First, my story “Ceiling Snakes and Slithering Saints” is now up at Mysterion! Inspired in large part by these two images—a rattlesnake named Buzz and some trusses pulling away from a church ceiling:
Second, the Kickstarter for In Somnio: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror is now live. Please consider supporting this awesome project and the awesome writers and artists involved in it! Oh, yeah, I might have a story in there too.
What is this? A second blog post in a matter of days?
So, shiny things. Story sales! Story publications! Some of these got pimped on Facebook and Twitter, but I’ve been crap about mentioning them here. Let me correct that:
New stories! I had two horror flash stories published back in March: “The Girl Who’s Going to Survive Your Horror Movie” in Flash Fiction Online and “Seen and Not Heard” in DarkFuse Magazine.
Reprints! It’s been a good year for those so far. “43 Responses to ‘In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nako'” was reprinted in the anthology Funny Horror, alongside some authors I’m thrilled to be in the company of. In the podcast department, “What the Blood Bog Takes” and “Notes on a Page” were both featured in episodes of Far Fetched Fables, while “A Red One Cannot See” was included in Gallery of Curiosities.
And sales! Notably of two stories that I had an absolute blast writing: “The Stork and the Crone” will be appearing in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores in the near future, and “Seer’s Salad” will be in a future episode of the Cast of Wonders podcast. And continuing the reprint trend, “The Holy Spear” will be appearing in Digital Fiction Publishing‘s Killing It Softly 2, an anthology focused on women in horror.
Oh, and almost forgot: plays! I’ve written a few short ones, and last month I got to see one produced for the first time. “Ghost Writer to the Dead” (adapted from a short story I had published in Penumbra in 2012) was featured in a local community theater’s short play festival.
Did I mention it’s been a good year for horror and reprints? Because it’s been a good year for horror and reprints, with a smattering of fantasy thrown in there.
Now back to the writing of new stuff!
Lately life seems to be happening faster than I can blog about it, which is in many ways a good thing. It’s also probably what Twitter was created for, but unfortunately, Twitter and I don’t quite get each other. We’re like co-workers who can get along perfectly well in the workplace, but in social situations we just sort of stare awkwardly at each other and make lame comments about the weather.
Anyway, the things! I must blog them!
Thing #1) If you haven’t read “The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies because you prefer to have someone else read your fiction for you, you’re in luck! The story is now available as a shiny podcast, where it receives a wonderful narration by Tina Connolly. So if you’re in the mood for a lighthearted tale about death, go forth and listen!
Thing #2) Daily Science Fiction has launched a Kickstarter campaign. Among the rewards being offered are short story critiques by DSF authors like myself and many other awesome people. So if you’re a writer, you have a chance to both support an awesome publication and get feedback from one of the authors they’ve published. If you’re not a writer, there are other rewards available, so check it out! Because DSF? Totally worth it, if you ask me.
Thing #3) If you’re reading this post on my website and not Livejournal (and really, are there more than like five of us even left on LJ at this point?), you may have noticed that things look a bit different. I didn’t plan to spend my entire weekend redesigning my website, but I did. Was I procrastinating? Yes. Should I have been writing instead? Yes. Do I regret it? No, because the whole process inadvertently led to me to The Copenhagen Chansonnier, a medieval music manuscript with awesomely whimsical drawings of things like the lady conversing with a snail dude in my website header. You’re welcome.
Thing #4) Somewhere in all of the craziness that is my schedule, fiction has been accomplished! I’ve finally gotten around to revising some flash pieces that I wrote back in January, right before my spring semester from hell devoured all of my writing time. One of those flash pieces has already sold, one is making the submission rounds, one needs just a bit more tweaking before I send it out, and the fourth one is no longer a flash story—it got expanded into a 3,400-word horror story and has just started wandering around Submission Land looking for work. And it has creepy puppets. With nasty defecation habits. Once again, you’re welcome.
#SFWApro
Sorry to resurface with nothing but pimpage, but it’s about all I have time for until the Semester Workload from Hell is over. That said, onto the shameless self-promotion:
* Yesterday I was lying; today I’m babbling about suspension of disbelief and what the phrase actually means over at Penumbra eMag’s blog.
* I’ve added my story “The Wounded House” (originally published in issue 20 of Black Static) to my stories available for purchase at AnthologyBuilder.
