Niteblade Art Blog: Draken Photography

The latest installment of the Niteblade Art Blog, Draken Photography, is now on-line at Niteblade News. This time around, I feature something a little different. This time I feature the alternative photography of David Watkins, the man behind the lens at Draken Photography.

Check it out!

Reprint Poems Accepted at APHELION

Four of my poems originally published in various issues of The Monsters Next Door, as well as one published in the Scattered Verses, Moonlit Curses dark poetry anthology, have been accepted for publication in forthcoming issues of the web-zine Aphelion.

"Howling on the Moor", originally published May 2009 in Scattered Verses, Moonlit Curses, will appear in the March issue. My cinquain "When Hunger Takes Me" , originally published March 2009 in The Monsters Next Door Issue 6, will appear in the April issue. My horrorku "parting red curtains", "glimmering embers", and "black leathery wings", all originally published September 2008 in The Monsters Next Door Issue 4, will appear in the May, June, and July issues, respectively.

I'm glad these will be back on-line (this will be the first appearance of "Howling on the Moor" on-line), and I'm glad they fill in an otherwise thin list of forthcoming publications. They may not be new poems, but reprints are better than nothing.

Wrote a story...

I actually wrote a short story, a 2,700-some-odd word tale about an evil wizard summoning the alpe. This is the first bit of prose fiction larger than a drabble I've written in something like three years. I wrote plenty of poems and several articles in that time, but my prose fiction writing ground to a complete standstill. I've been meaning to get back to prose fiction, but never got around to it until now.

The story has already been sent out into the cold, cruel world (hopefully not so cold and cruel because the editor in question had requested a story from me, but we shall see.) I'm actually kind of nervous because I don't have a proven track record when it comes to prose fiction. What if I can't write publishable prose fiction? What if the editor doesn't like it? What if no one likes it? I guess I just wait and see what happens.

Fingers crossed!

Art in DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES 85

Today, I received my contributor's copies of Dreams and Nightmares 85. This issue contains my filler art "Plantimal", on page 11, below Bruce Boston's poem "Death of a Changeling". The publication of "Plantimal" is actually my first publication of 2010.

Does this herald a trend toward more art publications and less writing publications? I don't know. Perhaps it simply heralds more balance between the two facets of my creativity.

I know acceptances and publications seem to be fewer and farther between this year than in past years, but that's okay. Some of this is due to the fact that I've been spending less time getting individual poems, articles, and art sent out to various venues, and more time working on bigger projects. Plus, I still have a few poems, articles, and illustrations on my list of forthcoming publications. I also know that I have a handful of illustrations yet to do for things being published later this year. So I'm not worried that I'm going to fade away, not just yet. Not to mention, I'm still hopeful that my one illustrated dark poetry collection will come out later this year. (Which reminds me, I had better respond to the poetry editor's edits later today.)

2009 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll Results

It looks like the results are in for the 2009 Preditors & Editors Readers Poll, and it looks like I finished in the top ten in five of the six categories in which I was nominated. Not bad, but perhaps there is room for improvement.

The results are:

In the Poem Category, "The Haunted Castle" (published in The Absent Willow Review) all by itself in seventh place.

In the Non-Fiction Article Category, "Speculative Poetry: Past, Present, and Future" (published in Abandoned Towers on-line) tied at sixth place with "Interview with Joe Abercrombie" by Lucien E. G. Spelman.

In the Artwork Category, my illustration for "West Dingleton's Loss of Humanity" (published in Abandoned Towers on-line) all by itself in seventh place.

In the Magazine/E-zine Cover Art Category, my cover art for Abandoned Towers Issue #3 tied at seventh place with M. D. Jackson's cover art for Abandoned Towers Issue #4 and Robert Hoyem's cover art for Shock Totem. "A Leviathan Ascendant" also appears on the list separately, in an eight-way tie for tenth place. This is a bit confusing, since "A Leviathan Ascendant" also appeared on the cover page of the November 2009 issue of the e-zine MindFlights Is this second entry for that cover, or for the July 2009 Abandoned Towers cover? I suspect this second entry is for the second use of the art, but I could be wrong.

In the Poet Category, I came in tied with Ash Krafton for fifth place, my best placing in this year's poll.

Alas, I didn't make it in the top ten in the Artist Category. I came in tied with several other artists at sixteenth place. I didn't finish in the top ten in that category in the 2008 P&E Reader Poll, and I missed it again this time out. Drat!

I don't really know what all this means, if it means much at all, especially in categories where there weren't any finishers outside of the top ten!. I do know it means I can put more of those fancy "Top Ten Finisher" plaques on my web site. Apart from that, I really don't know how significant any of this is in the greater scheme of things.

Of course, I say this now, but when the time comes to beat the bushes for votes yet again, watch me try to beat even harder next time!

Poem Accepted at HOUSE OF HORROR

My dark poem "Your Bloody Face", originally published in the February 2008 issue of Tales from the Moonlit Path, and one of a number of my poems in the Scattered Verses, Moonlit Curses dark poetry anthology, has been accepted for publication in the Valentines issue of House of Horror. Since this poem is supposed to be a horrific twist on love poetry, and since it appeared once before in a Valentines issue, it seems appropriate for it to appear in the Valentines issue of House of Horror.

As much as I've been a past advocate of sending out new material versus sending out a bunch of reprints (some places don't take reprints), for me 2010 may be the year of the reprint. I simply don't have a lot of new material for my submission pool, and since I'm working on other things (like lots of art), I don't have the time to compose loads of new poems. Hopefully I'll find some time to do a little writing, but I think my days of having thirty to forty poems in my submission pool are long past. Then again, if my muse gets all stirred up, no telling what might happen.

Arcane Whispers Volume 2

This might have been out for a while, but somehow I missed it. That's not like me at all, but things do get hectic around here, and certain publications may slip under the radar.

Anyway, Arcane Whispers Volume 2: The Best of Sorcerous Signals 2008 is now available through Amazon.com in print and in a Kindle version. It contains, among other fine works of fantasy, my poem "Kamal Del and the Dark Elemental" (on page 72, according to the ToC). This is another one of my wizardly pieces. Strangely enough, I seem to be more adept at writing poems about wizards than I am writing poems about warriors, which is odd considering my D&D wizards always died a quick and gruesome death. I might not have been able to play wizards well, but I seem to be able to write wizards well.

I'm always excited when my stuff appears in "best of" anthologies. It makes me feel like I might actually know what I'm doing. Alas, the feeling is always all too fleeting. Still, "best of" anthologies are one of the best kind of reprints.