Screaming into the Virtual Wind

I wrote a novella a while ago (feels like a long while ago, now) called The Undead Alliance.  And I sort of loved it.  It was the first time I had ever coherently plotted a piece of writing (I was mid-way through the first draft of Dunraven Road at this point, and seriously wishing I had given more thought to the rapidly spiralling plot holes) – and I was amazed at how quickly the story spun itself out once I got to work on it.  If I’m truthful, much as I love the finished product I have never found writing easy.  I stop and agonise over a single sentence for half an hour or more.  I look out of the window.  I stare into space.  Only after much lengthy and profound procrastination do the words begin to flow.  That wasn’t the case with The Undead Alliance.  It was only a strange little story about zombies… tongue in cheek, really… but writing it was largely effortless, and immensely enjoyable.  Plus there’s a zombie sex scene (almost), an eye gouging using a letter-opener and an undead, screaming head on a stick.  What’s not to enjoy?!

In private, I called this my ‘Zombie Love Story’. For who could ever love a zombie? One with a bad maggot infestation and breath like fetid cabbage? (Maybe a blind person with no sense of smell…)

Much as I enjoyed writing this story, I began to think I would never find a home for it.  It’s very hard to sell novella-length work – too long for most short fiction venues and too short for regular book publishers.  Well, howdy do, I only received an email this morning to confirm my strange little zombie novella has been accepted for publication in Twisted Tongue Magazine.  I was just as excited to be included in the magazine itself as I was to have finally blagged The Undead Alliance into print.  Twisted Tongue is a humungous horror fiction magazine, and you can download it as a free PDF.  I’ve been a fan for ages, and now I get to see my name among all the others on the (very long) list of contents.  Giggity giggity, oh yeah!

So today, I do like Mondays.  Cool.