10 June 2013 ~ 10 Comments

SFWA: To Join Or Not To Join

Now I have only a few months before the renewal comes up, and the rates have gone up to $90. I am a pragmatic person and I don’t intend to pay that kind of money without considering the cost-benefit tradeoff. So, I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the money to renew my membership or whether I should just let it lapse. So I’m going to list out what I’ve seen as the benefits, to decide whether or not those are worth $90 to sign up again.

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15 April 2013 ~ 2 Comments

Daily Science Fiction: February 2013 Review

Whew. A lot going on in our little Diabolical world. So much David Steffen has left the substitute in charge. David assures me that Anthony Sullivan is more than capable for the job, and said he has yet to miss an edit.

On to this month’s review!

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10 March 2013 ~ 0 Comments

“Coin Op”

I’m a bit tardy in posting this, but in February Daily Science Fiction published another of my stories: “Coin Op”. It’s a comedy, based around sex. It is definitely mature content, so if you don’t care for that sort of thing, just skip it. And feel free to let me know what you think of it. Here it is.

Enjoy!

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26 January 2013 ~ 1 Comment

The State of The Submissions Grinder (Week 3)

TheGrinderLogo
Almost three weeks have passed since Anthony Sullivan and I launched The Submissions Grinder, a web-based tool for writers to find markets, track submissions, and look at market response statistics. At the time of launch the site was very simple, with a limited set of features, and yes some stability issues. We succeeded in getting that first working version running just one week after Duotrope going behind the subscription wall, and we are still the only free tool of this kind available.

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09 January 2013 ~ 1 Comment

Our Hugo/Nebula Eligible Work 2012

The SF award nomination season is here. The Nebulas (the writer-voted award) have been open for a while and close in February. The Hugos (the fan-voted award) opened on January first. Both sets cover works published in the 2012 calendar year. About this time of year, every writer and their dog posts a list of their eligible works.

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07 January 2013 ~ 21 Comments

Introducing: The Submissions Grinder

Well, we at Diabolical Plots have not been sitting idly since that article was written. We have been actively working on creating a Duotrope replacement for which we will never require a subscription fee. It is already running and ready to go, though we have some work to do yet updating the market listings. Behold, The Submissions Grinder! Please help us signal boost, share this with any writer or group of writers that you can. The more people try us out, the more data there will be to make it useful for everyone.

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07 January 2013 ~ 5 Comments

Daily Science Fiction: November 2012 Review

Did you have a Merry Christmas? Have your holidays been happy? You have some down time you need to fill? Well curl up to whatever Internet access you use and click on Daily SF’s home page. It’s a perfect time to catch up on those stories you may have missed. For starters, try digging into these November jewels…

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24 December 2012 ~ 4 Comments

In Loving Memory of Aria Steffen

This is the story of my first dog. This is the story of the first dog that Heather was really responsible for. This is the story of Aria the papillon. She had the name Aria when we got her–we thought of renaming her Oreo but it didn’t stick. Over the years we had many nicknames for her–Ariana, Missy Lu, Missy Moo, Lu Lu Bell, many others.

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06 November 2012 ~ 0 Comments

“Door in the Darkness” published in Stupefying Stories

I wrote “Door in the Darkness” after reading “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. My entire aim was to write a supernatural romance story where I didn’t hate the characters. I like the way that it turned out. If you get a chance to read it, do let me know!

I wrote “Door in the Darkness” after reading “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. My entire aim was to write a supernatural romance story where I didn’t hate the characters. I like the way that it turned out. If you get a chance to read it, do let me know!

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11 August 2012 ~ 0 Comments

Lucky Pig Studio Relaunch!

So this is the 1st day, and here’s the first design. It’s the iconic image of Lucky Pig Studios, the “Lucky Pig!” This design is based on the studios namesake, a piglet that my wife and I rescued from the side of a South Dakota Interstate in the summer of 2010 in the heat of summer. We got it some food, and got it out of the brutal August heat, and to a hooved animal rescue society. So that was one lucky pig.

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