A Couple New Story Sales

Because I can't just find a genre and stick to it (aka, why I'll probably never sell a short story collection), here are my latest story sales. First up, I have a story in an anthology of weird western stories entitled “Dead West:13 Tales of Murder and Mayhem” (cover art by Bob Freeman) from Bandersnatch Books due out around Halloween 2010:


Jerrod Balzer - A Show of Rage

Steve Vernon - Border Crossing

Hunter Lambright - Things Worse Than Ghosts

Daniel I. Russell - Rainchild and the Trickster

Rick Hautala - Screaming Head

Steve Rasnic Tem - Sleeping Ute

Lisa Morton - St. Thomas of El Paso

Harry Shannon - The Reckoning

Martel Sardina - The Turtle's Only Friend

Michael Knost - Thinning the Herd

Maurice Broaddus - Trails End

Steven Shrewsbury - Boston Corbet:: Castro Gunfighter

Matthew Pizzolato - Windigo

By the way, that marks my third weird western. The first was in Dark Dreams II. The second was sold to Inhuman Magazine (hmm, a sale I don't think I'd announced yet, but, there you go) and now this one. They are somewhat connected, in that they have recurring characters.

The second story is for an anthology of dystopic SF for Dark Quest books called Dark Futures (art by Alexey Andreye). It comes out in the second quarter of 2010 but is available here for pre-order:

“Black Hole Sun” by Alethea Kontis & Kelli Dunlap
“For Restful Death I Cry” by Geoffrey Girard
“Tasting Green Grass” by Elaine Blose
“Endangered” by Robby Sparks
“Nostalgia” by Gene O’Neill
“Beautiful Girl” by Angeline Hawkes
“Father’s Flesh, Mother’s Blood” by Aliette De Bodard
“Terra Tango 3″ by James Reilly
“Love Kills” by Gill Ainsworth
“Memories of Hope City” by Maggie Jamison
“Do You Want That in Blonde, Brunette, or Auburn” by Glenn Lewis Gillette
“Marketing Proposal” by Sarah M. Harvey
“The Monastery of the Seven Hands” by Natania Barron
“A Futile Gesture Toward Truth” by Paul Jessup
“Hydraulic” by Ekaterina Sedia
“Alien Spaces” by Deb Taber
“A Stone Cast into Stillness” by Maurice Broaddus
“Personal Jesus” by Jennifer Pelland
“Meat World” by Michele Lee

I like to keep diverse company.

Looking for a Few of My (free) Stories?

People are always asking me where they can read my stuff. You know, without having to actually PAY for the privilege. So I thought I would list the stories of mine that are available online as free reads:
Pimp My Airship
- "I think I'll write a steampunk story with all black characters and call it 'Pimp My Airship'". Which Apex Magazine published August 2009

The Ave
- from the now defunct Horror Literature Quarterly (November 2007). Originally, this story was the second half of the story "Rite of Passage" published in Space and Time Magazine (November 2008). An incarcerated man comes face to face with the spirits of his African heritage.

In the Shadows of Meido
- IDW experimented with having short stories in the back of their comics (December 2005). Because if I'm going to write a vampire tale, it might as well have some samurai in it. Warning: this vampire doesn't sparkle.
Uncle Boogeyman

- I believe this was the second story I wrote when I decided to be a writer (and originally the other half of the tale "Nurses Requiem" which was published in Dark Dreams III). Many drafts later, it was published by Dark Recesses in November 2009. A few nurses aides take it upon themselves to carry on the work of a mysterious force within the confines of a nursing home.

Just and Old Man on a Bench
- Originally bought by Brian Keene when he was the editor of the Horrorfind.com site (June 2004). Everyone has a story, perhaps even a deadly one, even an ordinary looking old man just sitting on a bench. This story is the prelude to "Just a Young Man and His Games" published in Doorways Magazine (March 2008)

Temptation
- an EARLY story of mine published on the Fear & Trembling site in November 2007. A little girl realizes she has the power of life and death over her baby sister. It was inspired by and named after this painting by Seymour Guy.

A Couple New Stories Out...

My story "Hootchie Cootchie Man" is in the current issue of Black Static (#14). Look at this beauty:
It was reviewed on Suite101.com. The review reads in part:

The eponymous 'Hootchie Cootchie Man' by Maurice Broaddus is a car thief who steals to order - but the order is placed by those wishing to ditch their cars by leaving a couple of hundred dollars under the floor mat. Nathaniel gives a girl a lift and then keeps running into her over the next few hours, as 'Like a desperately needed word on the tip of his tongue, Nathaniel was on the verge of realizing an important truth.' There is something slightly reminiscent in tone of Broaddus' spare prose of Michael Moorcock, in that Nathaniel is somewhat iconographic in the same way as Jerry Cornelius and the Eternal Champion. The pick of the issue.

I have a story, "Closer Than They Appear," and have been interviewed by the sexiest editor in horror, Michael Knost,* in the current issue of Shroud (#7).

And here is the Amazon review which reads in part:

"Closer Than They Appear" is far and away the best tale in the issue, a painful story of self-doubt, self-hatred and self-destruction that rocked my ass in three pages flat.

GO BUY THESE ISSUES!!!



*I know, I've just made Jason Sizemore weep in his coffee.

Wounded Stories III: Wounds As a Source of Healing

One of my favorite essays I’ve ever read was Brian Keene’s Bleed With Me. It was about what artists have to do for the sake of their art, which is essentially to bleed for others. Our pain, our hearts, our souls laid bare in order to convey the truth of art. Put another way, it is the vulnerability and transparency of the artist that is the source for the best art experience.

Admittedly, there are varying levels of transparency. Sometimes the emotional truth is easier to get to through the distance of fiction. Even on my blog, it’s still fairly safe, after all, it is my platform with moderated comments (though that doesn’t stop the occasional troll). Encountering people in the real world is an entirely different matter because be it blog or story, once it’s sent off, it’s in the hands of the readers for them to experience as they will.

Transparency is a learned skill. People might be born open, but we learn to protect ourselves, to shut people out, and build walls. Personally, I’ve been blessed to have a half dozen pastors who get in my face, hold me to account, and walk with me (not engage in CYA meetings to say they have checked in). I am also in a recovery program. And let me tell you, I’ve had to confess that I suck at transparency. In fact, I’m convinced that I need an introductory program of steps to make it to the first 12, just to get me to the sharing part.

