News

 

 

11/27/24
It’s been a busy and wonderful month from many points of view. My older sister Pat came to visit and we had a wonderful time together. 
For some reason, this year has been extraordinary in that I have had 23 short stories or essays and collection of stories, accepted by magazines and publishers. It takes a lot of hard work since I have made 189 submissions since January! Of course many editors did not even respond to me. A book of short stories has been accepted by a publisher in the UK and will be available in summer 2025. Stay tuned. 
Some months ago I was invited to be an associate editor for The Brussels Review a quarterly prestigious publication that showcases fiction, poetry and art. It’s an experience seeing how things work from the inside.
This past weekend I had a stall at the Concord Historical Society’s Holiday Fair where I sold my books. On Saturday December 7, I will be at the Community Center in Pleasant Hill, and on Sunday December 8 at the Hilton Hotel in Concord.
I am finally happy with the progress of my new novel and back on track to finish the manuscript by the end of December!! Then the hard work of editing starts.
In December you will also be able to visit my newly updated Website. You will access to the three new videos that I have recently made. A few weeks ago I was interviewed by a Z Radio out of New York and short audio clips will be posted across social media throughout the holidays. 
Enjoy the holidays and have a great Christmas. 
 

10/27/24

I can't figure out what has happened to my previous posts. I give an update every month!

These past couple of months have been very busy. I am fortunate that I have had five short stories and one nonfiction essay published or will be published shortly. My Time as Hermit  will not be published until February in a Canadian magazine.  Annie and I enjoyed ten wonderful days in Cabo San Lucas and she read a lot, I wrote every day and caught up with my new novel, Labyrinth.  I am now 17 chapters into it and my deadline is to have it done by the end of January...it will be a stretch to get it done, but that's my goal. Given all the holidays etc I will have to write about 6,000 words each week!

I also take time researching magazines where I can submit my short stories, as well as writing new ones. 

I am still responsible as Program Chair of the California Writers Club, Mt Diablo Branch and have speakers lined up through June of Next year. However I now have a team and next year my burden will be shared! For those of you out there who visit my website and read my news etc, you should think about joining CWC even if you are only a beginning writer.

My big marketing effort has been in getting three of my books, Take a Priest Like You, Nor Room for Heroes and Let the Peacock Sing turned into YouTube videos. Two of them are now posted and by mid November the last one, Let The Peacock Sing Will be available. Take a peek. When I have all three they will be imbedded on page two of my website, but of course you can see them if you go directly to YouTube.

My book sales are strong and of course if you know of a book club and they read one of my books, I will come and discuss it with them.

 

08/30/24

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August has been an unusual month as a writer. Sprinkled between several rejections, I had several pieces accepted. The Brussels Review has both a quarterly in print magazine and is also published continually online. They made two submissions, one a fantasy (2,300 words) and the other a short story ( 4,000). What was even nicer, I received a quick email, which rarely happens, and a surprise note from the editor saying he would be interested in more of my work. Yikes!

Bits N Pieces Magazine will publish two of my pieces, one an essay about Nigerian Writers (2,000 words) the second a 4,000 word extract from my forthcoming novel ‘Labyrinth,’ which I hope to publish in early 2025.

I submitted an essay (3,500 words) to a Canadian publication. Founded in 1829, Broadview is the oldest continuously published magazine in North America, and the second oldest in the English-speaking world. It has won international acclaim for journalistic excellence. I received a great email from the editor spelling out their editorial process and explaining how they will work with me to reduce and edit my article down to 3,000 words. It will appear in their February 2025 edition.

Annie and I spent twelve days in Mexico, Los Cabos, for some R & R. We had a great time I was going to say ‘doing nothing,’ but that would be incorrect. We both read a lot, and I wrote every day in between laps in the pool and drinking pina coladas. We took a boat ride out from San Lucas del Cabo which was quite something seeing the amazing caves and rock formations. We spent a couple of enjoyable mornings mooching around the cute old Mexican town of San Jose where Annie found a jewelry store and I’ll probably have to start looking for a job so I can pay off the credit cards! But it was a fun and an enjoyable experience meeting the locals and just chatting. It’s amazing how my fluency in Spanish returns once I am in surrounded by native speakers.

