Happy New Year!
Part 1 of my look back reflects on my writing career. Part 2 will cover the blog, the comic and teaching in general.
A Look Back at Writing and Publishing
Portions of the following text appeared in Burke's Lore Bites my newsletter.Although my self-publishing career started in the final days of 2023, I didn’t receive my Author Copies of Burke’s Lore Briefs: A Heavenly Date / My Damned Best Friend until early January. I learned a few lessons about what to do and what not to do with future books. That first batch batch of books sold well.
Two more Burke’s Lore Briefs were published in 2024: “Portrait of a Lady Vampire & Other Vampiric Cravings” and “I See What You’ll Do There” (containing one reprint story, see below).
With these books launched, I created a mailing list (thank you for joining it) and a Substack account for posting updates. I’m still figuring out what works best for me.
In February, “A Sliver of Pi” from In A Flash 2020 was reprinted in Free Flash Fiction.
In March, a new story, “On My Shoulders” was published in Short Beasts Literary Magazine.
In April, my editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail surprised me with the cover for A Bucket Full of Moonlight, which is the biggest collection of “Burke’s Lore” to date, with 30+ stories, although it doesn’t bear that brand. The Kickstarter would launch in the summer, and the book appeared on Library Thing in October, garnering five reviews.
In May, the humorous RPG-Lit story “I See What You’ll Do There” appeared in the Spring 2024 edition of Sci-Fi Lampoon.
In July, AHOY Comics purchased “Death’s Last Man” which appeared as text in the comic Deadweights #5. My name was even on the cover!
And finally, October brought a two-fer with “What You Needed” appearing in the anthology A Little Fantasy Everywhere (Jersey Pines Ink) and two 42-word stories (one under the pen name Ben Carter) were included in 42 Stories Anthology Presents: Book of 422.
It was an amazing year, and I hope it continues into 2025!
For more news on my writing, and for links to books which mostly appear on Amazon, check out my Author Page at mrburkemath.net.