As much as we may sometimes want to, we can’t live alone. We have blind spots. We’re biased to our own stories, positively and negatively. Live life outside of our paradigm. People who grow up abused may consider that the norm until they develop relationships with people outside their experience. We live from a place of fear, wanting to protect ourselves from pain. For many, that means suppressing emotions or otherwise leading a flat emotional life. We have a distrust emotions, for some it’s a Charismatic paranoia, afraid of letting emotions sweep us away as a part of the faith experience. Step outside of our mindset of how people ought to behave and deal with how they do, meet them where they are.

So how do we begin to access our heart? How do we begin ending that awkward dance of disconnectedness? We long to feel close to another, be it intimacy with God or simply a connection with others, yet live in the shadows of not knowing what to share, or fear over-sharing and chasing people away. It’s funny, some people need conflict to access their hearts while others are so conflict averse, they find it easier to walk away from relationships. We have to come to a place where we learn how to listen and know ourselves. Sometimes we’re so numb we have to begin by praying to have our hearts woken up, to have the fear broken, and be released to be the real you. And that’s risky: people may not like the real you. Start with what you know. The power of confession is admitting our failings. There is a power to putting our feelings to words through prayer, sharing our stories of woundedness, and finding healing as we push one another forward.

Moving forward is the key. Some people become stuck and need help to not suffer needlessly for the wrong reasons. Some days it hurts more than others and people cry out. For some, in the superficial sharing, pain can become romanticized, An openness about woundedness brings with it the danger of exhibitionism—an emotional Munchausen syndrome—as if the superficial sharing is the end of the process. While people don’t need to be categorized as being drama queens seeking attention, open wounds don’t heal, so we can’t stop with just airing problems.

Sometimes a person in pain can’t recognize their hurt and nor diagnose a treatment. All they know is that it hurts. We’re all afraid of the pain, none of us wanting it in our lives. We want it to be fixed, ended, to be made better and while we wish we could go back to the way things were or snap our fingers and make everything better, it is a process. One which requires time. The proper community plays a role in this process. Cries for help are met with care, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, fellowship, and in all things, love; all the things that make and should characterize a community. Shared pain stops being paralyzing. In the sharing and bearing, community is build as they carry one another in shared hope, in their common search for Christ.

Learning to stand and walk (not hide) midst of pain and misunderstandings involves allowing the opportunity for people to speak into your life, to walk beside you, to break through our fears and loneliness. To allow others to know what’s going on and pray for you. For those with similar stories to find you and lead you. It allows community to spring up in a time of need and do its job and in so doing the community acts as witnesses and agents of grace and love and peace.

Wounded stories become opportunities in peoples lives. Moments of confession, to reflect on and live out our faith, and to build community if we’re bold enough to wade into another’s pain and story. To do so means we have to move outside of our own preoccupations and agendas and needs and worries. It means a withdrawal of self to allow room for another. It may mean allowing them room to vent, cry, be angry, be silent, rest; in short, to be a safe place.

While we have to move forward in our pain, wholeness can’t be given from one to another. Not a friend, not a romantic interest, not a well-intended seminarian, but only through the blood of Christ. It means washing our own wounds and past, giving them up and letting go of them. It means finding forgiveness, for ourselves as well as others. In so doing, our wounds become occasions for new visions. In our weakness we have a reminder that we can’t do it alone, that we have to move forward while clinging to God’s promises. We need to let the light of His amazing love work through us, holding us together, holding marriages together, dispelling the lies of isolation and abandonment.

We need to know and own our own pain, our own story. Being authentic, raw, and vulnerable is risky. Being a wounded healer means allowing others to enter our lives, connecting their story with yours … without having any idea where this will lead or what it will look like. We can only hope that life on the other side of the journey to wholeness—the journey our of our dark places—will be a much better place.

***

Wounded Stories I: Wounded Story Tellers
Wounded Stories II: Suffering Servant
Wounded Stories III: Wounds As a Source of Healing

Wounded Stories II: Suffering Servant

We all carry around hurts with us, pain which, left untreated, has a way of settling in and rotting us from the inside like a festering wound. Sadly, hurts and lies have a way of shaping us as we carry them around inside us like an infection. Be we wounded by parents, having felt the cold indifference of friends, the sting of a careless word from a pastor, a sense of abandonment at a critical time, or just the tragedy of life in a fallen world, our stories of what carves out pieces of us are all too similar. As much as our American culture teaches us to “suck it up”, pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, eventually we come to the realization that our own strength will only take us so far.

The walking wounded run a risk when we choose to encounter another’s pain. Our instinct may be to flee, find a way to distance ourselves from them, even ostracize them. After all, it’s an emotional risk to put ourselves out there in order to be arms of comfort, ears of compassion. Ultimately, we’re also faced with a two-pronged tension: we can’t find healing in one another, yet who can alleviate suffering without entering into it?

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:3-5

Christ identifies with us in our pain and woundedness. Our stories are His stories from a life He experienced alongside us. Leading us by example, making our story His, knowing our hurts and fears. He lived with eye to hope, no matter how dark it got. Hope provides a glimpse of the destination we wish to reach. Home.

We don’t take away one another’s pain. There’s no way for us to. What we can do is share one another’s pain, bear one another up. It’s messy, there are no universal steps because life, like the people in it, is creatively individual. So we also have to give each other room to move. It’s also from this place of brokenness that is a starting place for a profound journey.

Entering the complexities of our inner lives, our inner journey, involves sifting through and dealing with the muck of transformation. We all want to lead safe and protected lives, yet we aren’t called to safety (another tension we have to live within). Still, we search out a safe place to confess, repent, and heal. Seek those who are safe, possibly those who can relate to our pain, our woundedness. Those who are willing to be raw and failing yet be at one other’s disposal. Muddling through the faith and doubt, light and dark, hope and despair, that often comes with the real inner work of transformation.

And we continue to let Christ in as we pursue an emotional intimacy with Him. Continuously learning to give ourselves over to him. Continuing to wash our past and brokenness in the blood of Christ.

***

Wounded Stories I: Wounded Story Tellers
Wounded Stories II: Suffering Servant
Wounded Stories III: Wounds As a Source of Healing

Wounded Stories I: Wounded Story Tellers

"…I have found that the very feeling which has seemed to me most private, most personal and hence most incomprehensible by others, has turned out to be an expression for which there is a resonance in many other people. It has led me to believe that what is the most personal and unique in each one of us is probably the very element which would, if it were shared or expressed, speak most deeply to others. This has helped me to understand artists and poets who have dared to express the unique in themselves.” –Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person

We are called to be wounded healers taking care of our own wounds, while prepared to treat the wounds of others. The idea of wounded healers led me to Henri Nouwen’s book, The Wounded Healer which I’ve been meditating on for the last few weeks.

