Quick Thoughts - Some Self Promotion

I need to think of something good, so I'm going to actually do something I'm super uncomfortable with and post about some things that I'll have coming out. I normally don't like to because reasons I think I've gone into before, that I've thought on before, but writing has been sort of strangely difficult lately and I want to focus on good things instead of my own fears and feelings about not having had anything out since early June. A lot of that is I haven't been writing as much as I should. But positive! Things are going to be coming out!

Probably I am most excited that I have a poem that got accepted at Strange Horizons (one of my dream publications). It's actually my first poetry sale since…college. I've been writing poetry since grade school but apparently never thought of taking it in more speculative directions until relatively recently. Or maybe I just didn't realize that's what I've been writing since forever anyway. This poem in particular is…well, I think of it as both my Clippy (the Microsoft helper paperclip) poem and "that poem I wrote because I was really upset at the radio." So yeah, that's all signed and hopefully will be published. At the very least it's convinced me to try and send out more of my poetry.

I also have a pair of stories that will be coming out at Torquere Press for their Exchange of Power Anthology and Haunted Hotties Anthology. That's right: erotica! The first of the stories, "The Assistant's Contraption" (oh how I love titling erotica) is a steampunk/mad scientist story where the mad scientist (Rascan) finds out that his assistant (Friday) is not as submissive as he thought. It's out this month! The second, "A Friendly Ghostbusting" involves the rough and tumble world of online ghost-hunting videos, as two former-friends-turned-rivals find out they can still work together. I will admit that writing erotica is one of the few things that has worked for me recently, and I am super happy that these two stories were accepted. I really hope they're fun and not terrible. They will be my first erotica out, so it's brave new worlds all over the place.

I have some more traditional SFF stories coming out as well. "Alexa" was accepted by Dragon's Roost Press for their Eldritch Embraces anthology. I was lucky enough to be in their first anthology, Desolation, and I'm super glad "Alexa" found a home, though perhaps a little bummed it won't be available free online. Still, it's vaguely Lovecraftian (hence the name of the collection) and kind of romantic, if in a dark way. A mermaid story full of longing and loss.

And I sold a science fiction story to Betwixt, which I am quite pleased about. I don't review the publication but I do occasionally read stories from them and I've been impressed with much of what I've seen. My story is "Nothing," which was hilarious to see on the check, because in the comment on it simply read: Nothing. So I had a chuckle. I took a chance with voice in that story, and really just got caught up with playing with the word and concept of nothing.

Lastly, I sold a flash story to Lamplight magazine. This one's called "Tramposo" and is a science fiction horror? I guess? It's got something of a weird story and has a weird story behind it that I'll probably get more into when it actually comes out.

So there you have it. Lots of good news. It has seriously been a crazy month for acceptances, which is very nice, though when it comes in the face of having a really hard time writing it's also somewhat frightening. I need to write. I need to write. I can and I should and I will but wow, some days… Anyway, that's what I'm looking forward to. Hoping for some pro sales again at some point (some day, SFWA…someday…), but for now there is some promising news.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Charles Payseur