Unabashed Self-promotion: Upcoming Works

"Hide the Weird"--a short story


Please look for this story in a forthcoming issue of Space and Time Magazine: The Magazine of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction. I think this issue will appear in 2011, but I'm not totally sure. I'll keep the situation updated. Please visit them at www.spaceandtimemagazine.com--especially when my story appears. (But even now, too.)

"Shadows"--a short story

A brief story (about 20 pages) of a teen who (barely) escapes a mass disappearance. It's on this site, and on my website, and it's written in a surreal, Alice-in-Wonderland-at-A-Houseparty style. Hope you like it. Let me know!

The Gravediggers, a novel

Kicking up steam with a new novel WIP, The Gravediggers. This could possibly be the first of a trilogy, maybe not. We'll see. About 70 pages of present-day chapters and 10 pages of past chapters have been done so far. Outlines and character sketches and charts are being filled out. Please see past blogs for details.

"Cribbage"--a short story

A short piece of how a father and son bond over games of cribbage, especially after the death of the wife/mother. This one is hitting a little too close to home right now, but I'm hangin' in there. An update of a piece written as an undergrad. and never before published. Doing this kind of thing with a past story worked with "Hide the Weird."

"Everything's Connected" and "Pink Lemonade"--short stories

Both of these are app. 10 pages; both are short mysteries starring the main character of my MS.-Looking-for-An-Agent, Cursing the Darkness. These two short stories are currently making the rounds. Wish them luck!!!

Cursing the Darkness--Completed Novel

Private eye Brad Foster comes up against a powerful mobster, a morality-driven killer, a hitman with an itchy trigger-finger, crooked cops, his Alzheimer's-ridden mother and his own depression and past failures (which led to a child's death) as he searches for two missing teenage girls and a runaway wife.  The first chapter and prologue of this work appear on my website, www.stevenbelanger.com. Check 'em out, lemme know what you think! This MS. is currently making the rounds.

"So Many Reasons to Celebrate the Season"--a short story

A writer returns from a long, overseas book tour, on Christmas Eve, to hear that his wife is leaving him after the holidays and going with the neighborhood pharmacist for a long, island vacation. This story is currently making the rounds of the magazines.

Red Room and Author's Den

I'm not one for unabashed advertising.  In fact, (right) before I changed the format of this blog, I promised some good folks that I would somehow incorportate their blogs or sites onto mine, in an unabashed show of e-friendship and writerly patriotism.  I've done that for a few, not for all, and I feel sorta bad for it.  I apologize to them again; I promise to do what I can.

But I pause here now to tell all the writers who read this blog that they should consider getting an account on Red Room and/or Author's Den.  There are many reasons for this, all beneficial to a writer:

1.  You'll get noticed.  Already more people have seen my Red Room page--in just a couple of days--then there would be people noticing me here over a longer length of time.

2.  Other professional authors have such accounts and pages.  I'm talkin' Salman Rushdie here.  (I saw his.)

3.  They're considered a professional portfolio addition kind of thing.

4.  You can post your published (or, for many, self-published) titles on there, as well as the webpages you're selling them on.  Very convenient.

5.  You can put your announcements on there, too, which can range from "I just sold a short story," to "I just finished a new novel and it's ready for representation."  Of course, you can put much bigger literary news up there, too.  Like, "I just agreed to a contract with an agency."  If you're going to a convention, or booksigning, or anything else, you can announce that, too.

6.  You can publish previously unpublished works, like I did with "Shadows" here.  Of course, you cannot publish previously published works there, or anywhere else, unless it's been long enough for the rights to come back to you.

7.  You can publish previously unpublished articles, poems, etc. as well.  See disclaimer above.

8.  Red Room gives you a free blog, too.  Author's Den makes you upgrade (reads: pay) for one.

9.  Writers and readers who take writing and reading seriously are on there, not just web-surfers.

10.  The most important reason: My stuff is there!  See my links at the top of this page.  Check 'em out!