Today my poem, Rest, was published at Every Day Poets. Rest, like so many other things, is dedicated to my mother, Sandra McKenzie and may be triggering for some (especially members of my family).
Also? Fuck cancer.
Category Archives: Published
Published: Beneath
I’m going to call it a brain fart. I totally forgot that my poem, Beneath, was being published on Every Day Poets at the end of February. Totally, totally forgot. For some reason I thought it was being published at the end of this month, but no, that’s a different poem. /facepalm
So. Yes. My poem, Beneath, went live on Every Day Poets on February 25th. I know it’s a little behind the times, but please do take a look and lemme know what you think. I’m pretty fond of this one 🙂
Published: Damage
My poem, Damage, is included in issue #10 of Bete Noire magazine which just went live today. Yay!
As an added bonus I get to share this table of contents with my good friend Beth, who also has a poem in there. Double yay!
Published: Sea and Sky
It’s officially launch day for Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories. Yay!
They are having launch events all over the place, so no matter which end of the country you live in there may be something near you. You can check out the details here: The Heroes (or Villains) Behind the Masks. As you’ll see if you follow that link, the editors are doing something cool. Over the next 24 days they are each writing a short blog post about each story. I love that idea! I already read Claude’s blog about E.L. Chen’s story, Nocturne and once I post this blog I’m going to seek out Camille’s. Also, I won’t lie, my ego can’t wait to see what they say about the story Jo and I contributed, Sea and Sky.
In addition to being able to pick up a copy of this book directly from the publisher you can also find it here and here 🙂
Published: Crimes Against Humanity
My zombie story, Crimes Against Humanity, was published on The WiFiles yesterday. For a while I was writing a lot of zombie stuff set in Edmonton, a lot. This is one of those stories. I hope you like it.
Published: Memories
My vignette, Memories, is included in The Best of Vine Leaves Literary Journal 2012 which was published today.
From the website:
The journal, published quarterly online, is a lush synergy of atmospheric prose, poetry, photography and illustrations, put together with an eye for aesthetics as well as literary merit. The annual print anthology showcases the very best pieces from across the year.
From the haunting prose of Theresa Milstein and Carrie Mumford, to the controversial and quirky work of H. Edgar Hix and Greg Belliveau, the pathological effects of cigarettes and apple seeds, ice sculptures and mental illness are explored. We meet a lovable old man named Joseph and find out out how the good old washing machine can change one’s life. Oh, and how could we forget a mention of the mother with the scissors?
Each vignette merges to create a vivid snapshot in time and place. Prepare for big stories in small spaces, between and beyond the words.
Read one at a time.
Taste them. Savour them. Live them.
Click here to get your copy. I know I’m looking forward to reading mine 🙂
Published: Character
My contributor’s copy of issue #2 of The Scareald arrived in the mail yesterday.
I sold them a poem called “Character” which I wrote as part of last years November Poem a Day challenge and it’s in this issue. I hadn’t mentioned its publication before because the front page of the website hadn’t been updated to show issue #2, but since I have a copy sitting on my desk right now I can safely say it exists 😉 Anyway, I’m very pleased that “Character” could find a home with The Scareald 🙂
It was fun, yesterday, when it arrived. I opened the envelope and set the magazine down on the table while I peeled my address off the envelope before recycling. Danica, who had been doing her homework at the table, picked it up and was like “What’s this?” when the cheque slid out from inside the pages of the magazine.
“Neat trick,” she said and I found myself imagining her going around the house picking up books and magazines at random to see if money would slip out from between their pages. Would be pretty sweet if it worked that way, no?
Published: Sort of Like a Cat
I’m super excited to share my poem, Sort of Like a Cat which was published today at Every Day Poets. Yay! I wrote this poem as a part of a last year’s November poem-a-day challenge. It was inspired by a real event that happened many years ago on my first trip to England.
Please click on over and give it a read. It’s a good way to get yourself in the mood for Halloween tomorrow 😉
Published: Memories
My vignette, Memories, is included in Issue #4 of Vine Leaves Literary Journal. It was actually published at the very begining of this month but I had other things on my mind then so I decided to post about it now. Yay! That same piece is scheduled to be included in Vine Leaves’ best of anthology that’s coming out in December, which makes me extra pleased.