A lot of folks don’t know what to do with folks who are truly hurting. They are quick to label them crazy or drama queens, accuse them of self-aggrandizing behavior. To be fair, condition not always easily recognized, hidden behind walls, retreated to caves to lick wounds (ironic that our instinct is to withdraw from those who would help us). On the flip side, people who are hurting aren’t always the most cooperative of “patients”, often scared or indifferent and stubborn, or whatever else their posture of woundedness, unable to give voice or words to their state of despair or hopelessness. Burdened with the weight of guilt and shame, and self-contempt, they might pull away from people, not wanting to let others see our wounds believing them to be too ugly.

They have a sense of being lost, believing themselves without family or friends or anyone to understand or relate to their plight. As they bottom out, not knowing whether they want to live or die, unable to give any direction (or even perspective) to their story, they become prisoners of their own existence. People feel alone when no one seems to be around to walk through your pain with you, to simply be there to pray with, talk to, comfort. That’s part of the healing power of being present.

A desperate cry demands a response from their brother. Not indifference or isolation, not intellectual platitudes of a well-intentioned seminarian. These are easy emotionally, safe responses, sometimes betraying a hubris and insensitivity, an aloofness to the pain and suffering of others. As Larry Crabb said, “the solution to the problem of disconnection is connection.” To become present to one another means that we have to encounter each other in a very real and very human way. The comfort of presence allows us to smell, feel, hear, and see another. It’s a connection through each other’s story that puts a lie to no one being there, the lie that no one cares. It lets the wounded know that there are people waiting on the other side of the dark time.

We are human and we will fail one another. We can’t and won’t be there perfectly for one another, despite the well-meaning promises between parent and child, spouses, boy/girlfriends, friends. It’s all a part of the mystery of people. They’re so individually … peoplely. It’s easy to point out the failures to draw near to others. We forget, they’re people too, wounded in their own ways, and like the rest of us, have to work through their own fears, hesitations, self-preoccupation, and self-protections in order to reach out to others. It’s why the idea of dealing with people who are deeply wounded and hurting leaves them befuddled, not knowing what to do.

We’re all called to be wounded healers, but it’s hard to lead another out of pain if you’ve never allowed yourself to deal with your own pain. Sometimes you have to head straight into the pain to come out of the other side

Our own emotions—anger, fear, disappointment, resentments, distrust—may keep us from drawing near to our “neighbor” when they are wounded (by themselves or by life). Healing can begin with a simple forgiving embrace, a confession of failure, not justifications and rationalizations. Few people want to keep screaming in the face of their pain. They want someone to listen, to truly listen. Few people don’t hope for recovery, don’t want to be restored or find wholeness, who’d rather find temporary shelter in the attention of their stories. We’re not called to camp out in our woundedness or brokenness, but it is the hope of that promised wholeness keeps us pursuing the way of Jesus.

The gospel story isn’t that we sin and God forgives, or that we’re just sinners. We’re children, heirs, called to a life of joy. We are to make his life our own and be transformed. He is the source of healing, the Balm in Gilead. We are to grow to look like him, not just as the suffering servant, but becoming fully human. And making the journey to become fully human and return home.

***

Wounded Stories I: Wounded Story Tellers
Wounded Stories II: Suffering Servant
Wounded Stories III: Wounds As a Source of Healing

God Doesn’t Have Writer’s Block

I’ve written about the church’s uneasy relationship with art and spoken before of how story impacts my Christianity, but I’ve been thinking lately about how the many in the church have an uneasy relationship with story. Which is ironic considering that a good chunk of the basis of our faith is rooted in lessons provided by a collection of stories.

Our imagination is an amazing gift. Our ability to conceive ideas and construct stories is beautiful. It joins us to our Creator and is part of what makes us human. Its dark side, however, is that it can be used as a destructive device that can distort reality and is why so many inherently trust any sort of metanarrative. Story is a powerful thing, rife with potential, and because we were created in God’s image, we want to write our own stories.

I write by outline. When I’m plotting out a novel, there’s a story I know I want to tell. So I can spend pages creating characters, laying out plot points, describing different scenes, jotting down snippets of dialogue to capture each character’s voice, and generally plotting out the overall story. But I leave the end of the outline, the climax of the story, open. If my characters are real, they aren’t always going to cooperate with the story I have in mind. If they were created as living, breathing, fully fleshed out characters, they have freedoms and will make choices. They have their own story to tell and I need to give them room to allow them to write it themselves. If I impose my plot at the expense of their character arcs, the story I’m writing will ring hollow. I am not being true to them or the narrative.

I wonder if this is how God operates?

Stories can sometimes be painful and take dark and unexpected turns. When situations, crisis moments, rise up, we want to impose out plots on them. As a church, we can get tempted into wanting to write our own stories, trying to create "look what God did" tales—wrapping things up in time for our Thanksgiving service or next sermon series—that we overlook the people involved and the story HE's writing. Stories proceed at their own pace, moving along their own timeline. Sometimes when faced with a painful or overwhelming story, we want to get to the end quickly (sometimes any ending), not allowing time or any sort of narrative process to unfold, simply to get over it and feel better. Trying to manage the story rather than being true to the story and characters.

I had a story once where the words were coming easy, the characters fully imagined in my head, and then I tried to force a story onto them. Instead of dealing with the characters in front of me, as they were, I moved the story at the expense of them and their needs. Shocker of all shocks, the characters quit cooperating with me. It was like they opted out of the story. So I had to scrap the story I was trying to do and start over.

We also have a way of trapping people in stories, not just as a people, or as a church, but also as individuals. We are quick to label people—“that’s the crazy one”, “that’s the drama queen”, “that’s the villain”—defining them into roles that they aren’t free to grow out of. Similarly, we can sometimes do the same damage to ourselves when we believe lies about ourselves.

Similarly to losing focus of the characters, we can lose focus of the story and end up forcing stories, locked into the endings we want. We end up trying to salvage a story:

-if we can just get this person saved
-if we can just get these people to reconcile
-if we can just change this person’s thinking or way of life

All good ends, but mixed in with an inherent hubris: as if we’re the author’s of those stories. What it reveals is that we don't trust narrative. or the Ultimate Author. Our need to control locks us into creating “an opportunity for a miracle” (you know how we like to give God a helping hand with the situations we encounter), wanting to have a good “look what God did” story to tell, as if we need to provide Him crib notes to help the story along.

But God doesn’t have writer’s block.

