Nothing for ages, and then two stories at once…
My short story “The Eater of Stories” appears in Circlet Press’ Like a Veil anthology, out today! You can buy it from Circlet Press here. I’m really fond of this story; unlike most of what I write, it came out pretty much all in one go, and the first draft was entirely hand-written. It’s my attempt at a Neil Gaiman-ish story and most of it was written while sitting in the sunshine at the Hay Festival, and you really can’t get better conditions than that.
(I’m also really psyched that all the authors are from Philadelphia, or the Philadelphia/DC area! GO EASTERN SEABOARD!)
And, holy crap, you guys. “Kipling and Camping” is on the bestseller list for its category at AllRomanceEbooks! After being released, like, two days ago! And I’m pretty sure it’s not the only story in that category! I’m so, so psyched about this 🙂 (Want to jump on the bandwagon? You totally want to buy a copy….)
I have to say, I’m so glad this is happening now. I’m not in the States, trying to do forty-five things at once (or, you know, on a boat in the Atlantic), and classes haven’t started up yet, so very nearly the only things I have to do are related to pushing these new publications. And, of course, writing — wherein I seem to be making up for lost time, by absolutely pouring out stories. (This means, of course, if you’d like to beta something for me soon, please let me know!) If you’re dying to interview me now, or, I dunno, get me to do your laundry, now would be a good time.
In honor of the universe’s excellence, and how gleeful I am that multiple people, several of whom I don’t even know, are buying my stories, I am going to hold the Simplest Contest Ever. You, dear reader, need to do absolutely nothing other than leave a comment on my blog. LJ or WordPress, doesn’t matter. Just leave a comment on this entry sometime between now and noon (GMT) on September 6th. Any comment you like! Tell me about your dog! Mash the keyboard! I don’t care! But it would probably make life easier for all of us if you left an e-mail address, or your own blog address, or just some way of getting in contact.
After the deadline, I’ll collect all the comments and put them into a spreadsheet, and then let a random number generator pick one for me. The lucky winner gets their choice of prizes:
1) One flash fic, probably only a thousand or so words long, about whatever you like (with the exception of illegal shit and fiction about real, living people), and in any genre. I keep copyright but agree to not ever take money for it, you get your dream story. I’d like to be able to put it up here, but if for whatever reason you want it to be something just for you, that’s cool too.
2) If you’re cool with giving me your mailing address: GOODY BAG! Probably with something handmade in it — fancy knotwork or knitting, most likely. Maybe a book, or some handwritten flash fiction or…who knows. Whatever the hell it is I feel like putting in that day. I’ll ship to anywhere in the world, although if you live someplace where it would be unusually expensive, we may have to wait until I get my loan money in 
So there you go! Buy the stories: Kipling and Camping, Like a Veil, and comment away!
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I live in DC, but even stranger: I’m actually from West Philadelphia. I looked at the author bios and was mildly weirded out. What happened there? Whatever it was, I approve of it.
I haven’t read all of your story yet–I’m a grad student and time is sadly lacking at the moment–but I did get a glimpse of some of it and it looked excellent. I’m planning to set some time aside this afternoon to sit down and really give my attention to the rest of the book.
-Sunny M
Oh good grief 🙂 (I lived at 34th and Race for a year. Of course.) Very serendipitous!
No worries — I haven’t got to the rest of the stories in the anthology yet myself. It’ll certainly keep. Hope you enjoy it, though, and I’m looking forward to reading the other contributions myself!