My story, Like Flies to Honey, is included in the Winter 2010 issue:

108 pages of With Bram Stoker Award winner, Brian Keene, Kealan Patrick Burke, Kevin Lucia, Gemma Files, Derek M. Fox, Nathaniel Lambert, Belinda Frisch, Craig D.B. Patton, Jeff Edwards, Richard D. Findlay, Mary Rajotte, Glen R. Krisch, Joe Nazare, Norman L. Rubenstein, Lawrence Vernon, Ginger Nielsen, and Tim Deal, and more.

Interviews with Joe Morey, David Conyers, Joe Schrieber and Lisa Mannetti. Beautiful cover and woodcut embellishments by Danny Evarts!

Brian Keene's Seminal Screams; Kevin Lucia's Top reads for 2009! Norman L. Rubenstein's Specialty Press Showcase.

Did you catch that? My name is on the cover. On. The. Cover. ~cue squee ~

I'm so stoked, you don't even know. Then again, you probably do know, since many of my readers are fellow writers and published ones at that.

If you're so inclined, the Winter 2010 issue of Shroud is available for pre-orders now from the Shroud website.

Once the issue has been released, I'll be putting up a dedicated page to my story, and I'll include my inklings column, which gives a little background info on how I came up with an idea for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing. There may even be a little giveaway ~wink~ so stay tuned. You can see Inklings in action on the page for my Northern Haunts tale, Creepy Crawleys.

Now that my excitement has been shared, it's time to get back to work so I will have other publishing credits to celebrate in future.

Current WIPs

• didn't get as much done last week as I'm still working on the same two WIPs
• Made some edits last night to the short story which I'll be typing up today    
• flash piece still needs a bit of tweaking (does the tweaking ever end?)

Fellow WIP Wednesday participants:

• Cate Gardner – WIP Wednesday: Red Pen Massacre
• Aaron Polson – WIP Wednesday: Finish Line? What Finish Line? 
• Jamie Eyberg – Not Writing
• Katey Taylor – WIP Wednesday: Half-State

If you’re a writer participating in WIP Wednesday, post a link to your blog in the comments! More info on the WIP Wednesday initiative can be found at Kate Karyus Quinn's blog.

Fellow members of The Creative Alliance:

• Jenny Beans – This Blog's For YOU! The Power Of Community
• Patrick – Paddy's Poetry Corner  & Junk Drawer
• Nicole: Interview with Dream Wanderers author Paula Brown – Part 1 | Part Two | Part Three
• Vange: You Need a License to Drive a Car

I try not to beat myself up for that. Because we all need a break every once in a while, and as long as I get a respectable amount of work done during the week, I allow myself the weekends to watch crappy TV, go for ice cream, talk naps and generally reboot.

That being said – it was Victoria Day this past weekend, so I indulged in all of the above, including a drive to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a little picnic and a stroll along the Niagara River.

Like any good writer, I do carry a notebook with me in case the Muse makes an appearance. But it was nice to get away for a few days and miss writing enough that I am ready to tackle the week again.

So, here's how I did last week:

Works-in-progress:
-    Moral Hygiene: still reworking it. Currently see-sawing between which character should be the protagonist (as you can see from my previous post)
-    Castlehill Story: starting to think about this one again, as I hope to finish MH soon so I can work on something new

What I Did Well:
-    Drove some traffic to the ol' website with new blog posts
-    Started networking a bit more with new Twitter peeps
-    Working on a marketing strategy for my fiction writing, embracing the fact that it, too, is as much of a business as my freelancing and realizing that just by building a website doesn't necessarily mean the readers will come – gotta go out and find them!
-    Tweaked my Writer's Accountability Chart: changed the 250 task to 500 – because 250 words is simply not enough of a challenge to me, even on my busiest days
-    Continued adding to my Idea File

What I Can Improve On
-    Didn't get to my Friday 5 this week. Oops! I think I'm going to need to come up with an alternate "chore" for those times when I can't write that much no matter how much I want to (specifically when I am editing and there is no need to add 5000 words to a story)
-    As I said above, try to write on weekends (maybe every other one)

I know for sure that I've improved upon last week's productivity. I think I should give each sticker a point amount or something so I can be more accurate in grading myself. That might just take some of the fun out of it, though. I also feel that my productivity will go up now that the shows I watch have ended for the season.

