Notices
New perk for Critter members — Free ads for your books
Many Critterfolk have asked if they could advertise their books and stories on Critters. I know how important it is to get the word out — and how hard that is — so I decided heck, let's try it as an experiment and see how it goes. Details are here
The State of The Future?
What are your thoughts about the future (as in, "The Future")? Is the future healthy or are people burned out on it? Share your thoughts at http://newnewforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=553
Ebook Pricing Results, and an Experiment
The results are in! I've written up an analysis of the results of that Ebook Pricing Survey I conducted. The analysis is at:
Vote for Your Favorites!
It has polls for your all-time favorite books / short stories / poems / poets / authors, each in genres of mainstream / SF&F / horror / mystery / romance / erotica / thriller / childrens / young adult / nonfiction. (Ok, there's no "nonfiction poetry" category but... :) )
Please give it a try, vote for your favorites, and please spread the word. The more people vote the better the scoring gets. Hope you find it useful!
Wishes for the Future
What do you want the future to hold? World peace? Self-driving cars? Share your dreams of the future, big or small, on the Wishes for the Future forum. What would you love to see? (It's part of my NewNewForum.com site. Meant to be fun, and it's anonymous, so don't be shy!) We're 73% of the way there, thanks!
Woo-hoo!
My unscientific estimate is that members of Critters are around 10X more likely to make sales than non-critters (but cause and effect? who knows?. Regardless, this page is to celebrate our successes!
Critter Robert Qualkinbush has analyzed the reports below and created a summary page of how many sales Critters have had. Fascinating, and astounding! Good going to you all.
If you have something to report, tell me immediately!
Also see the NewNewForum.com to read about and announce more new projects (in writing, tech, or any other field).
Congratulations to...
| Rick Farnsworth, who sold his (Critter'd) novel, "Succumbing to Gravity" to Reliquary Press. {Thanks to critters and the members that helped me to hone skills and polish works, my Novel "Succumbing to Gravity" is now out with Reliquary Press (www dot reliquarypress dot com). Thanks to all. } [Jul 2010] |
| Carrie Cuinn, who sold her short story, "Mitch's Girl" to Rigor Amortis. {Rigor Amortis is an anthology of zombie stories, forthcoming from Absolute XPress. } [Jul 2010] |
| Jeff Chapman, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Master and the Miller's Daughter" to Residential Aliens. [Jul 2010] |
| Richard Zwicker, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Selective Memory" to The Rejected Quarterly. [Jul 2010] |
| Christopher Kastensmidt, whose poem, "Propelled" is now out in the current issue of Mindflights. [Jul 2010] |
| Christopher Kastensmidt, who sold his short story, "Dragon Dreams on Cardboard Wings and Tiny Scraps of Yellow" to Daily Science Fiction. [Jul 2010] |
| Ricardo Bare, whose (Critter'd) short story, "The Rat Burner" is now out in the current issue of Shock Totem. {Thanks everybody for the great feedback. Always appreciated. } [Jul 2010] |
| Vincent Jorgensen, whose (Critter'd) short story, "A Case of the Mondays" is now out in the current issue of Golden Visions Magazine. {Thanks to all Critters who critiqued this back in ought six. } [Jul 2010] |
| Ken Liu, whose short story, "The Phoenix" is now out in the current issue of On the Premises. [Jul 2010] |
| Heather Harris, who reports "I have publishing information from a couple of people in New York and I might get published soon". {I'm really excited about this opportunity. } [Jul 2010] |
| Michael Vella, who reports "The collaborative story "The Longest Distance Between Two Places" written with Tom Waters has received an Honorable Mention in the Q2 2010 Writers of the Future Awards". [Jun 2010] |
| Andy Mashaw, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Grey Skies"" is now out in the current issue of Strange Weird and Wonderful Magazine. {This was sold a few months ago but is featured in the summer edition--out July 1st. "Grey Skies" went through critters around October. This was my first attempt at short fiction...and first sale. Thanks very much to all 7 critters who read it-and helpd tweak the ending- (and get it sold). Check it out at Strange Weird and Wonderful's site. } [Jun 2010] |
