If you visit www.jimbernheimer.com, you'll see that Spirals is finally on sale.  You can read the first two chapters there and see the fabulous cover art.

Visit www.jimbernheimer.com for all the links for purchasing Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman.  If you liked The Lie I've Lived, Dead Eye is a 1st person POV paranormal action/adventure story set in 2006-2007.

Thanks for your support!

http://www.amazon.com/Horror-Humor-Heroes-Jim-Bernheimer/dp/144145652X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235048889&sr=8-1

It's 198 pages, over 60 thousand words of entertainment.  Check out the 12 short stories, 1 five chapter novella, and two chapter preview of my fantasy novel Battle Maidens.

My story Stupid Pigs didn't win, place, or show in the Writer's Weekly contest, but I did get an Honorable Mention.

http://www.writersweekly.com/contest/spring08winners.html

Jim

Well, I received a really nice rejection letter from the editor at Permuted.  My story was one of the last 3 cut from their giant creatures anthology...damn.

I've got it submitted to a few other markets now.  It's a good story and I'm cofident it'll find a home.  A few of my other originals are out wandering around looking for a place to call home as well.  Any of you who happen to have a Baen's Bar account could see Adventurers Beware and Raw and Real on that site in the Baen's Universe Slush.

Dead Eye is in the editing/rewrite stage.  It might slow updates slightly, but there won't be a full blown hiatus again.  Things are shaping up rather nicely with the novel.  I am still thinking a release by the end of summer.

On the fanfic front, Lie 13 is already in progress.  I plan on regular updates of TML and Lie through the summer.  I have some other bunnies and half completed stories that will be making there way onto the site this summer.  August will bring some time off for the birth of my second daughter, but that should also be the time when Dead Eye debuts.

Regards,

Jim

Hope springs eternal.  With the completion of the first draft of Dead Eye finally in sight, I'm looking at my short stories.

Raw and Real was just given a polite rejection by Shroud Magazine.  I have sent it on to Electricspec Magazine for consideration.

I just submitted my vampire short Reality Bites! to drabblecast which does short original audio casts each week.  It'd be weird to make my original writing debut in an audio podcast, but it's a strange world out there.

The best piece of news is that I am on the shortlist for a Giant Creatures anthology from Permuted Press for a story called Lieutenant Armchair.  The editor posted this morning that he'll have the final decision in 2-3 weeks.  I am hopeful on this one because the editor said of an earlier draft that I sent, "It is, without a doubt, one of the best written pieces to come in."

He made a recommendation to add a different finish and I gladly accomodated that.  Only time will tell if he likes the direction I took it.

Since The View From My Room has been rewritten, I entered it again in the 2nd Jim Baen Memorial Contest.  If it doesn't win there, it goes on to the Robert Heinlein Centenial Contest.

I want to redraft A Sharp Mind for Dark Recess's Deja Vu horror contest and also write a 900-1000 word short piece for Alienskin magazines Terrifying Toys horror contest.

Oh yeah, I should also be starting my fanfics back up.

Jim

Lets see, on the Fanfic front The Lie I've Lived is probably at it's halfway point.  Turn Me Loose is maybe 1/3 the way through.  I don't plan on posting another HP fanfic until one of these is completed. 

That next fic will likely be The Inner Eye of Harry Potter.  It's a Harry raised by Sybil Trewlaney story about a young boy who takes his tarot cards, runic dice, crystal balls and numerology very seriously.  Plans are for a year covered per chapter, with each chapter being between 3-5000 words.  I will likely have it all done and maybe have a week long event where I post a chapter each day. There's a scene from chapter 4 on the forum under the thread for chapter 9 of The Lie I've Lived.

After that, I might try a crossover of HP and the new Battlestar Galactica called "The Lord of Kobol" (working title)  The basic storyline is somewhat complete for the first 1/2 of the story.

The other possibility is a long requested H/Hermione story that has a fairly good backstory to it - a parallel to year 5 Alternate Universe where Hermione is sent to Azkaban for the Kidnapping/Imprisonment and Coercion of Rita Skeeter.  The Ministry decides instead of trumping up charges against Harry, they can take one of his closest friends and use her against him to "keep the boy in line."

