In the Good News Category Regarding the 2019 FWA Royal Palm Awards

While one story did not fare so hot, another story did!

CONGRATULATIONS! Your entry, The Pumpkin Spice Must Flow, Short Story, is a semifinalist for the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards competition!

This was done under the category of Published Short, thanks to it being in the anthology Strangely Funny V!

You know, this book! Still available on Amazon!

So yay! If it was good enough for Strangely Funny, it's good enough for the state of Florida!

The thing is, there's still a Finalist stage to contend for, and then finding out if the story achieves top status as a Winner (First, Second, or Third Place). So there's still a few more nerve-wracking months until we get there.

In the meanwhile, I get to display this!

In the Sad News Category Regarding the 2019 FWA Royal Palm Awards

Well, I just got back word that "Road Trip to Vegas" - my submission to the Short Fiction Unpublished category for the Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Awards - did not make the Semifinalist cut for consideration.

'Tis a pity. I hoped it would have been funny enough and good enough to pass muster.

Maybe I didn't have enough Fourth-Wall-Breaking narration in it. Yeah, that's the problem. MORE INSANE NARRATIVE DIALOGUE COMING RIGHT UP!

/owstophittingme

Look, "Road Trip to Vegas" is kind of a personal work for me, based on one of the traumatic moments of my teen years undertaking a non-stop road trip that left some emotional scars. I wrote TWO stories based on that trip, the other one being "A Face In the Light" which interestingly enough earned a Finalist status in this same category last year (I am trying to find a publisher to submit it, so far I've had a couple of rejections so... sigh...).

I still think it's one of my better works. I'm sorely tempted to package it together with other humor stories and self-publish another story anthology. I just need to get about eight or ten more stories - I have six already, maybe seven if I pull some e-published works off-market to put it together - to justify a decent-sized book.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for some GOOD news... (wait for the next blog post)

Coming Soon: Strangely Funny VI

I am proud to announce a new humor-horror anthology is coming out this year, the next installment of Strangely Funny (this one is the seventh but it's numbered Sixth, we'll explain later)!

The editors forwarded the book cover, see below:

The story they accepted is "How a Vampire Gets A Tan," a sequel of sorts to the "Minette Dances With the Golem of Albany" published in Volume III. If anybody enjoyed reading that and the other Dhampyr story "I Must Be Your First," I hope you enjoy this follow-up as well.

I'll let you know when the book is available online for print and eReader!

Getting Back Into The Superhero 'Verse I'm Writing

I've settled on the plot ideas I've been bouncing around in my head since 2004. It's gonna be a story about a man who meets a woman during the war.

...

Okay, so I'm ripping off the plot of the Book With the Blue Cover (wherever it may be on our shelves). BUT DAMMIT I'M TIRED OF SUFFERING FROM WRITERS BLOCK.

(activates lightsaber before heading into battle) CHARRRRRRGGGEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!