Pine Hollow Horrors

Damn, but it was hot today. It was pushing triple digits in these parts and the rest of the week doesn't look to be much cooler. I thought this was supposed to be freakin' Fall fer Pete's sake. I'll be glad to have a few less scorchers now that Summer is over.

There have been two recent rejections in these parts. On Friday, Beyond the Veil was rejected by Shroud, after having made it past the first round of cuts. To be honest, I was slightly surprised that it did that, so when the rejection came I wasn't exactly devastated. No one likes rejections, but this one didn't sting too bad. Then today, Ground Zero was rejected by the Vermin anthology. Since the basic idea behind that story as well as all the major plot twists were my wife's idea, she was a bit more saddened by the rejection than me. I just sent it right back out again.

I do have some good news. The new issue (#8) of The Monsters Next Door is now out. This issue marks the transition to print, though a free PDF version is also available. You can find that by following the link on the page above or just by clicking HERE. You can also buy a print version HERE if you so desire. Anyway, my story The Horror of Pine Hollow is in this issue (page 102 to be exact), so check it out and tell me what you think.

On other (slightly) good news, I was organizing my files last night when I came across a 2700 word zombie story that I had completely forgotten about. It was like finding buried treasure. It seems I wrote it while on vacation a couple weeks back, but I suppose my illness and other factors contributed to me losing track of it. After a good polish or two, I'll have to find a place to sub it, though for some reason duotrope seems to be on the fritz right now. Oh, well. This story ain't going out tonight anyway. There's time to wait.

July Stats

July started off pretty good, with an acceptance on the second from The Monsters Next Door for my story The Horror of Pine Hollow. Then things were silent for a long time. Around the 17th, rejections started rolling in...and didn't seem to stop. While June was my best month for acceptances (4 total), July brought me the most rejections I have ever had in a single month: 9. For some odd reason, none of them really bothered me. Well, not too much. I shrugged and subbed again. Eventually, by month's end I did score two more acceptances (to paying markets no less), so the month turned out rather well after all.

Acceptances: 3
The Horror of Pine Hollow to The Monsters Next Door issue 8
The Gallery of Final Repose to The Middle of Nowhere: Horror in Rural America anthology
The Legacy of Seshet to The Scroll of Anubis anthology

Rejections: 9
GUD
Weird Tales
Brain Harvest
Pill Hill Press
House of Horror
Necrotic Tissue
Absent Willow Review
Alternative Coordinates
Dog Oil Press

New stories completed and subbed: 5
Ground Zero (7500 words)
Valley of the Splintered Oaks (5700 words)
The Legacy of Seshet (3000 words)
Down These Dead Streets (500 words)
Sanctuary of the Shadowed Sleeper (3300 words) - Alliteration is fun!

New stories begun but incomplete: 2
Church of the Deviate Minds (2500 words so far)
An Inheritance of Shadows (1400 words so far)

Total words written for July: 23,900

Bring on August!

WTF?

So I see on Duotrope that The Drabbler is open to submissions again. I also see that according to Duotrope, this market only notifies those whose work is accepted. So no rejection notices. Sauntering on over to the Drabbler website, I see that they don't accept multiple submissions. As part of their FAQ's they have the following:

How many stories may I enter?

As many as you can write. However, no multiple submissions. Please submit one story at a time.

I then see that at the current time, they are open to subs until August 31. I also read that winners will be announced on October 1st. So a great big WTF?!! If you can only sub one story at a time, BUT they don't send out rejections, you will have to wait until October 1st to know if you've been accepted. By that time, the submission period will have been over for a month and it is too late to send a second piece...so why in hell do they encourage writers to send as many stories as they can write? Does that make any sense?

The sore throat was better today. Thanks to all for their remedy suggestions. I found the easiest way to get to sleep last night was the old classic: several shots of scotch.

My Vermin story, Ground Zero got polished and sent out tonight. Here's hoping. I also managed a few hundred more words on Church of the Deviate Minds. My big news of the day was an acceptance from The Monsters Next Door for my story, The Horror of Pine Hollow. It will appear in issue eight. TMND is also changing format, with issue eight being the first as a free PDF. There will also be the option to purchase a printed version. I think I'll have to buy a couple print copies to show off to friends and...well, friends.

