This has been a pretty surprising year, because I’ve gotten six (6? 6!) short story acceptances/publications so far! There’s been a bumper crop of weird Westerns with Long Dry Waste and Shift Work, and in the next six months (maybe! Publishing!) there’ll be:

• A robo-witch making magic out of dried beans and welded metal;
• A mercenary who trusts her nose for money a little too much;
• A poem about wolves in human clothing;
• A reprint of MOVEMENT!

I am excited about all of these for their own unique reasons. The robo-witch story uses a very odd experimental writing style (at least, it was an odd style for me to use, probably some sci-fi nerd has already done it to death but it’s experimental for meee); the mercenary story had racked up 20 rejections before finding a home; the poem is my first stand-alone poem I have ever written for publication and it got accepted first try, hot damn; and Movement will be my first-ever reprint! Because writing is my occasional hobby-job instead of full-time pay-the-bills job, I don’t tend to reflect on it that much, but this year has certainly been some kind of milestone. To paraphrase the movie Mrs. Bennett, “Just think! Two Sterling Acton stories published and four others just tottering on the brink!”