My short story, Good Shepherd, which was accepted by Ascent Aspirations Magazine, has been published.

Warning: Good Shepherd is a sexually charged story. You’ve been warned.

The link is right here, amigos.

There were a couple of formatting problems (indentations and returns), but it still turned out nice. I emailed them about the formatting problems. There were a couple when they published If Only and the editor fixed them right away.

Anyway...cool, huh?

I’ve sent this story out for consideration. It is officially in the game.

My buddy, Colin Conway, had his short story published at Shred of Evidence today. The story is called “In The Pocket” and is a very cool idea.

Check it out Right Here

Congratulations, Cons.

I finished the first draft of a short story called “Be My Santa Baby” (working title). It’s a dark Christmas tale that I intend to submit to a Christmas-themed issue of an online crime mag.

Any story with the phrase “Ho-ho-ho, motherfucker” in it won’t be mistaken for Miracle On 34th Street, that’s for sure.

My buddy, Colin Conway, recently (10/16/05) wrote a piece about spammers who were putting spam into the comments section on his BLOG entries.

You can read his take here.

Now, I’ve experienced the same thing.

Refer to his post for my very similar feelings.

If anyone knows how to shield against this, please advise. The last thing I want is that crap on my BLOG.

Although the tag next to each on my “Unpublished Short Stories” page says submitted, that doesn’t mean that some of them haven’t come back and been sent out again more than a few times.

Round Trip came back just this week. So did Gently Used. The Worst Door did, before it found a home. Others have been out for a long while. The Meat-Cutter’s Wife has been under consideration at the same eZine for months...but I really want them to accept it, so I’m not complaining.

Any time a story comes back, I look for another place to submit it ASAP. I try not to simultaneously submit and don’t do it if the publications says not to. Even those who allow it, I feel kinda guilty. So I limit each story to two or three submissions at the same time at most.

So, even thought the word “submitted” does not blink on my web page, there are rejections and submissions and rejections and submissions and that is why when a story is accepted, I am thrilled.

I got Heroes Often Fail back from Conway a week or so ago. He was pretty thorough in his editorial pass.

One of the main points he made was that there are a number of scenes in the book that, while interesting and fun, did little to either advance the plot or develop characters.

He was right.

The same is true of Under A Raging Moon.

I’ve given it some thought and I am going to do a revision of both books, cutting out those ‘slice of patrol’ scenes. The ones that will stand alone as a short, I will revise as such. There is a particularly good one in HOF with Matt Westboard, for instance, that I really like.

The ones that don’t stand alone, I will collect together as the basis for a different book. Conway’s suggestion was something like River City: Patrol. This book would be without the emphasis on a serial robber, kidnapped child, serial rapist or organized gangs...just focus on life in patrol.

The down side to this is that I have a contract offer from an ePress that I was about to sign. I can’t do that in good conscience with this revision planned. I’ve written them and we’ll see if they are receptive to reading the newer, slimmer Under A Raging Moon.

Lots of work in the pipeline, boys and girls. All That Counts, revisions, several books in the queue to be written...why can’t I just win the lottery and write full time?

I guess it might help if I ever bought a ticket...

My review of Ilona Hegedus’s new book of poetry has been published in the October issue of All Write Stuff.

Here it is.

If you like eclectic poetry, pick up her book. It will be available soon.

I finished the first draft of a new short story today. It’s called “Helping Out.” It’s listed on my site as being in progress. After a revision or three, I’ll look for a place to submit it and hope it moves to my “Published Short Stories” page.

The story is about a cop who goes to help someone out and ends up in a mess. The cop in the story, at least right now, is Aaron Norris, who appears as a supporting or minor character in other River City short stories and in the novels.

Got some more done today on this book today.

I’m just a shade over 50,000 words now. The problem is that I’m probably only half way through. I’m not going to try to trim it on the first draft, though. I’ll write the book and see where it comes in and then decide where it needs to be cut (if it does).

The main character is about one chapter away from a major turning point in the story. After that, it is a pretty straight drive to the end of the book. The conflict thus far has been him learning a new position (goaltender). The conflict will sharpen after the next game and deepen in the games to come.

I’m hoping to capture the flavor of beer league hockey, as well as show how important recreational sports can be to guys...and yet still show that all things have to be kept in perspective.

It’s a delicate balancing act. We’ll see if I can pull it off, even partially.

Well, while waiting for replies from agents, I sent my list of concerns regarding the contract offer to the publisher. My concerns were extensive, and in checking with experienced folks, valid.

I’d hoped this would signal the beginning of meaningful negotiations.

It didn’t.

I was told the contract changes I requested were “sweeping” [true] and that I didn’t understand the business [only partly true].

They pulled their offer.

Truth be told, it feels kinda weird. Elsewhere, I equated it to really wanting to get a girl into bed, even though you suspect that she’s trouble and might lead to a bad marriage, and then getting dumped by the same girl.

Probably I’m better off elsewhere.

