Passion of the Titans

After lurking around the fringes of the World Wide Web for several years, I’m pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of my novel, The Passion of the Titans with Vagabondage Press next summer. The Passion of the Titans is the story of Medusa, told from her own point of view—if you want to know how that’s possible, I urge you to read the book! I’ll give you a hint, though. Rock-and-roll did not begin with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Presley. It started a long, long time ago in a land far away.

For those of you who’d like a little taste of the my other work, I’d point you to the excellent online magazine Danse Macabre. My first piece published there, “O Tannenbaum,” won the 2009 prix d’écriture de Noël in Fiction for the magazine. Unfortunately, in this age of impermanent servers and services, the piece has disappeared into cyberspace. My second story, “Hide and Seek,” appeared and disappeared in the same journal, but is now available on Amazon as part of a literary collection.

2011 was my hottest year with “Vardøger” appearing in May and “Fashion Wear for Gentlemen” in October in Danse Macabre, and “Literary Ops” in June in Jersey Devil Press, another great online magazine. “Good for the Gander” is scheduled to appear in Jersey Devil Press early next year.

I’ve been writing fiction since I was a sickly kid in grade school but a mutual phobia of publishers has kept me silent until now. And I need to clear up a little mystery. My friend Steve Wiggins submitted a few of my early stories for publication. I work at an institution that doesn’t approve of Internet use (more on that in a future post), and Steve kindly sent my stories out to be rejected and finally accepted in Danse Macabre. Some people think we’re the same person. We’re not. K. Marvin Bruce is my nom de plume because of my job. Steve’s a real buddy, but he’s not the real me.

I’ll be posting updates here for my forthcoming book, so check back often for more exciting info!

Comments

Patterns

There’s a pattern I’m noticing. For fiction publishers. Even if you aim low you’ll find it a struggle. Part of the reason is the pattern. Lots of websites list publishers. The smaller, hungrier presses either eventually close or get to a place where they require an agent to get in. That’s the kiss of death. Although my stories have won prizes, and been nominated for prizes, I can’t get an agent interested. I’ve queried well over a hundred, so the agent route is one of diminishing returns. This too is a pattern. Back to the smaller presses. I check many lists. What I write, you see, is highly idiosyncratic. It’s literary but it’s weird. Publishers don’t know what to do with it. If a smaller press published stuff like this, I’d find it. The pattern includes writers who never get discovered. Ironically, a number of editors of fiction literary magazines (mostly online) tell me they enjoy my wor...

Creative Righting

Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world. That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week. That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press. The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor. She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher. I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions. I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor. That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it? You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify. It’s got speculative elements to it. ...

Maybe Okay

A couple pieces of encouraging news, perhaps, dear struggling writers. I had a couple short stories accepted for publication in recent weeks. As a fellow writer recently said, “You've got to keep trying. Somebody will like what you wrote.” That’s a bit of sunshine. And it’s likely true. But the stories: “The Crossing,” about two men in a boat trying to cross the Atlantic, was accepted by JayHenge Publishing. JayHenge is a small, but paying publisher. I was flattered when they wanted it for their Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe anthology. Being associated with Poe in any way feels good. The second story, “St. Spiders’ Day,” had been brewing in my mind for years—yes, this is a long game! A friend pointed me to The Creepy podcast. Since the story hadn’t been written, I followed their guidelines of what they wanted. It worked. I recently heard a successful wri...

K. Marvin Bruce

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