| Sarah Frost, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "Falls the Firebrand" to Analog. {This piece was Crittered under the title "Thirsty Work." } [Jun 2010] |
| Maegan Bergstrom, who sold her short story, "Seeds" to A Fly in Amber. {It will be appearing in the next issue of the zine. } [Jun 2010] |
| Stephen Gaskell, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Lacuna Blues" to Music for Another World Anthology. {This went through Critters back in 2006 under the name "Frank Sinatra is Singing Between the Stars". Thanks to all who gave me their thoughts back then. Hope some of you are still around! } [Jun 2010] |
| Jaleta Clegg, who sold her short story, "Omega Museum" to Last Man Anthology. [Jun 2010] |
| Stephen V. Ramey, who sold his short story, "A Conversation With Mother" to Flash Me Magazine. [Jun 2010] |
| Stephen V. Ramey, who sold his short story, "A Conversation With Mother" to Flash Me Magazine. {In their May issue, available online. } [Jun 2010] |
| Stephen V. Ramey, whose short story, "The Last Liverbeast" is now out in the current issue of A Fly in Amber. {In their May issue, available online. } [Jun 2010] |
| Stephen V. Ramey, whose short story, "Cycles" is now out in the current issue of Everyday Fiction. [Jun 2010] |
| Frank Oreto, whose (Critter'd) short story, "The Hand You're Dealt" is now out in the current issue of Pseudopod.org. {So the story is out and you can listen to it for free. You can even leave feedback on the pseudopod forum if you don't mind registering. Thanks again for all the help. Frank Oreto } [Jun 2010] |
| Eileen Rhoadarmer, who sold her short story, "Night Terrors" to Doomology: The Dawning of Disasters. [Jun 2010] |
| Sheila Crosby, whose short story, "The Circle Line" is now out in the current issue of Untied Shioelaces of the Mind. {This story wasn't crittered because it's not speculative fiction. In fact, I was surprised to see they've labelled it as "Literary". } [May 2010] |
| Kim Neville, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "Meriel's Brownie" to Leading Edge Magazine. [May 2010] |
| Jeff Chapman, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Esme's Amulet" to Golden Visions Magazine. [May 2010] |
| Fred Obermeyer, who sold his short story, "Hands On Approach" to Doomology: The Dawning of Disasters anthology. [May 2010] |
| Dwayne Minton, whose (Critter'd) short story, "The Fine Art of Surfacing" is now out in the current issue of OGs Speculative Fiction (Issue 24). {This one got crittered a while ago. My thanks to all of those who commented. } [May 2010] |
| Stephen Gaskell, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Terrarium" to Scape. {"The Terrarium" went through Critters back in early 2006 under the lacklustre title, "Fears". After several rewrites, and constant scanning of Duotrope for suitable markets, it has finally found a home with Scape, an e-zine for YA speculative fiction that launches next year. Thanks to all who gave me feedback! } [May 2010] |
| KJ Hannah Greenberg, whose (Critter'd) novel, "Oblivious to the Obvious: Wishfully Mindful Parenting" is now out from French Creek Press. {Order from Amazon today! (excerpts available at KJHannahGreenberg.net) } [May 2010] |
| Kelly Metz, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "Uninvited" to Silver Moon, Bloody Bullets: An Anthology of Werewolf Tails. {This piece was crittered under the title "Call Me Late For Dinner." } [May 2010] |
| Michael Andre-Driussi, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Mad Dogs of Mercury" is now out in the current issue of M-Brane SF #16 (May). {(Many issues of "M-Brane SF," including this one, are available over at Lulu.com.) The story started out as "R3D MERCURY," then changed name for the rewrite. A total of 29 crits, IIRC, for which I offer thanks. } [May 2010] |
| Michael Andre-Driussi, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Mentally Gifted Mutants" is now out in the current issue of This Mutant Life #2 (May 2010). {("This Mutant Life" is a new Australian magazine dedicated to superhero-related fiction.) Thank you for the 53 crits! } [May 2010] |
