Submitted Home Cooking to the Macabre anthology. I think it has what it takes, but may be a little short for what they're looking for. Kidneys crossed.

I look like a writer.

Hell, I even look like a successful writer. Okay, so I've had a handful of publications in small press stuff and anthologies that appear spine-out in four bookshops across the country. But that's okay because this arrived in the mail.

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The first prize for the Australian Horror Writers Association's 2006 Flash Fiction Competition!

It's quite an honour, the AHWA are a great bunch of guys who do an awful lot for dark fic in Oz. Needless to say, it went straight to the pool room. Or would have, if our tiny house was big enough for something posh like a pool room. Actually, it went on the wall of our kitchen/dining area/computer desk area/main thoroughfare, where we stick little Ben's works of fine art. It's between a doctor's stethoscope (milk bottle lids, straws and a bit of egg carton) and a cellophane/paper plate jellyfish.

So I look like a real writer now, right? Is that what one looks like?

So you can behold Cat Sparks' seven Ditmars, or ogle Richard Harland's Golden Aurealis, but if you really want to feast your eyes, look at my wall.
It has a cellophane jellyfish. Bloody good one, too.

Random happenings

1) Always nice when you walk into a bookshop and the owner says "hey, I heard you won the competition at Conflux!"- and he was told by a publisher.

2) Sold a little story to said bookshop, By the numbers.

3) Currently having critted a story called Home Cooking which I plan to submit to the Macabre Anthology. I didn't think I'd have a story ready, but one leaped into my head last weekend. The market closes reaaaly soon. Crit, my Prose Nest friends! Crit like the wind!

4) I'd submitted a zombie story to an antho a while back, and just got a reply. Now as any writer will tell you, a market replies with either
A: Yes, or
B: No.
But these guys said
C: Make changes X, Y and Z with more emphasis on Q, and then send it to us again. That doesn't mean we'll take it.

First time for everything I guess. But their suggestions were all good and hey, they're the customer.

Looks like I found the words

My story Finding the Words Won the Australian Horror Writers Association's 2006 Flash Fiction comp! I came second last year.

Special thanks to my critique group The Prose Nest, who put on white gloves and ran their fingers over the mantlepiece, and made it a stronger story.

Interestingly enough, there were fewer entries this year. I thought aussie dark fiction was a boom genre??

Back in yer box

While I haven't been visited by the Black Dog of Depression for quite a few years now, the Purple Puppy of Self-Doubt is an irregular visitor. The little mongrel tends to run away with my writing motivation, and tugs at it like buggery when I attempt to take it back.

But yesterday I was handed that holy talisman sought after by all newbie writers, the Rolled Up Newspaper of Affirmation.

-Girl Power finally sold, to ShadowSword Magazine. They said it was 'well done and amusing'. Good to find another market that doesn't sneer down its literary nose at humour (well, humor actually. It's also my first international sale).

-I'm on the short list (ie top 4) for the Australian Horror Writers Association's 2006 Flash Fiction comp! That's the comp in which I came second last year. This year they're only awarding a first prize and four commendations, so I've already equalled last year's effort, using Kenobi's Certain Point of View (patent pending).
My story is Finding the Words. That's the one where, for the first time, I cried while writing. As opposed to crying before re-submitting :)
I received an invitation to go to Conflux, but unfortunately there's been a death in my wife's family and the funeral is on that weekend. My story takes place just after a funeral, which is kinda wierd.

Oh, and the Outcast has been reviewed over at the Horrorscope blog. Save Galaxy Fast! gets one of those reviews that merely describe some of the story and don't really pass judgement on it, apart from saying that one concept is 'cute'. It doesn't list it among the weak stories, so I guess I'm happy with that.