Hey Ho Let's Go

Haven't posted on here in a while, but let's not allow Zen or Gaming or the combination thereof to fade into the terrible night like so much scattered "papel higiénico."

Writing. What has become of my writing? I have been writing short stories like Stephen King's gimp cousin, Arnold. Writing short stories and submitting them to magazines. In the last two months, I have submitted the following stories:

Tinni and the Chain to the Absent Willow Review
Feeding the Grong to Silver Thought
Robo and the Little Door to Weird Tales
Leaping to Intergalactic Medicine Show
Planet Feast to Big Pulp
Grandfather’s Room to The Nautilus Engine
Profaning the Leistra to Anotherealm
Heart Case to Twisted Tongue
Attached to Absent Willow Review

Of those submissions, Tinni and the Chain has been accepted for publication and will appear in Absent Willow Review on January 16. Planet Feast has been "received" but a decision to accept or reject will not be determined until sometime around January 31. I am waiting for responses to the others.

What sort of stories are they?

Tinni and the Chain - about a slave chained to a post by a wizard
Robo and the Little Door - about a boy who lives in a big creepy empty house with a sentient robot toy
Leaping - about people having to make a choice between definitely dying or maybe dying
Planet Feast - about people eating a planet. A truly weird story. Maybe too weird.
Grandfather's Room - about a boy who is not permitted to open the door to his grandfather's room
Profaning the Leistra - about a girl who learns the true meaning of an ancient ritual that she has always taken for granted and disliked
Heart Case - about the real cost of employment at a job one doesn't like
Attached - about people who buy hideous pets and get strangely attached to them

There you go. Brief synopses of each story. Lisa says my stories tend to be "bleak," which is odd because I don't consider myself a bleak person. They also tend to be a blend of fantasy/science fiction/horror. I might be getting better as I write them. At least, I am getting more comfortable with my prose. Some of the stories I particularly like, such as Attached, Heart Case, Planet Feast and Leaping. Some are not my favorite (I'm looking at you, Profaning the Leistra). But it feels good to write, to complete stories, to send them off. I feel like part of my purpose in life is not being squandered, so I will continue.

I just started a new story. It's only a couple of paragraphs. The working title is "The Panorama of Failure." It'll be nice and bleak. Lisa will love it.

--jeffrey