Squirrel Play Between the Sheets

There'll be more The Space between Atoms shortly. I promise. I thought I'd stop to point out a new story publication—we struggling writers need a bit of encouragement every now and again!

My weird, perhaps unnerving tale "Between the Sheets" is now live on Yellow Mama. This story is about what happens when the unexplained comes home to stay. I'm willing to admit, as most honest people are, that strange things do happen in life. Often we can find an explanation. Sometimes we can't.

I suspect that's why I like speculative fiction so much. There's a sense of wonder to it. As a friend of mine who's a published novelist likes to say, stories need a flux capacitor. It's a reference to Back to the Future. It's how Doc's time machine works. It's never explained because it can't be, but without it there's no story.

Some day I may grow brave enough to publish nonfiction about the strange things I've noted in my life. This story, however, is fiction.

Now that we're stuck at home all day during the pandemic, it might mean it's even spookier than I'd anticipated when I wrote it. Most of my stories were completed months, or years, before they find publishers. I've got a backlog right now awaiting time for submitting them.

"Between the Sheets" marks my twenty-eighth fiction publication. It's time to get some more sent on their way. By my count I've got eleven ready to go. What I don't have is pandemic time to locate publishers for them.

"Squirrel Play" has also recently appeared in The Horror Zine, also in print format. It was one of the least re-written of my stories, which makes me wonder if I edit myself too much. It seems better than letting other edit me.

In any case, I'll publish the next installment of The Space between Atoms shortly. But good news, among those of us who struggle, deserves to be shared.

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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