Busy New Year

Well its time to start a new year. What does this mean for me? Well I spent the last few days going through my published stories and checking which ones I have the rights to. Once a story has appeared in print I like to get it out online so that more people can read it.

I have been sending out story after story. And in an interesting twist and an attempt at something new, I even tried to get a couple of stories published in audio markets. I have already received one response and I can say that my story The Lunatic's Bloodletting, which first appeared in Living Dead Press' End of Days Anthology will be in the next issue of Static Movement ezine.

A new year also means a busy time for me at Pill Hill Press. We are trying to clear out our overstock inventory and we have sent out dozens of review copies. Contacting reviewers is one of my duties at Pill Hill and I have been pretty busy with it. We are also looking into some new promotional ideas.

Also I am happy to say that edits on Shadows & Light II are almost done. The authors should be getting proofs of their stories by early next week at the latest. Once all the authors have had a chance to see the proof and I make a few minor changes to the cover, and come up with a blurb for the back(a task which I always find incredibly hard) we will go to print.

I haven't really gotten much writing done, but I did find out that a publisher who had accepted a few of my stories had problems with a couple of anthologies. I won't go into details but the rights to the stories reverted back to me, so I gave those a good edit and sent them out. If the publisher opens up calls for the anthologies again I have a guaranteed acceptance, but I might as well shop them around first. There is no telling if they'll have more "problems in the future".

Below is the revamped cover pic for Shadows & Light II, I think the black background really makes it pop in ways the white background didn't.

Reviews of Black Matrix Magazines

Both the magazines I am in from Black Matrix have been reviewed on SFRevu. My stories are mention very briefly, the reviewer seemed pretty happy with the magazines. So if you haven't gotten a copy of either magazine, why not check out the reveiws and see if you're interested?

Encounters Magazine- "A Hunter Hunted" by Alva J. Roberts. Sara is a woman on the prowl at a bar in Colorado when she gets a redneck named Billy to come outside with her. Billy does not get what he is expecting and things don't work out well for Sara either in this horrifying, nasty story. See the Review

Realms Magazine- The "Lord of the North" in the story by Alva J. Roberts is Beorn Hammerhand, fighting the forces of Baltor who are invading his land. Things are difficult, until he gets some unexpected help in this rousing tale. See the Review

Outer Reaches Now Available

Outer Reaches magazine is now available, my short story The Crystal Blight appears in this volume. You can buy it HERE

They Crystal Blight is about a group of space pirates confronted with a new biological agent.

Realms Magazine is out. I made the cover!!!

As the title says Realms Magazine is out via createspace and will soon be on Amazon.

My story Lord of the North is featured on the cover. This is the first time I have had artwork based on a story I have written and I am super excited. I did not even know it would be on the cover until today when I got an email it was out. It totally made my day.

Buy Realms Magazine Here!!!

Encoutners Magazine

The first issue of Encounters magazine should be coming out later this month with my story Hunter Hunted in it. The magazine has a cool cover check it out.

Buy the magazine

Two Acceptances

Lord of the North was accepted for Realms Magazine, and The Crystal Blight was accepted for Outer Reaches Magazine. These are two new magazines from the guys over at Black Matrix Publishing.

Black Matrix Publishing

They have four different magazines of speculative fiction they are putting out, Encounters, Night Chills, Realms, and Outer Reaches. I'm trying to figure something out for Night Chills so that I can be in all four.

Another Acceptance

I just got a story accepted! This one into Encounters magazine. This is a new magazine from Black Matrix Publishing. Black Matrix Publishing I am very excited to be a part of their first issue. Also in a side note this publication puts me over 30,000 words accepted for publciation!

Shadows & Light is closed! I have made all the final selections and I could not be happier with the stories in the anthology. I spent most of Friday and Saturday going through the slush pile. I had 70,000 words in subs and about 15,000 words open. I ended up slecting a few extra stories that I just couldn't pass up, and went a little over our target word count. But it is done! Now comes the editing.

Still working on the novel, almost at 70,000 words, as it gets closet to the end it gets easier and easier to write. It is starting to build up to the finale. I am going to have to go back and do a big rewrite, I added the conclusion to a few subplots in the last chapters that were never in the book, but they should not be that hard to add when I do the first edit.

The first novel I wrote was at 70,000 words when I finished the rough draft, went up to over a 100,000 in the second draft, and ended up being a little under 90,000 in the fifth and final draft, and still needs a major line edit.