Building a “Brag Shelf” (and Progress)

Nobody likes a braggart, but sometime you just can’t help it, and given the difficulty of finding your way into print a writer is forgiven a certain pride in the finished product. So when your placed stories see print and the contributor copies come in (or you buy them, depending on the contract) you find the collection expanding a book at a time.

And yes, there is a great deal of personal satisfaction to be had when you look at the shelf and know your work is in each title from there to there, and more to come. The photo shows my current print anthologies and magazines, and there are more on their way – three volumes of Lovecraftiana, Phantaxis #7, a second Flame Tree anthology due I think in April, Mind Candy Vol. 1, an annual-best-of from Misfit Stories, and doubtless others as time goes by. I’ll update the brag shelf here as it gets more impressive!

In latest news, my current submission to Andromeda Spaceways has passed first readers, so I’ll be watching in a few weeks in the hopes it passes second readers and joins the short-list pool.

And today I scored a placement with Kferrin for my fantasy flash piece The Cursed Throne, one of my “Avestium” stories, the third to place. This is full pro, on a very generous rate.

Season’s cheer to all, and here’s hoping for a great New Year!

Mike