K. Marvin Bruce

 One of the most difficult parts about being creative is that you get carried away with ideas.  I've had four nonfiction books published and lately I've been taken—I mean really taken—with an idea for a fifth.  I've started writing it even before hearing if I'll get a contract for it. In the midst of the mania behind that writing (and I've got so little time to write that it's painful) I received the good news that fiction story number 30 has been accepted for publication.  Not only that, but it has been accepted in  Corvus Review .  I've published there before, but it's exalted company for me and I'm thrilled they like my fiction. Since my disc is still crashed and since I don't have access to The Space between Atoms (never trust a single disc!), this seems like a good time for a celebratory post.  This particular story is called "The Hput" (yes, a hput is a real thing), but it's a thing I can't tell you what means. This parti...

  So, just when I get started picking up steam in fiction, something drags me back to non.   I suppose the fact that I’ve had four nonfiction books published while my novel has been repeatedly rejected has something to do with it.   In any case, “Easy Chair” is now available on Coffin Bell . One of my Breck stories, this tale was inspired by my experience in higher education.   It’s a hostile environment.   If you’ve ever lost a job as a professor, you know what I mean.   Revenge is something that frequently comes to mind. A fun bit of horror that considers if trying revenge is really a good idea, “Easy Chair” had a relatively easy time with publication.   Unlike almost all of my stories, it was never rejected.   I revised it quite a few times before sending it out, but still, that’s remarkable. My very first published story as an adult (I don’t really count those from high school—who knows anything then?), “Hide and Seek,” was also never rejected...

I suppose I should get over it.   I feel mercenary about writing for money.   Almost as if I’ve sold out.   What a strange way to announce my first story accepted for publication for pay.   Don’t get me wrong—I’m absolutely thrilled.   I’ve received prize money for my writing before, but getting paid to have someone publish it is new. This past week two bits of good news arrived on the same day.   My story “Meh-Teh” was accepted by The Colored Lens , and they’re a paying venue.   Simultaneously my story “Creative Writing Club” received honorable mention in Typehouse ’s second biennial short fiction contest.   I literally had to go for a jog after opening the emails just to clear my head. You see, I’ve been writing fiction for forty years.   I sent my first story in for publication a decade ago.   It won a contest.   Then the rejections began rolling in.   I’ve lost track of how many there have been. ...

Long before I read much Stephen King (I only started on King in my late 40s), I had made up a fictional town.  King is well known for his fictional towns of Derry and Jerusalem’s Lot (‘Salem’s Lot) in Maine.  These are lands of magical realism where the paranormal happens, but people act just as people do. My fictional town is Breck, New Hampshire.  One of my published stories, “Good for the Gander,” is set in Breck.  Since my fiction hasn’t yet found a wide readership, nobody would realize just how many of my stories are set in my fictional town. Like most working writers, I write in fits and starts.  I begin each day with writing time, but occasionally it is harried by work and daily life issues.  I begin, continue, and finish stories and move on.  Most of them have never been sent out for rejection. Recently I realized that my Breck stories might start to interlock.  I had started a novel about Breck some years ago, to introduce th...