| Frank Dutkiewicz, who reports "My reviews are now on Diabolical Plots! Visit the latest writers magazine. Diabolical Plots interviews the biggest names in Speculative fiction and announces the latest publications to hit the market. Come check out my newest detail reviews of Bull Spec # 1 and the Writers of the Future anthology!". [May 2010] |
| Frank Dutkiewicz, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Playgel Riser" to Strange, Weird, and Wonderful. [May 2010] |
| Abra Staffin-Wiebe, whose (Critter'd) short story, "These Things Take Time" is now out in the current issue of Emerald Tales. {Cloning meets marriage counseling! Read for free in Vol. 2 Num. 2 at www.scribblersandinkspillers.com/emeraldtales.html (scroll to the bottom) Thanks all for the critiques! } [May 2010] |
| Abra Staffin-Wiebe, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "The Radiator Burped" to Northern Lights: A MinnSpec Anthology. [May 2010] |
| Jack Calverley, who reports "My reading of the short story "Risqueman" by Mike Wood has been podcast on StarShipSofa (5th May edition)". [May 2010] |
| Richard S Levine, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Remorse above Enceladus" to Raygun Revival. {Thanks to everyone who contributed Critters feedback for this story. I'll let you know when it appears online. } [May 2010] |
| Richard S Levine, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Remorse above Enceladus" to Raygun Revival. {Thanks to everyone who contributed Critters feedback for this story. I'll let you know when it appears online. } [May 2010] |
| Jerry Gordon, whose (Critter'd) short story, "City of Refuge" is now out in the current issue of Apex Magazine. {"City of Refuge" is available online for free in both text and audio formats. If you have the chance, check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section over at Apex. Special thanks to Critters Mike Stone and Justin Pilon for their help with this one! } [May 2010] |
| JA Howe, who reports "I'm going to be guest speaking at a digital writer's convention in May". {anyone interested, here's the info: coyotecon.com. (only http for the link). People will be discussing all sorts of fiction from steampunk to poetry, historical fic to horror. There'll also be a writing challenge going on all month. Come check it out! } [Apr 2010] |
| Adam Heine, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Pawn's Gambit" is now out in the current issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. {Critter'd as "The Knocker." Thank you to everyone who provided feedback! } [Apr 2010] |
| Constance Miller, whose short story, "A Horse Named Ben" is now out in the current issue of Horses That Save Lives - True Stories of Physical, Emotional and Spritual Rescue. {My story about Ben is in a book edited by Cheryl Dudley } [Apr 2010] |
| Leah Cypess, whose (Critter'd) novel, "Mistwood" is now out from Greenwillow/HarperCollins. {This YA fantasy, which many of you read parts of when it was called Shifter, recently got a starred review from Kirkus (woohoo x 2!) and is out in the world as of April 27. It would never have made it out the slush pile without Critters -- thanks! } [Apr 2010] |
| Tracy Canfield, whose short story, "Heist" is now out in the current issue of Analog. [Apr 2010] |
| Ken Liu, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Man Who Ended History" to Panverse Three. {Thanks to everyone who gave me comments on this novella. I'm glad that it found such a great home at Panverse Publishing. } [Apr 2010] |
| Joseph S. Spence, Sr., who reports "Mercy Support for Haiti - Book Published!". {Hello My Fellow Critters, This is a poetry anthology video I helped with to support the earthquake victims and children in Haiti with medical supplies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DLmCEPJYLc Please review the video and, if desire, purchase a poetry anthology to help our "Project of Mercy" for Haiti. We will be most thankful if you could please inform your friends and relations also. May God’s grace continue to smile upon you, your family, and your loved one from henceforth to everlasting. Blessings, Joseph "Epulaeryu Master" Spence, Sr. www.TheAwakenedOnePoetics.com “Enlightened, peel away the layers, behold pure gold!” } [Apr 2010] |
