I Don't Remember Who I Bribed, But -- I'm In Print!!!

Yes so, as I alluded to in my last post, it's now official: My short story "The Collector" is appearing in the most recent issue of the speculative fiction magazine, Space and Time (Spring '18 issue #131).

This is indeed a big milestone. I've had a tough road these past 5 to 7 years ... lots of personal problems to deal with, mostly of the failed marriage variety and trying to piece together my life in the aftermath. I've mostly kept quiet about this aspect of my personal emotional makeup, especially on other social media platforms outside of Blogger, and with good reason. Yet perhaps the most regrettable fallout from all that was my lack of writing output during this time. I've tried to write, and in fact did pen several short stories from start to finish (with "The Collector" being one such result), but to be honest it's been like pulling teeth. I used to look forward to writing each night after returning from work, or on the weekends when I could truly devote most of my day to it. I was content, and gratified by the noticeable progress I was making. I had even sold a few stories to several token and online markets back when I was married. Nothing big, but I was still proud of that progress all the same. And when it all came crashing down around me, and my lost of self confidence -- and all that doubt -- would gnaw and eat away at me?

Yeah, I hate to say that I succumbed and just could not go on writing. And yet, that yearning to be creative and express myself was still there. Hence, why for a time all I wanted to do was get lost in my photography. Making pictures allowed me to get out into the world and walk around, clear my head, and see things around me instead of within me. More importantly, it allowed me to still create.

Does that make sense?

And in all that time in which my photography started to improve greatly, and I was getting more opportunities to shoot, I was still shopping around what stories I had already written. I've received numerous rejections, let me tell you. So many that I could say I've lost count. I haven't, because I actually keep a spreadsheet of all my submissions and when, where, and how they were rejected. But the point is: I still held on to that writing bug in whatever way that I could. And now something good has happened that I cannot let go to waste. After so many years, I've done it. I finally sold another piece. Why is this so important? Well besides the fact that it marks the first time my work will appear in a physical, solid printed medium that you can honest to god hold in your hands ... it reminds me that I haven't lost the ability to write something meaningful. Meaningful to anyone else? I'm not being that pretentious, no. But meaningful to myself? Yes. "The Collector" is a story I'm extremely proud of. I don't think that it represents the best of my talents, but it does illustrate to myself first and foremost that I can indeed write for what speaks to me. I can pull myself out of that doubt and self-pitying misery and write just for the fun of being creative, of expressing a poetry of the soul that hearkens back to the man I've always been. Before, back when I was married; and after, when I was divorced and had to find my own place to live. I'm still both people -- the same person. I shouldn't let external shortcomings affect that joy to be found in doing something fun and special and creative. I shouldn't forget to just write, dammit!

And that's what I intend to do. If I never sell another piece again, that's not really the point. If no one visits this blog anymore or comments on anything I put up here. That's not the point. The point is that I need to simply be me, that I need to shut up and. just. write.

And in the meantime to enjoy, however briefly, this one big moment that I will never forget. It's a small thing to most, but it's a milestone all the same. And I'm happy about it!

For those who have been asking me about where to purchase this issue of Space and Time, Issue 131 should be hitting magazine racks this week. I don't know for sure, but that's what I suspect. I've already received my contributor's copies, but I plan to visit a few Barnes & Nobles in the city over the next several days to see if I can spot any "in the wild." Having purchased the magazine from there before, I know from experience that the publication is often in the "Literary" category of B&N's magazine section. Most often it's grouped with other like-minded mags such as: Asimov's, Analog, and Fantasy & Science Fiction, but also other speculative rags like: Mystery and Romance. If you see these titles, then Space and Time will be somewhere among them. Right now, last winter's issue is still in good supply, so if you happen to see both that and the Spring issue on offer, do yourself a favor and pick 'em both up!

Alternately, you can simply go to the website's subscription page, scroll midway down, and order the current issue to be shipped to you in the mail. That's an option, too!

Achievement Unlocked: Story Sold!!!

I'm happy to report that I've sold one of my short stories, "The Collector," to the speculative fiction magazine: Space and Time. Huzzah! Let the rejoicing begin!

