A whole new personna...

...well not quite.

After months of tossing it about I have changed my writing name to Mark Smith-Briggs in an effort to stand out a little more than just Mark Smith. The first of my stories under this name should be out in July. I had previously dabbled under this name at Horrorscope for a while, and noticed that my Ditmar nomination was under this name so figured, it's probably as good a time as any to make the minor alteration.

In other news, after keeping me in suspense for month or so, my story Remorse has been accepted into Flashspec Volume 2. It's even a paying gig, which is still a weird feeling for me - to have somebody pay me for something I've made up.

Now if only I could make $40,000 a year off of it and retire to the good life.

The master trains the mouse

My application for the Australian Horror Writers Association's mentorship program was successful with award-winning Western Australia author Lee Battersby agreeing to take me under his wing for the next three months.
Hopefully he'll be able bash my prose into shape a bit and set me on the path to becoming a better writer.
There is a reward for you guys out of this too. By taking my writing to the next level I'll be able to scare you, entertain you and enthrall you better should you choose to stick it out for the ride.

In other news my short story Remorse has been under consideration for Flashspec Volume 2 for a few weeks. Hopefully it's still in the mix for one of the final spots.