Good Acorns in the Squirrel Tree!

A lot has been happening for yours truly and Spiral Publishing. Kari and I went to the WMG Anthology Workshop last month, and had a blast.

For those who don’t know, the Anthology Workshop is an annual get together of writers and anthology editors. Between the regular eight stories for the various anthology calls, Kickstarter rewards, and other workshop stories, we both went with eleven new tidbits and watched while seven editors discussed, argued over, and occasionally stole from each other.We sat with forty two other writers and sweated, cheered, and applauded as each story came up. Kari sold five, I sold four, and we both have two more in consideration.

So yeah, I’d call that a success!

On the home front, I’ve recently published four new short stories standalone, and collected these four and three of my previously published stories into a new collection, Tales from the Squirrel Garden, Volume 1. This collection also includes a short piece not published anywhere else, a delightfully dark story called Swift’s. The whole collection contains stories of a darker bent than some of my other work, but rest assured. In at least two of the stories, things turn out well for the heroes.

I really enjoyed the challenge of organizing and publishing a collection. There’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to compiling multiple works into a single volume, but I had a great mentor at home to help me through the challenge, and I’m plumb tickled with the result.

Keep an eye on the Brain Squirrels. We’ll be announcing a couple of publications in Pulphouse Magazine in the next few months, as well as a couple of stories in a couple of Holiday Spectaculars. Vague, I know, but more shall be revealed when the moment is opportune.

And finally, Zortea wants me to remind you all that in this time of uncertainty, it’s important to relax.