| Joseph S. Spence, Sr., who reports "Mercy Support for Haiti - Book Published!". {Hello My Fellow Critters, This is a poetry anthology video I helped with to support the earthquake victims and children in Haiti with medical supplies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DLmCEPJYLc Please review the video and, if desire, purchase a poetry anthology to help our "Project of Mercy" for Haiti. We will be most thankful if you could please inform your friends and relations also. May God’s grace continue to smile upon you, your family, and your loved one from henceforth to everlasting. Blessings, Joseph "Epulaeryu Master" Spence, Sr. “Enlightened, peel away the layers, behold pure gold!” } [Apr 2010] |
| Joseph S. Spence, Sr., who sold his (Critter'd) poem, "Celebrating in Poetry The 20th Century" to www.apfpublisher.com. [Apr 2010] |
| Joseph S. Spence, Sr., who sold his (Critter'd) poem, "Celebrating in Poetry The 20th Century" to www.apfpublisher.com. [Apr 2010] |
| Barbara Davies, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "Irascible" to Sorcerous Signals. [Apr 2010] |
| Manda Benson, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "The Plains of Fire" to Aurora Wolf. [Apr 2010] |
| Barbara Davies, whose short story, "Shaitan's Daughter" is now out in the current issue of Lacuna. {This is a historical pirate story, so I didn't put it in the Critters workshop, though I would have liked to. :) } [Apr 2010] |
| Rhonda Porrett, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "Feeders" to Allegory. {This story will be on-line May, 2010. } [Apr 2010] |
| Sheila Crosby, who sold her short story, "The Circle Line" to Untied Shoelaces of the Mind. {This piece wasn't crittered because it's not spec fic, and it's very short indeed, but I'm sure the things I've learned from other critters have helped a lot. } [Apr 2010] |
| Michael Andre-Driussi, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Mentally Gifted Mutants" to This Mutant Life. {Slated to appear in the May issue. Thank you to the critters who critted it! } [Apr 2010] |
| Daniel Arenson, who reports "My crittered novel has been re-released for Kindle". {My crittered fantasy novel "Firefly Island", which was published in hardcover in 2007, has finally been released digitally. It's now available for Kindles! I ran "Firefly Island" multiple times through the queue, and received lots of GREAT help from my fellow Critters. Thanks everyone! (If you're curious, you can learn about the book at my website, www.DanielArenson.com.) } [Apr 2010] |
| Richard S Levine, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Time Enough for Sarah" is now out in the current issue of Golden Visions Magazine (PDF). {"Time Enough for Sarah" was titled "Time Shuttle" when Critters' reviewed it. The feedback definitely helped to improve the story! } [Apr 2010] |
| Lawrence Vernon, who sold his short story, "A Thirsty Mother" to Shadowfire Press. [Apr 2010] |
| Lawrence Vernon, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "A Night At Morgan Lake" to Shroud Magazine. [Apr 2010] |
| Mike Shevdon, who reports "My 2009 novel, SIXTY ONE NAILS, has been long-listed for the British Fantasy Society's annual best novel award. If you are a member of the BFS or joined FantasyCon 2009/10 you can vote for your favourites at www.britishfantasysociety.org". [Mar 2010] |
| Chet Gottfried, whose (Critter'd) short story, "A Friendly Gesture" is now out in the current issue of Belong. {This was one of my earlier stories at Critters, and the story took a while before making it to Belong (my first time being published in an Australian anthology, which has a truly striking cover). Thank you for your help! } [Mar 2010] |
| Chet Gottfried, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Barbara Bloodbath" is now out in the current issue of Space and Time. {It's in the present issue of Space and Time (spring 110), and a special thank-you to all those Critters who not only commented on the first version at Critters but on the second as well. } [Mar 2010] |
| Ken Liu, who sold his short story, "The Literomancer" to Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF). {Even though this piece didn't go through critters, it did benefit from critiques from several writers I got to know through critters. Thank you all so much. } [Mar 2010] |
