I don’t know if I mentioned this before but all of my coworkers are women. I discovered this on the second or third day I started my new job. There was a potluck lunch and I came downstairs with my shrimp ring to find a group of staff with nary a man to be found.

I don’t mind. My coworkers are wonderful people, my boss especially, and I get along with them very well. Some of them are fans of Lost, and all of them are readers.

So I guess it was only a matter of time before I was invited to join the stitch-’n'-bitch that takes place on the last Wednesday of every month. The part that surprised me was that I accepted.

Yes, folks, it’s true. I’m expanding my skill set to include knitting and crocheting. I’ve started work on an afghan, for Kathryn, and I’ll have to post a picture of it sometime because it’s actually turning out quite well. The colors are quite swanky, and I think it will look very nice with the rest of the autumn-themed décor of the house.

I also got some writing done today, which is a big plus. It was pretty slow going these last couple of weeks. I worked a bit on the novel, jotted some notes on Temporary Monsters, and went and wrote three thousand words of a new story about a group of religious zealots who travel around in a Winnebago on a crusade to destroy demons. It’s not so much a story about faith as it is about family and the ties that hold them together, even the crazy ones.

The story is titled “The Devil Hunters.”

• Currently reading: "Bumblebee," by Bentley Little

Read a very good short story by Charles D’Ambrosio called “Her Real Name.” I wanted to post two small pieces that I thought were particularly good:

The girl read different passages [from the bible] aloud as they drove, invoking a mix of epic beauty and bad memories, of Exodus and the leather belt her stepfather used to beat her when she broke a commandment —- one of the original ten or one of his additions.

and:

“We could drive to Nevada,” she’d said. “Seems we’re headed that direction, anyhow.”

“Maybe,” Jones had said.

“It only takes an hour to get married,” the girl said, “and they rent you the works. A veil, flowers. We’ll gamble. I’ve never done that. Have you? Roulette — what do you think, Jones?”

“I said maybe.”

“Jones,” she said. “I’m not into maybe.”

I like the subtle charm of the writer’s prose and the dry realism he injects into the dialogue. It goes toward what I believe about writing, that the best stories are the ones which sound and feel the most real.

This applies to genre fiction, as well. Although one is writing about things which never existed, don’t exist yet, or don’t exist anymore, there’s no reason to let realism fall by the wayside. I feel it is the foundation of any good story, regardless of where it gets slotted on the bookstore shelves.

Some cool news I heard today: Stephen King has sold the film rights of the Dark Tower series to Lost creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindeloff for $19 (a number of importance in the series).

King is a big fan of the TV series, and the show’s creators feel the same way about King’s work, having made several nods to the author on the show.

The Dark Tower seems almost unfilmable, something King himself has said on several occasions, but if there’s anyone who could do it it’s the Lost boys.

• Currently reading: "The Washingtonians," by Bentley Little

The novel has been slow going these past few days, so I decided to switch tracks and spent the morning working on my noir-horror-comedy novella, Temporary Monsters:

The waiter got killed before he could drop off our bill.

I happened to be looking toward the back of the restaurant and saw him winding his way toward us. Gel wasn’t very big, but it had a lot of tables. All through lunch I kept waiting for one of the waiters to stumble over a chair-leg and deposit somebody’s meal in their lap, but it never happened.

“It’s not enough,” Sandra was saying as I sipped my coffee.

“It never is,” I muttered distractedly.

“You’re not even listening to me,” she said in that petulant, exasperated tone I missed not at all.

“I’m listening, Dee.”

She fell silent, but I could feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of my head. Apparently I was supposed to relinquish the nicknames along with my key to the house.

Finally she heaved a big sigh and said, “Would you look at me when I’m talking to you. I hate it when you zone out like this.”

I turned and looked across the table at her. Sandra Clifton, thirty-eight years old, blonde hair already starting to gray, green eyes still sharp enough to cut glass. An actress on the downslope of her career, she still possessed the stately grace of a captain going down with the ship. The former star of a popular sitcom (Not Tested on Animals), the former host of a TV game-show (Cinemapedia), and the former wife of a private investigator who was famous only to his creditors.

“I’m listening,” I repeated. “You said it isn’t enough. I know. I’ve heard this bit before.”

“You hear, Felix, but you don’t listen.”

I took out my wallet as the waiter approached. He came around the table next to ours where a young guy was staring at the untouched sandwich on his plate. He was alone, but that wasn’t unusual. There were a lot of people sitting alone in Gel. It was one of the few restaurants in Toronto where you could dine by yourself and not look like a dateless loser. I had glanced at him briefly when Sandra and I first came in, but didn’t really notice him until he sprang out of his seat and grabbed the waiter in a tight bearhug.

I don’t know if I’m going to finish Temporary Monsters before I get back to work on my novel. I doubt it. But I like having another story to rebound off when the novel starts kicking my ass. It’s almost therapeutic.

Oh, and by the way, the suspense is officially killing me.

• Currently re-reading: The Pines, by Robert Dunbar

Received a very exciting e-mail from R.J. Cavender with a preview of the front and back covers of Horror Library – Volume 2.

It’s quite a thrill to see my name on the cover of a book – even if it’s only the back cover. The artist is David Magitis.

