I received an inadvertent, and slightly belated, birthday present today via The Cabinet of Heed accepting my short story, The Soliloquy of the Ring, for publication. It will be coming out later this month. This is rather exciting because that particular story is probably one of the stranger ones that I’ve ever written, both in terms of subject matter and style. However, I can’t tell you much more, because I’d hate to spoil it for you once it actually gets published. In the mean time, if you’re looking for a good winter time read, check out my novel Papaya. More information can be found here:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/papaya
Germany
Today I got notification that somebody bought my book The Uncanny Valley in Germany. Now normally this would be a big mystery to me, but it’s not like this hasn’t happened before, with mysterious purchases of my book appearing in Japan and Spain over the previous year. Why did somebody buy my book in Germany? How did they even find it? Well, if its anything like Spain, then it’s likely just somebody who accidentally bought my book while looking for a fairly popular memoir about working in Silicon Valley of the same name. Though there might be a little bit of initial disappointment by whatever German folk made the mistake when they open their package, I hope they still give it a read and enjoy it.
Do you want to read the book that one Germany person likely accidentally purchased, check it out here:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/uncannyvalley
Cirque Reading
I’m proud to announce that I will be participating in a reading tonight with Cirque Journal, which recently published my short story Man of the House. The reading starts at 7 PM PST and can be found via the below link for anyone who might be interested.
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86057207353?pwd=dmVJeUdHNExPbU4vcEJsZldaR0d3QT09
Passcode: 1111
BlazeVOX20 Publishes Club 12-21
The online literary review BlazeVOX20 published my short story Club 12-21 in its 20th anniversary issue. This is the fourth consecutive issue of BlazeVOX that I’ve been published in, which is pretty fricking awesome. Club 12-21 was written in December of 2018 and first submitted for publication in June of 2019. It was rejected eleven times before being accepted for publication by BlazeVOX in July of 2020.
Sometimes you write a story that you think isn’t that good, until somebody else declares they love it and it gets published. This story is not an example of that phenomenon. I thought this was a good story when I wrote it, and most of the rejections for it were encouraging, with editors saying they liked it but it just didn’t fit in with the issue they were working on. This was a story I knew would eventually get published from the beginning, and I’m so very happy to be able to share it with you now.
www.shawnwcampbell.com/club-1221
If you enjoyed this story, check out my newest short story collection, Stumptown.
Cirque Journal Publishes Man Of The House
Cirque Journal just announced the publication of my short story, Man Of The House. This story was first written in January of 2015 and was first submitted for publication in March of that same year. The story was rejected by twenty-four literary reviews before finally being accepted for publication by Cirque in July of 2020, and now here it is at last in print. That’s one hell of a journey.
This is my third story to be published by Cirque, each appearing in consecutive issues which is quite the honor. As with pretty much all of my work, this is a piece of fiction. I hope you enjoy it.
www.shawnwcampbell.com/man-of-the-house
If you like this story, be sure to also check out my new short story collection, Stumptown.
Pioneertown Accepts My Story For Publication
Great news all you internet peoples. The literary review Pioneertown has accepted my short humor piece, Dear Vegan Food Manufacturers, for publication. It should be coming out this February. This is rather exciting for a couple of reasons; including since I’ve gotten close with Pioneertown several times, this is a short funny piece which is a little different then things I often write, and because they’re going to pay me twenty dollars. What am I going to spend my new heaps of cash on? Who knows?
Of course, as always, you’re going to have to wait until its published to get to read it, but in the mean time, you should check out my new collection of short stories, Stumptown, available via the below link. As always, thank you for reading.
www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown
Talking About Writing
I had the excellent opportunity today of speaking with two high school sophomore and two high school English classes at Glenn’s Ferry High School via Zoom. Glenn’s Ferry is a small town in southern Idaho, not much different than the town where I grew up. It’s always hard keeping the attention of high schoolers for very long, but I though the talk went fairly well overall.
Stumptown
I’m glad to announce that my new short story collection, Stumptown, is available for purchase. Stumptown is a collection of stories about a group of friends and acquaintances living in Portland in the early 2010’s. Some of the stories have been previously published in various literary reviews, but many have not. Further information about the book, including various places to buy it, can be found at:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown
As always, thank you to everyone who has supported my writing over the years. The greatest honor any writer can have is people reading their work. It’s been fun watching this hobby of mine build upon itself over the years. Normally we’d have a big release party to show my appreciation, but unfortunately COVID makes that not an option, at least for now. In lieu of such get togethers, I’ll say it right here. Thank you. I hope you enjoy Stumptown.