| Ethan Nahte', who sold his short story, "Bubbas, Barbarians & Yumbies, Oh My!" to Yard Dog Press. {The fifth anthology book of the "Bubbas of the Apocalypse" series entitled "A Bubba in Time Saves None" is due out the first weekend in June, 2010 and will debut at SoonerCon on that weekend. Although I've been a professional journalist for 19 years, this is my first professional fiction sale. } [Mar 2010] |
| Maegan Bergstrom, who reports "My crittered novel Bernadette the Strange is a quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition.". {Sorry, I accidentally sent a very vague woohoo a couple minutes ago because I hit enter while trying to edit. } [Mar 2010] |
| Maegan Bergstrom, who reports "I'm a quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition.". [Mar 2010] |
| Anatoly Belilovsky, who reports "drabblecast.org will run my drabble (100-word story)". {which does not count as a sale and was too short to be crittered, but it did make my day! Thanks to all the critters for helping me write better, all y'all know who all y'all are. } [Mar 2010] |
| Rick Farnsworth, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Sacrifices of Automated Tabulation" to Steampunk Tales. {This one started life as the Magnotronic Tabulator. Thanks all for the help with it! } [Mar 2010] |
| Rick Farnsworth, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The sacrifices of Automated Tabulation" to Steampunk Tales. {This one was critiqued as the magnotronic tabulator. Thanks all for having a look. } [Mar 2010] |
| Michael Andre-Driussi, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Mentally Gifted Mutants" to This Mutant Life. {Slated to appear in the May issue. Thank you to the critters who critted it! } [Mar 2010] |
| Michael Andre-Driussi, whose (Critter'd) short story, "I, Mombot" is now out in the current issue of M-Brane SF #14 (March). {Thank you to all the critters who worked on shaping it. } [Mar 2010] |
| Adam Lowe, who reports "being made a finalist at the 22nd Lambda Literary Awards for my debut novel, Troglodyte Rose". [Mar 2010] |
| Frank Oreto, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Hand You're Dealt"" to pseudopod.org. {This was the very first story I sent in to be crittered. Big thanks to everyone who helped me whip it into marketable shape. } [Mar 2010] |
| Ian Creasey, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Prize Beyond Gold" to Asimov's. {This was critiqued under the title "Sliding Down the Asymptote" } [Mar 2010] |
| Stephen B. Pearl, who sold his (Critter'd) novel, "Slaves of Love" to Club Lighthouse Publishing. {Special thanks to Rob Holden my Dr for this one. } [Mar 2010] |
| Donald Jacob Uitvlugt, whose short story, "Gifts of the Morrigan" is now out in the current issue of Morrigan Books in their anthology The Phantom Queen Awakes. [Mar 2010] |
| Richard S Levine, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "The Time of your Life" to Time in a Bottle Anthology. {This is a reprint (originally in Raygun Revival online), but it will be nice to have this story in print. } [Mar 2010] |
| Regina Patton, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "The Future of the Sky" to A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction. {This market is both a contest, and an anthology featuring spec fic work by New Zealand writers, and I'm thrilled I'm going to be in it. } [Mar 2010] |
| Kevin M White, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Man Tracker" to Short-storyMe.. {Thanks to everyone who critqued this piece when it went through a while back. It is set to appear in April of this year. } [Mar 2010] |
| Paul Crawford, who reports "I won first place the "Unusual Alien Life Forms" short-story writing contest held by Golden Visions Magazine.". {The story, "EOS," is published in the January 2010 print edition of Golden Vision Magazine. It was crittered after I submitted it to the contest (and won while still in the Critters queue). However, the crits subsequently received were extremely helpful identifying ways to improve the story further. Thanks to all. } [Feb 2010] |
