New Myths, a publication that's housed my work
before, included in their September issue a poem entitled "What Really
Happened" as well as a short story "Gone". "What Really
Happened" is based on part on the antics of my border collie cross Sneeks,
and inspired as well by the Gingham Dog and Calico Cat. "Gone"
details a dog's search for her missing human after an alien invasion.
Pieces
on the New Myths site are available
for viewing free of charge. You'll find the link to all of my New Myths pieces,
including the most recent ones, here:
I have
a poem entitled "With Two Left Feet" coming out in the upcoming
Tesseracts anthology Nevertheless. In
connection with that book's promotion, I contributed to their "Bright
Spots" blog with a piece entitled "Step By Step", that draws on
my recovery from knee surgery.
Advance
orders kicked off in September for From a
Cat's View, issued by Post-to-Print Publishers. I have three contributions
in this anthology. The first is a sci-fi short story "The Open Road",
about the adventures of a ship's cat named Quicksilver. There are also two
poems inspired by the antics of my cat Smokey, "Moonlight" and
"A Cat's Confession". You can find out more about the anthology here:
As part
of the promo for this anthology, the publisher is running a give-away for
cat-themed items. See here for info:
I had
two reviews, for Paths to the Stars
by Edward Willett, and Museum of Second
Chances, by A.E. Warren, posted at The
Future Fire. I enjoyed both books. Willett's book is a collection of short stories
that provides plenty of variety and some unique twists. The Museum of Second Chances takes an
interesting look at a future society in which species from the past—including
Neanderthal Man—are reintroduced. You can find the reviews at The Future Fire site:
The Martian Wave, from Nomadic
Delirium Press, came out toward the end of September. That volume included two
poems of my poems, "Understanding", and "Will They?" as
well as a short story entitled "The Chienchat Conundrum". This story
is set on Arcadia, a planet initially settled by individuals from New Brunswick,
and revolves around an Arcadian keystone species that has more to it than meets
the eye.
You can find out more about the Martian Wave here:
I also discovered
that a limerick I wrote was named a runner-up for Saturday Evening Post
"Limerick Laughs" contest from May/June, 2018. You'll find the poem and
that of the winner and other runners-up here:
The August print
edition of Scifaikuest includes three
of my poems, "butterflies on Degna", "He's Come So Far",
and "Cravings".
And, last but not least, during a camping trip to Earl Rowe Provincial
Park in July, we drove past our old place up in Mulmur. This inspired a nostalgic
haibun entitled "Good
Reasons" that appears in Contemporary
Haibun Online, October
2018, vol. 14 no. 3
Coming Soon
New
Myths has a kickstarter campaign on for Passages, Best of New Myths Anthology Volume 1. The book's theme is exploring
the joys and challenges of entering and surviving a new stage in life. The
antho will include one of my favorite stories, "Roxy". Roxy is a
story of an AI-enhanced police dog. More deeply than that, the story touches on
what our responsibility is to the animals we use, and in this case, enhance,
for jobs like police work. The volume will also feature a poem of mine entitled
"Fidelis Reinvented".
Details
about the coming anthology here:
What I'm Working On
I still
have a pair of book reviews to wrap up, and another book for review enroute in
the mail.
Though
I didn't get past the first round in "WYRM's Gauntlet", in the course
of my research for the first assignment I ran across some interesting advice
from Ray Bradbury. One of the pieces of advice for writers was to "stuff
your head" by reading one short story, one poem, and one essay each night
before bed. I've modified this slightly to suit my own needs, but find that
reading poetry in this way (small doses) is more enjoyable and more impactful
than sitting down to read a book or poetry zine cover to cover, so I'm giving
that a try.
Here's
a link to the full article:
Also
pondering whether to do NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in November. If
so, I'll be working on a collection of short stories.
And, of
course, continuing to work on poems and short stories as time permits.
Until
next month...
