Quarter Reads

By the by, I remain interested/amused by Quarter Reads, where I have uploaded several stories.  The ten dollars is a bit of a high initial ask, but it's almost intoxicating flitting around the archives, picking out stories to buy for $0.25 each.  

Plus, now you can "favorite" an author and know when they've uploaded something new.  So... you all know what to do, I trust.  ;-)  Given the amount of flash I write, I'm sure to have some Quarter Reads exclusives sooner or later.  

"Columbidae" at Flash Fiction Online

October is apparently when everything is dropping.  "Columbidae" is up, marking my second appearance at Flash Fiction Online under as many different editors. ;-)

Go read the story that has Anna Yeatts writing in capslock.  I'll guarantee that it's one of the best stories about crazy naked human pigeons you will read for the first time this week.

"And All the Tribes of the Earth Shall Mourn" at Mythic Delirium

Mythic Delirium returns with, among many others, my story "And All the Tribes of the Earth Shall Mourn," in which a man fails to understand other people's religious ecstasy, and also McDonald's.

UFO 3 Out Now!

The grand and hopefully long-standing traditional annual UFO anthology is out early!  My story, "Why I Bought Satan Two Cokes on the Day I Graduated High School," can be read there, along with a lot of other very funny stories by people more famous and better at writing than I am.

You can buy it at Amazon or (eventually, I presume) from the UFO Publishing page.

GISHWHES 2014

So apparently there is a thing called the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, and one of the items on this year's list is to get a "published SF author" to write a 140-word story with the phrases "Misha," "Queen of England," and "Elopus" in it.

Well, shoot, son.  Y'all have come to the right place, I tell you what.

Hit me up on Twitter @scattercat or here in the comments; I get e-mails either way.  Drop a few dollars in my hat over there to the right and you'll have your story ASAP.  :-)

"The Shallows" at Toasted Cake

So if you aren't listening to Tina Connolly's Toasted Cake podcast, first, you should do that, so go ahead.  I'll wait.  They're short, mostly.

You can then listen to the newest episode, which features "The Shallows," originally published at Flash Fiction Online.  :-)

Stonebones at BCS

Stonebones is currently available at Beneath Ceaseless Skies for Science Fantasy Month!  Hooray for dead dragons and guns that don't work!

"Silver and Copper, Iron and Ash" at Pseudopod

My contribution to the Coins of Chaos anthology, "Silver and Copper, Iron and Ash," is now a lovely podcast from the lovely crew at Pseudopod.  As ever, I hope you all enjoy it.

"Sticks and Stones" is at Crossed Genres!

I have a real fondness for this story, just because I personally love the high concept of it.  (Well, I mean, obviously I like the ideas in my stories or I wouldn't have written about them, but I particularly like this one.)  It's an older tale and is definitely on the highest number of "almost but not quite" responses I've gotten for any story.  (I haven't crunched the numbers, but I know it's up there, if not actual top dog.)  I'm not going to talk more about it so as to avoid thpoilerth.  ;-)

The link is here.  Go and enjoy, please! 

"Dragonslayer" at PodCastle

I'm a little behind the times, but I'd just like to note for everyone that "Dragonslayer," originally locked behind the cold paywall of IGMS, is now available as a free podcast at PodCastle. 

Give it a listen if you missed it the first time!  Come hang out with the cool kids on the Escape Artists forums afterward!

Reviewers raved about this story, calling it, "full of inconsistencies," "competent but not intelligent," and "not fully realized."  (But at least the forumites seemed to enjoy it, and *I* liked it, so there.)

"The Shallows" at Flash Fiction Online

My flash fiction The Shallows is presently available in September's issue of Flash Fiction online.  One alien ship and a thousand words.

This one was inspired back when they thought they'd clocked neutrinos exceeding the speed of light and sparked all kinds of crazy speculation even though all the actual scientists suggested it was probably experimental error.  It actually was experimental error, of course, but what if it wasn't?  ;-)

Anything is theoretically possible.

Drop by, read the other stories, leave a comment or some change in a cup if you feel so inclined.

