A Year of Anthologies

Antho, antho, antho...
Up until now my stories have only ever appeared in magazines. I've submitted to a few anthologies over the past few years but without success, but then, if I'm honest, I haven't really pursued that avenue with any great verve. No particular reason. When looking to sub a new story I always weigh up the pros and cons no matter what the potential market, be it zine or antho: response time, pay rate, level of potential exposure, print vs. electronic, being the main considerations. Most of the time, magazines win out.

This year, however, it seems to be all about anthologies.
Of the eight stories I have on submission at the moment three of them are with anthologies. Also, 'Wizard's Gambit' is due to appear in the Arcane Whispers anthology from Sorcerous Signals editor Carol Hightshoe in May. Two of my stories, Guardian and The View from the Bridge, will appear in Tales From the Asylum's fourth annual collection later this year.
And Niteblade editor Rhonda Parrish has just announced that the fifth issue of her fab ezine will be a print anthology featuring the best of the first four issues as well as some new material based on a piece of artwork. There's no guarantee the two stories I've had published in Niteblade will make it, but wouldn't it be nice if one of them did?

A Note on Prolificacy
Following on from the anthology thing, Lawrence Dagstine, on the Whispers of Wickedness forum, is testing the water with an antho idea based around the work of prolific writers - that is, writers with publishing credits in the hundreds. Knowing I was nowhere near my first hundred stories, and just out of interest, I went back and totted up my total short story output over the past four years. The result? Including flash fiction, I've just finished my 40th short. Hmm. Forty stories in four years. Is that good, bad, or mediocre? Dunno, really. But considering all the other things constantly demanding my time these days, I think it's a ruddy miracle I hit the big 4-0!

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