My short story “Psong” is now available in Murky Depths #7, which has got to be one of the most attractive publications around today. In addition to publishing decent fiction, each story features illustrations that are truly stunning.

Here’s the cover and the ToC. (The name in square brackets is the artist of each piece.)

“Scratch,” by Jason Palmer [Art: Paul McCaffrey]
“A Brief History Of Dogfighting,” by James Johnson [Leonardo M Giron]
“The Longest Road in the Universe,” by CS MacCath [Nancy Farmer]
“A Healthy Outlook,” by Bill Ward [Ricky Martin]
“Viewers Choice,” by Willie Meikle [Paul Drummond]
“Bite The Bullet,” by James Johnson [Denis Pacher]
“Psong,” by Ian Rogers [Zarina Liew]
“Survivalist,” by Kevin Brown [Neil Roberts]
“Bait,” by Paul Milliken [Caroline Parkinson]
“Flashback,” by Luke Cooper [Luke Cooper]
“Haruspex,” William Douglas Goodman [Frankie Wallington]
An Interview with Chris Moore [Chris Moore]
“Depth Charge: Fucking Vampires,” a column by Matt Wallace [Andy Bigwood]
“The r@t Report: Hurling Bricks,” by r@t & James Johnson [Leonardo M Giron]
r@t Confidential: Comic bios r@t [Various]

“Psong” is a dark action story about a psychic assassin seeking redemption for his actions. Lots of psychokinetic fun.

I hope you’ll check it out.

• Currently reading: Goat Dance, by Douglas Clegg

Because I know you’ve all been waiting for it.

Be sure to check out the other videos in my YouTube channel.

Who said the life of the struggling writer isn’t exciting?

The preliminary ballot for the 2009 Stoker Awards is up, and I’m happy to see the names of many of my friends on it. Congrats to all!

There is a certain amount of criticism regarding the Stokers, as I’m sure there is around most awards and the processes concerning how they are given out. One of the main concerns seems to be the voting process and the manner in which some writers pimp promote their work. Some authors do it with grace, others inundate people with spam pleading for their vote (and it’s not like you even have to read the story, ha-ha). Having seen the way some horror authors spam message boards and sites like MySpace, I can see how this might be a problem.

I’d hate to think that a more deserving story would go unnoticed simply because one author spammed more votes than someone else. The optimist in me says that most voters are able to look past the more obvious bookwhores and vote for the stories that they actually like, the ones they’ve actually read.

I have never felt comfortable promoting my work. I try to avoid crossing the line between informing people and spamming them. I understand that authors need to especially promote their work during awards season, and maybe that’s the key to success, but I don’t know if I could do it. I’d be constantly worrying that I’m annoying people, and that I might develop a reputation as a serial spammer, as some small press horror authors have done. I feel, perhaps naively, that the story should stand on its own, and that if people want to read it, then they can find out how via my website or my publisher. Hawking my stories like they’re steak knives has never been my style.

Having said that, my stance on the Stokers, and all other awards, is fairly simple: It’s nice to be nominated, as anything that draws attention to the work is good, but it doesn’t bother me if I’m not. I like to think that’s the right attitude to have, the one that ensures you don’t take awards too seriously and that you keep yours focus on the important thing, which, as always, is the work.

Kathryn and I made the trek to Toronto on Saturday night to hang out with the horror writers. We had a really good time, and I believe it has been mentioned on other blogs that it was the biggest turnout ever for such an event. The only downside was that I didn’t get a chance to talk to some people very much.

I did get a chance to hang out with Joel Sutherland and his lovely wife Colleen, who I think may have had the best time out of anyone there that night. At the very least she kept my wife company while I circulated around the room catching up with everyone.

Someone else I was fortunate enough to meet was Monica Bentz, who runs Burning Effigy Press, publisher of my forthcoming novelette, “Temporary Monsters.” Monica said she was really looking forward to publishing my story, and informed me that it would be coming out in the fall to coincide with Word on the Street, where I will be doing a signing and reading. Very exciting stuff.

I talked to a lot of other people, met some others for the first time, but I won’t list names as I’m sure to leave someone out. Suffice to say I had a really great time, which in turn made up for the extremely horrible drive home through an unexpected snow storm. It took us two and a half hours to get back to Peterborough. Good times.

Kat and I also played a bit with the new camera on the weekend. Mostly figuring out how it works. We ended up shooting a couple of videos of Thor, who is not camera shy at all and will undoubtedly become the star of my YouTube channel.

I was thinking it might be fun to shoot a video of my work area, instead of simply posting a picture of it, which has been a popular thing writers have been doing lately. Not exactly exciting, I know, but it beats video of me chasing Thor around the house. Or maybe not…

• Currently reading: The Reckoning, by Sarah Pinborough

Okay, since everyone else is doing it…

The instructions:

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

As I’m supposed to be winning your matehood here, I ought to be more cheerful.

jPod, by Douglas Coupland

Some writin’ links:

Typing Without a Clue

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror has been cancelled

Ellen Datlow to edit new Best Horror of the Year for Night Shade

James Van Pelt on the realities of publishing a single-author short story collection

From the Weird Desk:

Swiss watch found in 400-year-old tomb

Mekong a ‘treasure trove’ of 1,000 newly discovered species

Montauk Monster mystery

Lake monster in Argentina?