Did I Do That?

So mere hours after I received a rejection from GUD the other day, they closed to submissions. Coincidence? A part of me wonders if they took the quality of my submission as a sign to close their doors for the time being. Oops.

On the writing front, Ground Zero, my Vermin story is complete. Yay! Only...there's a problem. It's waaaay too long. The other day I was at about 3.5 thousand words and confident that I'd have it wrapped up by 5k. Then 5k came and went and the story wasn't complete. Then 6k came and went. The same with 7k. sigh As it is now, the bloody thing is 8200 words long. The word limit is 7500. Chopping is in order. Since I'd prefer it to be even shorter than 7.5k, serious chopping is in order. However, that comes tomorrow. After my writing marathon this afternoon (1800 words! woo hoo) and then watching the Friday the 13th remake tonight, I think it's time to unwind with a good book from Richard Laymon.

Oh, my latest Tweet story went up today at Tweet the Meat. Check it out.

The Godzilla Tree

I once lived in a small town called Galt, situated in the heart of the San Joaquin valley and located at just about the halfway point between the greater Sacramento and Stockton metro areas. The area is mostly farm land, with patches of trees here and there. When I lived there, I worked in Stockton, 20 miles to the South. One day not long after moving there in 1999, while making the home commute for the first time, I noticed something odd in the distance when I approached Galt from the South. I spied a giant tree far in the distance, located somewhere in the heart of the city. From the freeway, the tree resembled Toho's Titan in profile. I thus dubbed it The Godzilla Tree. A couple times I tried to locate the tree by driving around town, but it seemed to only resemble the Big G from that one particular angle. I looked for that tree everyday while driving home from work. Then in 2003, I sold my house and moved. I rarely get out that way these days, but today I had deliveries in those parts. When returning North, I spotted my old pal The Godzilla Tree. Part of me imagines it uprooting itself and then stomping around town, squishing people like bugs. I'd take a picture of it to post here, but as mentioned earlier, the only way to see its resemblance to Godzilla is from the freeway...and I'm not about to stop and stroll out into the fast lane to get a clear photo.

The Vermin tale continues to develop. Another 400 words tonight. Hopefully more tomorrow. The only death so far is a cat, torn to pieces by...well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Good Weekend

I had a fairly productive weekend, logging several hours of writing. The Vermin story is finally coming along nicely after weeks of being stuck in limbo. I should really thank both Alan W. Davidson and Natalie L. Sin for unknowingly helping. Alan posted a Characterization Checklist on his blog the other day that reminded me of a few crucial things, while a short story of Natalie's that I read provided the impetus to make my characters more "flavorful." Once I added a few more character traits (some good, some bad), the story really came alive, so thanks, you two!

My back is feeling better, but it's a return to work tomorrow. I hope these new pain killers can do the job if I need to call upon them.

Rejection Relief

I just got a rejection from Dark Recesses Press after 177 days. I had submitted that story before the hard drive crash and as a result of said crash, I had totally forgotten where I had sent the bloody thing. I figured it would eventually come back as a rejection because the story was rather lame, but after so much time had gone by, I had nearly forgotten about it. I think this is the first time I am relieved at a rejection because since subbing that story, I've come to the conclusion that it SUCKS and the story needs to be retired. I would have hated to have that story represent me to potential new readers.

On the writing side, I spent tonight playing story tag team. I'd work on my Vermin story for a while and then when I hit a bump in the road, I'd jump over to another work in progress. When that one started to get difficult I jumped back to the Vermin story. Back and forth I went. Surprisingly, I got quite a bit done on both stories. The real test comes tomorrow, when I read over what I wrote and decide whether or not it's all crap.

The Best Laid Plans

So Saturday, after running errands around town in the morning with The Other Half, I had the house to myself when she went to help her parents after lunch. No responsibilities and several hours to call my own! Prime writing time! I was eager to get to work on my Vermin story, but I was feeling a little tired, so I opted to take a wee nap first. As usual, I popped a movie into the DVD player before stretching out. The movie I chose was a "classic" monster flick from the early 60's, and when I say "classic" I mean that it is regarded by most people as crap. As I watched the film (which I have seen dozens of times) and started fading into slumber, something in the film jogged a "what if?" in my mind. I went ahead and snoozed and then got up and thought about this what if some more, eventually sitting down and writing a story called The Sea Hath No King. I polished it up Sunday and again today before sending it out.

