I received word that a short story of mine has been accepted by Stupifying Stories. The story is titled The Cuttle Out Of Ground. That moniker is a play on the title of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s famous stories — The Colour Out Of Space. I did this little homage because my story is loosely Lovecraftian. I repeat, loosely.

I’m trying to remember details of the story’s creation because people might find that interesting the way I find movie commentaries interesting. I remember writing the first draft of the story back in 2011 or thereabouts. I had another short story, Dawes, in the Dead Bait anthology from Severed Press. They were doing a Dead Bait 2, so I dreamed up a wacky story that very obliquely touched upon a fishing theme. I repeat, very obliquely.

I remember deliberately thinking up an attention-getting first line for the story:

“There’s an octopus in the toilet!”

Once I had the first line, I went from there. I finished a decent draft of the tale, but it wasn’t quite there yet. As usual, the solution was to leave it alone for a while and then come back to it. The story went into the miscellaneous file and there it mellowed with age. Fast forward to the present time — I was looking through my miscellaneous folder recently and decided to give The Cuttle Out Of Ground another editing pass. I then submitted it to Stupifying Stories, and here we are…

In the end, it’s not rocket surgery. It’s just producing and submitting. I might call doing a first draft writing, but everything after that I call revision, which means writing is mostly revision, to me anyway. Some folks can write perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. Writing is usually an exercise in endurance for me. Which one will wear out first, me or the story?

I have no idea when The Cuttle Out Of Ground will be published yet. Those details will come as I get further along into the process.