I used to read this magazine a lot when I first graduated college. It's been around since just before I was born, but I didn't discover it until I was browsing through the mag racks at a local Barnes & Noble in downtown Manhattan during one of my lunch breaks. I picked it up for the catchy cover, of course. And because it was in the section with all the other big-name Speculative Fiction magazines of the time: Analog; Omni; Asimov's; The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; etc. Those were good years to be young and possessing so much free time! *sigh*

Anyway, this is very exciting news for me to say the least! Due to personal struggles in recent years--the details of which some of you already know--I've been way behind in my writerly output. Wouldn't you know, but it's very hard to find inspiration when your life's going all topsy-turvy. It's been 5 years since my last sale, believe it or not. Something I would be ashamed of only if, in fact, I had been writing in all that time. Which I was not. Not regularly, anyway.

Still, it's a good feeling to know that things are *finally* starting to return to normal for me on the creative front. And I'm very happy that it was this particular story, "The Collector," to help me clear away the cobwebs as I get back to the grind of fiction writing again. This story is very dear to my heart, and features the first time I've ever written in the 2nd-Person narrative (think those old choose-your-own-adventure books for reference; "you open the door to the hidden room...").

"The Collector" is a tale of what happens when an ancient enemy of Mankind falls in love with a mortal woman, and has to chose between duty and happiness. I wrote it a few years ago, revised it a couple of times, sent it out to various places last year, got it rejected by all those places, sat on it for a few more months, polished it off some more, and then finally found a publication willing to buy it off me.

As they say, perseverance pays off!

Space and Time Magazine marks my first foray into semi-pro payment markets, which typically pay 1 - 5¢/word on short stories. Before now, all my sales have been to so-called "token" markets, which usually don't rate per word, but instead only pay a nominal amount of between $5 - $35 per story. Which ain't bad when you're starting out, and I guess you have to start somewhere. But it had always been my goal to keep advancing my game up the pay scale as I practice my craft, and so I have done just that with this sale. I love progress!

Also, my previous sales have all been to electronic-only markets. Which means: online sites only. This recent sale will mark the first time a story of mine will appear in an honest-to-goodness print publication. And that, my friends, is very nice!

And there you have it. The good news I wanted to share. I've known about this for several months now, but only today did I read through my contract, sign it, and send it off to the publisher. So I guess that makes it official! I had to write a little author's bio as well, which was certainly surreal for me. So much has changed since the last time I had to write one back in 2010. Wow!

As of right now, there has been no specific issue number or date relayed to me for when exactly my story will appear in Space and Time. This has yet to be determined by the publisher. But once that changes, you'll definitely be the first to know about it here on The Bimillennial Man.

And, one last thing: Thank you to all my regulars here, silent or otherwise -- some of whom are part of my crit group -- who have always supported me and suffered through some early drafts of previous stories I've shared. It truly means a lot to me. You all do!

Onward and upward, y'all!

Writing, Reading . . . More Writing

So, it's me again. Taking a quick break from whatever it is I do when I'm not here blogging. Which, as I mentioned yesterday, has been happening a lot lately. And I'm sorry for that, truly I am. But I have indeed been busy . . . idle hands, and all that.

I'm happy to say that I put the finishing touches on a new short story and sent it out into the wild to see if someone will publish it. I expect it'll go through several rounds of rejections before someone bites. Or not. So it could be a very long time before you hear any more news from me on that front.

In the meantime, I decided to dig into my pile of old stories that might have been but were not, and publish one here for all the world to see. If you remember, I did this a few months back when I resurrected "Hatchling" from my rejections pile. Well now I've added a story I wrote even further back before I wrote "Hatchling." This one is called "Off the Grid," and I wrote it back in mid-2008. To read it, you can click on this link to where I have it up as a separate page attached to The Bimillennial Man, or you can access it under the "Current Short Story WIPs" sidebar on the right side of this page. I created this sidebar to showcase various stories I've written over the past four years which were never able to reach publication status for whatever the reason might be (it varies for each story). These stories don't represent my best work, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise to include my "failures" as well as successes on this blog.

So, feel free to read "Off the Grid" if you're of a mind to do so. As with "Hatchling," I provide a brief insight into why I wrote the story and why I think it ultimately failed. You may or may not agree, but if you want to leave a comment on the tale, you'll have to do so at the end of THIS entry. Blogger Pages doesn't allow comments--just the facts, ma'am.

