Holy Crow, It's Hallowe'en
I've just realized it’s Hallowe’en already, and I haven’t posted since May. This post will be mostly in the order of a quick update (with the usual rambling) as life has been very busy.
Want some spooky Hallowe’en flash fiction? Check out my autumn equinox flash fiction story, “There is a Season”, released on September 18 along with works by Y.M. Pang and A.C. MacLachlan as part of Podcastle 540: Flash Fiction Extravaganza! The Three Phases of Equinox. My thanks go to narrator Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, who made it come alive. All three stories are just the thing for a dark, broody, Hallowe’en night when you must continually jump up to answer the door. At such times, flash fiction is the only real entertainment option. Plus, as podcasts, you can keep them playing while you dole out chocolate (we won’t worry about to whom).
As you recall, in my last blog about shortlists (“Shortlisted Again”), I was waiting to hear about two more shortlisted submissions. Although one was rejected, the other was accepted (“Wards”), and will be coming out in Room Magazine next spring. So, after a two-year dry spell, two pieces have been accepted in a six-month period. You never know. I’m still waiting on five more, one of which is shortlisted. So, the message in all this? Hang in there, keep submitting through the dry spells, and don’t lose hope.
Aside: A member of one of my critique groups noticed that both recent successful submissions featured creatures watching from a fence, one in a very minor way, and the other much more centrally. Perhaps fence-brooding is my personal key to success? I’m not sure which creatures to use in my next new story, or how to incorporate them into my novel, but be assured, they will be there. Which leads me to this post’s Menacing Entity of the Month:
MENACING ENTITY OF THE MONTH: FENCES
What is menacing about a little protective fencing? After all, they keep plant-nibbling deer and fast-fingered thieves out, and snarling guard dogs in. What’s not to like? Consider the fences around compounds and prisons, with their electric currents and barbed wire – pretty menacing, right? Even small wooden fences can grow rickety and dilapidated, luring small children in with thoughts of an easy climb, but
leading to collapse and impalement and law suits and ghosts and single shoes left hanging eerily by one lace in the moonlight and … well…Happy Hallowe’en! And do stay clear of fences tonight.
Also Ninja, the floating Devil Cat, will be happy to collect your spare boxes of potato chips.
