Share the Love, a Reading, ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo, & Links!

Hello! It's Halloween, which is my favorite holiday. Although I recently had an epiphany that it's not the day, but the month leading up to it. When else is the macabre so acceptable to everyone? I'm also a huge fan of fall, so horror + fall = AMAZING!

I've got a reading come up in Denver:

And look! Our reading is #13. How fortuitous!

Each Halloween I put out a table full of books for all ages. For years I've been saving friends' signed books on my shelves after reading them, feeling like that was the way it should be, but then I had another epiphany (so many epiphanies in this post): shouldn't I be sharing their books out instead of keeping them on a shelf? So this year I'll have a bunch of books by friends. From here on out, if I attend a signing I'll just have them sign their books instead of personalizing them. That way, people get a signed book for Trick or Read.

Last weekend I went to MileHiCon. Friday I did a reading of a story I haven't yet sent out for publication. Saturday I participated in something called The Reading Game. Like The Dating Game, TRG has three options (authors) behind a screen, and one player (reader) asks questions until they decide who to "date." The chosen author then gives the reader a book/books. Third time was the charm, so after being up there three times, someone chose me. Woot! Sunday I did a panel on Wry Characters We Love. All in all, it was a good weekend, full of walks, food, friends, and that contagious creative energy that comes from writing events.

With November just around the corner (okay, it's not a corner, it's a step away), many of you will be doing NaNoWriMo. I'll be doing my usual ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo, so here are my goals for that:

1- Finish Nuts!
2- Finish one short story per week in November
3- Get all previously written short stories edited and on submission

That should be plenty for the month, I think.

Now for some links. Bear in mind I'm not endorsing these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence before submitting.

Accepting Submissions:

Shooter Literary Magazine is seeking short stories, essays, poetry, etc. with the theme "supernatural." Pays for publication. Deadline November 17.

Claw & Blossom is seeking prose and poetry with the theme "ring." Must contain some element of the natural. Pays $25. Deadline November 25.

Bronzeville Books is seeking short speculative fiction stories with a "twisted love" theme. Up to 3150 words. Pays $.05/word. Deadline November 26.

Ninth Letter is seeking short fiction, poetry, and essays in varying windows through February 28. Pays $25 per printed page.

Dragon Soul Press is seeking short stories with the theme "lost love." 5000 to 15,000 words. Pays for publication. Deadline November 30.

Black Beacon Books is seeking mystery short stories and novellas. 2500 to 7000 words for short stories, up to 25,000 words for novellas. Pays for publication. Deadline November 30.

Jay Henge Publishing is seeking short fiction for three anthologies: Sensory Perceptions, Whigmaleeries & Wives' Tales, and Sunshine Superhighway. Flash to 20,000 words. Pays $5/1000 words. Deadline November 30.

Do you keep all fellow authors' books, or do you donate/sell them? Do you do Trick or Read? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Are any of these links of interest? Anything to share?

May you find your Muse.