect my co-worker felt out of the loop more than anything else. When I told her I post on Facebook about my work all the time, she told me she only went on Facebook to read my bizarre, funny rants. I didn't have the heart to tell her she basically has seen my writing in that case.

However, in the interest of not alienating anyone who might be unaware of how or where to find the bulk of my published work, click this link.

Latest Short Story Released!

I'll be honest. I  received a rather painful rejection this time. Not because I worked "really, really hard" on the story, although I did, but because it was one of the stories I had that feeling about. I think most writers who have had their work published more than a few times develop it. Some stories just feel like they will be accepted by the editor. The last time I felt that feeling, it was after I finished editing, "Your Future for a Low, Low Price," which was recently published in this anthology. The time before that was once I'd completed, "The Last Big Gamble" for this one. Both times I just knew this was what the publisher was looking for, and I was right.

Sadly, that feeling isn't 100% effective. Sometimes I'm wrong. In this particular instance, the editor "thoroughly enjoyed reading" it but not enough to include it in the anthology. I must admit, it hurt a little. It isn't as if I wasn't prepared for the possibility, but I felt really good about this one. I still do. I hope to find it a home soon. That brings me to the celebratory portion of this post.

The story appearing in the just-released print issue of the Horror Zine was originally written for an anthology that chose not to publish my story. When that happens, I usually wait 24 hours before resubmitting my work to someone else. One day to lament, that's it. Since the one that was just rejected is so specific to the theme the rejecting anthology wanted, it might take a little longer, but that rule has served me well.

The proof can be found here.

Meanwhile, in Italy...

...some random online bookstore store has my first novel, "Dreamers at Infinity's Core" for sale,

And what appears to be an Italian university is selling my second one:

Anyway, how's your day goin'?

Check out the Horror Zine Magazine Cover!

Horror Zine Publisher and Editor Jeani Rector decided the previous cover she was going to use was "too intense" and went with the one pictured below:

I love it but I can't stop chuckling. Only in the realm of horror fiction would this cover not be considered too intense!


The Spring 2019 issue will feature my new short story, "The Time of Expansion," an odd one even coming from me. It really shows how influential Lovecraft was on the field; no matter how much of  a bastard he was in real life or how purple was his prose, the man's flawed brilliance bleeds over into modern work even when the author isn't consciously channeling him. Maybe I was channeling him, considering how ineffectual and uptight the protagonist is. He's a perfect symbol of Lovecraft's obsession with the English gentleman cliche.

It will be out soon!

THE SECRET FORMULA DISCOVERED!!!

Now, after years of writing and posting on this blog, I have finally stumbled upon the secret formula to receiving tons of views and, presumably, people reading my posts. The key doesn't lie in the quality of the writing or the point of view of the author. Nope! While those things have garnered me views in respectable number, the real way to get peoples' attention is to be a prick.

Yep, despite all my efforts to the contrary, herculean though they have been, when I let my inner A-hole out for a walk in the courtyard, people flock to this blog.

I get it. My response to an unnamed critic of my work whose point of view I found moronic and poorly rendered has now become my most viewed post. But what does this mean for yours truly?
Am I going to stop posting other things? Since my posts about my latest published work garner a tenth of the views of  the one about the reviewer, does that mean I will stop sharing that type of news? Well, no because that's this blog's primary function.

So maybe it means I'm going to tailor those posts to the people who seemed to gravitate towards the popular post. Again, nope.

Maybe it means I get it and I won't shy away from posting similar things in the future.

Yeah, let's go with that!

CONFIRMATION RECEIVED

My short story, "Time of Expansion" will be appearing in the Horror Zine's physical magazine in the Spring 2019 issue. This marks a return to publisher/editor Jeani Rector's award-winning publication  for me as I have not had a story published there in at least five years.

More on this as it becomes available!

Quick Rumor Mill Update:

A short story I recently had accepted that I assumed was only going to be published online just might be appearing in a physical publication as well! More on this once I've received confirmation.

Meanwhile, here's a free online story of mine for you!
(Feel free to leave a comment)

Question About the Previous Post

I realize I'm probably urinating into a monsoon, but I'm curious about why the reaction to my previous post responding to a reviewer has become so highly viewed. Without divulging specific statistics, I can tell you it's one of my most viewed posts ever. That's not me using Newspeak and being melodramatic. I'm being literal. This post, something I considered a mere throwaway to keep the blog active, has clearly struck a chord or, at the very least, wound up appearing in many, many online searchers.