Anyway, if you want to follow the whole sordid mess and input from some published authors, you can do it here.

For now, I’m considering re-submitting all of my novels elsewhere. Another option I am strongly considering is the offer from an ePublisher.

And you’ll notice I didn’t name the small press publisher before, in case things fell through. Now that they have fallen through, I still don’t think I’ll name them. Call it the high road, if you will. Or being professional.

I’m up to 44,000 words now and the story is moving right along.

My short story, ."The Worst Door" was accepted for publication by Literary Dispatch Journal for their inaugural issue (Winter 2006). I’ll post more when I know more, but the acceptance letter was very enthusiastic and I’m pleased that this story found a place.

Another 3000 words or so during my days off. I’ve injected a little more seriousness as things have progressed. I also penciled in a very loose outline of the sort I’ve used on my police novels. It allows me to keep track of where I am and where I’m going, as well as being a place for note-taking and such.

I’m enjoying this story quite a bit. I hope that it will have appeal outside the very small circle of recreational hockey players. There is much in it that is universal and yet some that is unique to hockey, so that is a nice mixture.

I’ll keep plugging away on this until I’ve finished the first draft. I may increase my reader pool a bit over my normal 2-3 people for this particular book.

Well, the title will work for now. I got up to just over 34, 000 words today and this may be a bigger book than I thought. I have a feeling, though, that since I’ve laid a nice foundation for the games, I can go with much shorter chapters as the season winds on.

I’m still injecting humor where I can, but I’ve also started hinting at a drinking problem one player has and tossed in a little bit of a race issue.

I think I can safely say that this is the project I’ll be working on now until it’s finished.

I got another few thousand words on my hockey novel done today.

I think I might have the first working title for it..."All That Counts."

The title comes from a line that an opposing player says to the main character in the parking lot after a game. The main characters team kicked the shit out of the other team. The main character says, “You played well” to the opposing player (the other team’s goaltender).

The opposing player snarls back, “All that counts is what’s on the scoreboard.”

One of the themes of this novel is that this statement is patently untrue.

Anyway, if I still like it when I sit down to work on the next chapter, we might have our first working title. No more “Hockey Novel.”

I’m around 28,000 words right now. Long way to go yet.

This is a River City short short (about 1400 words). Two detectives, Joseph Finch and Elias (haven’t given him a first name yet), appear in another short story, No Good Deed. Well, ‘appear’ is a bit strong. More like, they are mentioned by the narrator, who sees them arrive on scene.

In this story, told from Finch’s perspective, they are outside the door of a house they are hitting with a search warrant. Finch does not want to be there, but he knows that there is no where else he can be. Someone is inside this house that he doesn’t want to face.

I listen to too much Springsteen, because there is another song reference in this piece, too, though it wasn’t the genesis of this story. Even though I have submitted it, that doesn’t mean I won’t be revising it again if the song reference is too clunky (they usually are). But the idea of the story is actually a very personal one and it is a conflict that many members of law enforcement face.

In No Good Deed, the question is, what if a cop runs into someone off-duty that they once arrested? You can read the answer, or one answer at least, here.

The question here is, how does an officer deal with the problem of someone s/he loves being on the wrong side of the law? And which is greater, the bond of love or the oath of office? And is the answer to that a constant one, or is there a threshold?

Hopefully, this story will be published and you’ll be able to read the answer, or at least one answer.

I wrote this very short piece of flash fiction (less than 800 words) about a small town woman finding escape vicariously in a man she meets at a bar, and willing to pay for that escape in the world’s oldest coin.

The title comes from a line in a Springsteen song, “Loose Change.” It was never released on an album proper, coming out in the Tracks collection. It’s a great song. The first two verses are vignettes of a man and woman meeting in a bar and retiring elsewhere for a sexual encounter, and that got me to thinking about loneliness and small town desperation.

This story is currently being submitted.

Oh, and why is it a great song? Here’s a snippet:

Sitting at a bar stool, Miss A Little Time On Her Hands
Yeah, I knew she was trouble
but trouble sure was looking fine
And when I held her close
what I knew kinda slipped my mind...

I’m just over 25,000 words on my hockey novel. It still doesn’t have a title, but the words are flowing easily.

Sometimes it works that way. I’ve sat down to write a story or a book with the title already chosen before the first word is out. Other times, like with Waist Deep, I didn’t have a title until 2/3 of the way through the book. Up to that point, it was just Kopriva Novel. So, right now, my title is Hockey Novel.

I’m having a lot of fun writing this. The characters are fun and like I said, the words are coming easily. There’s some humor in it for layman and hockey aficionado alike (the hockey folks will laugh more and louder, but not alone), but it will have some serious elements, too.

It’s also a nice break from the crime fiction I usually write. Not that I don’t enjoy that–I do immensely–but you should take breaks even from the things you love sometimes.

Besides, I haven’t taken a total break...I wrote two very short pieces, discussed above.