Updates and Guest Post

Been very busy with real life this week so I've not had much time for blogging. I finally finished those two rewrite requests and sent them out again. Back to waiting with fingers crossed. Time to move onto some greenfield writing for a change and I have a pile of novellas that need attention.

Check out my guest post "What Taylor Swift Can Teach Writers" on Katie L. Carroll's blog. Katie is the author of the YA fantasy Elixir Bound and the editor for Highway 24 and Last Request.

The Satyrs Are Finally Piping

A quick note to announce that the long-awaited anthology Songs of the Satyrs is finally available. (My story was accepted in October 2011.) Satyrs are goat-like creatures from Greek and Roman mythology known for their love of wine, women, and nymphs. Satyrs can't help but be lusty. As the cover implies, this collection abounds with adult themes. You've been warned. Inside, you'll find twenty stories from various writers, including David Farland (a.k.a. David Wolverton) as well as my story “Blood & Beauty.” Combining elements from “Beauty and the Beast” and classical mythology, “Blood & Beauty” tells a sad tale of a love affair between a half satyr, half lion and a dryad.

Some advance praise for the collection:

“If there has been a previous fiction anthology devoted to satyrs I'm certainly not aware of it—in fact the existence of such an anthology seems as unlikely as these half humans, half goats themselves. But Songs of the Satyrs revels in such unlikeliness, its authors taking this mythical creature as a challenge to their imaginations to produce a variety of fantasy, horror, and science fantasy tales exploring sex, madness, appetite, and ecstasy.”

—Steve Rasnic Tem, author of Deadfall Hotel

Coming Up For Air and the FFW

The Schoolmaster (1662), Adriaen van Ostade.

That work project that has been sucking the life out of me for the past few weeks is finally winding down. WooHoo!!! No more nightly overtime. More time to write and sleep and I really need more sleep. Well, that is until the next project from hell comes along. By force of will I managed to finish a novella rewrite and send it back to the publisher. Hope they like it. I also took a couple days off to attend the Festival of Faith and Writing, an enriching experience.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group: Post #1

I joined the Insecure Writer’s Support Group today. Group members post the first Wednesday of every month. In the words of the group's leader and founder Alex J. Cavanaugh: "Time to release our fears to the world—or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic." Are there any writers who are not insecure and neurotic?