Germany Strikes Again

A few days ago, somebody from Germany bought my short story collection Stumptown, which is kind of interesting given my book The Uncanny Valley was also bought by somebody from Germany back in January. This raises a lot of questions? Is this the same person or somebody new? How in the heck did someone from Germany even find my books? Do I have a secret burgeoning German fanbase? Am I the next David Hasselhoff? Well, whatever the answers, I hope the random German person or persons buying my books enjoys them.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Doubleback Re-Publishes Doing What You Have To Do

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Today the Doubleback Review re-published one of my earliest short stories, Doing What You Have To Do. Doubleback specializes in re-publishing stories from now defunct literary reviews, which is a pretty cool idea given the significant turnover in literary reviews, which results in many amazing stories being lost. Doing What You Have To Do holds a special place for me. Written back in February of 2013, it was the first short story that I started sending out to see if I could get it published. Though it wasn’t the first to be published, it was an early one, getting published in The Soundings Review in the summer of 2015. Unfortunately, The Soundings Review went defunct soon afterwards. However, now, thanks to Doubleback, a whole new set of readers have a chance to see it.

To read Doing What You Have To Do, check out the following link:
doublebackreview.com/issue-3-1-april-2021/s-w-campbell-doing

To check out more about my writing, go to:
www.shawnwcampbell.com/

Entropy Publishes Little Bird

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Entropy Magazine has published by short piece, Little Bird, which is probably better described as an essay than a piece of fiction, since there really isn’t anything made up about it. Depression is a very real part of my life, coming and going in undulating waves until eventually it gets bad enough, about every four to five years or so, that I go onto medication for awhile to get my head back above water. Describing depression is difficult, I’d describe it less as feeling sad and more as a complete lack of any emotion whatsoever. However, even more difficult is describing the cycle of depression. Anyways, you’ll have to read the damn thing to see where I’m going with all of this.

Little Bird was first written in December of 2018 and then left in the pile of stories I never submit because they are written for personal processing reasons rather than creating something cool for people to read reasons. In March of 2021, I decided to submit it to Entropy because they weren’t accepting fiction submissions. It was accepted for publication two days later and now here we are with it out in the world. I hope you enjoy it.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/short-stories/little-bird

Entropy Keeps This Ball Rolling

I should’ve known if I noted a trend, such as most of my stories being accepted for publication being funny this year, then something would go and break the trend. That something is Entropy Magazine, which I’m pleased to report is going to publish my short story, or maybe it’s an essay, Little Bird. The thing that makes this story different is it’s about depression, which isn’t really all that funny, unless you have a particularly weird sense of humor. Anyways, either way, I’m glad that it’s getting published, bringing the total so far this year to seven, which is pretty cool given that I got eight published over the whole of last year.

Anyways, you’ll of course have to wait until Entropy publishes it to read it, but in the mean time, you should really check out my newest short story collection, Stumptown. Thank you as always to everyone for your support.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/stumptown

The Croaker Accepts My Story

An online humor magazine called The Croaker sent me a message today letting me know they’d like to publish my, I’m not sure what you call it because it’s not really a short story, maybe an essay, I don’t know, I’m not the best with the nomenclature. Anyways, it’s called Bear Rug. It started out as a ridiculous Facebook post, which then morphed into something that’s apparently publishable. This will be my sixth short story published so far in 2021, which is pretty damn cool given that I got seven published in total last year. An interesting thing I’ve noticed this year is that pretty much everything I’ve gotten published this year is more on the humorous end. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that 2020 had enough drama without people reading drama.

Anyways, good news on the writing front, but you’re going to have to wait until it’s published to read it. In the mean time, maybe check out Professor Errare, who is currently doing a history of the United States.

www.shawnwcampbell.com/errare

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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