My poem ‘Superstition’ is included in the inaugural issue of Salt & Mirrors & Cats, a literary zine with the theme of superstition and folklore. Electronic copies can be purchased below or a hard copy ordered in the UK. US hard copies will be available soon.
If you follow me on twitter, you know I post a lot of folklore, fairytale and mythology. Superstitions are an extension of that and I had fun writing this one. 🙂 It’s a beautiful issue and has a lot of great authors in it. I hope you check it out!
Happy Friday! I hope everyone has something good planned for the weekend, whether it’s going out or just relaxing. I haven’t been inspired much lately but I’m working on a post for later today or this weekend.
For now, my poem ‘Feral’ is included in Penumbra Literary’s Spring journal, and can be read online, page 47:
I am super stoked about my recent publications. Strange Horizons and Space & Time are both magazines that I thought were probably out of my range, but I figured I’d give it a try. So if you are doubting yourself, remember that all they can do is say no.
Now, just to keep me humble I had a couple of rejections as well. I tend to not write about those. 😉 There was one I wrote about being short listed for a while back. It was Fantasy Magazine and I was super excited. They held it for seven months. However, I just got a rejection. They were very kind and said they liked it but were limited by cost and had to cut down on work that they otherwise would have purchased. So all in all I don’t feel too bad about the rejection, but I am disappointed. I love the poem in question and had hopes they were going to take it. I used to pick up issues of the magazine in Barnes & Nobles back before amazon killed the bookstores. So next I thought I’d send it out to Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine… I have a whole shelf full of those and have been reading them since I was a kid. If I had to choose the most prestigious fantasy/scifi magazine my guess would be them. I sent it out and they rejected it in a day. Oof. I am not sure where I’m going to send it next. I think it’s a good one and I want to find a good home for it. I am waiting to hear back on another submission at SH, so that one is out for now.
I have another one coming out in the next week or so and will post when it does. That one is at Penumbra Literary. I have a couple of other acceptances but I don’t know whey they’ll be published. I am not sure how everyone else does it, but I spend quite a lot of time researching markets and trying to match up things I’ve written with markets I think they will work at. I keep a database in excel to keep track.
In other news, I believe I need knee surgery. I have to go see an orthopedic surgeon. I am really frustrated with it and tired of it hurting so much when I walk. I’ve been looking for houses up around Hunter and visited him a couple of days ago. Without getting into it, I am no longer moving. Unfortunately they are far too expensive around here so it appears I’m stuck where I am for the time being. So I have to hire some people to do some work around here, which super sucks.
Today I’ve been forcing myself to limp around the yard to get some plants in the ground. It’s beautiful outside, but I can’t do any more. It hurt like hell but I am so sick of not being able to do anything. I’m paying for it now. This is it for now. I hope everyone is having a good weekend.
A couple of scifaiku below!
My nemesis leads Tracks through crimson desert sands Racing third moon tides
New world survey notes Lead oxide ash from grey skies Barren of all life
Zoltan just left. I hadn’t seen him for a few days and I didn’t see him at my door at first. He started cawing at me to announce himself. Usually Zelda is with him. She used to just sit in the tree and he’d bring her food, with her bitching (cawing) up a storm the entire time, but she’s gotten much bolder and now will come down to the porch railing. She still bitches a lot. 🙂 She doesn’t get as close to me as Zoltan. While he gets in touching distance, she is not having it. I imagine the entire time he’s so close to me that her caws translate to “Get away from that human! You don’t know where it’s been!” Yeah my mind is kind of a strange place. 😉 I’m thinking maybe Zelda is sitting on a nest. I am not so secretly hoping for crow babies to be brought to meet me.
I keep wanting to upload video clips but WordPress won’t allow it. One of these days I’ll get a real website. I should do that soon I suppose.
I got a contract back for Penumbric, and the editor told me that it will be at least a year until publication. They have issues scheduled out that long! I’m expecting Space & Time to come out soon and will post when it does. That one is a hard copy magazine though. I think Strange Horizons comes out in a week or so and Penumbra should be coming out soon also.
It’s Spring and I am busy growing stuff. We had some erratic weather so unfortunately the first plants I got in the ground got frosted and at least some of them did not make it. Others are still struggling but it’s not looking good. I’ve been looking for houses also but the market SUCKS right now if you’re looking. There is nothing around here. There are some around Hunter but not a lot in my price range, and that’s a long way from here. It’s a big step and I have a lot of thoughts churning. I have never been lucky in love.
