Category Archives: accepted/published work

New releases: The Old, Weird South Anthology and the December 2012 Issue of Penumbra Magazine

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You can find the December 2012 issue of Penumbra Magazine at Magzter and Penumbra’s own site. Excerpt from “Seven Fish for Sarah”:

The mountains of Northern California are my home. Life is a rich bounty, but it is not a hoarding contest. I do not need, nor care for a Hummer or a yacht. I do not care to invest in the stock market. None of us really do post-Neutronin.

Sometimes, for the teacher to teach her lesson, she has to wipe the chalkboard clean.

Also, The Old Weird South Anthology has just been released. You can pick it up at Amazon, Smashwords, or Barnes and Noble.

Excerpt from my story “Storm Fronts”:

The morning air tingled with the promise of fresh venison. He rode his ATV to the deer stand pre-dawn, the engine puttering, one headlight searching in the silhouettes of trees. Bats ravaged insects above the canopy, and a flying squirrel made its last stunt before light, chortling as it glided. Billowing mist swallowed the forest, masking the trunks of older trees and obscuring young spruce. Jansen listened to the woods, the pileated woodpecker hammering for grubs, the ruffed grouse thumping its wings. To the west, a portentous black sky. Lightning flashed sideways from a monstrous thunderhead. Seventy yards behind him, chunks of hail rattled against branches and leaves, inching closer. The Birth-Mother. Sustenance. Fallen thousands of times before and a thousand times to come….

It’s been an extremely busy holiday season, but I’ll take it.

Winter, facebook, and moose. But not necessarily in that order.

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Taking a forty day road trip break from my novel turned out to be….interesting. The good news is distance helps perspective. The bad news is that you vacate your character’s heads. So I’m back at it, and doing things to the story I probably wouldn’t have done before, using that perspective to my advantage. The working title is Without, and it’s chock full of poachers, private investigators, critters, mythology, and adventure. I hope to have the first draft complete by December 15th. Whew.

Oh, and I finally started a Facebook page. Why? Peer pressure. I couldn’t begin to count the scrunched up faces on my western trip when asked if I had a Facebook page. So at last I have one, as of three days ago. Feel free to stop by. I’m especially pleased that Grand Teton National Park featured one of my photos on their page. A good start to my Facebook experience. If you’re reading this, you know I love public land, especially national parks and forests. I’d place Grand Teton in a top five national park list, easily. Grand Teton was my introduction to the Northern Rockies many years ago, and the majestic landscape has inspired me ever since.

There’s a hell of a lot going on right now. I do feel tremendous pressure, but I’d rather have that than no pressure at all. The December issue of Penumbra Magazine will be out in a few days, and with it my story “Seven Fish for Sarah”, which I’m quite proud of. Beyond that, my eerie tale of a retired miner facing the Appalachian winter is due in The Old, Weird South Anthology(Storm Fronts).

As always my focus remains on novels. I’ll continue work on Without, while touching up two other novels.

And we can all agree that naps in the sun are underrated:

Return from the West

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What an incredible trip. I was fortunate to have seen so many great things. I met so many outstanding, fun, and intelligent people. I saw more wildlife than I had image storage space for, and landscape scenes that will always haunt me. I remember waking up in Glacier National Park, the wind wicked, my eyes stinging from sleet and snow. I remember the howls of wolves in Yellowstone on a ten degree night, and the crashing of branches near my tent at 2 a.m. as a bull moose stomped past. I could go on a tangent here, but honestly after a month + in the mountains I think I forgot how to freaking write, lol.

I thought I’d share a few images from the last night of the trip (and two that were not from the last night…I just like them).

The last night is always bittersweet. Hell, leaving the beauty of Montana is always difficult, but this time was easily the worst (and not just for landscape reasons). As I approached the state line near the “town” of Hodges (yes, that is correct) at 2 a.m., fog rolled in and limited my speed to about 20 mph. And good thing, too. As I slowed, a chunky coyote bolted in front of my car. I swerved. The coyote lived.

The last night at camp:

Loading up the car:

The last elk:

This small black bear was enjoying berries (balanced in a tree while chomping away). I was glad to have my father at my side while filming this bear. He came out with me for a week early on for the Gallatin National Forest, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Park portion of the trip. I don’t blame him for leaving when it hit ten degrees in Grand Teton, lol. Watching this young, acrobatic black bear was an experience I’ll always remember.

The elk and bear images are meant to be viewed much larger, so give them a click.

Many more images and thoughts are on the way.

It is strange to go from a million acre national forest to a million acre parking lot. Very strange.

In terms of writing news, I have several things either just released or forthcoming.

“Grangy” is now up at AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review.

My story “Seven Fish for Sarah” is forthcoming in the December issue of Penumbra Magazine, and my story “Storm Fronts” is appearing in the Old, Weird South Anthology in November. Also keep your eyes out for the January 2013 issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly, and with it “From the Mountain, Fury”.

A packed release schedule, but that’s a good thing. Hopefully readers can find something they really enjoy.

Seven Fish for Sarah – Penumbra Magazine

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My utopian tale “Seven Fish for Sarah” has been accepted for publication by Penumbra Magazine. I’m really excited about this one, and I’ll post more news as it comes.

In the meantime, I’m hopefully headed back up to Glacier National Park and perhaps over to Seattle and Olympic National Park. It’s been an amazing few weeks in the woods and on the road, and I’d like to thank Carrie and Jen in Bozeman for their hospitality. It seems in many ways that the people of Montana are happier with the way things are. I don’t think the scenery hurts.