It’s been a good day. Two short story acceptances within several hours. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. There have been days when I’ve had two rejections, but not this!
The first acceptance was for a twisted Christmas story called “An Invisible Christmas Spectacular.” I saw Gabino Iglesias’ call for submissions a while back and I cogitated over whether I could tackle a horror story. I haven’t written many of those lately. My short fiction output has been mostly crime fiction recently. Finally, an idea came (after a bit of research) and I sat down at the dining table in the library (a glorified name for the area at the end of our living room, next to the sliding doors that lead into the backyard) with a Moleskine journal. I wrote the entire story in a single sitting, which is also unusual for me. It’s not as long as my crime stories tend to be (2100 words instead of 4-6000), but still. The next day I dictated it into the computer, cleaned up the errors, ran through it a few cycles of revisions and edits, and away it went. It will be published in the anthology Halldark Holidays, from Cemetery Gates Media, later this month if all goes according to plan.
I won’t name the other acceptance because the paperwork is still outstanding. It’s an even shorter piece, but also horror.
This has been a particularly productive year for me in terms of short fiction. At least eight stories have seen or will see print in 2020. Of recent note:
- The Fugitive with the Dragon Tattoo, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October
- Bloody Sunday, The Book of Extraordinary Sherlock Holmes Stories, Mango, December (the ebook is out now; trade paperback later this month)
- Reflections of the Past, Mickey Finn, December 14
- The Lobster Trap, Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories, Level Best Books, December 15
- An Invisible Christmas Spectacular, Halldark Holidays, Cemetery Gates Media, December 2020
I have at least two stories on deck for 2021, plus the publication of my longest piece of fiction in Dissonant Harmonies with Brian Keene. I’m hoping to replace that honor with an even longer piece—a novel. I’m working on the final (for now) draft of a book that’s been in the works for a long, long time. I’m not sure I’ll get this draft done by the end of 2020, but I hope it won’t be much after that, at which point I’ll send it to my agent for his feedback.
What have I’/we been watching lately? We zipped through The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. An excellent series. Highly recommended. Last night we watched the first four episodes of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+. I’d seen a tweet that led to a series review that featured a clip from a late episode that got me interested in it. Sitcoms are a hard sell for me, but this one works because the main character (played by Jason Sudeikis) is so upbeat in the face of adversity and the situations aren’t horribly artificial. We’re also keeping up with Star Trek: Discovery.
In the mornings while I toil away on the elliptical, I’ve been watching the Brazilian crime drama Good Morning, Verônica, which is dark and gritty and violent but quite interesting. It’s helping to cleanse the palate from The Undoing, which had five strong episodes and then one terrible one.
Recent movies include Hillbilly Elegy; Sometimes, Always, Never; Uncle Frank and Dolly Parton: Here I Am. Sometimes, Always, Never stars Bill Nighy as a Scrabble-loving father who can’t give up the search for a son who went missing. It’s a kind of reverse prodigal son story, as he rediscovers the one who didn’t go missing. Uncle Frank stars Sophia Lillis from It as a teenager who learns a secret about her favorite uncle. A series of circumstances bring them all back to semi-rural South Carolina, where everyone has to learn to deal with this unexpected news. Pretty good, although a little contrived. Written by Alan Ball from Six Feet Under.
I upgraded our Apple TV interface to the fourth generation version. The older one we were using didn’t support some of the new streaming services directly except by casting them from an iPhone or iPad. That meant we weren’t paying much attention to Disney+ or HBO Max, not to mention Peacock. So now we have a number of “new” viewing options. I want to check out Flight Attendant and The Mandalorian. Plus, of course, all the new movies that are going to be released on HBO Max. What an embarrassment of riches we have when it comes to online entertainment. I can’t help but think of how much more difficult lockdown would have been if the pandemic had occurred ten or fifteen years ago. Now we at least have Zoom, etc. plus streaming. It helps.
