Today I read about the closure of Bards and Sages Quarterly. Only now discovered this sad news, since I’ve been out of the loop for quite some time. Like the Bards and Sages editor Julie Ann Dawson, I’ve been struggling with my own health issues, and although this hasn’t stopped me, it has slowed me down a little.

I have fond memories of Bards and Sages (and of its editor who, as I mentioned before, was one of the nicest I’d worked with). Dawson published some of my very early efforts over more than a decade ago (God how things have changed!) in a publication that, despite being small press, always held itself to a high standard and I’m proud to have been a part of it.

I had five stories published by Dawson in the quarterly under my name, a few under pen names, and a couple of stories in her anthologies, as previously mentioned here : https://bachard.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/blored-with-blog/

It’s in the title. 🙂

I feel as if I should add that famous quote by Mark Twain … yes, I’m still around, still writing furiously and in another language (as I mentioned in a previous post), still publishing occasionally (most of the time under pen names) – I’m just not engaging with the small press as much as I used to.

I have a rare piece of flash fiction here: The Little Book of Cursed Dolls, which you can get through the publisher on Amazon. I think my story “Dolls” is in the preview of the paperback.

As I think I mentioned somewhere on here a while back, since things changed in the small press so dramatically in recent years, I stopped sending anything out – but I never stopped writing. I was feeling demoralised by the small press not by writing itself. In fact I’ve been writing more than ever, and in another language on top of that. Occasionally I do still send something out, if I happen to come across a publication that seems a good match for something I’ve written.

I have a story going into a horror anthology due out next year. More details to follow when I get the full info on it.

Honoured to be one of the three judges for the final cut in the short story competition “Long Story Short Award 2020” being held by Short Edition. Universities around the world are taking part.

Looking forward to reading the finalists in December. 🙂

From the publisher Short Edition:

“Starting October 5th, Short Edition invites students from all participating universities to submit your short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction of 7,500 characters or less, entering into our first ever inter-university contest, Long Story Short Award 2020.” 

https://short-edition.com/en/contest/longstoryshortaward-fall-2020/jury-members

I always do my best writing whilst wearing a disguise.

Got a story going “in” to Short Edition, and “out” with their story dispensers. More to follow…

Almost forgot this place existed. 🙂

I’m back on Twitter @

Twitter. com/KurtBachard

Released today on Amazon through Dreaming Robot Press https://dreamingrobotpress.com/

One of my longer stories (just under 10,000 words) featuring a child as the main protagonist will be going into the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide 2018 in a limited edition of the anthology, published by Dreaming Robot Press.

Looking forward to this one, especially since placing long stories (novellas/novelettes) usually takes quite a bit of time.

http://dreamingrobotpress.com/

https://twitter.com/dreaming_robot

https://www.facebook.com/dreamingrobotpress/

More to come; not sure of dates yet.

I love the title of this anthology, to be published by Claren Books. The brilliant Bill Adler Jr. is to publish one of my short stories (literary fiction) for the Binge-Watching Cure anthology, publication date mid/late 2017.

Looks like it’s going to be a whopper of an anthology with stories ranging from 100 to 25,000 word.

From site:

The Binge-Watching Cure

http://clarenbooks.com/

May issue of AHMM left in the reading area for the patrons of The Imperial Durbar in South London, just around the corner from Tooting Bec station.

AHMM May issue, containing my novella “The Empty Space”, out now.

In May’s issue: “Bad ideas often make for good stories. Advising your friend on her love life? Messing about with volatile chemicals? Sharing details of a wealthy client’s will? What could go wrong?

So many, many things, as the stories in our annual humor issue demonstrate. Before you issue a magical challenge to your longtime romantic rival, or abruptly cancel your Hawaiian vacation for a part in a troubled theater production, or seek to engage in collective bargaining when your profession is burglary, ask yourself, what could go wrong?

Or don’t, because the results will be that much more entertaining for the rest of us.”

https://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/

For an excerpt of the story : https://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/excerpts/excerpt1.aspx

Geminid’s brilliant anthology “Night Lights” goes on sale at Amazon today and will be on sale in paperback later this month.

Night Lights is a trilogy of science fiction works in one anthology: First Contact, Conspiracy, and Space Opera. You’ll find my comic sci-fi story “The Singular Martian Invasion” in First Contact.

From Amazon: “The short stories in Night Lights are populated with aliens, high and low technology, spaceships — including one with divine aspirations and one helmed by an otter — humans and not-so-human artificial intelligences, Earth locales, and far-off new worlds. There’s more too, and in each tale, the characters’ struggles will stretch your imagination and sense of reality, while posing profound questions about morality, society and justice, and raising uncertainties of the unknown and unchecked technological evolution. With 21 original stories from talented, new authors about extraterrestrials, conspiracies, and space exploration, Night Lights is full of moments that will make you gasp, shudder, laugh, and wonder.”

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Lights-Anthology-Fiction-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B01BUL411Q

My 12,000 word Hitchcockian novella will be printed in the May 2016 issue of AHMM. Goes on sale mid-March apparently. Look out for it!

2016 marks the 60th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/

I know when to go out.
I know when to stay in.
Get things done…