K. Marvin Bruce

  Windquake.   The concept described what it felt like to be in houses literally shaken by the wind.   The spiteful aspect of the weather often forgotten until it arose, aeolian damage could be heard in real time as the gusts became sustained.   As if the sky were trying to tear civilization itself apart.   Dickinsheet wasn’t built to code. Queequeg and Terah rode out the storm in Cicero’s house with his bones.   The place shook like a frightened old man.   No rain fell, but the violence of the wind rocked everything.   “At least with a thunderstorm you know when its done,” Queequeg called out.   The wind would blow itself out only to begin again with even more rage. Terah felt terror.   “It’s like hurricane Sandy,” he shouted above the din.   He’d been in New Jersey for that. “Least we don’t have to worry about losing power,” Queequeg smiled.   Where had he been during that storm?   It’d left an indelible impression on Te...

  I’m so excited.   I’ve finally received a report from the data recovery center and it looks, at this point, like I’ll be able to recover The Space between Atoms .   If so, I’ll be able to resume where we left off starting next week. Recovering data is very expensive.   You see, I had thousands and thousands of files on my backup drive that failed.   It cost more than I’d like to think (let’s just say a new computer would be cheaper) to recover it.   There’s no way I could reconstruct literally over a decade of daily writing. The company I used was kind enough to suggest some better storage solutions.   Hell, these machines look serious.   They also cost a lot of money.   I guess most of us would really not like to think how fragile are data are. Speaking of data, one of the English language watchdog groups—I forget which one—has now declared that singular verbs can be used with “data.”   Data is the plural of datum, but we tend to use ...

 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...

 Did you ever have one of those years?  You know the kind I mean.  The kind of year when your best laid publication plans get shunted aside by the specter of life itself. Many months ago I began posting a novel I've written here ( The Space between Atoms ).  The idea was simple enough—it gave me a regular source of material for weekly posts on this blog, and it might provide a chance for a reader or two to be drawn into the story.  One of the characters actually appears in my published story, "Friday before Senior Year." The disc drive that holds all my files has gone bad and although it happened months ago, I haven't had the time to send it to a disc repair place.  Many files were lost and I simply haven't had time to recover them.  How do you find time for publishing in such a situation? In December of 2020 I prepared eleven stories for publication.  I only sent out two and they've both been rejected already.  I haven't had time to send the...

  My second completed novel—never published, of course—is one I still think is pretty good.   A little long, I admit, but well written.   It actually had three readers who agreed with both points: too long but well written.   One of them said I needed a good editor. I’ve read many overly long books.   Just this year alone I’ve read four novels that reached, nearly reached, or went over 500 pages.   One of the standard chestnuts of writing advice is “write short to write long.”   That only applies to some of us. Life has been so busy lately that I haven’t even been able to send in my damaged disc drive with The Space between Atoms on it, let alone try to get some of my completed stories published.   Some of it has to do with Covid-19, which, I think we’re all glad to see, seems to be releasing its grip on the United States. I submitted a book of short stories to a contest with Press 53 late last year.   It didn’t even win honorable mention, a...

  Don’t believe everything you read.   You know, when I started sending out short stories for publication over a decade ago, I checked Poet & Writer for the best fiction publishing venues to get noticed.   I got rejections from all of them and now I’m noticing the ones that’ve disappeared. Literary agents, they said, paid attention to places like Glitter Train and Tin House .   The former closed and the latter now only accepts submissions from agents.   So it is in the fiction publishing market.   It’s best to find an editor who likes your work and stick with her. I have this spreadsheet.   It lists every submission I’ve ever made.   It’s really handy because sometimes you forget even the rejection letters.   I look through it when I have a few days off work, to remind me of where I’ve been. Maybe it’s happened to you.   You find the perfect mag on Duotrope and you craft your story just for them.   Follow their specs, get a se...

  While I’m awaiting word whether the remainder of The Space between Atoms can be recovered, I’m pondering the correct strategy for publishing.   Like most struggling writers, I follow success when I encounter it.   Right now the biggest struggle for me is whether to focus on fiction or non. You see, under my real name I have had four nonfiction books published.   The problem is they’re academic books, expensive and obscure.   Yes, they may rest in the Library of Congress after I’m gone, but I doubt I’ll be joining Poe on Bradbury’s Mars.   Nevertheless, I know how to get such books published. My true love has always been fiction.   I’ve been writing fiction since at least 1974.   I really only attempted publication in 2009.   Although I’ve earned less than $40 from fiction, I’ve managed to have nearly 30 stories published.   My novels have had no success at all. If I were to follow “success” I would go after nonfiction.   My nonfi...