Books. After I finished “Tiamat’s Wrath”, I read “Video Night” by Adam Cesare. It was a fun read of 80s nostalgia and alien horror that had a few issues. Perhaps I’m holding it up to too high of a standard, but I loved his book “Clown in a Cornfield”. For a while, I did not read Clown because it just sounded so cheesy. And it is.. but it’s also a fun read that I tore through. I think Video Night came out before Clown. It seems like an earlier novel. Still a good read but not as polished as Clown. I want to read Clown 2: Friendo Lives, because of course he does. 😉 After Video Night I started “The Drowning Girl” by Caitlan Kiernan. It has not grabbed me so far and I’m thinking of DNR’ing it and moving on to something else. It’s not like I don’t have scads of books waiting to be read.
I shared an anthology call I came across on twitter – prose, poetry and art, that benefits shelter pets. I usually see anthologies listed on horrortree.com, and I saw one recently that sounded interesting. It was A Necronomicon – RomCom mashup for a Necroromcom. 😉 I think I’m going to enter that one. This is it for now.
Below are a couple of horror haiku.
traveling salesmen snake oil and fetid tonics sideshow death dealer
a strange tidal wave towns submerged and cloned creatures Leviathan hunts
It’s almost Spring and I’ve been busy growing stuff. I have a load of seedlings that are getting a bit unruly at this point but it’s still too cold at night to plant them out. I have cucumbers and jalapenos and three different kinds of tomatoes and a Turkish variety of melon. I’ve never had much luck with melons. I like heirloom varieties. I have a lot of flowers growing too. But my urge to grow gets ahead of my abilities and I end up ordering more seeds every year so I have a huge variety at this point. Unfortunately my back and leg problems prohibit me from doing nearly as much as I’d like to. If I had my way I’d have no grass, just flowers everywhere.
In writing news, I told you I’d had an acceptance at Space & Time Magazine. They sent me this graphic to share:
So I’m excited! I also had a sale to Eye To The Telescope’s ‘Fungus’ issue. I was short listed for another magazine and am *still* waiting to hear the final word on that. I think the Strange Horizons one comes out next month but am not sure. I have some things out at a few others too but really I need to be doing more. I have a lot of stuff to find homes for and I should be writing more. Some days I’m just really uninspired, and I’ve been trying to do more work on my shop lately too.
I finished “Devolution” by Max Brooks. It was a lot of fun! I started reading “The Bone Witch” but was having a hard time getting into it so I DNR’d it and started The Expanse Book 8: “Tiamat’s Wrath”. I guess it’s time to finish the series. I hate for it to end but I guess I’ll just have to read it again some time. 🙂 I’ve only just begun that one but all the books have been fantastic and I expect no less from this one. This about wraps it up. I hope everyone is having a great week.
It’s been almost a year since I decided to take a break from the book and started writing poetry again. It wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this long, but poetry is my first love and it’s been great to be writing it again. In the past when my work was being published I was in a wide selection of magazines and anthologies and got a few small awards. I had two collections published. When I became disabled I quit writing. It wasn’t until my pain medication was lowered that I started writing again. I didn’t realize that’s what was blocking me.
So at this point I’ve written a good bit of poetry but I’ve only posted it on here or twitter. Tonight I submitted a poem to Fantasy magazine. It’s a pro zine, so a difficult sell, but I figured I may as well start at the top. This poem was never shared on here, but I am wondering, does social media or blogs count as ‘published’ to magazine editors? I wouldn’t think so unless they specified it as such, but I’d love to get feedback from other writers and/or editors. Anyway, I need to get back to the book but I like writing poetry better.
Less than a week now until my big weekend. We leave for Baltimore Friday, hit the haunted house and hang out in Fells Point. Saturday is the comic con! I think we’re going to break in the afternoon to go see a play, then come back for the costume contest. I don’t remember if I talked about my costume but I love it. 🙂 I’m Tiffany Valentine from Bride of Chucky and Hunter is Chucky, of course. Ok a quick look in my images does not turn up any photos so apparently I have not posted any. 🙂 Anyway. We check out Sunday and may go to the aquarium before we leave the city. I’d like to, I just don’t know if we’ll have money/energy to do so. Sunday night Hunter is crashing here before he has to go back home so it’s horror movies and snuggling until Halloween. So that’s my big plans. I am crossing my fingers that nothing goes wrong because we have been planning this for ages and I want everything to be perfect.
This coming week is going to be hectic. I have a lot scheduled. So I’ll post when I can. Have some pics of me in costume to snicker at. 🙂
Julie Shiel 