Some people gets kisses for Valentine's Day, I get publications.

Got news today that my 22nd short story has been accepted for publication. Nickels and Dimes will be published by a literary review called Gravel out of Arkansas most likely some time next month.

I first wrote this story in December of 2017, and have been trying to get it published ever since. It was rejected 27 times before being accepted for publication.

Of course you can't read it until it gets published, but in the mean time, feel free to peruse some of the already published short stories on the website.

https://www.shawnwcampbell.com/when-is-it-due/

Thank you as always to everyone who has supported me and my writing.

Ring in the new year with a new publication!

How do you start the new year out right? I'll tell you how. By getting a short story acceptance email just three days in. One Night on the Max will be published by Crack the Spine in the next few months. Booyah.

One Night on the Max, my 21st to be published, is actually a fairly new short story. Only one other literary review had time to reject it before Crack The Spine gobbled it up.

Of course you're going to have to wait for it to be published to read it. However, in the mean time, if you get bored, you can always check out some already published short stories here:

https://www.shawnwcampbell.com/when-is-it-due/

As always, thank you to everyone for their support over the years.

A new portrait and newsfeed.

Hello writing fans. I’ve done a few changes to the website, one of the big ones being a brand new portrait of myself actually taken by a professional photographer as opposed to just a badly done selfie. Special thanks to the talented Anne Parmeter for making me somehow look good.

In other news, I’ve added a newsfeed section to the website in case any of you felt the need to more actively stalk me, or if you just like to keep up on what’s the latest happenings in my world, well, at least the writing parts of it.

Reading at the Rose City Bookpub

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Rose City Book Pub for the Professor Errare reading. It was good to see everyone’s smiling faces; family, friends, and the couple of random folks who made it out as well. I hope everyone who bought a book greatly enjoys it.

Special thanks to Mallory Anderson for taking the videos and only catching my good side.

Professor Errare Presents....And Then What Happened

Professor Errare is proud to announce a brand new Professor Errare book available for purchase, And Then What Happened.

What happened to Lewis and Clark after their famous cross-country expedition? How did an imaginary cult help cause the Black Death? What happened to Al Capone after he got sent to prison? What's this I hear about Napoleon's dick? There are certain moments in history that pretty much everybody knows about, even that idiot who lives next door to you. This book isn't about those moments. No, this book is about the crazy parts leading up to or following those events that have been mostly left out of the history books. If you're tired of the general whitewashing of history into some kind of epic heroic journey, well then this is the perfect book for you.

Professor Errare reading

Professor Errare and his partner in crime, S.W. Campbell, are proud to announce a rare public appearance and book reading extravaganza at the Rose City Book Pub.

Do you ever wonder why things are the way they are? Do you sometimes stay up all night crying because the world seems so strange and scary? Do you love history, but hate how it's all so dry and boring? Well my friends, then Professor Errare is the man for you.

The good professor is one of those rare breed of historians who prefer to feed people history in manageable chunks spiced with just the perfect amount of snark. He is looking forward to sharing some fun historic snippets from his books.

Joining Professor Errare will be local author S.W. Campbell, who is the good professor's co-author, but only because he knows how to type and use the internet. S.W. Campbell writes literary fiction, and if the good professor is feeling generous, may be allowed to do a little reading of his own.

Newspaper op-ed

I’m in the paper....and not the police blotter. My op-ed made front page of the Sunday Oregonian’s opinion section today.

https://www.oregonlive.com/…/opinion_when_you_hate_its_easy…

Papaya gets another step closer.

Instead of going out today, I finally got caught up on edits for my book Papaya, getting it to the point where I'm comfortable putting it out there to prospective agents.

Special thanks to Marcus Hart, Jessi Lynch, Jane O’Keeffe, Liz Knowles Ryan, Aaron Clutter, and Kenton Erwin for letting me sucker them in to being readers and editors.

The next steps are to write a cover letter and a synopsis to send out to prospective agents. It's basically like trying to find a job only somehow more god awful. If it gets accepted by an agent, then it gets shopped around for possible legit publishing. If it doesn't, then I go the self-publishing route the same as I did with The Uncanny Valley. At the same time, I'll probably start on a third book so I can go through the whole rigmarole again.

