Another Poem & Two Short Stories

This is the week, apparently:

     When all my stuff is coming out. Or at least the week when I'm noticing that all my stuff is coming out...

     The poem and one of the short stories mentioned in the title of this blog post can be found in vol.3, no.1 of the magazine Journ-E: The Journal of Imaginative Literature. Clicking on the big image of the cover there will take you over to the page on Amazon where the thing's for sale.

     This is the latest issue of the same magazine I blogged about last year when they published my story called "The Queen of the Mushrooms." The current story, called "Lion Eyes," is more or a traditional sword and sorcery sort of a thing with a warrior woman and a talking crow trying to track down a mad wizard. I wrote it at least thirty years ago, I think, and haven't been able to sell it to anyone this whole time.

     Well, no, that's not exactly true. I sold it to a magazine maybe fifteen years ago, but they went out of business before they could do anything more than send me some editorial suggestions. I took those suggestions, I'm pretty sure, so thanks to whoever that was...

     The poem, then, is a triolet based in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. 'Cause what else would a person write poetry about?

     The second story is in an anthology of fantasy detective stories called Tales of Mystery: Dead for a Spell from Inklings Press. Again, click on the big cover image to visit the Amazon page where the book's for sale.

     This story, called "The Affairs of Wizards," is another one I wrote decades ago but couldn't sell to anyone. It has a first-person, hard-boiled private-eye who gets involved with a squirrel accountant whose nut bank has been robbed.

     See? I can get talking animal characters into anything!

     It certainly has been a jam-packed April. Good thing I like jam!

                                             Mike

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Scent's Assent

Image
He saunters, not a hint of awkwardness About his movements, flowing sweet as fire. Dolores, trying not to stare, selects A protein bar, a heated argument Among her schoolmates raising ruffled fur And growls. The guy's a feline, after all. The student body's ninety-eight percent canine. The whole school's aware. He hears them, Casey does, their yips and all Alive with bitter scents of awkwardness. Remaining smooth, he doesn't look, the fur Beneath his shirt on edge, a tickling fire He knows. It follows matching arguments From other schools his science course selects. Universities should be more universal. "Should" is the key word. In class, Dolores carefully selects A seat in back of Casey, watching all The rest digress, off-topic arguments Concerning species, full of awkwardness. The room of canines almost seems on fire With ears and whiskers folded close to fur. Students of science should be— There's that "should" again. Stupid subjunc
Read more

Folks Letting Me Blather

Image
I've known Greta Boris :      For more then five years now but not as many as ten years, I think, ever since she joined the OC Fictionaires, the writing group that I've been a member of for something like twenty years. She writes mostly mystery novels, some of which are pretty funny, some of which are pretty suspenseful, and some of which are pretty much both at the same time. She and another author, Megan Haskell , also run a website called The Author Wheel where they do podcasts and offer writing courses and share their experiences with the wide world of publishing. As they put, "We've made the mistakes so you don't have to!"      As part of their podcast series, they wanted to talk about the value of critique groups, so Greta asked me if I'd be willing to make various noises on that topic. I agreed, and the episode they put together from our conversation, " Staying True to Your Creativity With Mike Payne ," is now available for your
Read more