I waited too long to do a few updates and so now I have a slew of bragatorium to invoke.

“Black Cow,” a sparse dash of literary flash was placed at The Blue Bear Review, available today, June 1st. I love this piece and, though it had been subbed several times, I knew eventually I’d find the right home for it. Logging so many miles back and forth to Montana last year, I saw a lot of striking things, among them a white horse grazing a burnt hillside and a black cow sitting on her haunches, looking to the sky. I hope the imagery is as strong for the reader as it was for me.

Next, I sold a genre piece to the general market The First Line. This story almost wrote itself. We’d met a friend from out of town for dinner and we ended up discussing, of all things, catfish noodling. And though the story is less about catfish noodling than the power of women and song and the determination of a young girl, “A Girl Called Blue” does indeed feature catfish noodlers. The summer issue should be out mid-June.

I wailed and gnashed my teeth for much of winter because I couldn’t sell any of my genre work and the universe was apparently tired of my whining. Not only did I offload “A Girl Called Blue,” as I mentioned, two more pieces sold to exciting anthologies.

The first, is a derivative of Song Story Press‘s series of speculative work inspired by music. I had my eye on their anthologies for some time and when they put out a call for Song Stories: Blaze of Glory I knew it was finally time to write a story about “Horse With No Name.” I’ve never written anything that long so quickly. It has a cinematic and almost dreamlike quality. The story was uncooperative and I didn’t have time to put it through my normal editing processes, but I think because the story emerged so assertively in the end, it hopefully carried what must have been a few errata. I can’t wait for the book to come out later this year.

Secondly, “For Want of a Unicorn” is forthcoming from Evil Girlfriend Media‘s Witches, Stitches, & Bitches. I’m not sure how much of the antho will be humor, but “For Want” is a silly fairy tale with a happy ending. I tried to pack it full of bright imagery and funny and light and I’m glad they took it, as it’s hard to sub that sort of thing these days. EGM is hitting the ground running with their three new ventures and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

xo