As always, thank you to everyone who supports my writing and asks about it. I know I'm not always the best at showing my appreciation for such things, but please believe me when I say it is there.

If you're feeling bored, you can check out the first chapter online via the below link. You can also check out my other writing projects there.

Yet another new short story to be published this winter.

I got an email yesterday from a the Santa Clara Review that they would like to publish a story of mine called Gutterball in their Winter 2019 issue. Great news in what has already been a pretty great year for publishing stories. This will be the twentieth story I've had accepted for publication and the sixth just in this year.

As always, you're going to have to wait until its published to read it, but in the mean time, check out more stories on the website, or maybe some of my other writing projects.

One Night In Rapid City published

My short story One Night In Rapid City got published today in a literary review called Bull.

I first wrote this story in June of 2013. While I thought it was pretty good, it didn't follow a traditional literary structure, which is probably why it got rejected a record 116 times before finally getting accepted by Bull. The biggest complaint was always that the story didn't seem to go anywhere, which was kind of the point.

In this case, Bull wanted a few minor changes before publication, and so I worked with them on a couple of small tweaks. This actually doesn't happen that often in the world of short stories. Usually its a take it or leave it kind of model. Anyways, hope you all enjoy it.

Professor Errare's flunky now has a drawing too!!

I've been working on a new Professor Errare book that should be out in a month or two. As part of this effort, I felt the need to draw a portrait for the good professor's little touted co-author, S. Will Campbell. I think I caught his harried likeness rather well.

A new short story coming this fall

And the hits just keep coming in. Today I received an email from a literary review called the Bull that my story "One Night In Rapid City" has been accepted for publication. This the 19th short story of mine to be accepted for publication and the 7th this year so far.

As always, thank you to everyone who has offered words of support over the years.

The story will be published in October, so you'll have to wait until then to read it, but in the meantime, if you desperately need something to read, check out these other short stories.

Poison published

My short story Poison has been published in the Red Rock Review.

To be honest, I was kind of surprised that this one got published. It's based off of a very vivid dream I had one night, and though I liked the writing, I thought of it as being a little too weird to ever get picked up. I wrote it back in April of 2013, submitted it about 10 times or so, got all rejections with nothing really encouraging, and just kind of left it in the dustbin. However, earlier this year I decided what the hell, might as well send it out again, and it got picked up by one of the three reviews I sent it to. Just goes to show that you never know. Hope you enjoy it.

2,000 rejections and counting

Today is a momentous occasion in my so called writing career. Today I received my 2,000th rejection by a literary review. Now some might say that 2,000 rejections might be more than a subtle hint that it's time to move on to something else, but I don't really see it that way.

At this time I have around 90 or more short stories which I'm actively shopping around. At any given time I have somewhere between 100 to 200 submissions out there waiting for responses. Sometimes responses come in less than a month, other times they don't come for over a year. Usually I make submissions twice a month.

Getting a response is somewhat of a crap shoot. There are a lot of factors that have to come together. Sure the quality of the writing is damn important, but so is a hell of a lot of stuff out of the author's control. Does the editor like your voice and tone, do they like the theme of the specific story, does it fit the overall theme of their next issue, are they in a good mood, what time of the day did they read your story, did they just get in a fight with their significant other, do they have to poop? All of these and more decide whether or not a story gets published.

Long topic short, 2,000 rejections is just a start. On to 3,000.

You want to check out some of the stories that made the cut? Check out these.

When Is It Due published

Welp, my story When Is It Due has been published by Linden Avenue and so now is up on the website for your perusing pleasure.

This story was written back in March of 2016 and finally found a home after a pile of rejections, though most were pretty nice ones as far as rejections go (meaning boiler plate).

As some people will undoubtedly notice, I believe that this is the second one that's been put up on the website that isn't from a male POV. I have other stories from female POV's (they haven't gotten published yet), but not as many as there probably could be. The honest truth is that for me writing from a male POV is just easier and quicker. Writing from the POV of a different gender, race, or just someone with a vastly different background is time consuming in that you have to be much more careful thinking out the little details and thought processes in order to keep it authentic.

I like to think that a lot of my stories could have the genders swapped. A lot of the themes are pretty gender neutral. However, I only have so much time in the day, so things tend to come more from the male POV, with the female gender only used when I feel it's important to the theme. I do plan on writing more from the female POV, maybe even attempting a book at some point, but in the end I also feel that the best people to tell such stories are women themselves. There's some themes, no matter how hard I try, where I'll always be an outsider looking in.