Aliens in Calgary?

In other exciting news, Kathryn and I bought a new digital camera today, a small Canon that is much more portable than our Rebel, and will make it easier to bring with us on more casual outings. It also has a video feature that my wife is more than a little worried about since she knows I have a YouTube account and very little shame. Who wants to see actual live video of a fake reindeer attack? Or the Writer falling off the roof while fixing shingles? Or Thor yowling at the ghosts that inhabit our downstairs storage room? Stay tuned, folks.

Speaking of casual outings, Kat and I are headed to Toronto a few hours for a gathering of Canadian horror writers. Ostensibly it’s an HWA function, but the first time I asked if I actually had to join in order to attend these gatherings, the room erupted into laughter. Turns out most of them aren’t members and have no intention of becoming one.

Maybe I’ll get some pics tonight with the new camera, if I can get guys like Strantzas and Sutherland to hold still for a minute.

• Currently reading: jPod, by Douglas Coupland

Remember that potentially big news I mentioned in my year-end review? Well, I finally got the official word and I’m ready to blab.

One of my longer stories, “Temporary Monsters,” has been accepted by Burning Effigy Press and will appear sometime this year as one of their very attractive horror chapbooks.

What’s a chapbook? some of you might be wondering. Well, in short, it’s a pocket-sized booklet, in this case devoted to a single long story, something too long to be a short story, too short to be a novel. Kind of a short novella, I guess. “Temporary Monsters” clocks in at around 13,000 words. I don’t think that length has a set name, so I’ll stick with “long fiction.”

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, I’d recommend checking out some of Burning Effigy’s other chapbooks, which include Gemma Files’ “Words Written Backwards,” Brett Savory and Gord Zajac’s “The Distance Travelled: A Little Slice of Heaven,” and Nick Kaufmann’s Stoker Award-nominated “General Slocum’s Gold.”

It goes without saying that I’m very excited about this sale. Being published by Burning Effigy in a chapbook all my own is really going to help get my name out there. And, in my admittedly biased opinion, “Temporary Monsters” is probably the best thing I’ve written to date.

I think you’re really going to dig it.

In 2008 I read 60 novels, 10 novellas, and 481 short stories. Here’s my list of favourites, in no particular order. (As usual, not all of these were published in 2008.)

10 Favourite Books

The Line Painter — Claire Cameron
Afloat — Jennifer McCartney
The Missing — Sarah Langan
Kiss Me, Judas — Will Christopher Baer
The Killing Circle — Andrew Pyper
Three Day Road — Joseph Boyden
Ring — Koji Suzuki
The Hoax — Adrienne Jones
Frozen Blood — Joel A. Sutherland
Songs for the Missing — Stewart O’Nan

5 Favourite Novellas / Long Fiction

General Slocum’s Gold — Nicholas Kaufmann
Cleopatra Brimstone — Elizabeth Hand
The Lagerstatte — Laird Barron
We’re All in This Together — Owen King
N. — Stephen King

10 Favourite Short Stories

“Paper Lantern” — Stuart Dybek
“Censored” — Joyce Carol Oates
“Most of My Friends Are Two-Thirds Water” — Kelly Link
“Flirtations” — Carrie Snyder
“A Crowd of Shadows” — Charles L Grant
“Nethescurial” — Thomas Ligotti
“The Bunchgrass Edge of the World” — E. Annie Proulx
“Mainevermontnewhampshiremass” — Nick Mamatas
“You Are Here” — Simon Strantzas
“Down Among the Relics” — Richard Gavin

In other news, I’ve been a busy bee this week trying to make the most of my time off. I renewed my driver’s license, picked up a new health card, got my eyes checked for the first time in four years and picked out some new frames (I’ll post a picture when I pick them up next week). I also posted the new issue of ChiZine.

Now I’m off to relax until I have to go back to work on Monday. Big sigh.

• Currently reading: Fathom, by Cherie Priest

So here we are, at the end of another year. This was a relatively quiet one for Kat and I, life-wise, compared to the last few years. It’s hard to top years like 2006 and 2007 when we quit our jobs in Toronto, move to Peterborough, found new jobs, bought a car, bought a house, and got married. We were due for a quiet year, and although this one hasn’t been without its ups and downs, it’s been relatively smooth sailing.

In terms of my writing things were fairly slow. This was a reflective year for me. A year for making decisions about my career, working out a plan to accomplish my goals, and dealing with some of the insecurities that come with trying to make a living in the creative arts.