But why? How? Which? Where?

Who?

If anyone reading this is willing to provide their insight, even if it's negative, I'd love to hear from you.

Open Letter to a Certain Reviewer (The post where I get a lil' petty but not very)

Foreword: It still makes me giggle uncontrollably when I say I Googled myself. The images it conjures up instill in me a certain middle school level glee and I do not apologize for that. What I will apologize in advance for, however, is the minor descent into writer pettiness you will bear witness to if you keep reading this post. Who am I kidding? Most of you wouldn't miss that for anything!

Well, today you can consider me the Aaron Spelling of bloggers; far be it for me to not give the audience what it thinks it wants.

Dear Reviewer,

Sometimes I Google myself. I'm not proud of it but I'm a lonely, lonely man and when I'm alone in the dark, certain alluring thoughts enter my mind and I --- Never mind that. This letter is to follow up on your review of one of my short stories from 2011. That's right! Two-thousand ELEVEN. 

Before you start thinking you've been in my head like Thanos has been with Tony Stark, (That's a Marvel Cinematic Universe reference, which I'm sure you consider yourself above) I had forgotten about the review until today, when I decided to go against the laws of my religion and Google myself to a satisfactory conclusion. 

I do that on occasion so I can see if there's any new me-related information online that I can share with the readers of this blog. I actually ran across two reviews of my work by you, both from different editions of a particular publisher's annual anthology, and neither was favorable. And that's okay. One cannot go into this field and expect nothing by praise and positive responses. There will be be those who dislike what you offer no matter what it is. I certainly have authors I feel that way about and I would have to be a fool to think I wouldn't have the same effect on others.

So, please do not take the following sentences as an indictment of your absolute right to hate what I wrote, Reviewer. In fact, much like working in a laughingly named "Right-to-Work State," as a reader, you have no obligation to explain why you dislike anything you read. As a reviewer, however, a certain amount of comprehension is expected and, dare I write it, encouraged? Judging by your dismissive review and its incorrect conclusion about my story, I am confident you do not grasp stories that don't spell out their concepts and plots in easily digested bursts of exposition. 

As they say these days, "Do you, man." That means be who you are without feeling pressured to be someone else. Sorry if it wasn't clear the first time.

I suppose if pinned down, I would be forced to say my main issue with your review was its tone. As pointed out earlier, arrogant dismissiveness should come with a working understanding of the thing being dismissed. Your review did not because you obliviously admitted to missing the whole point of the plot. Where I come from --this place called Earth-- that negates your entire point of view. If you aren't even able to tell whether or not the fate of a character is Option A or B when it should be clear by the end, I can forward some sit-com pilot scripts that might be more in line with your comprehension level.

If you think I'm being petty or an asshole or both, you're right. Your review inspired me to act in kind, except in my case I actually comprehend what I'm discussing. I Googled you, too. I found a much older man than I'd expected, which was a tad disappointing. I saw your one professional sale, which was surprising, but I commend you for reaching that level. It doesn't appear as though you ever did again, and that's okay. At least you can say you did it. But I don't think you feel that way about it. I think you're angry at every story you read that doesn't meet your narrow-minded standards precisely because you didn't continue to reach that level. I can only hope you were being intentionally obtuse when it came to my story (and a few others in the anthologies) but something tells me your confessed inability to understand things that aren't made clear is also the reason those professional sales didn't keep happening.

I'm going to bring this letter to a close now. I've already devoted more time and space to your review than you did to my story. Let me close by saying I have also worked as a reviewer. Perhaps because one of my three great writing mentors taught me to focus on the written work rather than the author's intent, I at least make an attempt to be fair-minded. I don't have much patience for bad writing but I also know that's a subjective term. I hope I never become like you and forget that. 

Not-So-Warmest Regards,

Christopher Nadeau
Author

Another "What do you Call that Noise?" Review.

At this point, this might just become the most reviewed publication I have ever been involved with.  Again, there's no mention of my comparatively meager contribution and I'm perfectly fine with that.

You can read the review and interview here.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE BAD LUCK STREAK ENDED!

Regular readers of this blog know what the title is referring to, but for those who don't, permit me a brief recap. Basically, I've been receiving more rejections than a Trump staffer in Washington, D.C. looking for a date. That wasn't a slam, by the way. It's a documented fact.

