I’m working on my zombie chapbook today (mostly trying to figure out what to include). That involves a lot of looking at file names and going ‘What the hell is that?’ and then opening them to find out. It’s a bit frustrating but it is helping me clean out folders a bit. Tossing things into the ‘Trunk’ directory when their time has come and reminding me of a piece or two that really just need a little attention to be something I could be proud to submit.

It also resulted in my re-discovering this drabble. I remember writing it back when I first learned what a drabble was (in 2007!) and it was actually my second drabble ever. It falls into a third category ‘Cute, but not really worth revising’. It is worth sharing here though, I think, because it made me smile, hopefully you’ll have the same reaction.

A Long Day

Jack cursed himself for the third time and stomped angrily around the clearing.

If he returned to the ship his crew would know what a fool he’d been and wouldn’t respect him anymore. He should have brought one of them with him to help, they could they have carried the darned chest instead of he, and done the digging too.

Swearing once more Jack dropped to his knees and began to dig in the soft sand; it was going to be a long day.

“What kind of barnacle sucking, bilge-brained pirate goes to bury treasure without a shovel?!” he screamed.

On a related note, there’s nothing that’s humbling in quite the same way as reading some of your old work, is there? It’s inspiring though, to look bad and see how much I’ve improved in the past 4 years because it makes me excited to see how I’ll be writing in 2015

*posts before she can no longer resist the urge to start editing*

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

My flash piece, Ironic Angst, is now online at Every Day Fiction. Obviously, I like my story, but I also really enjoy the way Every Day Fiction works. If you like flash you ought to check it out. They put up a new story every day and you can rate and comment on them. If you stop by make sure you check out my story, then keep poking around — you’re sure to find something you like.

My head got squished. No really, it did. I don’t know what it is about this headshot picture I’ve been using, but more often than not when it gets used on e-zines, it ends up quite squished. Today is no exception. Perhaps it’s a sign that I ought to take a new picture…but then I’d have to try and remember where my make up is, and that doesn’t seem likely to happen.

Anyway. Yes, as you may have gathered from that convoluted paragraph, I’ve got another piece published in an e-zine. Two of them, actually. Firstly, my flash fiction story, Denouement has been reprinted by Laurie Notch of IdeaGems. That’s where you get to see my squished head I’ve also got a rictameter in this issue of IdeaGems, Writing is about, you guessed it, writing. I’m pretty sure this is the first time its seen print.

Enjoy

Athabasca Falls. You need to experience it to understand it. You need to feel the spray on your face, hear the thunder of the water and see the insane rapids.  I’ve had more than a view nightmares about it ever since I first visited it, most of them involving my daughter. That was the dread that eventually evolved into my flash fiction piece, Athabasca Falls, which is now online at Apollo’s Lyre.

One day I was sitting at my computer trying to think of a good word to use as the Word of the Week at NaNoLJers. My husband, Jo, suggested I use the word ‘denouement’. He was totally being a smart ass, which I took as a dare.  So, I did use the word denouement as that week’s word and I even wrote a story inspired  by that word.

That story, Denouement, appears in this month’s issue of Cautionary Tale. I hope you enjoy it