As much as we would wish or act like it is, life isn’t a choose your own adventure story. Stories happen on God’s script and on His time table. As such, narratives are uncertain and should be prayerfully written. Narratives aren’t safe and require faith in an ultimate Author and asks us to surrender our narrative to Him and the story He wants to write. Our stories are ones of continued surrender.

We need to encounter each other as stories, bumping up against and connecting to others as fellow participants and co-authors of a story of reconciliation and healing. Pain and suffering is our universal language, our great uniter. Our collective sin, our response to that sin, requires that we walk through the pain of a fallen world with a willingness to enter into one another’s paralyzing situations.

The story isn’t that we sin and God forgives, but that we’re children of God’s, co-heirs with Jesus, called to a life of joy. We are to make His life our own, transforming us, sometimes through the refining fire of pain, to look like Him, as children come to resemble their parents. That’s the story we find ourselves in.

Uncle Boogeyman Now Up on Dark Recesses

Back in college, I began to seriously consider pursuing writing. I took a few creative writing stories and the end result was three stories, more or less. The first was my story which became Soul Food, a tale of a sin-eater in the hood, published in the inaugural issue of Hoodz magazine (after a convoluted path to print).

The second was my story which became Dark Night of the Soul, a piece I’d been tinkering with since high school about a man who falls in love with the goddess Kali. It saw print in last year’s anthology, Dark Harvest (which also reprinted Soul Food).

The third story was my 10K word opus reflecting on my days as a Certified Nursing Assistant. Eventually, I realized that I was actually telling two stories and I split the story into two. The former, the story of an assistant working in a nursing home of demon possessed elderly patients, was published in Dark Dreams III (Nurses Requiem). The latter, a tale of corrupt nursing assistants abusing patients to serve a greater darkness, has been published on Dark Recesses.

I hope you enjoy Uncle Boogeyman (plus, it's another free read, so you have no excuse not to read it).

Pimping "Pimp My Airship"

You people don’t take me seriously when I tell you that my Twitter is basically just the gibberish that floats through my head during the sitcom written by drunken leprechauns that I call my life. Anyway, a few months back, I make this tweet: “I’m thinking about writing a Steampunk story with all black characters and calling it ‘Pimp My Airship’.”

I forget that editors actually read me. And that they might want to see the story.

Which means I actually had to write it.

It has finally found a home. The August issue of Apex Magazine features my story. You can go read it now. There are two possible scenarios as to how my story found a publication home ...

(cue the harp flashback sound …)

I submitted the story to an anthology, but the editor decided that the story was so good that it demanded a bigger market. So that editor called Jason Sizemore and the thought of having a chance to publish me was what spurred him to pull Apex Magazine out of the mothballs to give my story the audience it deserved.

Or …

I found myself looking through the list of pro paying markets, saw that Apex had re-opened, debated whether I wanted to put myself through another round of being Sizemored (the official term for the editorial process he puts stories through when they aren’t quite up to his delicate standards), decided the pay was worth it, and took a leap.

I prefer to be the hero in my story, so I'm choosing to remember the first version. (Okay, the careful observer might note that I’m the hero in both). I probably would get a lot further in this business if I’d quit making fun of editors who publish me …

Anyway, go read the story. I’d love to hear what you think.*

I SUPPOSE I ought to mention who else is in this issue:
“Kenny 149″ by Brad Becraft
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster
and even a bit of non-fiction: “Game Fiction: Why It Works (and Why It Doesn’t)” by Monica Valentinelli


Here are a full set of links to buy the new issue:
DriveThruSciFi (ePub) -- DriveThruSciFi (PDF)
Amazon (Kindle)
Apex Book Store (Print)


REVIEWS:

The Internet Review of Science Fiction: Alternate history/steampunk. America is part of the Albion Empire and slavery has been abolished but "those of an African bloodline" have been relegated to the drug-pacified undercities, where Sleepy and Knowledge Allah are involved in a plan to liberate their imprisoned brothers, led by an inventive co-conspirator, Deaconess Blues.

Entertaining mix of steampunk and revolutionary rhetoric, evoking the bygone days of the Black Power salute. Recommended

The Fix:

“Pimp My Airship” by Maurice Broaddus is an alternate-reality steampunk piece with an African-American twist. Blacks and other minority groups live as nominally free citizens segregated into “undercities” in a Victorian-era America in which the Civil War never took place. Despite the government’s efforts to control the population through the widespread availability of narcotics, a movement for revolt is rising. And a daring but unlikely trio will provide its spark.

This piece feels a little pulpy for my taste. Despite the gaslights and dirigible, I’ve read or seen this story before many times. Its focus on non-white protagonists is laudable, but I was disappointed in the flatness of its characters: the “loser” protagonist who finds he has more inside than he knew, the self-sacrificing mentor, and the beautiful and brilliant token woman to round out the trio. This piece feels like it should have been longer, or part of a larger work. Perhaps if it were, the longer narrative could provide time for more nuanced character development and a deeper understanding of the social milieu in which the characters find themselves.

*Not really. I’ve already been paid and that’s the only critique that really matters to me.**



**I’d probably get more fans if I’d quit being so openly antagonistic to them …

DEVIL’S MARIONETTE

Death comes for the cast and crew of the hit comedy TV Show Chocolate City, impacting not only their personal lives but the prospect of their show’s continued success. As each member sinks into their own past, and the spirits of those that came before, the tragedies continue.

Maurice Broaddus weaves a tale of intimate nightmare and dark discovery in a compelling exploration of humanity’s relation not only to his own mind and soul, but also to the ghosts of days gone by—personal and ancient.

When your terror comes to claim you, who will it be?

Nobody.

"There are fewer greater pleasures in a reader's life than witnessing a writer whose work they have enjoyed reached a new plateau in their storytelling skills, and such is the case here; with The Devil's Marionette, Maurice Broaddus comes into his own as a writer of dark fiction. It is the brilliance we've all been waiting for, and Broaddus delivers in a voice that both whispers and roars and cannot be ignored." -- Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-winner Gary A. Braunbeck, author of Mr. Hands, Destinations Unknown, and Coffin County

Announcing Devil's Marionette, a limited edition novella by Maurice Broaddus, available now from Shroud Publishing.

It started with a stamp.


As with most things with me, this led to a blog. You see, I couldn’t get the image out of my mind. It was an image that spoke not only to a history of how black people were seen, but to attitudes that are all to present today. The ideas, and outrage, associated with this began percolating in the back of my head.

