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

Dusty

My, this thing is dusty. My fans—hi, Mom!—perhaps believe me to have perished in the pandemic. No, it was nonfiction’s fault. Since the pandemic began I’ve had two nonfiction books published and have written a third. With a nine-to-five job something’s got to give. Unfortunately it’s been fiction. Well, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow yesterday, so it must be safe to come out. I shuffled away the rejection notes and began submitting again. I’ve got a backlog of weird stories and maybe some new publishers have emerged? The thing is, don’t you just hate it when you’re in the mood to submit and some lit journal has its window for submissions firmly shut? My last story, “ The Hput, ” was published about three years ago. Oh, I’ve submitted since then, but with no traction. Well, it is winter. I’ve got a lot of stories lined up. I’ve been sending them out again, dreaming of making a dime at what I love doing best. When you’ve been writing for half a century, you l

Too Much Writing?

Has this ever happened to you? Have you written a story that you’ve completely forgot? Not only completely forgotten, but made unfindable? I play games with my stories and sometimes the joke’s on me. Okay, I suffer from graphomania. I write constantly. I do try to keep organized—I use a spreadsheet that has all my submissions on it. It has rejection/acceptance dates (mostly rejection). Lots of information. I decided to list on it every story, whether finished or in process. There are far too many (mostly in process). When I finish a story I often submit it. If I get burned, I’m shy about resubmitting. I often rewrite at this stage. Then, when I feel brave enough, I try again. The spreadsheet is color-coded. There, in the color that indicates finished and ready to submit is a story cryptically titled “The Password.” I don’t remember this story. I can’t recall what it was about or why I thought it was ready to publish. Looking through my electronic files,

Gothica

The other day I asked a friend to define “gothic.” Heavy, dark, supernatural—these were a few of the words suggested. When autumn comes my thoughts turn gothic, and I’m always looking for good gothic things to read. I have blogged in the past about how reading literature that isn’t great is good. I’m serious about that. You can learn a lot by reading poor writing. Some gothic literature is more the former than the latter. Like Dark Shadows novels. Dark Shadows was running on daytime television when I was a child. As a teen I began to read the novelizations, by Marilyn Ross, whenever I could find them. Belles lettres they’re not. Gothic, most decidedly so. That’s why I keep coming back to them. They aren’t scary. In fact, they’re formulaic and predictable. But so, so gothic. Spooky mansions, the Maine woods, forlorn vampire, faded wealth. Even, yes, dark shadows. The stories create a mood I find difficult to locate elsewhere. Inspired by the most r

K. Marvin Bruce

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