And so, late last night, came the email from publisher Eggplant Literary Productions, Inc.:  “Thank you for your submission of “The Cage.”  I would like to publish this piece. . . .”  A lagniappe for me in a sense, a delightful winding down of the month, accompanied by a contract and a request for a short bio.  And, for those who wish, check the publisher’s website for submission info re. any entries you might also have that could fit in the Transdimensional Library.

Flash forward to Fall 1999, when the term “flash” was only just tentatively, maybe, possibly becoming used to describe a certain type of ultra-short fiction, and when British publisher MT Enterprises came out with a different story of mine, a whopping nearly 900 words long tale called “Urcheida,” the name as well of its central character, a newly-married woman with old-fashioned ideas about what goes into a successful honeymoon.  This was in an anthology called NASTY SNIPS — describing the types of stories desired — edited by Christopher C. Teague.  “Urcheida” itself had been published in the US before in the Fall-Winter 1993 DEAD OF NIGHT, and many a young couple came to harm in the telling of this one.

So then, last month, an announcement went out for NASTY SNIPS II, edited once more by Christopher Teague, from new British publisher Pendragon Press.  “We are looking for short, sharp and shocking tales of the flash fiction variety — that is 1000 words or less.”  Ah, the nostalgia  — just thirteen years later!  The memories!  The stories!   So why not?

Thus in today’s email has come an acceptance by NASTY SNIPS II for . . . for any of you who may have missed it way back when . . . “Minushka!”

TRUE DARK is still open to submissions with guidelines available via the Red Skies website, with a tentative deadline of September 12 though it could fill up sooner.  Red Skies Press is also publisher of  the upcoming DREAMS OF DUALITY (see Feb. 13, et al.) with Crittenden also as editor.

Then, also received today, were two reviews of  WTF?! (see Dec. 21, Dec. 18, et al.), published last December.  Both are quite favorable, one a short blurb from MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, and the other by April L’Orange, self-admittedly one of the authors in the anthology, in more detail including a flattering mention of my own story there, “Mr. Claus.”

Then, for another bit of good news, I’ve managed to scrape enough money together to be able to get to World Horror Convention this year after all, to include the Horror Writers Association’s special Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award that I’ve been involved with as part of the jury (see Jan. 20).  Hopefully I’ll also be able to say hello to some of you there along with other friends.

In unrelated news, I happened to visit the Untreed Reads Publishing site this afternoon and see that, should you buy either of the two ebooks I have listed there, VANITAS or I’M DREAMING OF A. . . , you can get the other at the same time at a 40 percent discount.  Both are stand-alone short stories (VANITAS is the longer one, a steampunk/mystery crossover, and is a reprint from ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE while the other’s a Christmas horror story unpublished elsewhere) and both normally sell for $1.50, which means a 60-cent savings (I think — I’m a writer, not a mathematician) on the second title, or both downloads for only $2.40.  I don’t know if this is a special deal or normal practice or, if the former, how long the discount will be offered.  If interested, though, just press on either of the books’ pictures in the center column.

Meanwhile a few days back I received a proof copy of EXPLORING THE COSMOS, a 2-page pamphlet of “minimalist science poetry” collected by David C. Kopaska-Merkel for the Science Fiction Poetry Association.  Here I have two poems, both haiku-styled (purists would point out neither these nor “Landing” are true haiku in the Japanese sense), “Escape Velocity” and “Snapshot:  The Voyagers,” originally published in STAR*LINE many, many years back.  Quoting the pamphlet, “Some of the science poems in EXPLORING THE COSMOS are scifaiku, some are not. Collectively they explore scientists, scientific discovery, the nature of humanity, and (of course) the future.”  Once officially published, EXPLORING THE COSMOS should be available on the SFPA website at www.sfpoetry.com under “Promotions,” along with two existing pamphlet/anthologies THE UNIVERSE IN THREE LINES and DRAGON LUST.

In the case of “Burning Down Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the action/consequence is drawn out into six four-line stanzas, allowing the moral a whole stanza of its own.  While its stanzas retain traditional rhyme and meter, I have sometimes written these in a freer style, as in the example, “Firelight,” below where much of the young man’s family becomes involved in the action.  “Firelight” was originally published in the late Algis Budrys’s pioneer e-magazine TOMORROW SF in February 1998.

FIRELIGHT

Little Willie burned his sister
just to see how bright she’d glow,
he torched her good
just like he oughta,
using matches he had pinched
from Cousin Ed, who smoked, last summer
when Aunt May had disappeared –
they found her later
in the ocean,
swimsuit top wound ’round her throat
and cut-marks on her breasts, pearl-glowing,
it was messy on the beach there
but, this winter, with the fireplace
damper open for the smoke,
and ash-grate clear –
no muss, no bother –
taught us all that it is better,
offing family,
to use fire instead of water.

The link again is http://bit.ly/zTaHfT for, as Untreed Reads says, quite a few mystery and mystery crossover titles — five screens of them, in fact.  I checked it myself, and VANITAS can be found toward the bottom on screen number 3.

Anyhow, it’s a quick start to a new month, hopefully to be followed by more good news, but time will tell.   For those interested, more information both on STAR*LINE and its publisher, the  Science Fiction Poetry Association, can be found here.