I’ve a couple new stories out today, which is a lovely way to start the year. Firstly is my six-word story that is in It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure which has an ironically long title I get paid with a contributor’s copy for that, which has a value of $8.10 US. That means I got paid an equivalent to $1.35 a word. I’m pretty sure that’s my highest per word payout so far. Pretty snazzy.

I also have a short story at Flashes in the Dark today. You can read Dive just by following that link, and Flashes in the Dark is one of those cool webzines that will let you leave a comment if you feel like it. A little bit about this story, but cut because here there be spoilers:

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My flash fiction piece, “Why are the Clocks Melting?” is up at Everyday Fiction today. So far the readers haven’t been very fond of it, but I still like it LOL I think some people might be looking too hard for meaning or satire. It was just meant to be an amusing little piece that was inspired when I asked ‘What if?’

*shrugs* Can’t win them all I guess.

Recently while at brunch with some good friends, one of them looked at me and said “Rhonda, why don’t you just write a bestseller and buy a villa in Tuscany already?”

Write a bestseller.

Just like that, easy peasy.

Now why didn’t I think of that?

In other news, it’s not a bestselling novel but I’m the six word memoirist of the day at Smith Mag today. That means my picture and one of my six word stories is featured on their front page at http://www.smithmag.net

I’ve got a couple fulls out to agents right now, for both Swamp Story and Shadows, and I’m kinda going insane I think. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because if things don’t work out it will be quite devastating, but at the same time, it’s very hard not to. Please keep your fingers, metaphorically crossed for me. I am not going to go into any more details just yet, I don’t want to jinx myself LOL

I do have some news I can go into details about though. My funny little flash piece, Swapped, is included in the current issue of Mississippi Crow Magazine. Rumor has it you can get a copy of the .pdf for free, if you check it out I’d love to hear what you think

And please, send good thoughts my way re: agents and staying sane.

I admit it. I like Pamela Tyree Griffin which makes me biased, but I also like The Shine Journal. My work has appeared in it numerous times and I was honored to be one of the judges for their ‘Show Us Your Shorts’ contest earlier this year.

I’ve got two pieces in this month’s issue. If you were to judge them based solely on their titles it might seem as though they were similar, when in fact, they aren’t. Not even close.

The first, Sheltered, is a reprint of an amusing little flash which was originally published by the Mennonite Publishing Network last year.

What?

It really was.

The other is a sad poem I wrote entitled “A House Not a Home“. My great-grandmother was a poet and she wrote a poem after her beloved husband died which compared herself to an empty house; lonely and alone. Not so long ago my own husband was out of town on business and I saw a writing prompt that included a picture of a decrepit house. My loneliness, my great-grandmother’s poem and that picture all combined to inspire this short poem.

I hope you have time to check them out and let me know what you think