The last two flash fiction pieces are up at 365tomorrows. They include the final Channel Zero piece, entitled Recruiters as well as the final stand-alone which is called Natural Progression.
The latter is a fun little story about the possibility of “backwards evolution,” in which our dependency on technology actually causes human to de-evolve arms, feet, hands, etc. After all, what’s the use of your hands when you have a machine to do everything for you?
The last Channel Zero story is my favorite of the bunch. It’s also a fire-starter of sorts, as it prompted the folks over at 365 to rally against continued stories in flash fiction format. Ah well. Otherwise the feature itself was a huge success, and I want to thank Steve Smith and the rest of the 365 crew for their generosity and support.
Speaking of success, Erica and I checked the site stats on Tuesday and were shocked to discover this modest little place on the vast interweb has had over 60,000 hits. I still can’t wrap my brain around that number, much less the fact that people actually come here on their own accord. The site is still being trumped by Keisling.com (which appears to be some sort of law blog based out of Pennsylvania–kinda makes me wonder if there’s some long-lost relation there), but that’s no big deal. 60,000. Sixty. Thousand. Freakin’ nuts.
I started a new story over the weekend. I’m not very far along at all–maybe about 5,000 words–but it’s shaping up to be a bit of a monster in scope and length. It’s also a horror story and takes place in my home town of Corbin, Kentucky. The prologue is almost finished, and I’ll be uploading it as a sneak peak in the coming weeks. In the meantime, also be on the lookout for a back catalogue of stories to appear (slowly, slowly) in the Work section. This is as I find time to revise and format the stories. I’ve also spent the last couple of days crawling the database of Duotrope searching for venues to which I can submit some of these stories. I’m happy to report that I’ve generated a rather long list, so with some luck and good vibes, those stories will be picked up and, fate willing, bought.
ALT was denied distribution on account of .375 inches. The problem has been corrected and (yet another) proof copy purchased, only because I can’t approve the book without having purchased one. Sucks, but that’s the way it goes. On a side note, I received word that some of the copies of the book are arriving with slight deformities, such as covers being askew, extra strips of glue down the side and, in one case, pages missing. While I can’t do anything directly for individual cases, since it is ultimately your transaction with Lulu, I can contact Lulu regarding the print quality as a whole. So if you bought a copy and there’s something wrong with it, please let me know.
Also, if you contact Lulu about the screwy quality, I’ve heard they will send you a mailer with which to send back your messed up copy, and in return will send you a nice, shiny, new book sans maladies. I’ll see if I can dig up the proper procedure for this.
Before I draw this thing to a close, I wanted to mention this article I came across today at work. Do you write like a terrorist? Blessed be the day I wake to find something I’ve written has drawn the FBI to my door. With that kind of publicity, who would need a publicist? I’m sure I’d have plenty of time to write bestsellers from the dungeons of Guantanamo.
And on that note, I’m out.
TK