“You can’t consider the history of “racial masking” – or the history of American show business – without talking about Bert Williams.” – David Mills


I ran across an image of Bert Williams in full make up. The burnt cork black face that was a part of his act. A black man who performed in black face. It was a powerful image, this proud man, a sad clown. In one picture, the image managed to capture the dehumanizing aspect of racism and the sacrifice required to muddle through its treacherous waters.

And the responsibility of the artist.

You see, as a black artist, one of the things I struggle with is my responsibility to not perpetuate negative images of my community. However, I have to balance that against being true to my craft. What would you do, what would you sacrifice, to be able to do what you are passionate about? Because at the time, I was seeing some absolute garbage hit the television airwaves and coming out on the big screens which amounted to little more than cooning for a mass audience. And I was angry. Because all black artists should be haunted by the specter of Bert Williams and his dilemma of sacrificing his personal dignity in pursuit of the art he loved so much.

So I raged some more and it became a novella.

Gary Braunbeck seemed to like it. I hope you do too.

Police - by Reese Broaddus

So my oldest son, Maurice Gerald Broaddus II (Reese), has decided to try his hand at writing a story (this AFTER my two boys getting me to write a story about them). Anyway, I warned him that if I put it on my blog, it would be considered published and he wouldn't be able to sell first rights down the road. He told me he'd do a re-write and change the title, for now he just wants the exposure. Young writers.

Ah, good times ... I remember my first story. Looking over Reese's story, maybe we should back away from watching so many Law & Order reruns.

About the author:
At seven years old, Reese Broaddus is in second grade. He's been declared the new master of suspense (I explained to him that many new writers like to make extravagant claims about themselves with no track record to back them up. His response: "what's suspense?"). He once had a thing for Maurila, but now a young lady named Rachel is the love of his life (which I'm not allowed to write about in my blog). He lives at home with his parents and brother (I also explained that many authors tend to include their pets. He informed me that since we no longer have Midnight, his brother would have to do). He doesn't eat paste (I wish that all the professional writers I knew could claim that).

Prison (A Work in Progress)

Chapter 1 – Jail

One day there was a crime at Main Street. Tim robbed the Bank. He took $21,680. Tim went to jail for Thirty weeks. Tim’s wife Broke up with him, Tim was not that mad. Tim was more mad at the Police.

Twenty weeks later Tim’s son turned two years old. Tim was so happy he yelled and was jumping up and down, his face turned red. Tim got in trouble for yelling.

Ten weeks later Tim went to court. Tim’s ex-wife was there. He was so scared because his mom was also there. Tim’s mom was not that happy with Tim.

Tim was found guilty at court. Tim had to stay in Jail one more week. Then his dad came to visit him. Tim got in trouble by his dad.

Chapter 2 – Money

One day it was Pay Day. Tim dropped his money, another man stole his wallet with all of Tim’s money.

Tim was so upset he threw a fit. Tim called 911 and said someone took his wallet. “Someone’s a thief and snatched my wallet and walked away,” Tim said angrily.

Chapter 3 – Not at Jail

Tim was at his own home again. He was glad because he was not at jail. He did not want to find a girlfriend, but one day Tim found a girlfriend her name was Abigail. They are getting married in 20 months. Tim is going to get a job. Tim wants to have six kids.


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My First Publication

Today’s writing related question: Your first publication - which market, how you found out about the market, how it felt to finally be published, and how many rejections you racked up along the way.

Well, I figure for the point of this discussion, we’re not talking about letters I got published in comic books or the first story I ever wrote (back in fifth grade). The first three stories I wrote once I started taking my writing seriously—the stories that were published as “Soul Food”, “Nurse’s Requiem”, and “Dark Knight of the Soul”—were originally written as creative writing assignments in college. “Soul Food” will always hold a special place for me because it was the first time a story of mine saw print. But, as will become a common theme in my life, it wasn’t exactly the usual route.

My last year of college, a professor I was working with encouraged me to send out my stories. He suggested this fledgling magazine called Cemetery Dance since it looked like the solid kind of market that would give good exposure. I thanked him for his advice and promptly trunked my stories. A few years later, I dug them back out worked on them some more and thought maybe I ought to send one out. I don’t know how I heard about this market (though I believe it was after I stumbled across a market magazine called Hellnotes), but I screwed together what courage I had and sent “Soul Food” off. A month or two later, the editor called me with an acceptance.

Called me.

New to the game, I figured this was how things worked: editors want your story, they just call you. He told me how much he loved my story and that he looked forward to working with me. I sat in my bed, stunned, and then proceeded to call several friends of mine to share the news. Of course I immediately became insufferable because I was now one for one is submissions and acceptances and figured I was going to corner this writing thing.

Months went by. I didn’t know what came next in the process. We hadn’t discussed payment, no contracts had been signed, no clue when it was coming out or if the editor wanted me to make any changes (though he CALLED me, so my so my words were obviously perfect as they were), so I continued waiting. Well, the anthology comes out … without my story.

I dug out any contact information I had and contacted the editor, all full of righteous indignation (read: on the verge of “why, Lord, why?!?!” tears). Turns out the project originally had two editors and one walked away from the project (guess which one?). My story fell between their communication gap.

Of course that anthology went on to massive sales and critical acclaim, with everyone published in it getting a huge career shot in the arm.

So I send my story off to the next couple of markets, and after one rejection, it got accepted. A start up (and now defunct) magazine called Hoodz. And I got to see my story in print.

Still … published on my third try … two acceptances in three tries … not too bad. I’ve not enjoyed that track record since.


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It’s Stoker Season

It’s that magical time of year. The Horror Writers Association goes through the machinations of gathering, collating, and nominating various works to be nominated for their Bram Stoker’s Award. Here is the 2009 Preliminary Ballot (I thought about reproducing it, but since I'm going to rant, I'll need the room. Yes, Orgy of Souls made the long list.).

For those who have even heard of the award, it is pretty much the main thing the HWA is known for doing (which, unfair or not, serves as a bit of its own commentary). The reason the award has sometimes been derisively called “the Strokers” is because of the perception that folks sit around and back-scratch each other. (As if a good chunk of most of our sales aren’t to other writers in the first place).

It’s an age-old debate, one that rages within the organization as well as without. The nominating process has the feel of backroom handshake deals determining the nominees. Here’s how it works (and I’m not betraying the secret handshake or anything here): for a year, anyone in the organization can make recommendations for nominees in the various categories. When the nominating period is over, a preliminary ballot is determined and the actives vote on who gets to be on the final ballot. After that, the actives vote on the winners. The first part is public to all the members of the organization which is good: often you can pick out the circle of friends who rec each other just by looking at the tally sheet. A lot of that gets sorted out between the preliminary and final ballots though (and there is an additions jury which weighs in on a few items in each category folks might have missed).

