Category: Announcements

Pet Cartooning!

written by David Steffen

I wanted to write a post to draw attention to a service that I am offering that I call “pet cartooning”, converting a photograph of an animal into a cartoon image. This could be a fun surprise present for an animal lover, or a loving tribute to your own pet. Here are a couple of examples of the results of this:

Do you think you might be Interested? Generally, here’s what I’m thinking: For $10 paid via PayPal or check, I will take a clear good-quality photograph of one animal, and will use it as a model for creating a cartoon image like those shown above ($15 for two animals). The result will be cartoon style image modeled the original photo that I will deliver via email. Keep in mind:
–So far I have had good results for SHORT-HAIRED animals, with well-defined lines. I have tried this with my own dogs (two poodles and a papillon), and the result did not work well. Feel free to drop me a line anyway if you’re not sure. The animal doesn’t necessarily need to be a dog–I did the same kind of image of a horse to illustrate Drabblecast #67 “Malish” by Mike Resnick. I’m working on improving my technique so that I can handle longer-haired animals.
–The cartoon animal will be in the same position as in the photograph. I can make small alterations like removing red-eye effect, but the photograph will be acting as the model.
–Don’t expect photo-realism. Some details might be lost, but the result is intended to match the dogs image very closely.
–I’ll do my best to get this done as soon as possible, but this will partially depend on the level of demand. If you think you want to do this, especially if you’d like to try to get something for the holidays, it may be best to contact me sooner than later.

The design itself will cost that flat fee. If you’d like to have something with the image printed on it, like a tote bag, a mug, or a t-shirt, I can upload the image to my CafePress store for further products to be purchased. For an example of this, you can see an example set of products here.

If anyone has any comments, questions, suggestions, or if you decide you are interested, please contact me at:

 

Sale! “The Quest Unusual” to Daily Science Fiction

written by David Steffen

My streak of good fortune continues with a third sale in quick succession!

The story:Â “The Quest Unusual”, a story about a strange… knight?

The magazine:Â Daily Science Fiction.

I’m particularly excited about this one, since Frank Dutkiewicz and his reviewer cronies have worked very hard to provide reviews of Daily Science Fiction for Diabolical Plots. I’m looking forward to being involved on the fiction side.

 

Good news! Another new sale, thus reaffirming my irrational superstition that my sales always come in pairs. This time the story is “The Infinite Onion”, an improbable SF story about a research company that is trying to find new ways to profit from portals to parallel worlds. The venue is AE Canadian Science Fiction Review. Huzzah! I am excited! That is all. 🙂 -David Steffen

Sale! “The Infinite Onion” to AE Canadian Science Fiction Review

Good news! Another new sale, thus reaffirming my irrational superstition that my sales always come in pairs. This time the story is “The Infinite Onion”, an improbable SF story about a research company that is trying to find new ways to profit from portals to parallel worlds. The venue is AE Canadian Science Fiction Review. Huzzah! I am excited!

That is all. 🙂

-David Steffen

Sale! “Fruitful” to Digital Science Fiction

written by David Steffen

I don’t often post about myself but I wanted to share some good news. I’ve sold my short story “Fruitful” to Digital Science Fiction. I’m very pleased that this has happened now. I was getting rather down about the writing, more than a year having passed since the last non-reprint sale.

I’ll post more information when it’s available, but the story is an off-world future SF story on a world with robot nannies where reproduction is the primary currency. I hope folks like it.

It is slated to appear in Digital Science Fiction’s 2nd issue, in July. DSF is planning to have a monthly anthology release, each one with 10 new science fiction stories. They’ve released the table of contents for their first issue, and they’ve gathered some familiar names, such as Ian Creasey, Ken Schneyer, David Tallerman. I’m looking forward to reading it!

