Greetings everyone in Sheanland!

I know it must come as a surprise to see me popping up in whatever feeds you read this blog in, having not seen me for (searches backwards through a calendar) …a day shy of five months.

I’d like to be able to say that coming back from that silence is because there’s great and monuments things on the horizon, and there are, it’s just that horizon is far enough off that it doesn’t bear discussing just yet.

Rest assured that despite the day job and kidlets’ new school year (and new school district!) taking up large swaths of my time, I am still writing and submitting, if at a much more sedate pace than before.

Actually, the earlier pace wasn’t even quite up to sedate, it was more of a precession or an amble.  The current speed may best be described as a seep.

I did submit another story last night, at least, so the motion is forward!

All that said, I’m not posting today to talk about myself.  I’m here to promote what I believe is a fantastic new service.  Of course, I’m not being completely self-less here, I will likely benefit from this eventually, but I believe we all will too.

I want to bring your attention to Curious Fictions.

Think of it as an iTunes for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Stories.  You go, you sign up, and then you can browse through and pick a short story from many of today’s up-and-coming and established authors of the genre, and read it.  If you want, pay anywhere from nothing to $10 for it.  The platform just launched about a week ago, and I desperately hope is succeeds.

Curious Fictions is not the first pay-as-you-go short story platform.  But the ones that have come before all died of the same disease – lack of readers stemming from lack of publicity.

I don’t have much of a soapbox or microphone here, but I want to make sure that I am one of the voices shouting as far as I can into the void.  Go to Curious Fictions, sign up, and read stories!

They range from Flash Fiction (stories 1,000 words or less that take less than 5 minutes to read) to full on short stories (longer works, usually less than 7,000 words, taking maybe half an hour to read).  There’s no registration fee, there’s no monthly fee, there’s no dues, there’s nothing but what you decide you’re willing to pay.

“How does that work?” I hear you asking.  “How can authors afford to do that?”  There’s 2 ways.  First, all of the stories uploaded here have already been published elsewhere, and are no longer held by the exclusivity clause of their original publishers – that means the authors have already been paid for these works at least once (Usually less than $500).  Second, whatever you do decide to pay, 75% of that goes directly to the author (the rest goes to fees for the credit card transaction).

If you want to know how to help struggling authors with their careers, the best thing you can do is to buy their work and talk them up to others willing to buy their work.  In this case, read some stories.  If there’s one (or more) you like, pay for it.  You’ll be buying them a cup of coffee.  Or, if there’s enough of you, a new transmission for their minivan.

I don’t have any stories on Curious Fictions yet.  They haven’t opened up submissions to anthologies yet, so Sylvia and Larry isn’t eligible, and Super Action Excite Team Go! is still within its exclusivity period.  But rest assured, once April, 2018 rolls around, I am planning to put it up there.  Then, anyone of you who hasn’t had a chance to go buy a subscription to InterGalactic Medicine Show will still be able to read it.

That’s all I wanted to say today.  But I do plan on making a pretty cool announcement in the near future.  I’ve been planning something fantastic, and recurring, for this blog for some time, and I’m getting close to unveiling it.  So watch for announcements.  But I need to polish some things first.

Here I Go,

Matt