"Nixie's Rival" in Fantasy Scroll Magazine

This month, my story "Nixie's Rival" has been included in Fantasy Scroll Magazine.

I've also been remiss in linking to "A Water Sacrifice," my second drabble to appear at Specklit.

I hope you enjoy them both. I enjoyed writing them very much.

"Old Haunts" at Specklit, and a Little Blog Housekeeping

"Old Haunts" went up at Specklit on January 23. They're publishing another drabble of mine on Feb. 18, and have been a true pleasure to work with. "Old Haunts" started out as a one-sentence story, but I think the punctuation has much improved it. :-)

In other news, I added a "Follow by Email" option to my blog. It is truly embarrassing how long it took me to figure out that I could do that, but now we're good!

Thanks for reading, everybody!

P.S. I appreciate the recent warm comments, but am having trouble convincing blogger to publish comments of my own. So I'll just say thank you here! Thank you! It always makes me happy to know my work is enjoyed.

"The Words on the Walls" at Daily Science Fiction

My story "The Words on the Walls" went up at Daily Science Fiction last week. I'm thrilled to have my first published story of the new year with them, and from their facebook page it seems to have been well received by their readers. I hope you enjoy it.

"Learning to Dance" at Page & Spine

My short story, "Learning to Dance," is on the Reading Lamp page of Page & Spine this week.

This is a little bit of a departure for me, since it's not fantasy or science fiction. I wrote it based on an old first line I had jotted down in a notebook years ago. I hope you enjoy it.

"Black Friday" at Flash Fiction Online

My story, "Black Friday," is live at Flash Fiction Online this month (part of their "Death Comes for Flash Fiction" issue). I think I've mentioned before how much I love working with these folks. This story went through a bunch of revisions, getting passed back and forth between me and Suzanne until it communicated what she wanted to see in it. I'm always pleased to work with careful editors; I think it stretches me as a writer, to add that collaborative piece of it, and I certainly learn from that kind of detailed feedback!

"Black Friday" is my version of vampires. It's...a little different. I hope you enjoy it.

"The Rugmaker's Lovers" at Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Earlier this week, my short story "The Rugmaker's Lovers" was published in the 158th issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

They chose this line as the pull quote: "Something sat in the rugmaker's belly, small and solid and chill, and her husband's songs ceased to warm it."

This is one of my favorite of my stories, and I hope you'll stop over to read it. I love secondary world fantasy, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies has been one of my favorite sources of short fiction for some time. I don't write as much of the subgenre as I read, but whenever I do complete a short story that fits the bill I send it to Beneath Ceaseless Skies first.

"The Rugmaker's Lovers" took several years from the day I started it to its publication date. I hope I've become more efficient since then, but seeing something that I loved and struggled with for so long finally "in print," so to speak, is a great feeling.

"Speaking Up" at 4 Star Stories

This month I have two publications to announce. I'm doing it in two separate posts because I like to keep things neat like that.

I've fallen a few days behind on these, but I am pleased to announce that 4 Star Stories chose to publish "Speaking Up" in their most recent issue. This one's a little different for me. It's a sci-fi story from a child's perspective, and I was very happy that it found at home at 4 Star Stories.

I have been writing along, although my submissions have slowed. I need to pick those back up, soon, as almost every accepted piece has now been published and almost every piece out on submission has come back to me. I'm looking forward to restarting the adventure!