A Quick Update and Some Good News

I've been "off-radar" for some time now. Busy with work, busy with the baby, busy writing reviews for Booksquawk (which is going swimmingly and is well worth a visit - the site is updated daily so there is always something new to see)... There's been so much going on that I've barely had time to work on The Sound of Shiant... I'm about two chapters away from completing the first draft and hope to have that done by the end of January. The next step would be to go through it and flesh it out a bit by adding more period detail...
Anyhow, the good news is that I've just received an email from Ron Warren, the editor of a nice little webzine called The Nautilus Engine (www.thenautilusengine.com). He's accepted a story of mine called Dead Man's Hand for inclusion in the February 2010 issue. I'll provide a link when the story goes live. For now, you'll just have to settle for the promotional blurb.

"We live in a strange world, Sheriff. If we spent all our time worrying about that which we couldn't explain, we'd do nothing else. I'm afraid that men our age don't have that much time left to us."
When a cardsharp begins to dominate the poker tables of Desolation Springs, the citizens are baffled by his unusual talent. A gruff, middle-aged man with a broken nose and a clouded past seems to be the only person capable of challenging him but Sheriff Elmer T. Wyle can't bring himself to trust the stranger.