A Story a Day in May

I've gone and done it. Thanks to Elizabeth, I've signed up to A Story a Day in May. I've been enjoying Write1 Sub 1 so much, that I thought I'd go to the extreme.

A Story a Day in May, well it does what it says on the tin. A story: you decide how long every day. I've had a little practice today. Ah, these self-imposed challenge, the funny thing is they seem to work. I felt, anxious today, I had a real sense of needing to get thing written. I managed a flash (1000 words almost complete, and 2000 words towards tomorrow's story).

This is fun.

Numbers, numbers (and a bit of bragging).

I'm looking to write a story for the current competition of On the Premises. They take all types of short fiction and their current prompt is:

NUMBERS, NUMBERS, NUMBERS

In some way, numbers must be important to the story for this contest. Either specific numbers, or the concept of numbers, or maybe just one number.
Deadline: 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Tuesday, May 31, 2011.

I've come up with an interesting aliens/Africa/fractals idea.

Good news to report with a haibun being accepted by one of my favourite magazines Hungur. Hungur focuses on vampires, and has a special interest in alien and non-western vampires. Haibuns are a mixture of prose poetry and haikus. They're a form that I'm particlary fond of.  See Shelly Bryant's haibuns in Contemporary Haibun Online.

One of my tweets has  been accepted by the 7x20 anthology. I've just completed a week there, and they're back open for submission. Highly recommended.

In the Mood for Horror

I've got a yearning to write some horror short stories or poetry. I'm fond of horror, but don't write as much as I could. What's your favourite horror venues? I'm looking for inspiration.

That's got me thinking. What's the history of horror literature? Dante's The Divine Comedy?  That's 14th century. What came before that?

Chiaroscuro Accepts Trash Cat Poem

Chizine.com have accepted my poem 'Trash Cat.' I'm so pleased, Chizine is a wonderful venue for dark poetry.

Chizine publication are running an interesting competition (to promote Derryl Murphy's new novel Napier's Bones) calling for stories or fictional invention/concepts. The seventeenth century John Napier was a mathematician, and had interests in alchemy, necromancy and the Book of Revelation. It would be so interesting to write a story focussing on maths.

Thanks to Anne-Mhairi for details of another competition, write a fantasy short-story for a chance to win an Apple-ipad.

oooh, and a tweet up at @CuentoMag.
oooh, and another.

Market Watch: Sword and Sorceress

The Sword and Sorceress anthology will be opening on 16th April. This is one of my dream markets and I'm working hard on story, 'The Bones of Gryphon Lost.' The site also has some useful advice for aspiring authors: What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?"

I have a micro-fiction up at Postcard Shorts: Grandmother's Cottage. Amazingly this was published within twenty-four hours of submitting.

The Drabbler is open. Hoorah. Drabbles are exactly 100 words (excluding the title in the case of The Drabbler). This issue's theme is 'climate change.'

So many markets, so little time.