Mr Bowen goes to the Publishers

And so now it's time to blow off the cobwebs and give you all an update;

- I did get my Masters. Went to Parliament House to the ceremony and everything.

- I am currently in the process of editing the creative element of my thesis for submission to a publisher

- I've even had a poke around the interweb and found a couple of potential people to submit to. I'll be sending out some e-mails to them in the not-too-distant future (which I've been saying for many months now, but this time I mean it

- I'll keep y'all posted when I actually pull my thumb out and do something...

Finished my thesis today and with it about 90% of a novel draft. Only anothe 4000-5000 words and it'll be ready to send away. Actually, it's ready to start flogging now, so maybe I should once and for all pull my digit out and just do it.

This time in "First". It's a collection of work from the students of UC's creative writing students. While usually limited to first-time writers (hence the name), this year the editor decided she should include some examples of some post-graduate and more established writers. So I (eventually) flicked her one or two of my pieces and she chose one. It's a zombie story (big shock there), written in 2nd person (which is harder than you think) and my biggest problem was coming up with a title for the damn thing, given that it's actually part of my Masters thesis.

I'm not sure exactly when "First" (2005) will be published, but I'll keep you all posted.

Guess what, gang? You know that short story I mentioned in my first post? "Kidnapping"? Well, it got a mention in Datlow and Windling's "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror". This is the 16th edition of the book, and features a collection of short stories from authors like Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Dowling. It also includes a rundown of the year's TV, comics, movies, books and Anime and a long list of honorable mentions (while not actually publishing the story), including my story! How freakin' cool is that?

Okay, so maybe I wanted this LJ to be a bit more formal, but I've got an honorable mention in an international collection of short stories. That's just awesome!!

After years of just sitting around and hoping an editor or publisher would suddenly walk into my lounge room, look over my shoulder and read one of my stories while I typed, I thought I should actually start to submit my work to people. Of course, being the geek that I am, I couldn't just potter away in the background, submitting things and maybe keeping the world up to date in my day to day blog, so I figured I'd start a new blog and track my progress. This does mean that if you like my writing style and want to hear me rave about the latest film I've seen or rant about annoying customers, then you'll have to go elsewhere.

So, my current record is one submission rejected and one published (look for the short story "kidnapping"). Let's see what we can do about that...