Marie Michaels's Blog

Another day, another anthology acceptance! In the next month or so, "Beneath the Waves: Tales from the Deep" will emerge with my short story, "Music Box." This one is vaguely Lovecraftian, vaguely steampunk, and heavily influenced by my flirtation with scuba diving. This one has undergone major revisions, so I'm thrilled that it will be out there soon!

(for more info, http://thingsinthewell.webs.com/)

From the depths, it stirs! Yes, the e-book of "Corporate Cthulhu," the anthology toward which I contributed probably my weirdest story to date, is available for purchase! The paperback should be available shortly as well if you prefer to consume your stories upon the skins of dead trees.
(And thank you again to everyone who participated in the Kickstarter!)

KINDLE: https://tinyurl.com/CorpCthulhu-kindle
NOOK: https://tinyurl.com/CorpCthulhu-nook
APPLE: https://tinyurl.com/CorpCthulhu-apple
GOOGLE: https://tinyurl.com/CorpCthulhu-google
KOBO: https://tinyurl.com/CorpCthulhu-kobo

After much sturm und drang, the Rejected anthology is available for purchase!

It's occurred to me several times during this process what a funny idea for an anthology this is: stories that were previously rejected. That's it: no thematic unity (as far as I know), no common genre, no shared style, nothing. That makes it tricky for a reader, I would think, who likes to know what he or she is getting into. I know people who stick largely to speculative fiction or eschew it completely, who despise any kind of sexual or violent content, who don't venture much outside the New York Times bestsellers. This anthology definitely requires a leap of faith from readers, so I'm extra interested to see how it's going to be received.

I chose the story I sent in for this anthology because it's even more niche than usual--not quite urban fantasy, not quite horror, definitely not literary. And, of course, because I thought it was entertaining and wanted it to find a home!

For my part, I'm looking forward to perusing my contrib copy--that's half the fun of submitting to anthologies! Assuming that other writers had the same healthy pile of rejected stories that I did, I'll be wondering as I read it why they chose the story they did to submit. I'll also be wondering whether I'll be able to pinpoint why the stories in here were rejected at one point. Heck, I don't even know why mine was rejected from the original call I responded to--it was a pretty form rejection.

Since the publisher asked the writers to reach out and find somebody to read and review (honestly, of course!!), I expect this will be the most reviewed of any story I've published. When I review short story collections, I sometimes pick out a few in particular to discuss... and I'm pretty nervous about seeing my title in somebody's review! It sure is weird contemplating being on the other side of a review.

Well, what do I find on a still-dark Tuesday morning but a tweet with a link to a story I wrote! It was a gloriously surreal moment.

For the low, low price of absolutely free, you can read the very first short story I ever wrote, "Corruption Harmonic," at Fiction Vortex. This is a testament to the twin powers of revision and persistence, since I've revised and submitted this story more than anything else I've written, as my writers group and about a dozen zines could attest.* And it found a lovely home!

Either this trend of acceptances, by which I mean two in the recent past, means that I need to continue submitting and ride this streak, or it means that I need to rack up a dozen rejections to de-swell my head. Either way, I know what I should be doing! Hint: it's not creating an Amazon author page, although I did just do that too.

*Is it considered repeating a word to use 'testament' and 'attest' in the same sentence?

I felt a little silly making a writer page on Facebook with just one publication (why should that be? I write; ergo, I'm a writer, regardless of publication status), so I held off, silently yearning whenever people promoted their shiny author pages.

Until now! After what I gather was some sturm und drang behind the scenes, of which I know absolutely nothing, I'm happy to report that I received confirmation and a contract to have a short story, "New York's All Right (If You Like Saxophones)"* published an anthology of previously rejected stories by ACA Books. Not sure what the title of the anthology is going to be, if not "Rejected," but there you have it! The publishers are hoping to have it out in March. Updates to come!

And I'm equally delighted to announce that the very first short story I wrote is finally being published! "Corruption Harmonic," or what the many people who have critiqued it know as the "sad robot story," will be published by Fiction Vortex. Check out their many great offerings, and check back often!

And with two more publications pending, I thought, well, I might as well give into ego and make my author page on Facebook.

*Gold star if you know the reference!