"Contest" Ended

Okay, so the promotion didn't really promote much, but thank you everyone who reads this blog anyway.  Since only two people entered and I have two spare copies, I declare everyone a winner!

Jim, "patthews," just shoot me an e-mail (thefearedavocado AT gmail) with your addresses and I will ship you your books directly.  I will even sign and dedicate them to the individual or abstract concept of your choice, if you want, with the caveat that my handwriting looks like that of a clumsy third-grader.  (I've never been much at manual dexterity, and given that I have written exclusively via computer for about a decade now, I'm not even in practice.)

UFO 2 Kickstarter

Hey, guys!  The Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series is semi-officially now a series.  UFO 2 has a Kickstarter going, and it's running low on steam.  Head on over and check it out (and don't forget about the original anthology, too, which contains my story "The Alchemist's Children" among many more exciting attractions.)  It's a lovely book with great stories and very, very high production values.  I endorse it on just about every level.

To help generate some interest, I am hereby offering up one of my contributor's copies of the original for free.  Post a joke in the comments thread here to enter (or just post if you don't know any good jokes, but seriously, this is the Internet; you have all the jokes in the world at your fingertips somewhere).  I'll do a random drawing in a week and send that person a copy of the first Unidentified Funny Objects.

If you contribute anything to the Kickstarter for UFO2, even just a dollar, then I'll enter your name *twice* in the drawing.  INCENTIVES!

:-D

"Playing to Win" at Penumbra

My flash fiction "Playing to Win" appears in V2 Issue 6 of Penumbra Magazine.  It's the tale of a man and his chess opponent.  Also jerky.

Check it out; the whole issue is Space Opera themed, so spaceships and lasers and aliens all around!

Unidentified Funny Objects

My story, "The Alchemist's Children," appears in Alex Shvartsman's anthology UFO: Unidentified Funny Objects, alongside such hilariously mismatched compatriots as Mike Resnick and Lavie Tidhar.  I'm one of the no-name filler people who occupy other pages (although Lois Tilton liked my story).  

The book is available for sale in paperback (well, not quite yet) and Kindle.  I can vouch for the high quality of almost all of the stories.  ("Of Mat and Math" is a particular favorite.)

"The Woman Made of Flowers" at the Drabblecast

Norm keeps forgetting to tell me when these things appear.  :-/  :-)

At any rate, my drabble "The Woman Made of Flowers" appeared in Episode 259 of the Drabblecast.  If you're not listening to that podcast, you should be.  :-D

The Dribblecast

You may not know about The Dribblecast.  (You may even not know about The Drabblecast, though since you're reading the writing blog of the Drabblecast's Submissions Editor, that's a little weirder.)  At any rate, it's a fan-run, fan-produced site where fans read other fans works out loud and distribute them for free.  Any drabbles posted in the Drabblecast forums might get a PM from someone asking if it's okay to "dribble" the story.  There's pretty much no downside to this thing.

And they have very good taste.


(Psst... the Daily Science Fiction giveaway is still open for posting!)

Dragonslayer at IGMS

"Dragonslayer" is in the current issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show!  (You gotta pay, I'm afraid, but it's a pretty good 'zine.)

"White as a Bedroom Door" at Pseudopod

My second full-length appearance at Pseudopod, the horror podcast, is "White as a Bedroom Door."  

Give it a listen, if you like.  

Triangulation: Morning After

Parsec Ink's Triangulation: Morning After is out on August 27, featuring, among others, my story "All Unlooked For."  This is the second year running I've been in this anthology.  (Last year it was with "Boll Weevil," which later got picked up at the Drabblecast.)

Kindle and paperbacks will be available at Amazon.  I haven't gotten a chance to read my contributor's copy yet, so I can't really give my opinions on the rest of it.  

But!

I have an *extra* copy.

That means it's giveaway time!

Post your very worst pun below to be entered in the drawing.  I would say the most appalling pun wins it, but all puns are appalling, so I'll just pick someone with a random number generator.

Be sure to include a way for me to contact you and get mailing info in case you win.