Monday, I mentioned selling my new short story “Still Life With Skull” to Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction.

What I didn’t mention was the minor miracle involved in finishing it and the people I need to thank.

See, as it so happened, the deadline to turn the story in fell right in the middle of the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter. As a result of this, I faced a situation when I had to get the story from rough draft to finished draft during a period when I was so busy that I was absolutely unable to hold the story in my mind the way you need to in order to figure out what to add, what to subtract, what to patch, what to leave alone.

So basically, I flew blind, relying totally on the instincts of my beta-readers. My thanks to Elizabeth Campbell, Virginia Mohlere, Amal El-Mohtar, Nicole Kornher-Stace, and of course, Anita, for having such damn good instincts.

In other writerly-related things, here’s a photo from my performance of my poem “The Strip Search” at The Best of the Best of No Shame Theatre this past Saturday. I’m fairly sure this is right after I’ve spoken the line, “sent me rolling down the path to my final destination.”

Posted in Appearances, Fiction, Poetry, Short stories, Writing