There's a one shot about Lord Voldemort that I have half complete and a few other ideas kicking around in the old noggin.

-----

On the original front - The first draft of Dead Eye is about  1/2  complete.  I think we'll have a 1st draft by the end of February.  My goal is for publication during the summer months.

Currently, The View From My Room is submitted to Analog and I should hear from them in 4 weeks.  Raw and Real is in Shroud Magazine's Slush Pile since early December and they should give me some kind of response the first week of February.

-----

In other news Bungle in the Jungle is being translated into both Russian and Italian.

Thanks to Olga M for the Russian translations found at these two sites.

http://www.hogwartsnet.ru/fanf/ffshowfic.php?l=0&fid=23279

http://snarry.borda.ru/?1-2-0-00000722-000-0-0-1195257414

Thanks to Daniele for the Italian.

http://www.efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=180589&i=1

That's all for now.~Jim

As I mentioned with the ending of To Fight the Coming Darkness, I'm trying to get my feet wet writing original material.  Thus far I have 4 short stories completed.  Several others in various stages of development and 3 novel length ideas in various stages.

A brief summary of what I have in the works.  It also explains why my update frequency has gone from every 2 weeks to every 3-4 weeks.

The View from My Room (written in March to June)- about 6000 words. SciFi Drama about the 1st human born on the moon and the struggles he faces being famous for just being born. On the eve of his leaving the Moon to go to Earth for the first time he faces some tough decisions.  Was written for the Jim Baen contest (didn't win). Was submitted to Writers of the Future quarter 3 (didn't win). I may tidy it up and send it as a straight submission to Analog or save it for a rainy day.

Adventurers Beware! - (written in August/September)about 4000 words. Fantasy Humor a tongue in cheek look at how townspeople view the bumbling adventurers who create havoc every where they go. For anyone who's ever played a RPG before, it answers the question how did the people at the bar always know where the next adventure is? This is my entry into this quarters Writers of the Future. The results aren't due until mid-December.

A Sharp Mind - (written in September/October)2500 words. Dark Post Apocalyptic short story about a zombie infestation. Submitted to Apex Digests Halloween contest. (Didn't win).  Expanded to 3500 words and submitted to Speculative Realm - a small anthology and currently awaiting their decision.

Raw and Real - (written in September/October)2500 words. Dark Werewolf story about a man producing a live pay per view Werewolf hunt. I'm final chopping it this weekend with Musings of Apathy's help (amongst others) and submitting it to a different Halloween contest. The results for this in December.

Reality Bites - Hard! - (In progress) 2000 words. A short Vampire story about problems faced in the modern world.

Existence - (In progress) currently 3500 words and about 50 percent complete.  A 2nd person pov story that details a nearly immortal swamp creature's struggle against the humans starting to infest his (in this case your) swamp.  It's on hold for the time beng while I work on the novel length material.  Since 2nd person is a tough style to market, when I finish it, I'll shop it around, but if it generates no real interest I could easily post it here.

Hello,

I suppose I should be updating this page.  First a big thanks to LordW for the banner you see above.  The page was rather lacking until now.

As for the status on my stories, Bungle in the Jungle is of course complete.  As some point, I'd like to go back and do some housekeeping on the story.  The sequel Turn Me Loose has a rough outline.  My best guess is at the current production level, I will be able to start posting near the end of August.

To Fight the Coming Darkness is planned to run about 40 chapters.  As of right now, I'm starting chapter 35 today, so I'm working my way towards a conclusion.  Currently there is no sequel planned.

The Lie I've Lived just had chapter 5 published and is right around 30k.  The plan is to take it to right around 100k.  Why am I setting a limit?  Simple, I am trying to write more concisely as I look towards the future when I want to write my own original stories.  A complete story in 80-100k is what a publisher would look for from a novel submission, so I need to start practicing.

Jim

First, a big thanks to the authors of this site for admitting me.  In the next few days, I will be catching up on all my chapters of both Bungle in the Jungle and To Fight the Coming Darkness.~Jim