Doubleback Review Does It's Thing

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Today I received word from a literary review called Doubleback Review that they would like to publish my short story, Doing What You Have To Do. But wait a minute, the more detail oriented amongst you might be saying, hasn’t that particular story already been published? Well, yes it has, in the Soundings Review clear back in 2015. However, the Soundings Review has been defunct for years, my story appearing in its very last issue, and Doubleback is a literary review with a the very specific goal of publishing the best of short stories that were published in now defunct literary reviews.

Overall, this is pretty exciting for me, mostly because it gives a whole new group of people the opportunity to read a story that is one of my personal favorites. Doing What You Have To Do is one of the first stories I ever wrote, one of the first I let somebody else read, and one of the first stories I ever started trying to get published. I look forward to sharing it with you again, but in the mean time, check out some of my other writing, such as my book Papaya.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/papaya

Soliloquy of the Ring

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The Cabinet of Heed published my short story, Soliloquy of the Ring, earlier this week. What can I say about this story? Sometimes you write something simply because you need to write something ridiculous. You never really plan on sharing it with the world, but then one day you find a literary review that very specifically says send us your weird stories, so you think, what the hell, and send it on its way. Well, now here it is, a very strange story out in the public eye.

Soliloquy of the Ring can best be described as the combination of a story a friend once told me about the dark phase of a post break up recovery and a Shakespearian tragedy. One of the more fun things about writing it was figuring out the correct usages of all the thine and thy and thou and so forth.

Soliloquy of the Ring was written in May of 2019. It was first submitted for publication in January of 2021, accepted for publication in February, and now published in March. It was never rejected, though mostly because I didn’t have the balls to send it out to any other literary reviews. I hope you enjoy it.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/short-stories

Fourth Issue of Cirque in a Row!!

Something big happened today. Cirque Journal, which has published me in their last three issues, let me know that they’re going to go right ahead and raise that number up to four. This is a considerable honor, and I’m excited that it’s going to be “The Devil”, one of my favorite stories that I’ve ever written. The Devil languished for a quite a long time just on the edge. It was constantly getting rejected, but with what I call encouraging rejections, where people tell you all about how much they loved it, then reject it anyways. Well, that trend is at last broken.

Of course, you can’t see “The Devil” until it gets published, but in the mean time, maybe check out what good old Professor Errare has been up to.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/errare

Margarita Monday Published by Pilgrimage Press

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Today my short story Margarita Monday was published by Pilgrimage Press. Originally slated to come out last summer, months of delays due to COVID and other such things have finally come to an end, and now at last it’s out into the world.

I first wrote Margarita Monday way back in July of 2013. Based on a story told to me by a friend who works as a nurse, I did a lot of research to make sure the descriptions of this story were accurate, which involved a lot of watching Youtube videos of abdominal surgeries. This isn’t really something people tell you a lot about writing fiction, but it often involves a lot more research than you’d think to ensure the worlds you create are accurate. You know, unless you write fantasy or something like that, then all bets are off.

Anyways, never really feeling like Margarita Monday was one of my stronger stories, I only submitted it nineteen times over a six year period. This culminated in me submitting it to Pilgrimage Press in September of 2019, as one last try before including it in my short story collection Stumptown. Imagine my surprise when it was then accepted for publication in February of 2020, and now at last , nearly eight years after it was written, it’s out in the world. It just goes to show, you never know what might get published and you shouldn’t give up on something just because it was written long long ago.

Anyways, if you’d like to read it, just follow the handy dandy link below. I hope you enjoy it.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/short-stories/margarita-monday


Dear Vegan Food Manufacturers Published by Pioneertown

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Where to begin with this story, which really isn’t a story if you want to get technical about it. Dear Vegan Food Manufacturers began as a joke, which turned into a Facebook post, which then morphed into an essay I guess would be the proper term. Either way, it was never anything I imagined a literary review publishing, and yet, here we are. Dear Vegan Food Manufacturers was published by Pioneertown today.

Dear Vegan Food Manufacturers was written in February of 2019. After that, it sat unused until October of 2020, when for a bit of a lark I sent it to two literary reviews, one of which soon after rejected it and the other which just as quickly accepted it for publication. Now here we are just four months later, with it out to be viewed by the world. I guess it just goes to show, you never know what might catch somebody’s eye when it comes to writing. Not everything has to be serious after all.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/short-stories

The Cabinet of Heed Puts One of My Stories in a Drawer

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

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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.

https://www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown

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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.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown

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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.

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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

 
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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

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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.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/letters

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:

www.shawnwcampbell.com/letters

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.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/the-nine-lives-of-mr-snuggles

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