I never did get to that damn Vermin story. It taunts me like some sort of...taunting thing. Tonight I intend to make some progress on it.

Bloody Tuesday

Not much new around here. I took the day off from the day job to work on a few things and help The Other Half take her mother to the hospital. I woke to find a rejection from the Dead Bait antho in my inbox. Since at least three other people who were also shortlisted for the book received similar emails, I am now referring to this day as Bloody Tuesday. After feeling bummed for about five minutes, I promptly got on Duotrope and found a new place to submit Deadliest Cachalot.

Returning home from the hospital, I found another rejection in my inbox, this time from Everyday Weirdness for Racing Midnight. The funny thing was, I had just located a market that sounded like a good fit for that particular story, so I sent it off since it was now free again.

The two rejections, coupled with heat in the mid 90's, made it hard to concentrate on writing. I worked a wee bit on my Vermin antho story, Ground Zero as well as a former Micro piece called The Anubis Appropriation that I am enlarging into a flash piece. Didn't get much done on either one, so I retired to the couch and munched Funyuns while finishing up Felicty Dowker's Phantasy Moste Grotesk. A chilling and creepy read, be sure to nab yourself a copy.

Bad Guys

I'm going to put a spin on the latest meme thing going around. First Aaron got us started with the list of our favorite stories. Then Danielle spun it into a list of her favorite characters. I'm gonna put my own stamp on it and make a list of my favorite bad guys/monsters/villains I've created.

1. Yidnicatoth - The god worshipped by the titular characters in The Faceless Ones. I had fun when dinner time rolled around. My characters did not.

2. Jackson and Jefferson Sawyer - Twin brothers that share everything, including an unhealthy lust for their next door neighbor. Not much redeeming about the two, I named them after two discarded pseudonym candidates. They appear in Planting Season.

3. Mr. Taunton - The one who maintains The Gallery of Final Repose. He likes to paint people. Dead people, that is. The more ghastly the demise, the better he likes it.

4. The Gimplings - Small, goblin-like things that are horribly mutated from inbreeding. They leave their hidden lair twice a year and invade the nearby town en masse in search of food and are The Horror of Pine Hollow.

5. Blondie - A cold blooded killer that ruthlessly eliminates those in his way. His true name is never revealed. The main character just refers to him as Blondie because of his hair color. From The Transcendental Man.

After thinking all day about the idea provided to me by The Other Half, I got started tonight on my story for the Vermin anthology. I'm trying to not rush things and am taking it slow. At this point I only have 216 words. I hope to work steadily on it this week. We'll see how that goes.

Stopped by my favorite Mexican food place today for lunch and gorged on two of their famous (in these parts) burritos. Tonight I paid the price for all that spicy food. At least all that time in the bathroom gave me a chance to start reading Phantasy Moste Grotesk by Felicity Dowker, which arrived in the mail today. I'm tellin' ya, kids are creepy and she hit all the right buttons on the first two pages.

Let There be Heat

Today it hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit in these parts. After being relatively cool, the temperature was a rather jarring change. The Other Half and I suddenly found ourselves throwing all the windows open in order to cool the house somewhat. Since my office is on the west side of the house, it gets a lot of the afternoon heat and gets warmer than the rest of our place. I might have to actually turn a fan on if this continues. Needless to say, I'm not thrilled at the prospect of the 110 degree weather I know is coming our way.

As for writing, today was one of those days where I couldn't focus on much of anything, so I worked a little on several different projects. I worked on a rewrite of a micro piece, turning it into a flash piece. Then I jotted down ideas for writing exercises. After that I started a new story that will be very short as well, though right now I think it sucks more than a malfunctioning sex doll. I may not even bother subbing it. I've also been trying to come up with a decent idea for the Vermin anthology and had decided to incorporate the existing bits of an unfinished story called Wrong Turn in Dutch Hollow into a new piece. I actually started that before breaking for a shower, at which time The Other Half not only came up with a great idea for a Vermin-themed story, she provided plot points and a great ending. Now maybe I can get her to write it!

Despite being early (not even ten PM yet), I think I will call it a day and go watch some TV.