In the last month or so I’ve sold two short stories:

“The Switches You Have To Search For,” which originally appeared on The Daily Cabal, will be reprinted in the prose-poetry issue of Star*Line (Nov/Dec 08). First reprint sale. Woo!

and

“Chica, Let Me Tell You A Story” has sold to GUD Magazine for their Issue 3, appearing in autumn this year! The longer stories in the issue will be on the theme of ‘mechanical flight,’ but mine’s one of the un-themed shorter pieces to put breaks between the themed stories.

I’m beginning to run low on inventory (well, there are some things I should really re-edit and get back out there at some point); I have 6 or so submissions out at the moment when I used to have 12 or more. This is partly because I’m waiting on some places to re-open or for current submissions to be responded to so I can send something else to those markets, but also because I’m selling things. Which is good, for getting my name out there. But also means I need to write more. =D

Started editing “Who Tread on Decayed Ground” at lunchtime today (along with a hot chocolate with WAY too much whipped cream; it’s like the barista wanted me to have a heart attack or something), with the aim of having that out by the end of the month. Then I should edit “Star Anise, Paprika, Nutmeg, Rosemary” and get that out, as well as write something new in March. Maybe the Beth short story that’s been stewing in my mind a while.

Also, the Paper Cities anthology, out in April from Senses Five Press and edited by Ekaterina Sedia (squirrel_monkey), is now available for preorder. (It’s subtitled ‘An Anthology of Urban Fantasy’, utilising the literal meaning of the phrase, not the vampires+werewolves+over-sexed-under-plotted-books meaning.) I managed to get an early copy of it, and will be blogging about it in a week or two. The short version: this is a varied, interesting, enjoyable anthology, well worth reading if you have an interest in city-based stories.

Tags: sales, short fiction

In editing "Who Tread on Decayed Ground," I reached the fight scene which features (among other enemies) a dwarfed man who uses a net to try to trap my m.c.

This sets off an alarm in my head, the one that normally warns of clichés and misrepresentations.

(Mostly I decided he would be dwarfed because it meant one person who didn't get tangled up in the nameless pronouns of a fight scene; I can refer to him as 'the dwarf'. Also it fits the location, which is radioactive, thus birth abnormalities are common.)

Am I finding faults where there are none? Or is there something not-good about showing a dwarfed person using a net in combat?

I don't want to be accidentally offensive. =S

(Almost wrote "a newt in combat." Which makes me want to write a scene where people fight with fish. *slap!* "Sir, it is a duel! Fish, at dawn.")