| Fred Obermeyer, whose (Critter'd) short story, "The Hangborn" is now out in the current issue of Destination Future anthology. {Thanks for your help on the story. } [Feb 2010] |
| Terra LeMay, who sold her short story, "A Multiple Choice Love Story" to Apex Magazine. [Feb 2010] |
| Garth Upshaw, whose short story, "Learning to Fly" is now out in the current issue of Pseudopod. {Pseudopod is an online audio podcast market paying a flat $100 for stories between 2000 and 6000 words. While this piece wasn't critt'd, many of my other stories have been and it has improved my writing enormously. Thanks! } [Feb 2010] |
| Douglas T. Araujo, who reports "The Dark Idol Contest". {The final cycle of The Dark Idol contest is now on, and I’m one of the two final contestants. For those who never heard of that, The Dark Idol is a contest where each one of the contestants needs to submit a short story on a pre-determined theme. Each 2 weeks, one of the contestants is eliminated and a new theme goes alive. The public can also vote on their favorite author, and leave comments. At this cycle, the remaining 2 writers were tasked with with writing a story between 500 and 2,000 words that best fit a HORROR theme of "lovers scorned”. My story is called ‘THE THING THAT ONCE WAS KAREN’. I would appreciate it if you could take a look at website, read the stories, vote and leave your comments. Here goes the link: blacklighthorror.ca/darkidol/rules.htm } [Feb 2010] |
| Sheila Crosby, whose (Critter'd) short story, "Loathsome Alyce" is now out in the current issue of Wily Writers. [Feb 2010] |
| Stephen Gaskell, whose short story, "Fashion Victim" is now out in the current issue of Nature. [Feb 2010] |
| Stephen Gaskell, who sold his short story, "Thargus and Brian" to Escape Pod. [Feb 2010] |
| Manda Benson, whose (Critter'd) novel, "Dark Tempest" is now out from Lyrical Press. {Some early versions of the initial chapters passed through the queue some time ago. Thanks to everyone who read. There's a trailer and more information on my website. } [Feb 2010] |
| Danielle DeVor, who sold her short story, "Papap's Teeth" to Dailey Swan Publishing. {www.scribd.com/doc/25773162/Papap-s-Teeth www.daileyswanpublishing.com/index.asp On the main website where my story is featured, there is a typo in the title calling the story Papa's Teeth, but it is the same story. } [Feb 2010] |
| Christopher Kastensmidt, whose (Critter'd) short story, "The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara" is now out in the current issue of Realms of Fantasy. {The story appears in the April 2010 issue. Having my name on the cover of RoF is a dream come true, and Critters really helped me make it there! Thanks again to everyone who critiqued this novelette! } [Feb 2010] |
| Fred Obermeyer, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Nearcotic" to Fusion Fragment. [Feb 2010] |
| Carl Alves, who sold his (Critter'd) novel, "In the Beginning " to Weaving Dreams Publishing. [Feb 2010] |
| Angel Leigh McCoy, who sold her short story, "Oral Tradition" to Pseudopod. [Feb 2010] |
| Sheila Crosby, who sold her (Critter'd) short story, "Loathsome Alyce" to Wily Writers. {This story was critiqued back in 2004, which improved it dramatically. Since then it's collected a lot of rejections, many saying things like, "While I personally like this story, it's not suitable for this market." I'm so glad persistence finally paid off. } [Feb 2010] |
| Timothy West, who sold his short story, "The Taco Conspiracy" to Alternative Coordinates. [Feb 2010] |
| Adam La Rusic, who sold his short story, "No Body" to Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts Anthology. {This experimental flash fiction piece was sold to a "quantum genre" anthology. The quantum genre is an emerging experimental type of fiction that typically involves the more bizarre aspects of quantum physics in its plot or theme. } [Feb 2010] |
| Ian Creasey, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Erosion" to Year's Best SF 15 edited by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer. [Feb 2010] |
| Alan Belanger, who sold his (Critter'd) short story, "Freezer Burn" to Daikaijuzine. {Crittered as "PermInfant", my story Freezer Burn can now be read online on the Daikaijuzine website. } [Feb 2010] |
[Click here to see the full list of Woohoos going back to 1996.]