Sheldon Lee Compton's Blog

It’s another story collection, my favorite kind of book all the way around.

My most recent book is the collection Absolute Invention. It falls along the same lines as my previous collection Where Alligators Sleep. Some fantastic stories, some surreal, some spending time in the realm of fabulism.

The book was published this spring by Secret History Books, a press headed up by the one and only Mike Lafontaine, a great friend and fine writer, and can be bought at Amazon by following the link below.

Buy Absolute Invention.

Thanks in advance to those who buy it and read it.

Here’s the link to where you can find out more @ Cowboy Jamboree Press:

MORE INFO @ CJ PRESS

Here’s the link to where you can order @ Amazon

ORDER @ AMAZON

Below is the button. You push it and it adds Dysphoria to your read list. Thank you.

My short story “The Burning Torch in Yonder Turret Stands” is the new issue of Cowboy Jamboree Magazine Issue 4.2 “Grotesque to Art”.

Visit and give the entire issue a read.  Scroll down to find the option to download the issue as a PDF.

Many thanks as always to Adam Van Winkle, my brother from another mother.

It’s been a long day. Put in more than ten hours at the day job. Did some major emailing when I got home (book stuff). Throw in the two-hour commute and the fact that my day started at 5 a.m. and you’ve got one tired 43 year old let me tell you.

It’s been so busy today I’ve hardly had time to mention that one of my favorite stories I’ve written in a long time was published today at Barren Magazine. It’s called “Pepper” and I started writing it because I wanted to remember times tossing baseball with my mom at Lulie Bate’s trailer park on Indian Creek in Pike County, Kentucky.

I managed to do everything I wanted to do with this story. All the feelings I wanted to bring back to the surface were brought back to the surface; all the nostalgia was there in full; all the reasons it wanted to be a story were readily available to me as I plugged along on it.

I’m proud of the story. And Meagan Lucas, the fiction editor who helped me shape the final draft published today, was as valuable as an editor as I’ve ever experienced. She handled herself like a pro and served up pro-level help. It made the story that much better. Please do go see for yourself. Follow the link below and read “Pepper” and then cruise the rest of the Barren’s Issue 9.

Read “Pepper”

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the story. I’d love to hear from you.

So my good friend and champion of small presses far and wide Lori Hettler posted on Goodreads her book picks for new and upcoming titles on Goodreads yesterday. To my great pleasure, included among these 31 picks was my novel Dysphoria. It’s only the second list I’ve made for one of my books. I like the feeling. Thanks for this, Lori!

SEE LORI’S 31 PICKS

…my online address has changed to slcompton.wordpress.com.

Come in the front door and say hi.

Thanks,

SLC

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I’m grateful to Sheryl Monk for publishing my short story “A Dragon Shall Ascend to Heaven” today and for always, through everything, supporting my writing. I really can’t express how much it has meant to me over the past year and a half (and always for that matter). I surely hope you drop by and read the story but also have a look at the amazing redesign Sheryl and the gang have put together at Change Seven. The site is beyond professional. It’s really masterful.

OKAY LET’S TAKE A BREATH HERE (December 23, 2016) – Here’s the thing: It was coming and I knew it, but I’ve stalled on the novel. I have been writing, though. A lot. The short story bug (my main main main bug) hit pretty hard in about mid-November. This led to work on finishing about 20 short stories since that time. Added to this, and unlike the past two years or so, I also started submitting these stories to various journals for publication. Anyone who traffics in the submission process even a little will tell you that it is an unavoidable time suck. Necessary and important, but a bona fide sucker of time. The good news is that I’ve decided to abandon the goal of writing a 1,000-page novel. That’s a vanity project, let’s be honest. I’m thinking this book can be finished in about 100 more pages and now well before the first target of summer of ’17. 

Source: 27

Head over and see my top 10 books read this past year at my spot over at Enclave.

Let’s compare lists. Let’s talk about books.

It’s that time of year again (and also that time of year when Amazon gift cards come in and I can stock up on some new books).