This and That
It’s Danica’s birthday today 🙂 She is now fifteen. Fifteen! Dude. That breaks my brain a little bit. For real.
I am the proudest mother in the world. Danica is a kind, intelligent, creative young lady who is made of win. Her art is anime-esque and often takes a bit of a dark bent, but so far it hasn’t disturbed me too much 😉 I’m looking forward to seeing her illustrate my work someday.
She loves her computer (many of her friends are in there!), but she’s also happy to sit down with a good book. She adores vampires, zombies, ghosts and ghoulies. She actually likes torture-porn movies (like the Saw series, which me no likee) but also gushes about how cute Pikachu is, and does Caramelldansen at random times:
And yes, she does look that cute when she dances it. And yes, she does sing the words. And no, I have no idea what they mean. She could be saying all sorts of bad things and I’d never know. Of course, that’s just not her style 🙂
Happy Birthday Dani!
I think Dani is made of awesome, which is one reason I chose October 5th as the day I wanted to contribute to the 3hundredand65 g
raphic novel. What they are doing is creating a graphic novel one tweet and one day at a time. Everyday someone (it could be you!) writes a tweet to continue the story and then David Kirkwood illustrates it. They are trying to raise money and awareness for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
I won’t lie, the story completely lost me more than once as it writhed its way from one plot twist to another, but then I began to feel like I was begining to get a grip on what was happening. Thank gawd. It would have sucked to have to pass on the oppourtunity to be a part of this project because I was confused. But I didn’t have to. I got to add my tweet.
For those of you who are already following the 3hundredand65 story, I will explain a little bit about why I wrote what I did. We’re getting near the end of the story now and so we need to start tying up some of the loose ends. With that in mind I wanted to bring at least one more of the old characters back into the action with Tink now. Slowly gathering people back together. Though I would most have liked to have written something about Big Lad (because, c’mon, how awesome is he?) way back in the spring Cope was given a five day deadline to atone for his sins. Time being maleable as it is in this story, I’m not actually sure how many days have gone by, but I don’t feel like he’s done much atoning yet so…
Of course there is the problem that Cope and Lad went inside all time… time still passes if you’re in it, right? Or… if you’re inside time are you outside of it? Or… Oh yeah, my head is starting to hurt again.
By leaving Cope’s face disembodied I’m hoping to leave things open to the next writer to decide if the Tinks are imagining him, seeing his reflection or some other, cooler, possibility. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes.
If you’re a writer they are still accepting sign-ups from people who want to contribute to the story. If you’re just a reader or a fan of art, it’s definitely worth checking out too. And if you can afford to, consider making a monetary contribution because, Fuck Cancer.
Published: …Oh My!
This story has a long, complicated history which makes me especially pleased to see it finally find a home in Kzine.
A couple years ago (it may even be a few years ago now) I saw an anthology that was looking for horror stories set in the land of Oz and I thought, “Hmm, zombie munchkins. How awesome would that be?” Eventually, long past that particular anthology’s deadline had passed, I finished writing a story about zombies in the land of Oz.
Around that time I won a charity auction to have Jim C. Hines critique a short story. Guess which one I sent him? 🙂 Jim’s feedback was fantastic. Not only did it help make this story better, but it taught/showed me things that have improved my writing just in general.
I revised the hell out of “…Oh My!” and submitted it to a zombie short story contest. I placed (I think I got third? It’s been a while LOL) and was offered a spot in their upcoming anthology of zombie stories. I accepted.
Then, several months later the anthology fell through. Wheee!
I set to work looking for a new home for this story. Do you know how easy it is to place a zombie story set in Oz? Um. Not very. I collected a lot of fantastic personal rejections, including one that thanked me for giving them the opportunity to write the phrase ‘zombified munchkins’, but no acceptances. And then along came KZine.
I am proud to say that “…Oh My!” is included in their 4th issue which was published this weekend.
KZine is a magazine specifically meant for Kindles, so that’s the only way you can read it. If you have a Kindle and are interested in zombified munchkins you can check out all the details here –> KZine Issue #4