Here’s the table of contents:

Clara Chandler – “Blood: An Introduction”
John Rector – “A Season of Sleep”
Stephen R. George – “A Chainsaw Execution”
Cameron Pierce – “I Am Meat, I Am In Daycare”
Sunil Sadanand – “Trapped Light Medium”
Marc Paoletti – “Apple”
John Mantooth – “Next Stop, Babylon”
Michael W. Lucas – “Opening the Eye”
Matthew Fryer – “Phaedra’s Baby”
Tom Pendergrass – “Immortal Remains”
Ron McGillvray – “The Garbage Collectors”
Lon Prater – “Free to Good Home”
Alan Smale – “Bound”
Boyd E. Harris – “Alien Fajitas”
Stephen Bacon – “The Trauma Statement”
Ian Rogers – “Charlotte’s Frequency”
Ken Goldman – “High Tide Coming”
Kevin L. Donihe – “Preacher Mike and the Black Cross Revelation”
Lorne Dixon – “Reins in the Night Season”
Glen Krisch – “Filth Eater”
Kim Despins – “Crushed Neem”
Daniel L. Naden – “Drawn”
Peter Hynes – “Meat-Boy”
Petra Miller – “You’re a Good Girl, Delilah”
Mark Justice – “The Losers vs. Beelphegor”
Paul Walther – “We Fall on Each Other”
M. Louis Dixon – “H19N1″
Matt Hults – “The Show Must Live On”
Matt Samet – “White Balloon”
Clinton Green – “The Horror in the Bookstore”

R.J. reported that the book has just gone to press, but there was no further news regarding a possible signing/reading at WHC. I guess it’s not a sure thing whether or not it’ll be back in time.

Here’s hoping!

• Currently re-reading: The Pines, by Robert Dunbar

There are several markets I’d like to see publish one of my stories, but these are the ones I’d especially like to crack:

Playboy
The Atlantic
Harper’s
Fantasy & Science Fiction
McSweeney’s
Storyteller
On Spec
New Genre
Crimewave
Weird Tales
Zahir
Shimmer
ChiZine
One Story
Lunch Hour Stories
The New Quarterly
Apex Digest
Clarkesworld Magazine
Glimmer Train
Postscripts
The Fiddlehead
The Antigonish Review

That’s my hit list. Some will be harder than others, no doubt, but I’m going to do my best to crack ‘em all.

• Currently re-reading: The Pines, by Robert Dunbar

It’s done. I’m officially signed up for the World Horror Convention and the Bram Stoker Awards.

That’s one I can cross off my list.

Also, a Revelation update of sorts. I’m hoping this means the new issue will be out soon. Been waiting a long time for this one.

Now, off to watch Lost…

• Currently re-reading: The Pines, by Robert Dunbar

The nominees for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards have been posted by the Horror Writers Association. Congrats to Fran Friel, a writer I met recently at Zoetrope.com, for making it to the final ballet with her novella, Mama’s Boy.

The Awards will be given out at this year’s World Horror Convention, which I will be attending. My wife will be there, too, or at least for as much of it as she can stand. She had a bad fangeek experience a few years back, and I promised to go easy on her this time.

I’m still waiting to hear if Horror Library – Volume 2 is still scheduled to launch at WHC, and if the publisher is still planning a reading/signing. I’ll pass along the deets as I get them.

Also, the horror contents of the 20th Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror has been posted. “The Tattletail,” didn’t make it (in fact, I didn’t see any stories from Dark Wisdom, which is a shame because it’s such a fine publication), but there is a distinct possibility that it may be considered for the fantasy portion. It’s hard to say what the editors will make of this particular story; it could be seen as either horror or fantasy.

Even if “The Tattletail” doesn’t make it into YBFH, there are a few other “best of” collections that still might be considering it. Since it was my only published story in 2006, I have just the one chance to get in.

Fortunately, I am scheduled to have substantially more stories out in 2007, which means my chances of getting into those swanky “best of” collections even better.

I said it before but I’ll say it again: It feels damn good to have some actual news to report on this website. I can’t believe it was only a few weeks ago that I was talking about the dog days of winter. I am absolutely bowled over by how quickly and suddenly things have move into high gear.

As many of you already know, last year was pretty slow in terms of publications. I had only the one story and that was all the way back in May 2006. Seems even longer for me, probably because I was living in a different place and working at a different job. A lot has changed since then, and although I’ve racked up more acceptances, the waiting has been absolutely excruciating.

I’m not saying that to be dour. I have never thought of myself as the tortured artist, and I’m not about to start now. But when a writer first starts getting stories accepted, there is a period of time, a publishing limbo of sorts, before things really start moving.

From this point on, I should have news to report on a fairly regular basis. The magazines and anthologies featuring my work are finally starting to come out, and as long as I can keep the acceptances coming, one of my stories should always be available or at least coming soon.

That’s not me being a pompous ass (at least I hope it isn’t). I’m just saying you might want to keep an eye on this space in the future.

The lull is over, folks.

• Currently reading: "The Miniature," by John D. MacDonald

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I went ahead and redesigned the website. I was waiting for Salt and Revelation 4:1 to hit the shelves, so I could post ordering info, but then I was dickering around this morning and one thing led to another…

I’m calling this my “blackwood” skin. It’s a bit darker than before, but I think it makes the photos and magazine/book covers stand out that much more.

I removed some things and added a few others. Most notably, the “Site Updates” sidebar has been replaced with publishing news and info on my current projects. And if you look to the right, you’ll notice that I’ve add a section on strange news stories, which has always been an interest of mine.

Anyway, I hope you dig the new look.

In other news, Jeff VanderMeer reported on his blog that they have received a lot of long stories for Fast Ships, Black Sails, and that at this point they are looking for shorter pieces, around 3,000 words. Since “The Bottle” clocks in at 3,400 words, I’m hoping that means I have a better chance of getting in. Certainly not a guarantee, but here’s hoping.

• Currently reading: Specimen Days, by Michael Cunningham