Anyone not coming by for the first time might notice a significant change on the website. I’m no longer putting up a link to my serial “Empire & Animal”. This is because I’ve decided to take the four completed E&A stories down from JukePop Serials. For those who might care I’d like to make a couple of things clear about this:
Category Archives: General Thoughts
A Random Assortment of Things & Thoughts
It’s been busy around here in my personal life. I’ve been focused on my son finishing up his first year of real school (grade 1 is now in the books) and his first season of organized sports (box lacrosse – two last games of the season tomorrow).
I’ve got stories out there doing the submission rounds and if my rejectomancy (a term I’d only recently heard of thanks to twitter) skills are any good I’d say that I’m regularly (though not always) making it past the first round of slush reading at a lot of markets, but still most often coming up on the thanks but no thanks list. One story in particular I *know* for a fact (due to emails from editors) has been seriously considered, but ultimately rejected, by many a market now and I’m having a hard time deciding what to do with it. That’s small picture though. In the big picture I think I need to strap myself into a chair and write, write, write because I may very well be close to reaching a new level in my storycraft skills.
One of the places that I have made a sale to and been published by, Fireside Fiction, is having a subscription drive right now. Please, take a moment and check it out. They have made meaningful compensation for authors telling great stories one of their founding principals, it would be a shame if they couldn’t keep doing that.
Finally, if you’re on Twitter you should really make it a point to be following Matt Wallace (@MattFnWallace), Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed), Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig), and Kameron Hurley (@KameronHurley). You can thank me later.
So….what are you reading this first week of Summer?
Look What I Found
So I’ll admit it: Now that I have a couple stories published I went and did some ego-searches on the Google. Much to my surprise and delight I actually discovered two very nice little reviews of my work. One of them quite old, one quite recent, and, well, if I’m the sort who’s going to go looking for them then I’m probably the sort who will share them. At least this first time, having never had reviews to share before.
In the old category we have Emily Short’s review of “Future Voices” the interactive fiction anthology that was published as a free iOS-app a couple years ago by inkle. My story “Facing Life, Facing Death” had won a place in it (4th place to be specific) and Emily calls it out as one of the three more interesting pieces in the collection.
In the recent category my story “H“, published back on April 30th by Daily Science Fiction, found it’s way onto Amy Sisson’s reading list. She is trying to read at least one short story a day for the year. In her monthly round up for stories she read in May she included “H” as one of the three “true stand-outs” she read that month.
I wont lie folks, these reviews put a smile on my face, and I hope if you’ve never checked out either of these stories they might convince you to give them a whirl.
What I Patreon
I’m a big fan of crowdfunding. Much to the detriment of my wallet sometimes, but ah well. In the past I’ve supported quite a few Kickstarters and I’ve also joined in some Indiegogos, and GoFundMes. Beyond getting cool things and supporting cool projects I’ve also come to see crowdfunding in the same light I see various Social Media platforms on their best day: they give me hope for the future. I think they are an important counter-weight to the growing influence of mainstream, soulless corporate control over our media, art, and politics. Continue reading
A Quick Update
So I’ve been pondering what I want to do with the blog portion of this here website and I’ve come up with some ideas that will soon be going live. Along with being a place to showcase a bit of my writing and provide updates on my writing career I’m going to make Looking for a Rabbit Hole mostly about the rabbit holes I find myself falling down. For me this means the various arts & entertainment I enjoy.
I’ve got a few old posts kicking around of this nature such as a few posts about old and new comics, the state of my growing jazz self-education, the very rare book review. Now I’m going to attempt to commit to some regular content along these lines. Fridays, for example, I hope to make about watches of old horror & thriller movies. Some will be good, some awful. Another day, possibly Wednesdays, will be about turning “Reading Old Comics” into a regular thing.
I’m still debating whether or not I want to put up any more book reviews/recommendations.
I’ve got a few other ideas, but I want to think about them more. Tomorrow I’ll also be putting up a post laying out the various things I currently support on Patreon and why you might want to consider doing so as well. And we’ll see how it goes from here.
ETA: Oh, and expect more photos. Especially of birds. Here’s my newest Lifer ( <- Look! Birder lingo), the gorgeous Cedar Waxwing.
A Selection of Birds
Since returning to Canada I’ve found myself quite enjoying Birding. I can’t say I’m particularly serious about it, but I have been enjoying adding to my collection of species I’ve managed to photograph. Here is a selection of Red-Winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and Mallards from last Friday. With a bonus Robin thrown in for good measure.
Click here for the full gallery proper.
http://jeffxilon.smugmug.com/May-22nd-Birds/