I’ve come to realize that my career is not like anyone else’s. You could say it’s different for every writer, but this year really sent it home for me. Maybe because I tend to compare my career to that of other writers. That’s a natural thing to do, especially when there’s no real set process for succeeding in the creative arts. There are a lot of “how to” books on writing, but I’ve found that the vast majority of them are not designed to help you succeed in publishing as they are to simply sell books on how to write. It’s natural to look to other, more successful writers for advice or to see how they got to where they are now. I’ve realized that while such information is interesting it’s not always helpful. Every writer is different, and while the things I’ve learned from others has been invaluable, I also know that part of this process is breaking out on my own and making my own mistakes.

Despite a relatively slow writing year, there were some highlights. At the start of 2008 I made my very first reprint sale, which was also my first sale to a foreign market: “The Tattletail” in the Finnish magazine Spin. I sold a couple of other reprints, as well. “Everything Gets Bigger After Nuclear War” will appear in an upcoming anthology of apocalyptic fiction from Permuted Press, and “Camp Zombie” will appear in a best of Broken Pencil collection. The latter sale was not a submission, but rather a direct invite from the editor itself which is always nice.

Another big highlight of the year was my taking on the role of webmaster for the online horror magazine ChiZine. Although I’ve never been much into the social aspects of the small press, I wanted to find some way to network with other writers and contribute something to the community.

I met a lot of writers this year. Through my wife and her job at Trent University I met Alistair MacLeod, Linwood Barclay, and Joseph Boyden, all of them successful Canadian authors and really great people. I also attended, Ad Astra, a Toronto-based science fiction convention where I hung out with a number of writers, as well as my very first meeting of the Ontario branch of the Horror Writers Association.

This was supposed to be the year of the novel, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Devoting all of my efforts to a novel was a good idea in theory, but the downside was that when the novel wasn’t coming along, neither was anything else. This was part of the discipline I forced on myself. I could have gone off and worked on some short stories, but that’s been my problem these past few years. allowing myself to become distracted. It’s one thing to say, Oh, Ian, you have to do what makes you happy, but the truth is, writing is work, and one can’t afford to be flighty. Yes, writing is also supposed to be fun, but fun doesn’t mean easy. I’d rather have the past six months with nothing to show for it but a novel I’ve only picked at than two or three new short stories. I already have 29 I’m currently trying to sell. A couple more isn’t going to mean that much to me right now. I love short fiction, but it’s no longer my priority. I’m trying to break out of the small press and find a wider readership and I don’t think it’s going to happen with short fiction.

Despite that, I did write and sell some short stories in 2008. Here’s the skinny:

Stories written: 7

• “Day Pass”
• “I Hate Needles”
• “The Halloween Party”
• “Vogo”
• “Wendy”
• “Reconnect”
• “Deleted Scenes”

Stories sold: 8 (actually 9, but one mag went out a of business)

• “The Tattletail” (reprint) in Spin
• “The Nanny” in Nossa Morte
• “Camp Zombie” (reprint) in Best of Broken Pencil
• “Everything Gets Bigger After Nuclear War” (reprint) in Best New Tales of the Apocalypse
• “Psong” in Murky Depths
• “Leaves Brown” in Shades of Darkness
• “Vogo” in Northern Haunts
• “Buffalo Money” in Rope and Wire

Stories published: 7

• “Inheritor” in Cemetery Dance #58
• “The Dark and the Young” in Bound for Evil
• “The Nanny” in Nossa Morte #3
• “The Kid Pool” in The Written Word #13
• “Camp Zombie” in Broken Pencil #40
• “Buffalo Money” in Rope and Wire
• “Leaves Brown” in Shades of Darkness

And here are my main stats for the year. The figure in parenthesis is the total amount for the whole six years I’ve been sending out stories.

Stories submitted in 2008: 121 (404)

Stories accepted in 2008: 9 (29)

Stories rejected in 2008: 98 (322)

This year I cut way back on my internet usage, which has helped a lot with my focus if not my actual output. I feel this was a good choice, and not just for my writing but also my quality of life. I still update the website and my writing journal, although not quite as often. Strangely my web stats have gone up since then. Go figure.

Every year when I write one of these things I try to come up with a plan of attack for the following year. I’ve decided to forgo that this time around. No goals this year; it only seems to jinx myself. The same way I seem to have psyched myself out with the novel by treating it as some great, insurmountable task. All it’s done is ensure I’m not going to get it finished.

All I will say is that I’m going to keep at it in 2009, and eventually, hopefully at some point in the near future, I will have the novel finished.

I’ll still try to keep things entertaining around here. I don’t see things changing on this website that much in the new year. A few more stories sold would be nice. I might have a very big one to report shortly, in fact. There always seems to be something in the works, which I suppose is what this is all about. Keep moving, keep writing, and maybe I’ll get there.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great 2009. Thanks for visiting this website and following my progress. Onward and upward, baby.

See you on the flip-flop.

• Currently reading: Gypsies Stole My Tequila, by Adrienne Jones