Lucky Pig Studio: Grand Opening!

written by David Steffen

I have some very exciting news for you. Joey Jordan (our resident artist) and I are joining forces once again in a different webspace, this time to design and sell t-shirts (and other novelties) with designs of our own devising upon them. The name of our store is Lucky Pig Studio–just click on the name to go check out our wares. You can see a select few of our designs in this article, but we have many more available at the store, each of which can be printed on many types of goods, including t-shirts, tote bags, coffee mugs, baby clothes and more. If you order soon your order will hopefully arrive in time for Christmas, making a lovely stocking stuffer for your family or friends. We think there’s a little something there for everyone. We have 12 designs posted for now, to give you something to browse through.

Joey is the talented member of the duo. She is a fantastic artist and a truly nice person, and I’m happy to be working with her. In case you didn’t know, she’s the one who provided our awesome site art, as well as the pieces showcased in the Diabolical Art section of our site. She’s a professional illustrator, which is very clear from the quality of her work.

“What does David contribute?” I hear you wonder aloud.  Well, I just try to keep up, mostly. Some of the designs are created and perpetrated by my own hand. You can tell which ones they are because they’re the ones that look like they were not made by a professional artist. What I lack in skill, I try to make up for with humor and enthusiasm. I like to make designs that make me giggle, and I hope they make you giggle too.

We’re just getting started, so anything you can do to spread the word will be greatly appreciated. If you know someone who would enjoy our wares, please, please share a link with them. Post to your blog. Wear one of our t-shirts to a science fiction convention. Hire a sky writer plane to write our URL in the sky above New York City. Whatever you can do, thank you very much in advance.

We very much look forward to hearing from you, and we hope that you like what we’re putting together. And we’ll be feverishly working on new designs, so please stop back every once in a while to see what’s new. This shop is of the small, temporary variety. In the long run we plan to assemble a bigger shop with more products and more designs, but we are very excited about this and wanted to launch before Christmas. The homepage of the new improved store will be here.

Also, with the current kind of shop we’re working with, there’s no way to disallow certain unwise combinations, so you’ll want to avoid those yourself, particularly:
-If there is a caption with black font, you won’t be able to see it on black and some dark shirts.
-For light colored but non-white shirts, CafePress does not print white ink for white/gray parts of the image. So, the white part of a design printed on a yellow shirt will just be yellow instead.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Updates, or “I’m not dead yet”

by David Steffen

For those who’ve noticed that there haven’t been any new content on Diabolical Plots for a while, don’t worry. I’m not dead, and I’ll be posting some new content very, very soon. First up, I think, will be my review of Stephen King’s Under the Dome. I’ve also got my eye on some video game reviews (classic and otherwise), and a few movie reviews. I’d like to provide more interviews, but it’s been a little hit-and-miss corresponding with the guests lately–there have been several that have agreed to interviews, but not responded to the questions. It’s probably time for a followup email in several cases, but I’m putting it off for a bit longer–I don’t want to be a pest.

Why have I been absent? Well, I’m glad you asked, hypothetical interwebz audience. Every minute of my writing time has been occupied chasing a story to finish for a submissions deadline. Remember Northern Frights Publishing, the ones who were my very first publication (The Utility of Love in the Shadows of the Emerald City anthology) and who I’ve sold to another time (What Makes You Tick in the War of the Worlds: Frontlines anthology). Well they have a new antho coming out titled “Fallen” with a theme of demonic horror. I’ve been fortunate enough to make it into 2 out of 3 of their other anthologies, so I’d really like to make it 3 out of 4. I wanted to come up with something original, not just an Exorcist or Fallen (the movie) ripoff, so I spent a lot of time coming up with the concept and then an even longer time trying to put it in some kind of coherent order. The good news is that I’ve finished a rough draft and sent it off to beta readers. Now I have a bit of breathing room while they read it and comment on it, so I can catch up on some other things. I’ll be sending the completed story off to NFP very, very soon–wish me luck!

In other news, Bull Spec #3 may be out late next month, containing a previously unpublished story (my 4th story to be published) Turning Back the Clock. I’ve been really impressed by the previous two issues put together by one-man staff Samuel Montgomery-Blinn has put together so I’m really looking forward to it. Also in the issue are Katherine Sparrow and Lavie Tidhar, both great authors who I’ve read elsewhere (including quite a few stories on the Escape Artists podcasts, as well as Brain Harvest). Not only that, but my story will be ILLUSTRATED, which is a first for me, and by my good illustrator friend Joey Jordan, the one responsible for the kickass site art at the top of your page and under the Diabolical Art tab.

