“Ideas come to you with tattered clothes and runny noses, but if you clean them up and present them to the right people, they’ll get adopted.”
Vernon Grant — Rock Hill, South Carolina artist who designed Snap! Crackle! and Pop! for Kellogg’s.
Just like story ideas … rough drafts need a lot of tough love before they can be published.
Here’s a roundup of reviews of my latest works. First, here’s award-winning reviewer Kevin Tipple on the June, 2020 issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine:
The story that inspired the cover, “The Calculus of Karma” by M. C. Tuggle, leads off the Mystery Weekly Magazine: June 2020 issue. Deputy Marshal Malcom Lamb has to deal with a body in an alleyway of the asteroid’s main camp. The miner is dead because of the crack in his visor that allowed the vacuum of space to enter his helmet. Whether it was an accident or murder by way of another turf war between groups of miners is up to Deputy Lamb to figure out. He better do it fast as trying to keep the peace on the asteroid near Jupiter is not easy.
Next, S.D. McKinley, the author of How LJ and Rom Saved Heavy Metal, reviews my flash fiction story A Good Couple.
Author Sherrey Meyer posted a 5-star overview of Hexagon at Goodreads.
And author Didi Oviatt posted her reaction to the premiere issue of Hexagon Speculative Fiction Magazine on her author’s blog:
In this 1st edition there are five quick science fiction reads by authors Mike Tuggle, Evan Marcroft, John Grey, Michael M. Jones, and Nicholas C. Smith. I’ve read work by Mike Tuggle before and really enjoyed his style, so I knew going in that this edition had potential.
Many, many thanks for the kind thoughts and gracious reviews.
Idle Ink has published my latest flash story, “A Good Couple.” It pays tribute to Flannery O’Connor, one of my favorite authors. Like the Grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the characters in “A Good Couple” are so busy condemning the sins of others that they cannot see their own.
This is one of my rare literary pieces. I enjoyed writing it, even though I had to chase down the muse to capture the story on paper.
Idle Ink is the perfect home for this story. This lively magazine publishes fiction “too weird to be published anywhere else” as well as “articles that poke fun at modern life.” After you’ve read my story, treat yourself to the book and movie reviews, the challenging opinion pieces, and intriguing artwork.
PS – Fellow Idle Ink and Hexagon contributor Ioanna Papadopoulou has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her story “The Drowned King.” Congratulations, Ioanna!
M.C. Tuggle, Writer 