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Posts Tagged ‘short stories’

Audio Fiction! Story Now at Cast of Wonders

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m very pleased to announce that I have a story now up at Cast of Wonders, the speculative fiction podcast for young adults. The story is “Taxidermy and Other Dangerous Professions” (originally published as “Heaven’s Lot” in Not One of Us), and it is narrated by the marvelous MK Hobson. Free to listen or read along, check it out!

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Excising “To Be” With Applescript

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 28, 2014| 1 Comment »

I code sometimes. I also write. Occasionally the two come together.

As I’ve mentioned, coding helps me find new ways to think about my work. Here’s a new Applescript I whipped up to highlight instances of “to be” in my drafts, as well as certain filler words that don’t add much to the text. Open your document in MS Word, then run the following code. The selected words will be replaced with bold versions of themselves.

Alter the list as necessary, or use this as an example of how to do a list-based loop in Applescript (hint: the “repeat” line is key;). Enjoy!

set my_word_list to {"am", "are", "be", "been", "being", "felt", "had", "has", "have", "heard", "is", "looked", "was", "wasn't", "were", "weren't"}
repeat with each_word in my_word_list
	set FindWordsToReplace to each_word as text
	tell application "Microsoft Word"
		set GetTxt to find object of selection
		tell GetTxt
			clear formatting
			set its content to FindWordsToReplace
			tell its replacement
				clear formatting
				set its content to FindWordsToReplace
				tell its font object
					set bold to true
				end tell
			end tell
			execute find wrap find find continue replace replace all with match forward and match whole word without match case
		end tell
	end tell
end repeat

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Fireside

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I just pledged to support Year 3 of the excellent Fireside Magazine on Kickstarter. They’re close to the end of their funding cycle, so if quality fiction and terrific rates for authors are your cup of tea, check it out!

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. ― Charles Kingsley

Update 04.01.14: In happy news, the Kickstarter was successful!

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New Story Out at SQ Mag

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m very pleased to tell you that my new story Catch of the Day is now out at SQ Mag, a delightful speculative fiction zine from Australia. This “tale of magical artefact smuggling, full of betrayal and twists and turns” is now freely available online. Enjoy!
SQ13

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SFWA Announces 2013 Nebula Nominees

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America are pleased to announce the 2013 Nebula Awards nominees (presented 2014), the nominees for the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the nominees for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

For more details, head over to SFWA and check out the full list of nominees.

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New Series Announced: Best American SF&F

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Ooh, shiny! John Joseph Adams (editor, anthologist and publisher of Lightspeed, among many other things) will be series editor for the new Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. See his blog post about this terrific development here. More details about the series, how to submit or nominate, and the first incarnation featuring Joe Hill as guest editor, may be found here.

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Free Download: “The 2014 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology” at Stupefying Stories

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Another year, another free Campbellian download!

Stupefying Stories has just made available M. David Blake’s “The 2014 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology.” This collection contains more than 860,000 words of fiction by authors eligible for this John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer award. Fabulous fiction, and all free free free!

Limited time offer, get yours today!

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New Story at Perihelion Science Fiction

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m very pleased to tell you that I have a new story, Just Like [Illegible] Used to Make, up at Perihelion Science Fiction. It’s now freely available online. Enjoy!

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Why I’m Smiling…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m very pleased to report an acceptance from the good people over at Cast of Wonders.

When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thickskinned, to learn that not every project will survive.

— Neil Gaiman

All too true, but I’m glad that this project did:)

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The First Pancake Problem

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m working on a draft of something today, and it helps to remind myself that the important thing, the first thing, is to get it down. I can fix it later, and even if I don’t to quite my satisfaction, I’ve still done something.

“Anyone who’s ever made America’s favorite round and flat breakfast food is familiar with the phenomenon of The First Pancake. No matter how good a cook you are, and no matter how hard you try, the first pancake of the batch always sucks. It comes out burnt or undercooked or weirdly shaped or just oddly inedible and aesthetically displeasing. Just ask your kids. At least compared to your normal pancake–and definitely compared to the far superior second and subsequent pancakes that make the cut and get promoted to the pile destined for the breakfast table–the first one’s always a disaster. I’ll leave it to the physicists and foodies in the gallery to develop a unified field theory on exactly why our pancake problem crops up with such unerring dependability. But I will share an orthogonal theory: you will be a way happier and more successful cook if you just accept that your first pancake is and always will be a universally flukey mess. But, that shouldn’t mean you never make another pancake.”
— Merlin Mann

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