Stumptown Is Coming
I’m proud to announce that I’m putting a new short story collection out into the world in the next few weeks. Stumptown is a collection of stories about a group of friends and acquaintances in their late twenties and early thirties living in Portland in the early teens of the 21st century. It will be coming out soon, but in the mean time if you’d like to learn more about it, you can check out the below:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown
Professor Errare Presents.... Stuff You Should Know
The good professor is ecstatic to announce that a new book is now available for your growing Professor Errare collection. Professor Errare Presents…. Stuff You Should Know is now available on Amazon both in print and ebook formats. Check out the below link for more information:
Letters From The People's Republic of 47th and Long
Back in late April, I began a writing experiment meant to help with the boredom of the COVID world. In this experiment, I added a new section to a story every day. Well, after a little over two months of doing this, I fell off the rails a bit, what with all the stuff happening in the world. However, despite not adding to it every day as originally planned, I did finally finish it just the other day. It turned out a lot better than I expected, given that I really had no idea where it was going when I started it.
My plan now is to do a bit of editing and to send it out to agents to see if I can’t get it published. At just under 50,000 words, I’m not sure if its technically a novel or novella, I’ll leave the categorization to the more pedantic types, but I think it’s a pretty good story that is relevant to the world we find ourselves in. If you’d like to read it in its entirety, I’m going to leave it up on the website for awhile. You can check it out at:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/letters/2020/4/22/april-22-2022
BlazeVOX Apparently Likes My Writing
Today I received word from a literary review out of Buffalo that they were accepting my short story, “Club 12-21” for publication in their next issue. This is pretty awesome, especially considering I just sent them the story for consideration yesterday. This is actually the fourth short story that I’ll have published by BlazeVOX, and the fourth consecutive issue of theirs in which my work will appear. Something like this is a huge compliment, and I’m very grateful to BlazeVOX for providing me the space to share my work again and again. It’s a very humbling experience.
Of course, as always, you will have to wait until “Club 12-21” gets published to read it, which will be sometime this fall. However, in the mean time, might I suggest checking out the People’s Republic of 47th and Long, a writing experiment where I add a new section each day (though unfortunately over the past few weeks it has become a little more scattered than originally planned). The story is beginning to come to a conclusion, and I think it’s worth checking out.
Thank you as always to everyone for your support through the years. It’s been exciting to see this hobby grow over time.
Cirque Journal Is At It Again
They say that things come in three for some reasons, which never made one damn bit of sense to me, but this time it’s most certainly true in several ways. Cirque Journal has announced they plan to publish my story, Man of the House, in their next issue. Not only is this the third day in a row of good writing news for me, this is also the third time Cirque will be publishing one of my stories, and the third issue in a row of Cirque I’ll be published in. It’s a three extravaganza. Not only that, but this story was rejected 24 times prior to being accepted, which is divisible by three, which is a bit of a stretch, but what the hell, why not. This is also my 33rd short story to be accepted for publication. There’s probably also all sorts of other hidden threes somehow involved, but I’ll leave figuring out those to future scholars.
Anyways, unfortunately you’re going to have to wait for it to be officially published before you can read it, probably in three months, but in the mean time, I highly suggest you check out my writing project, The People’s Republic of 47th and Long, a book in which I add a new section everyday. You can find it at:
Eunoia Review publishes The Nine Lives of Mr. Snuggles
The Eunoia Review has published my short story, The Nine Lives of Mr. Snuggles, today, which means that it’s now available for all of you to read. This is a double good thing in that the Eunoia Review is based out of Singapore, marking a first for my writing career, and because this is by far the longest single story I’ve ever had published. Most short stories I get published tend to be in the 3,000 or less word range, which is a fairly common length for short stories. This story comes in at a whopping 13,000 words, which actually makes it more of a novella than a short story, or a novelette if you really want to get technical about it, but good god who wants to get into that.
The Nine Lives of Mr. Snuggles was rejected five times prior to being accepted for publication, though part of that is the fact that few literary reviews accept stories this long. Thank you to everyone for the years of support. I hope you enjoy it.
Reading for Cirque
If you’ve got nothing else going on tonight, I’m part of an online reading via Zoom hosted by Cirque Journal. The reading starts at 7 PM and can be accessed via the below link:
Japan
Today I got a notification that somebody in Japan purchased my newest novel, Papaya, which seems pretty random all things considered. Given that a big part of being a member of the teeming writing masses is celebrating every little victory you get, here’s to you random person in Japan who ordered my book. I hope you enjoy it and tell your friends about it.
If you’d like to check out the novel that one person in Japan has purchased, you can via the below link:
The Uncanny Valley Audio Book Now Fully Available
After nearly two months of work, my first novel, The Uncanny Valley, is now fully available in an audio version which is currently free for anybody who wants to listen to it. Though the quality is not the best given my lack of equipment, I think its well worth the listen for all of those people who have told me they’d love to read my book, but only if they can do it with their ears. I hope every one enjoys it.
