A New Story Published!

After a long break from publishing anything at all, I have a new story that was published today on Flashes in the Dark.

Just to get it out of the way, there are some errors that popped up in the publication process that were not in the actual story. Namely the moving of a couple of letters to be out of place and the dropping of the "w" in whole(now mis-reading as hole) for a sentence near the end. It's unfortunate, but at least you can read the story now!

By the way if you haven't been to Flashes in the Dark before or haven't been there recently it has a very nice new look and an upgraded navigation system that lets you jump directly to the serialized stories by Editor Lori Titus such as The Marradith Ryder Series.

About the story(Walking Live: Better than Starving)! Apparently I love it more than my wonderful pre-publication reviewers (aka friends), so I'm just going to mention a little about why.

For starters, it is the first story I've published or finished with zombies! Sorry if that ruins anything but you would have realized it by like paragraph three anyway. They are not just any zombies either. They are a very special zombie that I created in 2006 and unlike any other zombies I've encountered. You don't get to see much of them or what makes them so unique in the story (it's more like a teaser), but...

I plan on writing a number of short and long fiction stories around them and the outbreak in the fictional Pacific Northwest city of Alki. each story will reveal more and more about the uniqueness the zombies, as well as information about Alki, and all the events leading up to, during, and after the outbreak. of  The title of the series will be Walking Live, but it won't be in all the titles. After I get a couple of creative works out for the Walking Live events, I'll post them in their own sub section of reading links (yes, much like Lori does with the Ryder series).

For anyone who's keeping track this was also the very first story that I actually put violence into instead of just implying it. It's exciting going through the firsts.

The Best Thing About Rejection

You do start to get used to it pretty fast.

The Waiting...

So I have some stuff with publishers for review and I have three flash pieces finished, edited, and being read by friends.

I think I'll start writing another regular length short soon, but I gotta say, the waiting can make you kind of nutty.

Free Horror on Kindle

I don't know how familiar most Kindle readers are with Pixel of Ink, but every Kindle owner should know about it. The website basically informs people of free Kindle books everyday.

Want some stoker award nominated horror for free? Check out The Red Church by Scott Nicholson!

If you are on Facebook you should like Pixel to get updates, if not, you should just go to their website and see the free stuff they can direct you to. It crosses all genres and it's at price that can't be beat.

www.MicroHorror.com

Getting any potential readers up to date, I thought I'd share MicroHorror on here.

Microhorror.com is the first place I was ever published. It is a flash fiction horror website that has been running since at least 2007. Nathan Rosen is the editor at large, but the site features hundreds of writers and possibly thousands of flash fiction stories.

Every year around Halloween the site also hosts a themed flash fiction horror contest open to any writers interested in submitting. Two wonderful things about the site include the length cut-off at 666 words, ensuring that everything is unexpectedly readable. Who can't find a few minutes to read a story? Also as well as it's staying power. I've already noticed a good number of small publications that are "here today, gone tomorrow" affairs. It's great that Microhorror seems to have staying power and reliability.

On a roll....

Things are kind of on a role right now; I've been writing more consistently then ever and that's starting to mean more submissions than ever.

It's really going to suck if it translates to more rejections than ever, but we'll see.

I finished a very traditional ghost story (short) that I sent off to two publishers. I've also recently finished a flash zombie story, which is particularly exciting for me because it is the first in a series of zombie tales I plan to write collectively called (currently) Walking Live Stories.

Today I also plan to submit a reprint to an organization and hopefully write a really small flash piece for submission to another publisher.

Hat Tricks by S.S. Prazak

Here is "Hat Tricks". I thought it would make a nice thing to post at least once on here outside the bibliography, especially since people seem to like videos online. It is the first (and only) fiction I've been paid for. It was bought by Weird Tales magazine, the once publishing home of writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Ray Bradbury. I hope you enjoy.

Ann Vandermeer was the editor in chief who initiated the One Minute Weird Tales videos at the magazine and the person who told me (in email) that she "loved" my story. The magazine also earned a Hugo Award under her stewardship.