I’ve also been invited to write some articles for the Elder Signs Press blog. I decided to accept despite the fact that they lost the only submission I’d sent them. They’ve had a big staff turnover so I figure I’ll give them another chance.

Well, thanks for reading and keep your eye out for more content very soon!

What Makes You Tick: new story available!

My newest published story is now available: What Makes You Tick, published by Brain Harvest. It’s a horror flash fiction piece, the shortest I’ve published. It’s also the same story that will be printed in Northern Frights Publishing’s War of the Worlds: Frontlines anthology some time soon, so you can look at it like a free preview.

This is also the first story I’ve published that is available in text for free. You can donate to Brain Harvest if you’d like, and a donation of $10 will get you a hand-knitted mustache.

I hope you enjoy the story, and feel free to leave a comment here or there to let me know what you think!

New Story Published: What Makes You Tick on Brain Harvest

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David Steffen

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show details 7:25 AM (1 hour ago)
Hello all,
My newest story publication is now available, the first to be published in free text format at Brain Harvest. It is a horror story, to forewarn those who don’t like that sort of thing. It’s a quick read, the shortest story I’ve sold to date:

http://www.brainharvestmag.com/2010/04/what-makes-you-tick/

This is the same story that will be available in the upcoming War of the Worlds: Frontlines anthology by Northern Frights Publishing. If you donate $10 to Brain Harvest they will send you a hand-knitted mustache.

I hope you enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think!
best,
Dave

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Polly Frost
Congratulations, David!
7:47 AM (1 hour ago)
Gary Cuba
Nice. I remember reading this one some time ago. It still makes me flash on a…
8:24 AM (49 minutes ago)
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Anthony Sullivan

to me

show details 9:03 AM (10 minutes ago)
Woohoo!
Sent from my iPhone
– Show quoted text –
On Apr 11, 2010, at 8:25 AM, David Steffen <wolfbrother7@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello all,
My newest story publication is now available, the first to be published in free text format at Brain Harvest. It is a horror story, to forewarn those who don’t like that sort of thing. It’s a quick read, the shortest story I’ve sold to date:
http://www.brainharvestmag.com/2010/04/what-makes-you-tick/

This is the same story that will be available in the upcoming War of the Worlds: Frontlines anthology by Northern Frights Publishing. If you donate $10 to Brain Harvest they will send you a hand-knitted mustache.

I hope you enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think!
best,
Dave

Reply
Forward
Invite Anthony Sullivan to chat

Giveaway: Bull Spec #1!

We at Diabolical Plots have recently reached a landmark–our ten thousandth hit! Around the same time, Bull Spec, a new magazine of speculative fiction, released its inaugural issue.

So, to celebrate these momentous occasions Diabolical Plots and Bull Spec are teaming up for a giveaway! Editor Samuel Montgomery-Blinn has graciously provided an autographed and numbered issue from Bull Spec’s first print run. Also check back here very soon for an interview with Sam here on Diabolical Plots.

How do you enter, you ask? It’s simple. Just leave a comment to this post and suggest at least one person you’d like to see interviewed involved in speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, or horror). That can be editors, illustrators, authors, game designers, or a wide variety of others. No suggestion is too far-fetched. I’m not claiming I can get everyone that’s suggested, but suggesting is a good thing even if those guests are too busy or hard to reach. But you have to suggest someone that no one else has suggested before you.

And, you can get a second entry by posting a suggestion on the related contest thread at the Bull Spec Blog and leave a comment there. The same rules apply there–you have to suggest someone that no one else has suggested, and someone other than who you suggest here. If you do so, then you’ll have two entries.

You have until midnight Central time on April 15th to get your entries in. After that, we’ll put all the entries in a random drawing, and will pick one person to win a copy which we’ll mail to the address of your choice.

Have fun, and good luck!