When it comes to publishing, I’m pretty sure I won’t have a month like this any time soon. Between March 3rd and April 1st, I published four short pieces through some welcome coincidences.
The Odin Chronicles: Where’re You From? — Page & Spine, short story (sci-fi), March 2022
Editor and author Pete Wood put together a team to write a collection of loosely connected short stories centered around a mining colony on a distant planet called Odin. My story is the fifth episode in The Odin Chronicles and is about a man whose home planet has been blown to bits by a mining company. He’s been drifting from place to place ever since in his quest for revenge. Just as he’s close to accomplishing his goal, he realizes Odin is the first home he’s had since his planet was destroyed. He now has to choose between pursuing his revenge and continuing to build a home on Odin with his new friends.
Page & Spine Fiction Showcase has agreed to publish the entire collection, and it started doing so in February, with two episodes coming out each week. The Odin Chronicles will be published as an e-book later in the year.
Cookies and Tea — Page & Spine, flash (contemporary), March 2022
This is a piece I wrote last August for a contest judged by Pete Wood for Stupefying Stories. Things have gotten hard for the magazine though, and the publication was postponed until Pete found a new home for the winning entries at Page & Spine.
My story was based on the contest prompt about a guy who rides his motorcycle every night belting out opera tunes for the whole neighborhood to hear. I went with a murder investigation, trying to be funny, and placed second in the contest.
A Dream Is Born — The Drabble, drabble, March 2022
This is a 100-word piece (drabble) about a baby android learning its ABCs by studying picture books from Earth and honing its image-recognition skills. I’d submitted it to The Drabble two months before and found out it was accepted and published on the same day. If you read it and like it, it’d be great to have your vote at the bottom of the piece. Thank you!
The Odin Chronicles: Twelve — Page & Spine, short story (sci-fi), April 2022
My second story for The Odin Chronicles is about a twelve-year-old boy who explores some abandoned mine tunnels with his friends and discovers a petrifying secret about the indigenous population of the planet. He’s not supposed to share it, of course, but he writes to his uncle anyway, without understanding how powerful the forces he’s discovered really are.
I’ll be working on a new episode for The Odin Chronicles as soon as I wrap up the current round of copyedits for my debut thriller Extreme Vetting with Ooligan Press. That episode will be published sometime this summer.
I have a few more stories in the works and on submission, but who knows if and when they’ll see the light of day. That’s what makes this month so unusual. I’ll call it beginner’s luck.
Update April 6, 2022: Middle School Heartbreak — Stupefying Stories, drabble, April 2022
One more entry on this list, a drabble I wrote in July 2021 for a Stupefying Stories contest. This is about a middle school boy on his first date, and it placed third in the contest.
Wonderful news! Stories sound great!
Glad you think so :)