 

06/25/24

Another busy month. I had issues with KDP and Amazon, they kept producing the proof of my book although we had

​re-submitted my MS. It is now corrected and so now the correct edition of Take a Priest Like You is now available. On June 13 I made a presentation and did a boo signing at the SIR Branch 19 in Pitsburg. On the 23rd the Academy of Hearts & Mind published my short fantasy story The Storyteller: The Shannnike. That makes it seven publishings this year! Also produced is my YouTube video of my memoir. Check it out at Take a priest like you:Michael Barrington.  I am waiting for two more videos of my World War II French Resistance books. They should be out in early July and I will update my website and publish the links. Also beginning in early July I will be conducting four workshops  on How To Write a Short Story and get published. Book sales have been excellent this month. In July I will be visiting a book club in Blackhawk. They have already bought my book and I will facilitate a discussion on it. Annie and I will taking a long vacation in Mexico in AUgust and I am looking forward to that time to get some serious writing done. Ideally I would like to finish writing Labyrinth, my new novel by the end of this year.I am five chapters into it.  Also I am writing two short stories which I will submit for publicaiton.

O5/25/24

It's been an amazing month. Books 'N Things published two of my stories, Magic at Stonehenge and Silk. The last week I was informed that they will publish The Man on The Train next month. Book sales have been brisk and I made a presentation to a large group of the SIR organization. Next month Written Tales Magazine will publish a short story and have also asked me for an audio version of The Man on The Train for a new podcast series. I was approached by XYZ Film Studios from Los Angeles who in conjunction with Netflix want to option my book, No Room for Heroes. I am also working with a company that produces videos and one is allready completed. My new Memoir came out two weeks ago, Take a Priest Like You and will now appear on YouTube. My two other books, No Room for Heroes and Let the Peacock Sing will be on YouTube by next week. 

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04/20/24

A lot has been happening in my life recently. Last week, Aether Avenue Press published my short story, Moonlight over Stonehenge. I was also informed that the magazine Pieces 'N Things will publish two of my stories in May: The Man on the Train and Silk, a short brook review. LAst week I also made a presentation in Pleasanton to a large group of SIR organization. It was entitled The French Resistance 1940 - 44 and I spoke about my two books, No Room For Heroes and Let the Peacock SIng. In May I will be making the same presentation to another large group SIR group who that day will be bringing in their wives and girl friends. I typically sell a number of books at these events, but I also gain access to many book clubs and the traffic on my web site jumps.

My memoir, Take a Priest Like You, is now  in the  hands of my publisher. Hopefully  it will be  available at the end of May.

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03/15/24

Last Monday I made a presentation at the Walnut Creek Library Foundation talking abut my two books, Let the Peacock Sing and No Room for Heroes. About sixty people attended and it was well received. The title was The French Resistance in WW II. 

My newest book will finally be out next week. Magic at Stonehenge will be available on Amazon. Production was delayed due to problmes with the cover color. 

Two weeks ago  my short story The Shannike: The Storyteller  was published by Aether Avenue Press and just a few days ago it ws published in their anthology, Surrendering to the Surreal. It is available on Amazon.

My memoir, Take a Priest Like You is currently in the hands of two Beta readers. I hope to have it ready for publication at the end of April.

Meanwhile I am working with Marianne McBride to help guide me through the very complex novel I started 18 months ago. It invovled five separate stories but all linked together by a common thread. Its both a challenging and exciting project.

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O2/11/24

My latest book has hit a temporary publishing snag and will not be out until the end of the month. Many of my fans have been asking when will it be ready....so now you have it. January and into Feb. have already been extremely busy for me. The speaking engagements are pouring in and it means I will have many opportunities to talk about and sell my books.  

I continue to work on my updated memoir and have set myself a target date of March 31 to get it finished.

I have picked up the novel I started just over a year ago and will be working on with my editor Marianne Mc Bride. She wants to learn about developmental editing and so I will be the guinea pig or rather we both will. No matter what, it will be a great earning experience. It is a novel with five separate and parallel stories but all linked by a common thread.

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01/14/24

It's a New Year and already my writing calendar is filling up fast. First of all a very Happy New Year to all my fans and readers. 

In December I had three speaking engagements and my books sold well before Christmas. My niece Erin Shnagaher, an actress on British TV helped a lot by providing me a short video. It's on Facebook.