[NWC]

Background: Moral Hygiene is an old piece that I'm reworking.

Originally, it was significantly shorter and ended just after the initial horror, with just a hint at what was to come.

Sort of a let-the-reader-imagine-the-most-horrible-outcome tactic, which in turn makes the impact of the story as varied as the number of people who read it.

Now, I've ripped apart the original version, added some additional character motivation and back story, and now – it's time to make a decision.

Do I move forward with the story as-is? Or do I switch protagonists during the rewrite?

I know, I probably should have considered this question earlier. In fact, I did, but I think I got caught up in living out my girl-slasher fantasies while I was slicing and dicing the story apart.

So, how do you decide who gets to shine in the spotlight? Which is a scarier read? A story coming from the terrified mind of the person that is having horrible things happen to them? Or the disturbed individual that is doing the terrifying?

I'll have to get back to you on my decision.

But which would you rather read?

[NWC]

We get a slip in the door when a package is left with security, so when I heard that familiar "swooshing" I immediately bolted to the door and snatched that little white paper out like it was pure gold.

A quick trek down to the lobby and a not-too-big-but-definitely-heavy box awaited me. I whisked it back upstairs, of course couldn't find the box-cutter so I used my keys to rip the tape, and after opening it up and tearing out the reams of paper that were packed inside to protect my books, there they were.

10 hardcovers. Gorgeous. Pure bliss!

What else can I possibly say? So far, I've read about 10 stories, and I've loved every one. This is the perfect book for those people who complain they don't have time to read. You can easily immerse yourself in the worlds of a handful of writers by the time dinner is finished cooking.

Although, these sometimes creepy, sometimes gruesome, always chilling tales may be best read by candlelight to get the full effect.

And you can always put it in the freezer afterward, if you scare easily.

[NWC]

Let me preface this by saying that this is my first publishing credit, you see? So I think I deserve to be a little excited, am I right?

Anyway…I got my acceptance email from Shroud at the end of August. I think I literally did a somersault or two (I would have done a cartwheel but my upper body strength is somewhat lacking).

After the elation wore off, that's when the torturous Waiting Game began. I waited…and then I waited some more. Then…the news. The books have gone to the printer. Yay! But then the ice storm hit. Boo! Wait a sec…printing is back on. Yay! Oh no…the proofs need a little tweaking. Boo!

Finally, the word went out on the wire – The Hardcovers Are Coming! The Hardcovers Are Coming! Can I get an order of 'Woo' with a side of 'Hoo'?!

I was okay with the waiting from that point. Tim, Editor Extraordinaire of Shroud has been a joy to work with. Plus, I kept myself busy with other projects, secretly daydreaming about that glorious day when the mailman would plunk a huge box, stacked 10 hardcovers deep, on my doorstep. But then various online writing buddies who were also in the book started reporting that they'd received their copies.

That's when the itch began. I managed not to scratch it for a few weeks but I finally caved and ordered myself a paperback from Amazon last week. It only took 9 days to get here. Imagine my excitement when I found out there was a parcel waiting for me! Squee!

I quickly opened it, and carefully plucked it out of the box. Then I thought to myself, "Hmm…it's a little smaller than I imagined. Oh well. What page am I on again? Let me just flip to the…what the? There's no Table of Contents. Where's the Table of Contents? And why does it…~flipping pages~…start on…Page 215? Uhhhh…WTF?!"

I was dumbstruck. If I were a cartoon character, there would have been a bubble above my head with a question mark in it. And then it would have popped.

Yeah, that's right. My copy of NH is missing the first 214 pages! The first 58 stories.

Gutted. That's the only way to describe it. This morning, I can laugh about it, but I was a serious mope last night. So, back to Amazon it goes, and again, I play The Waiting Game.

Again, I in no way fault Tim and/or Shroud in this. Everyone who knows Tim knows he's a stand-up guy. Truly awesome.

I blame my bad luck. Trust me…I've learned that in my life, everything is an adventure, from the smallest task to the most monumental. If something can go wrong, for me…it will. ~shakes fist at the sky~

The Moral of this story: Have a little patience.

The Silver Lining: At least I got the half of the book with my own story in it (and a few of my writing friends, to boot)!

P.S. When my hardcovers get here, I'm calling it a do-over. It'll be like this whole Amazon debacle never happened!

[NWC]