Don’t get me wrong, I'm not exactly complaining because Stoker season is when I get my dues money back out of the organization in books. This time of year, I’m offered all sorts of free books to read and possibly rec, which works out well because I rarely get a chance to buy as much as I’d like. Although, already you can see part of the problem with the nominating process: my vote is going to be skewed toward those books I’ve received free through campaigning.

In the interests of full disclosure, even I linked to story I semi-campaigned for, because I want the story read.

So I began a conversation with a fellow professional writer whom I will call Elvis on this topic. Mind you, discussing things with Elvis is pretty much me poking him with a stick then getting out of the way.

Me: So how are the Stokers doing more harm than good?

Elvis: No one outside the HWA knows what they are and those that do it’s because of the intense bitching over the Stokers as the public face of the HWA. All that cat-fighting takes a ton of time that should go to writing and leads to the kind of political bullshit that causes a fair number of people to either tune out or leave the organization. And did I mention the politicking?

Me: I actually don't mind the stokers. I look at it mostly as a peer award. If we have a peer award, a "people's choice" (The Black Quill or the Rondo Hatton Awards), and a juried award (the International Horror Guild awards and now the Shirley Jason Awards), I think all of our bases are covered. And if the Academy Awards are any indication, there's all sorts of politicking that goes into any award (for those who want it bad enough)

Elvis: There are a couple of things hanging off that argument. The HWA is a small enough group that a writer can gain prominence by derailing/controlling the process. The Stokers need to have a greater value outside of the organization. Mind you, I'm not saying abolish the Stokers. I'm saying making a concerted effort to make them useful and beneficial.

Me: Open up the voting to all horror pros, send out ballots industry wide (which doubles as marketing as the organization can put itself in front of a lot of different professionals).

Elvis: Even if King, Barker, Romero and Craven don't actually vote, saying they're part of the voting body carries weight. And limiting recommendations means that a lot of the back-scratching goes away. You have to think about what you're reccing.

One of the unstated points of the awards is to sell books, so why not make it easier for publishers to get the books into the hands of voters? Call it the Stoker Discount, or allow freebies, or whatever. Put a page up on the HWA website for PDF downloads of recc'ed manuscripts.

Me: a one-stop resource for recced material that's OUTSIDE of the message board. Because in the end, we want the stories read, not just by our fellow writers/friends, but by fans/book buying public.

Elvis: Which means that, again, it moves away from "who has the most message board friends"

When all is said and done, neither Elvis nor myself is turning one down should we get one. And winning one certainly wouldn’t stop us from plastering that fact on our book covers and in our bios until we quit drawing breath. Of course I wait until I get nominated to do this rant. Nothing like biting the hand as it feeds you.


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Some Writerly Related (Me) Links

Honestly, I sort of backed into the genre. I came to it through my Sunday School teacher, who had a secret love for all things Stephen King, EC Comics, and Hammer horror movies. I published my first short story, "Soul Food", in 1999 (reprinted in this year's anthology, Dark Harvest) and have stories out in Weird Tales, Horror Literature Quarterly, the Dark Dreams anthologies, and Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, as well as several upcoming projects. My novella, co-written with Wrath James White, Orgy of Souls, came out in June from Apex Books. I have a bias toward short stories.

Continued on MAURICE BROADDUS Must Read List


Also, Jay Lake posted a blog regarding a few semirandom thoughts regarding inventory. It got me thinking about my older stories still in circulation and the type of balancing of what kind of stories I want to be known for and what kind of career I want to have. A lot of what I'm doing now might be considered more fantasy than horror, as opposed to my older work which leaned more category horror. So am I giving fans of a certain type of story what they want in the given market that accepts them or am I sending out stories which simply don't represent the writer I am now? So Jay and I had a bit of a discussion about when to trunk inventory here.

What do you think?


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Writing Goals 2009

Continuing my tradition of looking back on my goals from last year (and how well I met them), I think I’ve done pretty well. I did end up revising my first novel (Strange Fruit, cut—no lie—40 K words from it, and it is now in the hands of a prospective agent). I also revised my most recent novel (Knights of Breton Court, which is now at a prospective publisher).

On the publication front, several stories came out this year. Snapping Points (available online at Magus Press), Broken Strand (in Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest #12), Just a Young Man and His Games (Doorways Magazine), Dark Night of the Soul (Dark Harvest anthology), Orgy of Souls (Apex Books), A House is Not a Home (still available online from Legends of the Mountain State 2), Rite of Passage (Space and Time Magazine #105), and Night of the Living Baseheads (A New Dawn).

A couple of my older stories saw the light of day again: Soul Food (Dark Harvest anthology) and Just an Old Man on a Bench (available online at Apex Books).

I managed to make my goal of writing a half dozen short stories: “Warrior of the Sunrise”, “Bricks in the Wall of Shadows,” “House of Blue Lights,” “A House is Not a Home,” “Shadow Boxer,” “Collateral Casualties,” and “Long Live the King.” And instead of a novel, I produced a new novella (inspired by Nate Southard’s Just Like Hell. I read it and thought “dang, I wish I’d written something that hard hitting.)

Though I did lose my column for Indy.com after a near three year run, I have four projects scheduled to come out this year. No point in announcing them since a couple of them were scheduled to come out a year or two ago.

As for new goals for 2009, I want to write 6 new short stories, revise a screenplay, write a new novel (the problem is that I have three bubbling around in the back of my head with no clear favorite), write a new novella, and revise my second novel (Pantheon of Dreams) down to a novella. With any luck, I’ll be able to get back to doing more reviews and blogs so it should be a good year.


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Be an HWA Member for a Day

Michael Knost, editor of Legends of the Mountain State 2, is doing a major push for my story A House is not a Home. The push in question would be for a nomination for the Bram Stoker Award put out by the Horror Writers Association. Yup, it’s award season.

The story received a blushingly favorable review in Dark Scribes Magazine and Michael has generously made it available for download. How to download:

Go to www.MichaelKnost.com and click the yellow box on the left side of the page to download the FREE PDF.

Sure it’s for HWA members to go take a gander at and decide if it’s worthy of award consideration. On the other hand, it’s available, so go read it then buy the anthology. It’s a good one.


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Look on my works, ye Mighty...

The Winter 2008 issue of Space and Time Magazine is out. It features my story "Rite of Passage." Hunt down a copy and let me know what you think.