Just last week the Joint Book Venture, a group from the California Writers Club which I organized and facilitated into conjointly, eight of us, writing a murder mystery set in San Francisco. It is called Passage to Murder by Jay Beevee (JBV) and is now available on Amazon.

My newest book, a collection of more than forty short stories I have written and published, is currently going through a final edit. It will be published in early February, Magic at Stonehenge

I am also working on the revision of my memoir and have added nine new chapters. It should be ready for publishing in early March and under a new title.

Finally, I wrote a fantasy story over the holidays and is being published in the UK later this month. It's a great New Year's present!

I have several speaking engagements arranged over the next few months starting this week with a presentation to the AAUW in Pleasant Hill CA.

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12/02/23

November was a particularly busy month with many presentations and book club meetings. I really enjoy meeting with clubs that have read my novels. And December looks to be equally busy; but that is good for book sales! 

The Joint Book Venture manuscript is ready to send to the publisher and we anticipate publication at the end of the month or the beginning of January. That will be a real celebration.

I am working on several other  projects. 

1) I am wiriting a couple of short stories and one The Shannike (Storyteller)  has been sent off to several publishers. It's also on my Blog, check it out! Its also on Facebook.

2) I am re-writing my Memoir The Bishop Wears no Drawers, and adding six or seven chapters. My goal is to have it done by the end of February 2024.

3) The novel I have been working is on hold for the moment until I caome up for air. I have completed eight chapters but it will be a longer process since it's quite challenging and complex! 

4) I am also considering putting together some of my short stories into a book; I have written more than forty. People keep asking me if I will do that, so it would be just another project. 

5) I have just splurged and bought two software programs to help with my writing, Atticus and Powerwriter Pro. However, it is still on my shoulders to come up with the stories. Maybe over the Xmas holidays, I will have a headful of new ideas!

6) Look out for some video publiciy starting next week. My niece who is a TV actress in the UK has made two videos that she will be promoting across social media platforms over the next several months. Look out for Erin Shannagher.

Happy Holidays to everybody.

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11/04

There is a lot happening in my life just now. 

Last week I saw the first edits of our Joint Book Venture and I am pleased with what I read. We are a little behind schedule but our goal is still to have it published by the end of the year. We have now decided on a new title for it and the team looked at 3 possible newly designed book covers none of which were accepted. Jennifer Granat a team member and writer is also an artist and she was asked to produce a new one. We are all anxiously waiting for it.

Last Sunday I did a reading and book signing in Benicia and it was well attended. 

Next Monday I am doing a book presentation at Rossmoor.

Later on I have another presentation in Pleasanton and one in Clayton which is just down the road from me.

One of my short stories was punblished last week in CafeLit Magazine. That's the second this year!!

At the end of the month I have to travel to Puerto Rico to do a program review for Rotary International. Since I lived there many years ago, it will bring back many happy memories.

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10/10

I spent two hours yesterday at a ladies book club in Antioch and what an enjoyable time it was. Eleven ladies had read my book Becoming Anya and all of them gave it a thmbs up as an interesting and enjoyable read. While discussion about the book lasted for half an hour, the conversation turned on me as a writer! They wanted to know about me and my craft: what did I write, how did I write, when did I write and fascinating questions about being a creative writer. They were intrigued when I told them I rarely if ever use a story board but let my characters tell me who they are, how they feel, what they will wear, what foods they like, how they make friends. They tell me how they feel and what makes them tick. Usually I have no idea initially how my books will develop. The meeting ended with a discussion about another of my books, Let The Peacock Sing and they agreed to adopt it as a book of the month for sometime next year.

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I am working with three artists to design a cover for our group novel. We have not yet decided firmly on the title. Once completed we will decide as a group which cover to chose.

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10/01

These past two months have been very different for me as a writer. Apart from getting long term Covid and I was extremely sick, I have done very little personal writing. My entire focus has been working with a team of six other writers and together we are writing a Mystery Novel. I have been leading the process and am happy to announce that the MS is now completed. It is called The Ipswich Murder: A San Francisco mystery.

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Next week it will be going to our editor and our goal is to have it published by the end of November. Stay tuned for more information.

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I have attended two book clubs this month which is always a happy and interesting time. It's fun being able to respond to readers questions.

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Next month I will be doing two public presentations in Benicia and Oakley.