* And I’m dreadfully behind in giving a shout out for this, but Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One, which includes my stories from Daily Science Fiction‘s first year of publishing (“God’s Gift to Women” and “A Song Never Tasted”), is available for purchase.
First, Izzy David’s podcast of my story “The Little Things” is now up at Every Day Fiction. Please have a listen and rate it if you feel so moved.
Second, story sale! I’m pleased to say that my story “Ghost Writer to the Dead” has been accepted for Penumbra‘s October 2012 Edgar Allan Poe issue.
And finally, so it’s not all about me, some pimpage for writerly compatriot Marshall Payne, who has recently released two novels, Petrol Queen and Jimmy-Don and the Texas Hill Country Ordeal. I haven’t had a chance to read them myself just yet (because I’m a horribly slow reader with a very large to-read pile), but if they’re anything like Marshall’s short fiction, they’ll make for a fun, quirky read. You can find links to them on his Amazon author page.
Sorry to be posting nothing but pimpage lately. Soon there will be substance. Soon. But in the meantime, my story “The Sins of the Living” is part of the latest podcast at Tales to Terrify, along with other stories by some other fine horror-writing folks.
Three more weeks until the semester ends and I might actually have time to be an active blogger again. Emphasis on the might part given the way my crazy schedule goes.
In the meantime, I’ve briefly surfaced for two quick bits of cheery news:
1) My story “Sea of the Gods” was accepted by BayCon to appear in their next upcoming progress report. They were originally going to publish only one flash piece in a progress report, but lucky for me, they decided to publish a second one.
2) And my opera-singer-meets-the-zombie-apocalypse story “The Holy Spear” from Black Static 25 made Ellen Datlow’s full list of honorable mentions for The Best Horror of the Year, volume 4.
Now back to those looming end-of-semester deadlines.
As promised in my previous cobweb-clearing post, I have pimpage:
First, I’m pleased to say that my story “The Cycle of the Sun” is now out in issue 18 of NewMyths.com. My Odyssey classmates will possibly remember this one as “the orgy story.” Though the orgy’s a lot tamer than it was in that first draft. That pesky plot thing seemed to think it deserved more attention.
And second, I’m also pleased to say that two of my stories–“The Holy Spear” (originally published in issue 25 of Black Static) and “The Sins of the Living” (originally published in Dark Recesses)–are going to be included somewhere down the road on the new horror podcast Tales to Terrify, sister podcast to the Hugo-winning StarShipSofa. The podcast has already featured stories by awesome folks like Joe Lansdale and Gene Wolfe, so go check it out!
Rising from the blogging dead for a brief moment of pimpage, which will be followed by a full-fledged, non-pimpage post in the next week or so. Promise.
So, the pimpage: Wilde Stories 2011: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction, which includes my story “Mortis Persona,” appears to be out now. The anthology includes a lot of other great stuff, so please do check it out if you’re so inclined!
Holy crap, has it really been that long since I’ve posted something? Sorry not to have been keeping up lately, but life has continued to dance on the insane side of the fence. Hopefully come fall I’ll be able to settle back into a blog reading and writing routine. Until then, I’ll probably remain my current scattershot, occasionally resurfacing self.
In the meantime, here’s the bullet points of what I’ve been up to in the writing department:
* My zombie apocalypse story “The Holy Spear” has been accepted by Black Static. This will be my second appearance in their pages, which I’m thrilled about.
* Speaking of Black Static, reviewer Peter Tennant wrote a nice post about my story “The Wounded House” from issue 20 on his blog.
* Received my shiny contributor copy of Aoife’s Kiss (10th anniversary issue) this morning. Pretty.
* Gearing up for this summer’s TNEO workshop for Odyssey alum. As of last night, all the critiques I had to do are officially done! I’ve still got a ton of other things to do, but it’s nice to put a big fat check mark next to that beast of an item.
* Unfortunately, progress on the writing front has been mostly non-existent. I got in a good afternoon of revision work on My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel a couple weeks ago, but otherwise, that’s been kind of it. But now that TNEO critiques are out of the way, I can hopefully get back in gear. I’ve got some revisions to do on a short story, several flash pieces I should probably polish up and send out somewhere (anyone have suggestions on where to send an unabashedly liberal-leaning gay superhero flash story?), and then back to the novel grind.
Barbara A. Barnett 
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