This is a sweet coup for me because this was a magazine I really wanted to appear in. A rejection from this magazine was one of my "ah hah" moments as a writer. It was the first time an editor took the time to give me a personalized rejection (hand-written, no less). Despite the actual rejection, the note let me know that I was on the right track in my writing. The next time I bumped into Gerard Houarner, I even thanked him for it. (Always what an editor is expecting. Be sure to do that often. It's never too awkward.) Anyway, that was 2003.

Persistence!


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Legends of the Mountain State 2 - NOW AVAILABLE!

(And now, the official press release)

Even though the 2008 Halloween season is just beginning to commence, a new book of spooky tales is already getting enormous attention from readers of suspense, horror, and the macabre.

This book portrays more of the mysterious, bizarre and spine-tingling Mountain State tales and legends that have been passed down over the centuries. The title is Legends Of The Mountain State 2: More Ghostly Tales From The State Of West Virginia, with a foreword written by Gov. Joe Manchin, III.

But don’t be misled by the title of this anthology ... although all stories are based on known ghosts and legends of West Virginia, every fan of horror, ghost stories, and dark fiction will love this project. In fact, legendary horror writer Joe R. Lansdale had this to say:

“Hardboiled, Southern Gothic. I loved it. It’s lean and mean and it doesn’t care if you like it, which is what makes me like it all the better. Written with a razor on the back of a dead bloated redneck cracker down by the river side, the mountains in view, this is one excellent read.”

Like its predecessor—Legends of the Mountain State [which was released on Halloween 2007]—this unique anthology offers thirteen additional accounts of ghostly manifestations, mythology and mayhem, based on legends from West Virginia. Rural ghost sightings and stories of the macabre take center stage with this release by Woodland Press, LLC, an independent book-publishing firm located in Chapmanville, WV.

Noted horror writer/editor Michael Knost, a native of Logan, WV, returns as the anthology’s editor, and writers for this volume are an amalgamation of nationally respected authors in the horror, science fiction and fantasy fields, including Gary A. Braunbeck, Mark Justice, Bob Freeman, Lucy A. Snyder, Nate Kenyon, Steven L. Shrewsbury, Michael Laimo, Maurice Broaddus (here’s a review of my story), Brian J. Hatcher, Mary SanGiovanni, Jonathan Maberry, Rob Darnell and Nate Southard.

“This is a book that uniquely promotes the rich folklore and storytelling tradition of our Mountain State,” says Keith Davis, CEO of Woodland Press. “Readers went crazy over the first installment. Actually, Legends of the Mountain State remains the number one ghost tale book in the Mountain State. This fresh, new release builds upon its predecessor’s monumental success. We believe Legends of the Mountain State 2 will also appeal to readers outside the state’s borders. West Virginia has more than its share of ghost stories, legends and peculiar oddities.”

The Legends Of The Mountain State series is available at www.woodlandpress.com or at the Horror-Mall.


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"Broken Strand" - Apex #12

I thought that I'd post a G-mail chat that I had with a fan a couple days ago (posted with permission):

Laura: I just got the new Apex, read your story. Awesome.

me: thanks!

Laura: I liked it many levels.

me: wow. that's cool

Laura: pure entertainment (always an important reason to read, in my opinion). also thought-provoking.

me: jason always gets the darker side out of me. (that's the excuse i'm using for that story and the novella me and wrath wrote)

Laura: I heard about that on RLD. Congrats. I have a lot of respect for Wrath's work.

me: it was a blast writing with him

Laura: can't wait to see what you guys came up with. kinda skeered though. ha

me: you should be

Laura: no doubt. if it's not scary, you did not do your jobs.

me: oh, believe me, the job got DONE. even wrath thought that i am going to get letters of complaint over it.

Laura: I'll pray for wisdom and grace be given to you. to answer your enemies.

me: thanks

Laura: with logic that cannot be argued with

me: although, right now, "bite me" has been way up there on my list of retorts.

Laura: yeah ha. how can you argue with that?

me: exactly!

Laura: Back to the story

me: k

Laura: Broken Strand

me: yup. one of the rare times that i liked a title i gave a story, btw.

Laura: I did want to say that I thought it was significant that you made the power of choice an element of
righteousness. It grabbed my attention. and shook me by the neck.

me: it's an argument that wrath and i had one day, about why an all powerful God "couldn't" make a creation that conformed to his will.

Laura: yeah...not Stepford wives

me: his argument said this pointed to the fallacy that God was all powerful and mine pointed to the fact that without choice, it can't be good or love. we'd be pre-programmed automatans. (me and wrath do this a lot)

Laura: Also, I thought you did an excellent job of making your main character one that the reader could identify with, whether they were believers or not. Because as you said, we've all made bad choices.

me: yup. i try to be very conscious of letting my main character be a guide into whatever universe i'm creating.

Laura: Because like CS Lewis used to say, Christendom desn't need more Christians to write "Christian stories"...it needs Christians to write GOOD stories. Broken Strand was great. Nice work.

me: you truly, truly humble me.


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A Tale of Two Stories

Two magazines, featuring stories of mine, are available for order:

Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest #12 marks the first time I have made the cover of a magazine (this is like the twin coming out first being declared the older sibling - still, you never forget your first.) My story, “Broken Strand”, mixes religion, horror, and science fiction in a tale of a scientist who believes he can undo the "sin nature" of humanity via gene therapy. Hijinks ensue.

The issue also features new work by Brian Keene, Steve Shrewsbury, Alethea Kontis, Paul Jessup, and Michael West.

Here's a direct link to the issue in the Apex online store.

It's also available across the US and Canada in over 500 stores (namely B&N, Hastings, Chapters, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers) as well as the new Horror-Mall.com. Yes, I do plan on hunting down the issue at my local Barnes and Noble so that I can see my name on a shelf.


Doorways #5 features my story, “Just a Young Man and His Game.” This story takes place in the same universe as "Just an Old Man on a Bench" (first published on the Horrorfind web site back in the day).

Here's a video if you want to see what it looks like. Here's a direct link to the issue in the Doorways Publishing store.

If you want to order, it’s $6.75 + .75 for shipping ($1.50 if you’re outside of the U.S.) or a one year subscription is: (4 ISSUES) $20.00 + $3.15 for shipping ($6.31 if you’re outside of the U.S.)


You can send a check (if in the U.S.) to :

DOORWAYS MAGAZINE
247 N SYCAMORE ST
UNION CITY, OH 45390

Or send paypal payment to: bewisedesign@yahoo.com

Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the stories.


