Busy as a Bee in August

August has been a good month, extremely busy. I've fitted in a two week holiday to Brittany, a four day holiday to WorldCon here in London. And provided three squares to the children. And my mum came down for a few days from Derby to help me celebrate my birthday.

And any spare time I've had, I've been working on my novel, writing short stories and poetry and submitting like the wind. 

August News

August 31st Two poems by Kelda Crich sold to Eternal Haunted Summer
August 30th: Secret Sale of a Reprint to Best of X anthology
August 29th: 'Drink Deep and Long the Circean Posion' to be translated into Dutch and published in SF-Terra
August 27th: Mind Meld  'Under appreciated Authors' by Kelda Crich published in SF-Signal 
August 25th: Crowd Control, a collaborative Story with Aliette de Bodard, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, Gareth Jones and John P Murphy sold to Perihelion
August 11th: 'House of Cards'  published T Gene Davis' Speculative Blog 
August 10th:  'Drink Long and Deep' reprint accepted by Strange Constellations
August 7th: 'I Sing the Recurring Melody' accepted by Love, Space, Time, Magic Anthology 
August 3rd: 'Beyond the Turning Orrery' accepted by Abbreviated Epics Third Flatiron
August 1st 'Ghost Nebula' reprint accepted by Spirit Caller

SF Mind Meld: My Favourite Magic Item: The Fancy Dress Shop in Mr Benn

I've taken part in SF Signal's laterst Mind Meld: Favourite Magic Items.

I chose the magic fancy dress shop in Mr Benn. What's your favourite magic item? What would you do with it?

Two Sales to Beam Me Up

'Aunty Merkel' and 'Looking Good' have been accepted for podcasting at Beam Me Up (guidelines here). As a bonus, these stories will also be broadcast on the local listener supported radio station WRFR lp/fm.

My first time on the airwaves!

Data Crabs at Mad Scientist Journal and Story Sale

My story 'Data Crabs' is available to read at Mad Scientist Journal, with some lovely art by Shannon Legler.

And I'm pleased to announce that I've sold a fantasy story to Daily Science Fiction. It's always a pleasure being published by DSF.

First Foot Published in Bil Pankia

'First Foot' has been translated into Hebrew by Amber Greenstein and published in Bli Panakia. This is my first translation into Hebrew.

Sale to Young Explorer's Adventure Guide

I'm very pleased to announce that my story 'Chit Win' is to be reprinted in Dreaming Robot Press' Young Explorer's Adventure Guide. 

We’re looking for stories that:

• Have a main character a middle grade reader (ages 9-12) can identify with;
• Show a diverse set of real characters;
• Are well written, fun to read and encourage a love of reading science fiction;
• Tell of adventure, space, science.  Give us rockets, robots and alien encounters, and we’re pretty happy. Steampunk, time travel, weird west and alternate history are all fine;
• Are between 3,000 and 6,000 words.

The anthology is still open (full guidelines here):

Story Sale to Nature's Futures 2

I'm pleased to report that my story 'Glass Future' has been selected to appear in Nature Futures 2  to be published by Nature and Tor. With one hundred stories in this volume, I'm pleased to be sharing the table of contents with lots of my writing friends.

Natures Future's 2 will be promoted at Loncon this August, which I'm attending.

Reporting Short Story Sales

Hello!

Since I've been doing this submission challenge on my writing group, my submissions have sky-rocketed. And, let's face it, they were quite high to begin with.

So I've got lots of news to report:

'House of Cards' accepted by T Gene Davis' Speculative Blog
Frozen Hive of Her Mind' (reprint) accepted by Domain SF
'Sibyl' reprint accepted by Literary Hatchet
'First Foot' and 'Sea Is in My Blood reprints accepted by Mad Scientist Journal
'Remember Winter' poem reprint accepted by Pantheon Magazine
'Stone City, Old as Immeasurable Time' reprint accepted by Dead But Dreaming
'First Foot' reprint for Hebrew translation by Bil Panakia
'First Foot' reprint accepted for Estonian translation by Aglernon
'Sister, Dear Sister' sold to Alternate Hilarities anthology
'When We Were in Thrall to Venus' sold to Aphrodite Terra anthology

Now, after a month of working on short stories, I'm looking foward to getting back to my novel. But I just might find the time to squeeze in the odd short story. 

Story up at Visibility Fiction

My story 'Looking Good' is up at Visibility Fiction a magazine dedicated to the promotion and publication of inclusive young adult fiction.

Check out the great art. I've been so lucky with story illustrations lately.

SF/Ghost Story Up at Nature

I've got a new story up at Nature this week: Face in the Dark, a spooky science fiction tale. I hope you all enjoy it. 

As Good as Bad Can Get: Novel Progress

I've been commissioned to write a space opera novel set in the Dark Expanse. This is a online RPG stategy tie in novel.

Some of you might remember that I've published several short stories in the Dark Expanse (read for free). Some of which appear in the Dark Expanse: Surviving the Collapse anthology, buy from Amazon UK or Amazon US.

I'd like to share the developing blurb with you:

As Good as Bad Can Get

Klyve Ganthe is a Kyoti, a race of tricksters and con artists. He's got he's good qualities, but he's a nobody. He can't even manage to bribe his way off planet. So why would the Corona Corporation leave him in charge of the planet Nimbas?  Armed with his wits, his old pal Quizl the Kanzai to advise him, and a nagging mother-in-law, Klyve must struggle to bring together the disgruntled factions to keep Nimbas from being overrun by the Logorasch swarm.

A Planet on the Edge of Chaos. Can Klyve make Nimbas As Good as Bad Can Get?

Goodreads Group: Speculative Short Fiction Deserves Love

Goodreads Speculative Fiction Discussion Group

If you love talking about spec short fiction you might like to consider this goodreads group, that I'm moderating alongside Sarah Pinkser.

Just ask us for an invite

Cover Candy

Time to share some cover candy. Ah, being on the cover. It never gets old. 

Nice to be cover buddies with Mel, who is also a big fan of the British Museum. (Yay! British Museum.)

Mel talks about persistance and spending time with your writing every day in this post. I don't do this. I more or less, write every week day. But I give myself permission to take the weekends off, if I want. But most weekends I do write. Because I love it.

Question for my writer friends: do you write every day?