I realized early in February of this year that part of the reason for the high number of rejections was based on when the stories had been submitted. Most of them were sent to their prospective anthologies in the closing few months of 2018, so naturally the editors would want to clean their slate as early in the New Year as possible. Unfortunately, the decisions they made did not swing in my favor.

It wasn't as if I had nothing being published this year, but the rapidity with which I received the rejections felt like a bombardment. Today, that all came to a screeching halt thanks to The Horror Zine editor Jeani Rector. I have published stories with her before. Two were published and can still be read on the website here and here, and in two published volumes here and here.

Describing my story as "creepy and odd," she found it a good fit for her online, award-winning zine.
More on that as it materializes.

Good news for you cheapskates out there...it will be free to read!

First Review of "Deadly Bargain" is in.

Although the print version of the "Deadly  Bargain" anthology has yet to be published, the Kindle edition has received a positive review which can be read here.
Regular readers of this blog know I'm not so egocentric as to only include reviews that mention my stories and name, so they shouldn't be surprised I'm including this one. My point of view is every positive mention helps whether I am singled out or not.

Not Sure What This Says About Me...

As I've written recently, my run of luck in regards to getting published this still new year has not been encouraging. It didn't help that I went on my Amazon Author Central page yesterday and noticed a review of one of my short stories from about four years ago. It was a reader review. He clearly put a lot of thought into it and somehow found a single word that perfectly encapsulated his feelings:

CRAP.

I'm not the only one whose story he labeled with this cutting dismissal either. At least 80% of the anthology received what I call the other "C-word" in response to its offerings. I was a bit taken aback, having never seen a review with such negative finality before. Then I got a look at his picture and started laughing because, frankly, he looked like the comic relief in a certain type of film from a certain country that isn't known for its high-end cinema.

Still, my amusement aside, his hilarious appearance doesn't negate his right to have an opinion that doesn't make me feel good about my writing. I certainly would never want to curtail a person's ability to express himself as he sees fit as long as it's not abusive. Besides, the review was from three years ago and, as we say in the field, at least he took the time to write a review. Frankly, the positive reviews still outweigh the negative ones.

When I place my so-called run of bad luck into perspective, most of the stories that have been rejected were actually submitted in the final two months of 2018, basically right on top of one another. Of course they would start coming in the same way they went out! Besides, I have a short story and a piece in a non-fiction book both coming out in the next few weeks. So, how exactly is this a bad start to the New Year?

So, for now, I will cease and desist my whining. Oh, and no, I am not going to share a link to the "crap" review. Do your own research~

Pre-Order your copy of "Deadly Bargain" NOW!!!

The  Kindle edition of "Deadly Bargain: A Colors in Darkness Anthology" is now available on Amazon for pre-order. The rule for this one was simple, so of course I almost didn't do it correctly. Basically, the stories needed to involve a bargain struck with a stranger that turns out badly for the protagonist. In other words, just enough detail but not so much that the act of creation becomes an act of constriction.

However, it wasn't until I was three-quarters of the way finished that I realized I'd missed one final detail: The bargain supplier had to be the same guy in every story. Normally that wouldn't be a problem if not for that fact that my contrary ass (apparently even on an unconscious level) had created a character who could not have been more opposite in appearance and national origin.

In a flash of inspiration (or desperation, if you prefer) I came up with a solution to what turned out to be a tiny problem. The point being made about hatred of the other carried even more weight now and, because I despise preachy fiction, I chose not to dwell on it for longer than a few sentences. What resulted was a story I consider one of the better ones I've written in the past year, my so-called "comeback" period.

Click here to learn more!

Publishing Update.

Despite 2019 getting off to a rocky start, there has been some positivity peaking through the darkness. The Colors in Darkness anthology "Deadly Bargain" pictured above is well on track to being released. I just emailed off the requested edits, of which I can proudly and cockily say there were only three minor ones.

Also on its way in the next couple months is a non-fiction piece collected in a specialty book. I've been asked to wait until this coming Monday to reveal more info. Most of you probably won't care because of how specialized it is but it's a big deal to me.

I have plenty of stuff out there being scrutinized and I'll be sure to share those outcomes as well.

Five Books I Think you Should Read ( No reviews, just images)