Anyways, with this one I hope I did fairly well writing from the female POV on a theme totally foreign to the male perspective. I can at least feel okay in that it's based on a story a woman told me and the fact that the editors who chose it were all women. I hope you enjoy it.

Also, if you like my short stories, check out my new short story collection, An Unsated Thirst, now available for purchase.

A new short story coming out this fall

Got home from the Gambler 500 to find out my short story "When Is It Due" will be published by a literary review called Linden Avenue next month. Cool beans. This is my 18th short story to get published.

This was only my second time submitting to Linden Avenue, so that's pretty cool. The story was rejected by 29 other literary reviews before being selected by Linden Avenue.

Of course for legal stuff you'll have to wait for Linden Avenue to publish before it pops up on the website, but in the mean time, if you need a fix, check out my new short story collection, An Unsated Thirst. As always, thank you to everyone whose supported and helped me with my writing over the years.

An Unsated Thirst is out today

Hello reading fans. I'm proud to announce that today is the official release day for my first collection of short stories, An Unsated Thirst.

An Unsated Thirst is a collection of my first short stories, encompassing the beginning of this so called writing career. I'm excited to have it out there and I hope you all read and enjoy it.

As always, thank you to everyone who have supported my work through the years. I can't say how much it's been appreciated.

Papaya is written, now on to the hard stuff

After 2 years, 4 months, and 26 days, I've finally finished writing my second full length novel. I got to say, it feels good to finally get it done. Now on to the endless rounds of editing and proofreading to tighten the loose screws, smooth the rough edges, and polish the parts that don't make a bit of sense.

Papaya started as a joke, which turned into a short story, which turned into a novella, which turned into a novel. From the moment I started writing it the end of the story just kept running farther out ahead, but at last I finally caught it.

You can check out the first chapter here (though its still being developed so you never know what might change). Here's to being one step closer to done so I can start on all the other ideas in my head.

Attack published

Hello writing fans. My short story Attack is officially out in the Clackamas Literary Review and so is now officially on the website for your perusing pleasure (though some of you might recognize it as one I've let people read before).

Attack is a story about anxiety disorder. About one in five Americans suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder every year (some short term and some longer term), with only about a third actually seeking treatment. Sure, some of you might be saying, we all have anxiety from time to time. It's true we do, but for some people that anxiety can become a daily occurrence that lasts for months or even years, eventually degrading one's quality of life.

Our minds, though amazing things, basically boil down to chemicals and electrical impulses. Anxiety is basically a subconscious reaction to get us to avoid dangerous or unpleasant situations. However, just as your conscious brain can learn things, such as how to dribble a basketball, so can your subconscious brain. When people react badly to their anxiety, by panicking or avoiding things, the subconscious takes note and increases the flow of panic juices the next time around. Over time, if left untreated, the anxiety will start to feed on itself and a full anxiety disorder can develop. It's important to remember that such things can happen to anyone, though just as some people are born with blue eyes, some people can be born more susceptible to anxiety issues. The key to treatment is to not let the anxiety control one's life by recognizing that though we can't always control what our brains do, we can control how we react.

This story was one of the early one's that I wrote and will be included in my short story, collection An Unsated Thirst, which will be available at the end of July. Getting this story published was actually a stroke of luck. After receiving numerous rejections over the years I withdrew it so it could be included in the short story collection. However, I forgot to withdraw it from one, and it turned out that one wanted to publish it. There is an awful lot of luck involved in this business. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it.

Dan the Man published

Got a new short story up on the website. This story is called Dan The Man and was first published by Permafrost Magazine in their Winter 2018 issue. Permafrost is a publication up in Fairbanks, Alaska which really does some top notch work.

Dan The Man is a story about a UPS driver dealing with one of the less than stellar things that delivery package drivers have to deal with. It gets a little dark, so fair warning. Special thanks to Shawn Bartling who originally told me a story about his own experiences that were the basis of this story.

Prior to this story being accepted it was rejected 13 times, which all together isn't too shabby when it comes to sending these out into the wide wide world. I hope you enjoy it.