Anthology Update

I've spent the last couple of days working my butt off, putting together what will eventually be Far and Away; a collection of flash fiction and poetry. Due to the fact that several of my favorite short stories won't be available to be placed into an anthology for a couple of years yet, I've decided to focus my attention on my much shorter works. I'm contacting cover artisits right now, trying to find someone to do the cover art for this anthology. I'm going to published through Smashwords.com sometime this summer or fall. Hopefully. :o)

My first article!

I'm so excited! Siren Book Reviews Ezine's first issue is now available, which means my article, "So You've Gotten Published. Now What?" is now available. This is my first published artcile. :o)

My short story, "Whispers of the Night," is also within this issue. Two great things....

AND THEY'RE FREE!!

Totally nifty, right?


SBR Feb '11 Issue TOC

4 - SBR sits down with Edward Kendrick, Author of Everyone’s Man

8 - Siren’s Best Books of 2010

12 - Writing Fiction - The Pitfalls, by Chris Burton

14 - Whispers of the Night, by Heather Kuehl

18 - So, you’ve gotten published. What’s next? By Heather Kuehl

20 - Nightseekers by Cindy Jacks

22 - SBR speaks with D.C. Juris, Author of On Solid Ground

Lost in Translation

This should come as no surprise; I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. Loved the show and was heartbroken to see it go. So when I heard that Joss Whedon was creating season eight of the show using comics as his medium, I jumped on it. Granted, it wasn't until issue seven, but I quickly caught up.

40 issues later, I'm hooked yet again and looking forward to season nine. When I saw the motion comic at the store, I just had to add it to my collection. It didn't realize until I watched all 19 issues that I missed quite a bit. Yes, I read and reread those comics over and over. But I think some things are lost when there's no description or inflection to go along with some things. Then again, it might be because I know how everything plays out now. I really hope they turn the rest of the season into a motion comic. It was way cool to watch. I think I'm going to rewatch the entire series soon. Joss hinted at things sometimes two season before they came to pass. I wonder if he hinted at all about the events in season 8...

Season 8 overview: After the events in season 7, there is no longer only one slayer (two if you count Faith). There are roughly 2,000 girls in all the world, chosen to fight the forces of darkness with Buffy as their leader. A new big bad surfaces, one with the backing of Uncle Sam, who wants to destroy Buffy and her Slayer army; Twilight. Don't get the name confused with sparkly vamps who are more emo than evil. Twlight will do anything to get to Buffy, even if it means killing the people she loves most.

Reoccuring characters from the show: Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Faith, Spike (YAY!), Andrew, Dawn, Dark Willow, Riley, Harmony, Oz, Ethan Rayne, Angel, Dracula, Warren, Kennedy, Robin Wood, Rona, Vi, and Amy. There may be more, but that's off the top of my head.

New characters to love: Satsu, Fray (Love her!), Twilight*, Renee, Saga Vasuki, Lady Genevieve, Jacob, and Alexia. Of course, there's more than that, but those are my favorites.

*Yes, I listed Twilight as a character to love. I think you have to love the big bad at least a little to appreciate the complexity of the season. :o)

Season eight rating: 8/10

Buffy Season 8 is published by Dark Horse Comics.

Pro market response times

I have to get on my soap box about this...

I just withdrew a short story submission, "Whispers of the Night," from a pro market because it got accepted by Siren Book Reviews Ezine (which I'm happier about). Here's what I got as a response:

Dear Miss Kuehl,

As requested I am withdrawing your story from our reading queue. You will get a second notice of withdrawal attached to your submissions e-mail.

Many pro markets are behind as we are right now and closing their submissions to catch up. Weird Tales being one of them. We certainly have no problems accommodating withdrawals, however I would respectfully ask that in the future you adhere to guidelines and not send us simultaneous submissions. we do not accept simultaneous submissions. In return our newer authors enjoy being in the same magazine as such names as Bradbury, Romero and others.

One thing I might suggest for you that could be helpful for your future in submitting stories in pro markets such as ours, is to expect lengthy waits. for instance it isn't untypical for a publisher like Doubleday to by the rights to a book that doesn't see print for at least a year. One way to do that is to tailor a story for that particular magazine or publisher and then submit and go on to writing the next. All of the top names in the industry we have dealt with do this.

I sincerely hope this helps with the frustration of waiting,


I feel like writing him back. I really do. I don't mind lengthy waits. What I mind is when your site says that you have a four month response time (120 days) and it's been 277 days. When a market gets so far behind, they shouldn't be shocked to find that authors are simultaneously submitting to other markets. (BTW: I submitted to them several years ago. It took 647 days that time (Jul 2007-Apr 2009). I had hoped that they got their game straight over the years. Guess I was wrong.) For that matter, markets shouldn't do that; not allow simsubs. If it takes almost a year to make a 4 month decision, either change the guidelines on your site or allow simsubs. Easy as pie.

I don't mind waiting a year if your guidelines say it'll be a year.


Also, learn to spell. You're a pro literary magazine. Look like it.

It's time...

...to do the cover art happy dance!

And a new year has begun

Happy 2011 everyone! I hope you all had a fun and safe holiday. Just a day after 2011 began, one of my resolutions have already panned out. I had two goals for my son during 2011; to get him out of his crib and into a twin sized bed and to have him potty trained. Potty training is still in the distant future, he's already in his twin sized bed! *happy dance*

Last night I jumped back on the writing wagon (after having not written a word since November) and added 3k to my WIP, Gray Magic. Gray Magic was my NaNoWriMo 2010 novel, and after reading through it I discovered that it made very little sense. I've had to toss a lot of it, and try to make sense out of what I've decided to keep. I'm about 15k into my rewrite. I don't think the final product will be 50k, since I'm a chapter away from hitting a vital turning point before wrapping things up. My goal right now is 30k.


In other news...

Blood Moon is due to be released in two months!

Epiphany has been submitted to two other publishers. It's almost been a year since I submitted it to my first choice publisher. A year with no response leads me to believe that it's a rejection.

Congratulations to Ashley Verdi. She won a $25 Amazon gift card from my Bitten By Books contest back in September.