July-splosion!

In keeping with the feast or famine nature of publishing, after a double fistful of months with no new stories in print I'm delighted to report a veritable cavalcade of publications—most of which can be read online or downloaded at no cost (beyond time and bandwidth, of course). Here's where you can find them:

• The Bicentennial Itch: Breaking up is hard to do, especially when you're a galactic republic. A short, humorous flash piece read by Nebula Award nominated author Tina Connolly, available for free at Toasted Cake Podcast.

• And They Did Live By Watchfires: Paying homage to two of my favorite authors—H.P. Lovecraft and Lord George Gordon Byron—this story is my most recent step into Scifi Horror (a genre that I dearly love and can't seem to find enough of). You can read it at The Lovecraft eZine, not to mention feast your eyes on the amazing illustration by Dominic Black. The eZine is free, and one of the best mythos magazines out there. Mike Davis runs the site mostly on donations and a lot of hard work. So if you like what you see, please toss a couple bucks his way.

• Cottage Industry: Detective Mike Martinez thought the FBI had turned its back on him, but when an old friend shows up with a chance for Mike to get his old life back, it's too good to pass up. What starts as a simple investigation turns into, well....I don't want to give it away. Urban fantasy in the vein of the Dresden and X-files, you can check out "Cottage Industry" (along with a slew of other fine stories) in the July Issue of Stupefying Stories for the criminally low price of $2.99.          

...and there's more on the horizon. My story: "When it Was Ripe," is slated to appear in the next issue of Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine, and I have horror pieces in Chaosium's Mark of the Beast, and Woodland Press' Legends of the Buckeye State anthologies later this year. As always, I'd love to hear what you think of them all...good or bad (especially bad). Don't be afraid to comment, or even drop me a line.  

Other than that, I'm still neck-deep in rewrites for Beyond the Deshima Gate, my historical fantasy novel set in early 19^th century Japan. I've gotten some great feedback from my beta readers, and I'm hoping to have a third draft done by early August. After that it's off to agents, and I can start climbing the walls again.