There Ain’t No Road Too Long

There Ain’t No Road Too Long

Everyone has their way to tackle initial revisions. Those early modifications don’t get that baby walking. It’s more like cleaning the thing up moments after birth. Still, rewriting is the most important part of writing, and my philosophy on rewriting is simple. If it’s none done, keep working. Read all about it in “There Ain’t No Road Too Long” at The Confabulator Cafe.

There is always time to write, right?

There is always time to write, right?

My weekly contribution to the Confabulator Cafe came in right before posting time. Ironic, since this week’s topic was making time to write. It’s a busy life, right now, especially with two literary theory classes and working fifty hours a week. Still, I got it up there, as always. I hope you enjoy it.

– Jack

Piper

Piper

For this month’s flash fiction, The Confabulator Cafe is re-telling fairy tales. I chose The Pied Piper. You can read “Piper” for free at The Confabulator Cafe.

 

365 Days of Chasing Dreams

2012 proved to be a year of transition. Over the last few years, my family has been in flux. After the divorce, my time with my son became much more uncertain. This year, after she moved halfway across the country, I found myself seeing him nearly all the time. It has been great, although I dread the inevitable equalization, when I have to deal with daily life without him.

I began a Master’s Degree program at Fort Hays State University, focusing on Literary Arts. It has been a lot of fun, so far, and I especially look forward to a class on monsters in Gothic literature this Spring. I have academic aspirations to research dark literature in the future. This class should be a great starting point for my study.

The Confabulator Café, the project I began with a local group of writers, celebrated a year online, with no signs of slowing down in 2013. You can find my column there every Monday, with flash fiction published there once a month. I just wrote a re-telling of The Brothers Grimm’s Pied Piper, which will be available there in a couple of weeks. I will post an update when it goes live.

2012 was also a successful year for submissions. According to the good people at Duotrope, I submitted to 55 markets this year. Thanks to that constant stream of submissions, I had writing published in Insomnia Press and Danse Macabre Du Jour. In addition, I have several publications coming out this year. You can see the list and their tentative release dates by clicking “The Work” on the menu above. You can find links to the published pieces there, as well.

What is in store for 2013? There will be a lot of time spent writing literary criticism. I will continue to contribute each week to The Confabulator Café, althoguh I have surrendered my editorial duties there, for now. As for publications, I hope for more of the same, but that is one of those things you can’t control in writing. All you can do is keep writing, keep submitting, and hope someone likes it. Hopefully, I will finish Heaven’s Edge and re-write Kill Creek Road some time in there.

It is an odd thing. 365 days seems like such a long time, yet it disappears so fast, and no matter how much you have done, you never feel like you have done enough. There is always so much left to do. Here’s to the next 365 days, and all the dreams left to chase.

Holiday Wishes and Goodreads

Holiday Wishes and Goodreads

This week at The Confabulator Cafe, we are sharing our feelings on the holidays. My views have become conflicted in recent years. You can read all about it at http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/12/holiday-wishes/

Also, if you are a Goodreads user, feel free to connect with me there. I usually review every book I read. Discussing literature is one of my great loves. Feel free to comment there, as well. http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1295160-jack

The New Year is coming fast, and I have a lot of stories scheduled to be published in 2013 in such publications as Epiphany Magazine, The Rusty Nail, Bete Noir Magazine, Separate Worlds, and Wicked East Press. It should be a good year. Keep checking back for updates.

Happy Holidays,

Jack

Santa Claus is Coming

Santa Claus is Coming

It is time for the next installment of the Straeon Manor series over at The Confabulator Cafe. My contribution, “Santa Claus is Coming” is now available. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Straeon Manor stories, they all take place in the same house, in different rooms, in different years. It is a pretty graphic horror story involving two writing students sitting around a tree getting stoned on Christmas Eve. I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/12/santa-claus-is-coming/

Toolbox Stocking Stuffers and Another Acceptance

Toolbox Stocking Stuffers and Another Acceptance

Over at The Confabulator Cafe, we are celebrating the gift-giving season with gift ideas for the writers on your list. I address the writer’s toolbox in my entry. Don’t be afraid to give a writer tools for their work. We love our work. It isn’t any different than getting your dad that circular saw.

Also, Epiphany Magazine has accepted my short story “Waking” for publication in February. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

– Jack

Failure and other F-Words, plus an acceptance

Failure and other F-Words, plus an acceptance

My last Nanowrimo Confabulator Cafe blog is up at http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/12/failure-and-other-f-words/. Read about my mixed mixed emotions regarding Nanowrimo this year.

Also, Separate Worlds has accepted my flash fiction piece “Collectors” for publication in their January/February 2013 issue. I’ll post more information as I get it.

Thanks for reading,

Jack

Moral Victories

Moral Victories

Nanowrimo is wrapping up, and while I am nowhere near the actual goal, my personal goal has been met. Read how it is going, this week at The Confabulator Cafe.

http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/11/6348/

What the Fires Consumed

title=”What the Fires Consumed”>What the Fires Consumed

I’ve only ever written one poem. It’s titled “What the Fires Consumed” after a line in a Sylvia Plath poem. It is now available from Danse Macabre Magazine’s Du Jour website.

 

Jack Campbell Jr. – WHAT THE FIRE CONSUMED

 

Also, my latest Confabulator Cafe post is up, a few hours late, about the progress of Heaven’s Edge with all of the other stuff I have going on right now. You can read the post at  http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2012/11/days-late-and-dollars-short/

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Jack