Author Archives: AX

reading reccos

For the last year or so, shamefully, I’ve done hardly any reading for pleasure. I don’t quite know why. (Black depression. Ssshhh.) Nearly all the fiction I’ve read has been unpublished, either my own—a matter for despair, usually, although a recent reread of The Unexpected Thing in advance of this summer’s revision proved mostly delightful—or …

11 May 2013 – 11:22 PM | By AX | Posted in recommendation | Comments (0)

gratifying newses

Busting out all over! I’m not about to start using this site as a soapbox for broadcasting my political and/or social/cultural opinions. But I’m nonetheless pleased, and pleased to acknowledge my pleasure, by the Rhode Island State Senate’s decision today to pass the same-sex marriage bill and take a decisive (if belated) step toward bringing …

24 April 2013 – 7:49 PM | By AX | Posted in Deprivation, fiction, SF, short stories | Comments (0)

another interview

In which I ramble some about Deprivation, some about writing and reading and other matters of survival, and reveal at least one embarrassing personal secret. My thanks to the perspicacious Gavin Atlas for the questions and to our genial hosts, Jerry L. Wheeler and William Holden of Out in Print, a site you should make …

22 April 2013 – 2:31 PM | By AX | Posted in Deprivation | Comments (0)

5,000 words

The upper word-count limit for submissions to a very great many short-fiction venues is 5,000 words. Of my list of places I’d quite like to be published, probably a third are no-exceptions absolute about it while another third express a strong preference for 5K and under. Interestingly, most of those are online publications: buying into …

29 March 2013 – 11:21 PM | By AX | Posted in California, fantasy, fiction, short stories | Comments (0)

spring, huh?

And yet I look out my window to snow flurries. Feh. Well, if we must go by the calendar (Gregorian/Persian/Bahá’í), Happy Northern-Hemisphere Spring (I’ll believe it when I’m not wearing longjohns and fuzzy slippers), Nowrūz, and Naw-Rúz. Slightly belated on the first two, sorry. I have been ill and distraught in a distressing number of ways …

21 March 2013 – 10:38 PM | By AX | Posted in Deprivation, fiction, Ireland, Lethe Press, short stories | Comments (0)

publication day

Deprivation; or, Benedetto furioso: an oneiromancy is today officially in print. Hard copies can be purchased at Amazon, if not today, soon. Jumping the gun a bit, e-books have been available a few days already: at Amazon for those who reside in the Kindle’s walled garden, at Smashwords in many other formats (try this discount …

28 February 2013 – 12:14 PM | By AX | Posted in Deprivation, fantasy, fiction, magical realism | Comments (0)

an interview!

Some months ago, I was asked to copyedit a novel forthcoming from Lethe Press prior to designing and laying it out. The author, I was told, was very nearly as persnickety and detail-OCD as I. (Steve Berman, Lethe’s publisher, trembled in fear of her. It takes a lot to make Steve tremble.) The author was …

27 February 2013 – 5:50 PM | By AX | Posted in Deprivation | Comments (0)

to press

My second full-length novel and sixth book, Deprivation; or, Benedetto furioso: an oneiromancy, has gone to press. The print edition should therefore be available (through Amazon at least) by the official publication date of 28 February. Currently preparing conversion files for Lethe Press’s e-book wizard, in expectation of electronic versions for computers, tablets, e-readers, and—who …

23 February 2013 – 5:02 PM | By AX | Posted in Deprivation, fantasy, fiction, Italy, magical realism | Comments (0)

covers, covers

Prime Books has posted cover designs for two forthcoming anthologies in which I have stories. Behold: Bad Seeds, forthcoming in July and containing my story “You Deserve.” (Note that the cover displayed at that Amazon link has been superseded by the above, more effective, less cliché-horror-story image.) Zombies, forthcoming in August and containing my story …

22 February 2013 – 8:24 PM | By AX | Posted in fantasy, fiction, short stories | Comments (0)

year-end sum up

Gregorian year 2012 was, on a number of personal levels, profoundly horrible, demoralizing, debilititating. But those are the exact personal levels I believe it unseemly to talk about in public, so you, Dear Reader, are spared endless litanies of woe and humiliation. Be reassured, however, that Misses Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, and I, remain …

1 January 2013 – 2:40 AM | By AX | Posted in BrazenHead, design, fiction | Comments (0)