It’s that time of year, y’all: the naval-gazing yearly round up!
Published in 2023
“Dead Maiden Chic” in Weird Horror Magazine (Undertow Publications), issue 6, Spring 2023
“Reasons This Is Not a Horror Story” in The Maul, issue 2, April 2023
“The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen” reprinted in Cast of Wonders, episode 535, May 16, 2023 (audio)
“The Perfect Instrument” reprinted in The Cosmic Muse: Best of NewMyths Anthology Volume IV, November 2023
Sold in 2023
Two of the stories above (“Reasons This Is Not a Horror Story” and “The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen”), plus two more forthcoming in 2024: “The Pitch Pipe Forest” to DreamForge, and an audio reprint of “Self Storage” (originally published in In Somnio: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror) to Tales to Terrify.
How I Did on the 2023 To-Do List
Goal: Revise the new novel, then throw it out to folks for feedback
Done! Finished the revisions on Barren Water in February, then got feedback from some awesomely insightful folks. It took a while for me to wrap my brain around how to tackle the next round of revisions, but finally dove into those in the Fall, and now I’m close to halfway through the next pass.
Goal: Revise “Reasons Not a Horror Story” (after getting some more critiques in a few weeks) and start submitting it
Done and sold!
Goal: Write some new short stories
Only one new one this year, a SFish horror piece called “Terms of Service Have Been Updated.”
Goal: Possibly revisit my novel The Ashdowners. I received an invite to revise and resubmit from a small-press publisher, but I need to let it simmer a bit before deciding if it’s something I want to tackle.
This one remained on the back burner.
Goal: Who knows!? Let’s see what happens.
Much to my surprise, I started a new novel while waiting for feedback on Barren Water, this time horror. I only got about 30,000 words into it before diving back into Barren Water revisions, but it’s fun so I will totallybe getting back to it.
The 2024 To-Do List
- Finish revising Barren Water and start querying agents
- Get back to the first draft of that horror novel
- As always, maybe write some short stories
Barbara A. Barnett 