This post is a little delayed due to the ‘Great Aussie Facebook Ban Kerfuffle’, but In Melbourne, Stage 4 Lockdown 3.0 is done and dusted. This time it didn’t feel too bad, I mean five days is nothing when you’re the undisputed lockdown champions of the world. Victoria has trained hard for this!
In between the home school shuffle, I had time to focus on the business side of #writinglife and took stock of where I’d been, and where I was going over the next few months.
Here’s a little overview of where I’ve been, with the latest publication news:
- My short story Floor was picked up by Pendulum Papers for their February issue. It’s short and it’s brutal, and you can read it here.
- I was interviewed by Lee Murray, guest editor of Midnight Echo Issue #15. Lee asks the coolest questions about my included poem Keep Walking, among other topics such as the Reader’s Marie Kondo Challenge (Nooooo!) You can read my answers here.
- Speaking of interviews (and Lockdown), my friend and fellow author, Andrea Rowe put together a fabulous blog series called Coronatude: Chats with Strong Folk Doing Good Things while Melbourne was in the depths of its Stage 4 Lockdown 2.0 in 2020. It’s nice to think I may have contributed to the collective wellbeing of the community in some small way. If you’d like to know a little more about my life in lockdown (including the surprising thing that made me cry), you can read it here.
- Publication-wise, I was happy to have my short story Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m Beautiful reprinted in The Were-Traveler’s themed issue: Women Destroy (Retro) Science Fiction. You can read my dark little tale about a robotic femme fatale for free here.
- My poem Serpentine appeared in Issue 4/Spring 2021 of Canadian speculative fiction journal Hexagon. The cover art for this issue is gorgeous! You’ll be able to read Serpentine for free here, from March 1.
- I also received my first review for my forthcoming short story collection Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract…and I couldn’t have been happier. Sending your work out for review can be daunting (okay, downright terrifying), so I was thrilled when Lizzy Walker at Monster Librarian closed her review, saying: “This collection makes me want to pick up more work by Fraser. There are so many stories that are short, yet provide some spine tingling, thought-provoking horror. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to read international horror.” <cut to me screaming> You can read Lizzy’s full review here.
- If that makes you want to pick up more of my work, pre-orders for Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract are still open until March 2015, with an official release date of April 15. You can pre-order here. Launch details coming soon!
Well, that’s all from the writing trenches for now. I’m concentrating on bigger projects this year, with a goal of two novel-length works completed to first draft stage. Unless the muse really bosses me around, my focus will be off short stories for a little while, but I do have a few contracted tales slated for publication later this year, so watch this space.
Happy writing, happy reading, and happy days.
Rebecca 😊
Rebecca Fraser: Writing & Moonlighting 