Hiatus...Ending

Just wanted to take a minute and draw attention to how long it's been since I posted anything. And no, I haven't published much in the interim. I think I had one additional publication, but I'll have to go check now to make sure. It's been a while.

However -- I have managed to keep submitting to Writers of the Future each quarter, and I got another Honorable Mention today. So that's why I'm here. Hopefully I'll be back before another two years pass.

Life of Orpheus Is Live!

I had a new story posted on Sci Phi Journal today: http://www.sciphijournal.com/life-of-orpheus-by-carl-grafe/.

This was actually one of the first stories I wrote, so it has quite a bit of sentimental value for me. It's a little rough around the edges, but nice to see it in print. Plus, it has a really cool cover image:

It's been a while since I posted last, but I've actually been doing quite a bit of writing, just not a lot of posting. I'm probably posting more frequently over at @vjalrik on Twitter now (though still infrequent...), so I'll see if I can get a feed up on here. I'll have some more news coming up in the next couple of months!

Fiddling with Layouts and Other Chaotic News

I went ahead and combined my old blog with my pen name blog, which naturally went completely smoothly without any problems of any kind.

Hopefully I'll be able to get all the bugs worked out...someday.

But for now, this is home, my one and only.  I have some stories out making the rounds, working on some other things, and should have some news to post soon....

Hiatus!

Taking a break from the blog to pursue writing under a pen name.  I started self-publishing under it at the beginning of the year and so far have found it more gratifying than the submit-and-re-submit-and-re-submit grind.  I may post another 6 months statistics at the end of the year, and at some point I'd like to compare my earnings from self-publishing with my 3 years of attempts in traditional small market publishing, but there won't be much else for a while.  I don't plan on submitting any more stories for the rest of the year at least, but we'll see what happens....

Sunset in the Westerwald Is Live!

I have a poem up in Bete Noire Magazine's Issue #19.  This one addresses the dissonance between the Americanized fairy tale stories we're all familiar with and the Germanic originals.  It's available on Smashwords, here!

Another (Missed) SFSignal Listing

I managed to miss another listing for one of my stories on sfsignal.com.  Pretty cool, though it shows how often I ego search.

My Amazon Author Page

I now officially have an Amazon Author page:

www.amazon.com/author/carlgrafe

Which I happen to think is pretty cool.

The Colored Lens: Autumn 2014 is Live

I'm extremely happy to announce that my story "The Right Decision" has been published in the Autumn edition of The Colored Lens.  This one was anything but a sure thing until literally a few days before it was published, so definitely exceeded my expectations.

New SFWA Market: Haikasoru

Don't have much to say about this one.  Other than that I'm still not sure how to pronounce the name.  Besides which, since it appears to be strictly a book market and not a short fiction market, I won't worry about it for now, but good to know new markets are becoming available....

New SFWA Pro Markets Additions

Crossed Genres and Head of Zeus have been added to the list of SFWA-qualified markets.  I'm not familiar with either, but an increase in markets means an increase in probability of pro publication, so I'll take it.

On a side note, I've decided not to pursue my in-depth analysis of what kinds of submissions the various pro markets say they want.  Lately I've found myself perusing The Grinder when I want to find such information, and though its search capabilities are certainly limited-at-best at present, I think it'll get better and better going into the future.  In any case, I will continue using the MarketWants tag for entries that deal with parsing out what various markets are looking for, but I won't be doing the comprehensive analysis I had originally envisioned.

Eight months ago.

Yeah, another reason for my decision not to pursue this project is that I actually failed to pursue it a long time ago.  There a number of reasons for this, including lack of time, other interests, etc.  I think I've just subconsciously come to the conclusion that my time is probably better spent writing stories, working on my comic, and other projects that I'm just starting to think about actually implementing.  But more on that in the future....

Random News from Six Months Ago

The other day I belatedly noticed that my story in Mad Scientist Journal was featured in the SF Signal last fall ("featured" meaning mentioned...).  One of those things that probably would have been cooler if I'd noticed six months ago....  But still cool!

Star*Line Issue 37.1 Is Live

My first published poem went live today in the Science Fiction Poetry Association's flagship publication, Star*Line.  All in all it was a really good experience (I found out about the acceptance on my birthday, no less).

BuzzyMag Now a SFWA Pro Market

It looks like there's a new addition to the SFWA Pro Markets list.  BuzzyMag has met the criteria to become an SFWA qualifying market, and correspondingly will be included in my MarketWants analysis.  Which I will get around to any day now....

Kindle Edition of Mad Scientist Journal Summer 2013 Is ALIVE

So...pretty cool.

NEWS: It's...Alive....

My first published short story went live today, and I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.  Mad Scientist Journal did a phenomenal job; I even like the artwork. :)

In other news, another market has dropped from the list of those meeting my criteria for evaluation.  Brutarian will no longer be included in my MarketWants analysis.  But I'll write more about that another day, after I take a little more time to relish in my first victory....