You can find the audio version here:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/audio
And you can find the book version here:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/uncannyvalley
Ten-Hut Published by BlazeVOX
Come one and come all to read Ten-Hut, my latest short story which has just been published by the online literary review BlazeVOX19. This is quite an honor given that I’ve now had a story published in each of the past three issues of this fine review. I think it might be one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received as a writer. Ten-Hut is actually one of my newer stories, having been written in July of 2019. It is also one that got published fairly quickly. I first started submitting it in December of 2019 and after only six rejections it got picked up by BlazeVOX19 in April of this year. This is the fourth story of mine to be published so far this year.
Eleven months between writing and publishing is actually a pretty good turnaround in the short story biz. For instance, most of the stories that I’ve gotten published don’t reach the public eye until 3 to 5 years after they are written. The longest period I’ve had so far between writing a story and seeing it published has been six and a half years. Part of this is my tendency to let stories sit for awhile before editing them and starting the submissions process, but part of it too is the fact that this is a hobby that requires focusing on the long game. It can take awhile for you want to put a story out there, even longer to get it accepted, and even then you have to wait, sometimes a year, for it to be actually published. All I can say is, all of your support certainly makes the waiting worth it. I hope you enjoy Ten-Hut.
Eunoia Review Accepts The Nine Lives of Mr. Snuggles for Publication
Great news today, the Eunoia Review accepted my short story, The Nine Lives of Mr. Snuggles, for publication in mid-June. This pretty exciting for a couple of reasons. First, at a whopping 13,000 words this will be far my longest short story to ever get published. Second, this online literary review is based out of Singapore, so I can add it to the list of countries where I’ve been published which currently includes the U.S. and India. Finally, this will be the sixth short story of mine to be published so far this year.
Of course, you’re going to have to wait until after it’s published to read it, but in the mean time, might I suggest for your reading pleasure my new project, The People’s Republic of 47th and Long, where I’m adding a new part to the story each day, creating a book right before your very eyes. You can check it out at:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/letters
The Closet Published by Clackamas Literary Review
The Clackamas Literary Review published my short story, The Closet, today. This brings the total stories published so far this year to three with another two pending. The Closet is one of those stories that I just kind of wrote one day on a whim, never expecting it to get published. However, I decided to put it out there anyways, which just goes to show you never know what might happen.
I don’t usually believe in explaining stories, but I think this one is worth saying some things because stories of a personal nature involve people one loves and cares about. I had a good childhood overall. I got to grow up in the middle of nowhere in a setting relatively few people get to truly experience. I’ve never wanted to trade it for anything. I was a lucky kid. I had parents who loved me and cared so deeply that even when I was angry with them I never questioned it. If anything, I wish I could go back to my childhood and be better to them. I was not an easy child. I was a different child, or at least that’s the way I felt, though others must have seen it somewhat too for I got picked on a lot as a kid. It’s hard to explain, but I always felt like an outsider no matter where I went or who I met. I sometimes imagined a spaceship dropping out of the sky to take me to the world where I belonged.
Growing up is a confusing time, not just for yourself, but for your parents as well, especially when you feel different. I was not an easy kid. I was extremely finicky, picky, and had a violent temper. I was angry at being stuck on this world, and so I acted out against it. I latched onto odd things and ideas with an amazing amount of force for somebody my age, defending them against encroachment with a righteous fury that often came out in unhealthy ways. I know I worried my parents, and scared them a lot too. I don’t think they knew what to do with me, though they did everything in their power to help and understand me. As a kid, so many actions by your parents don’t make sense at the time they’re happening, only later revealing themselves as proof of how much somebody loves you. I don’t know how my parents could’ve done any better with me. How could they be expected to understand something that I certainly didn’t understand then, and even after 37 years of living with myself still can’t satisfactorily explain now.
I was a lucky kid. My parents loved me and cared for me. There are so many kids who don’t get such things, and who knows what I might be if I didn’t have such a foundation. I am who I am today because of them, and there’s no way for me to repay such a gift. As for the rest, I guess eventually I learned to go native, accepting as best I can that I am where I’m supposed to be. Though I will admit that I often still look up at the stars wondering if a spaceship might be on its way.
The Closet was first written in November of 2015. It was rejected 21 times before finding a home. This is my second story to be published by the Clackamas Literary Review. I hope you enjoy it.
www.shawnwcampbell.com/the-closet
Also be sure to check out The People’s Republic of 47th and Long, a writing experiment where a new section is added to the story every day. It can be found at:
