I have to smile—my last post talked about a long dry spell,
not a single placement in February, which was my worst February since 2016,
before I had placed anything at all! But I just had my best March ever, four
placements. And three of them at pro rates! The last is my one hundredth
placement and you can bet I’m feeling very chuffed about that!
On March 1st my horror piece Prophecy of the Beast was picked up by the anthology Deep Sea, from the Australian publisher
Black Hare Press, my second story with them. The following day my SF short Moongrove by Earthlight found a home
with Selene Quarterly: I wrote it for
them a year ago but missed their submission window by a couple of days, so am
very glad it was right up their alley. They’re still paying the older pro rate,
but I’m happy to count it as such.
Three days later, I had an amazing windfall placement: I
sent my Sherlock Holmes piece The Mystery
of the Perspicacious Waif to Sherlock
Holmes Mystery Magazine, and they bought it promptly, but, as the story
driver introduces an occult element, the editor suggested it appear in another
title from their stable—nothing less than the grand old lady of American Horror
fiction, Weird Tales! WT pays right
up in the pro range, so I couldn’t be happier.
Then I had a three week drought. The pandemic was starting
to bite in that period and I wondered if the flow-on effects would mean an
especially long time between drinks, but yesterday I scored a pro placement
with the Colorado
I have around ninety submissions in play and several more
stories to write for upcoming deadlines—so I better get busy!
Cheers, Mike Adamson
Header image from a
royalty-free source.