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A Good Year So Far

(aka I'm letting my inbox recover from yesterday's post ...)

Well, 2008 is shaping up to be a serious breakout year for me. The year where I finally feel like I'm no longer just playing a writer on the Internet. My story "Snapping Points" is currently up on the MagusZine site (which also has a new story by Jason Sizemore).



Come March, you will find me in a couple of places. Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest #12 will have my story “Broken Strand” (as well as having stuff by Brian Keene, Steven Shrewsbury, Michael West, and Alethea Kontis – all sorts of Mo*Con alumni).
Doorways #5 will have my story “Just a Young Man and His Games” in it (and I’ll be sharing covers with Bob Freeman)
Mo*Con III will see the debut of at least two projects. The first is the novella co-written with Wrath James White, “Orgy of Souls.” I’ll have a separate blog about this one further down the road, which may double as my resignation letter from Christianity entirely as Wrath seemed determined to get me all kinds of fired.

The second is an anthology from the Indiana Horror Writers. I have two stories in there, “Soul Food” (a reprint of the first story ever published by me) and “Dark Night of the Soul”. They will sit proudly along stories by Bob Freeman ("Born Again"), Michael West ("Trolling"), Sara Larson ("Co-Dependency") and Tracy Jones’ ("The Coven") among others. Bob not only designed the cover but also the book trailer.



Later on this year will see the arrival of a couple of other new projects, some of them, once more, alongside Bob Freeman and Steve Shrewsbury (my story, "The Iron Hut" coming out in the Eldritch Steel anthology), that I'll announce closer to when they are coming out. One way to look at this is that I’m stalking Bob, Michael, and Steve. Another is that it’s nice to have your friends enjoying success alongside you.

Oh, and my story "Rite of Passage" was just accepted by Space and Time Magazine. Like I said, not a bad year so far.


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Big Pimpin' II

Fresh on the heels of me being the featured writer over on Apex Online, my story, "The Ave", is now up over on Horror Literature Quarterly. Subscriptions are free, so you have no excuses. (Click here to download.)

By way of a links salad, here are some recent blogs that have made me happy:

Heresies - I doled out blog homework assignments and my friend Rob Rolfingsmeyer has some really great thoughts on this topic (and his Listening to the Silence and his Spiritual Seasons)

The Dreaded "S" Word - my board moderator guest blogged for our church's blog site

Why Did Jesus Go to Parties? - I recently found a former mentor of mine online and I see that we haven't exactly drifted apart.

Miss Nikki and Li'l Mo - Alethea Kontis got our gift. Yay!

Now to return to my stewing over not being able to make it to World Fantasy this year.

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Life Catch Up and ANNOUNCEMENTS!

After what I hope is my final trip to the doctor for a while, my self-diagnosed case of post-MoCon SARS turned out to be cough variant asthma. Once again, she told me that I may want to consider backing away from the Internet when I have symptoms. After another battery of tests, including an MRI (MRIs suck and are much noisier than they appear on television), it also turns out that I have somehow managed to tear some cartilage in my wrist. I suppose that’s a decent result, since my doctor initially feared carpel tunnels. The downside is that I have to wear a wrist splint for a month … which truly sucks since I do the bulk of my writing long hand.

Speaking of me writing, I am pleased to announce that my short story, "The Ave," will be in the Fall issue of Horror Literature Quarterly this October. This story will be available as a free download, which is great because if there’s one thing I know about fans of mine, it’s that they are broke. In fact, go register now because the magazine is great (and I believe there is a new Tim Lebbon story up exclusive to subscribers. Plus you get access to previous issues, including a story by Nate Southard).

Also in the good news department, October is shaping up to be a great month since I will be the Featured Writer in Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest. It will mean an interview as well as a reprint of a story of mine that you probably missed the first time around.

I will also be attending the Second Annual Apex Day in Lexington, KY, at the city's Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Apex Day features authors and artists who contribute to Apex Digest; there will be author readings, book signings, art displays and other presentations. Several authors will be participating, including Gary A. Braunbeck, Lucy Snyder, Teri Jacobs, Geoffrey Girard, Alethea Kontis, Michael West, and Douglas F. Warrick (not to mention, artist Carrie Rapp). Plus you get to hang out with the fine Apex staff, Apex editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore and Apex submissions editor Mari Adkins. The event is free, and will go on all afternoon and probably into the evening.

Time and Location:
Saturday, September 22nd starting at 2:00 pm
Joseph-Beth Booksellers (800 248 6849)
161 Lexington Green Circle, Suite B1
Lexington KY 40503

If you can’t catch up with us there, you can find us the following weekend (September 28 – 30) at ConText 20 in Columbus, OH. Apex Publications will be hosting a room party September 29th.

Also, my friend, J.C. Hay was recently interviewed. Go check it out. And writer Richard Dansky asked Alice Henderson to participate in Five For Writing, a feature on his website in which he puts five questions to different writers. Go check it out.


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I’m Not Really A Writer...

... I just play one on the Internet. At least that's the feeling I had up until this year. So this has been the year of Maurice, my coming out party of sorts. At long last, stories of mine have finally started coming out, giving tangible evidence of me being a “real” writer (as opposed to someone who writes a lot about being a writer and only has an Internet/convention presence). So I am doing a year in review before making any resolutions.

“In the Shadows of Meido” came out through IDW Publishing Comics. I was profiled in a local paper, INtake Weekly, and then asked to blog for them on a regular basis. My story “Family Business” came out in Weird Tales followed by “Black Frontiers” in the anthology, Voices from the Other Side: Dark Dreams II.

I got sucked into becoming the comic books review editor at Hollywood Jesus, thus having yet another excuse to have to keep buying comics. My oddest writing assignment of the year came with me writing for the American Tract Society. Blogging for INtake led to a regular column with them. However, since I can’t blog often enough, or in enough places, I also began blogging for Blogging in Black.

I ended the year with my story, “Since We Can Die But Once,” coming out in the DeathGrip: Exit Laughing anthology. Then seven of my reviews were picked up for the Hollywood Jesus Reviews 2005-2006. I was interviewed for two podcasts: one for Snark Infested Waters about my horror writing and the other for The Studio Upstairs about my work for Hollywood Jesus.

Not to mention, I’ve written the equivalent of two novels for this blog during 2006.

2006 was a good year. I have already had critical essay accepted for Cutting Edge (“The Passion of the Christ”) as well as a short story accepted for the Eldritch Steel: Swords and Mythos Sorcery anthology (“The Iron Hut”) due out in 2007. I’m officially up to the level of a nobody in the writing community.


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