I've also been reading a lot lately, including that latest "Game of Thrones" novel you might have heard about. That sucker's HUGE, though, and I'm just 100 odd pages into it so far. That's barely scratching the surface on this 1,000 page tome! But--oh yes--so far the book is teh AWESOME sauce! Phew, that George R. R. Martin is an amazingly talented writer. Damn him to the seven hells!!!

In other news . . . if you check the upper right corner of the page, you'll notice that my "Current Novel in Progress" counter is back down to zero words. That's because I've decided to go back and rewrite the Castlevania novel from scratch again. Have no fears, I just wanted to take some time off from it for a while and reexamine my approach. Now that I've done so, I plan on getting back into the thick of things within the next few weeks. Maybe even starting this weekend, although don't hold me to that. But whenever I do ramp things up, I'll make the announcement here and then you can hopefully watch that counter GROW!!!

So, that's all the news that's fit to print in Batista land. How's your summer coming along?

New Unpublished Short Story, "Hatchling," Is Up!

Well, actually, the title is a misnomer . . . this isn't a new story, but rather an old one I've had floating around for over a year now. If you go and check the right-hand side of this page, you might notice that I've deleted the short story "Terra Germinatus" from my "Unpublished" sidebar. In its place is "Hatchling," a short sci-fi/horror/thriller set in near-future West Papua.

Personally I like this story, but I've been unable to find a paying home for it in the past year. And trust me, I've tried!

So, rather than shelve it away from the light of day, I've decided to post it up here on this blog for all the world to read and (hopefully) enjoy. Click on the link in the sidebar, or below, to get magically whisked away to storyland:

"Hatchling."

If you'd like, please also leave any comments and/or suggestions for the story in the comments section of this post. Blogger doesn't allow comments on their secondary pages.

My Little Writing Experiment . . .

So, yesterday I posted up the opening scene to my latest short story, "Terra Germinatus", in an attempt to test out the "Pages" ability on Blogger, but to also get some early feedback in the comments section. It went over so well that I thought I'd continue this little experiment and do something I've never done before on this blog -- post up the entire story for folks to read and comment upon.

So, if you click on the story's title above, you'll be taken to the full text as it now sits on my home PC. This is with the provided caveat, naturally, that the piece is still a work in progress. It still needs to be refined, and I can't rule out a complete dredging and rewrite of the two middle scenes. Personally I think the scene in the General Store is a little long in the tooth and perhaps unnecessary. But I'm not sure yet.

Now, I don't want anyone to do an in-depth analysis of the story. Not unless you REALLY have the time and inclination, and are willing to e-mail it to me. But seriously, I don't require that from anybody. Just your quick reactions and notes in the comments section should suffice for now. This is not intended to be a stroke-my-ego experiment, but rather a chance to gather some honest and constructive criticism on the fly.

Whether you want to offer it up or not is up to you. At the very least, I hope you do read the story and enjoy. That is to say, as much as you can possibly garner enjoyment from a tale about the world being overrun by conquesting alien plant life, and all hope being lost for a woman and her family.

Seriously, this is not a feel-good, happy tale. Not all my stories are like this, though. In fact, this might just be the most depressing of them all. And yet I still like it.

And I hope you do, too!

Sneak Peek At My Recently Completed Short Story

So, I'm testing out the "pages" function on Blogger this weekend. The ability to add separate pages to your blog has existed for several month here now, but I've never had the time to fully explore it . . . until now. Seeing as I just finished writing a brand new short story last week--tentatively titled "Terra Germinatus"--I figured I'd try something new and let people see what the opening scene looks like in rough draft.

So, if you take a glance over at the sidebar, you'll see a new widget titled "Current Short Story WIPs (Unpublished)." As of right now, I'm contemplating adding all my current short stories that are completed but not currently out on submission to magazines (hence, the "unpublished" part of the title). These are stories I still think have a chance of being published eventually, so I'm sure the list will be changing from time to time as I either sell the stories or trunk them for good.

In the meantime, I only have the one story listed--and it's only an excerpt to give folks a taste. If you'd be so kind, I'd appreciate it if anyone would click on the story's title and jump on over to the page and take a gander. It doesn't appear that you can leave comments on that page, so please come back and provide some feedback in the comments of this post if you're so inclined.

Or not.

I'm not pressuring you, now. Honestly!

I just thought it would be nice to show everyone what I've been up to for the last week, writing-wise. Alternatively, you can also click on the link at the beginning of this post to get to the excerpt.

Thanks a bunch!