timwburke

Hi! You guys seem to like more personal perspective, so today I’ll mention what I’m working on.

I just finished “Blood In The Pool”, a 1512 word story leaning very heavily on “Bullet To The Brain” by Tobias Wolff. Here’s a link to the Wolff story. You read the word “fascinated” on social media a lot as some passing “oh-lookie” click-bait BS. But I am fascinated by this story. Wolff performs two tone changes in under 2000 words and he sticks the landing. I love all three of the tones, and wish my work to give people all three feelings. I can do an in-depth breakdown of this story if you’d like.

I had done the Weird fiction workshop online from Clarion West. The teacher Ian Munshawer has just had a short story nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. I hope his story wins, because it really does invoke Jackson’s dread. Anyway, I workshopped an old story that everybody seemed to really like “Revenge Of The Son Of The Fly”, a riff on the short story “The Fly” which inspired all those movies. I’m waiting until September for specific markets to open up so I cna submit.

Also, I’m planning on sending out the first chapter of “Saints Of Flesh” as a short story. Again that will go out in September.

I’m working on maybe getting onto some podcasts. Figuring out what to talk about is challenging. My bio will tell you about my unusual upbringing, so there’s that. Talking about getting into horror through comedy is a thing, I guess. I haven’t done enough with sigils to have a lot to discuss. I could be brazenly open about my personal challenges and growth, but that would invite engagement I may not want.

Or I could talk about overthinking.

Noble Fusion is sending ARCs of “Saints” to get blurbs and reviews, and so far there’s encouraging receptivity.