The One-Thousand

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sat, 16 May 2026 23:55:09 +0000

Let's All Wipe!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 03 May 2026 16:05:13 +0000

There's nothing more satisfying than a thorough wiping.

In Praise Of Damage

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:28:16 +0000

Today is my fifty-seventh birthday. I don't fear aging like I once did. For years now, I've noticed that as I go through life I'm gaining knowledge, skills, wisdom, maturity, and who knows what else? I've also get scars, some physical and some psychological. That's to be expected.

I helped a guy print some things at the library where I work a couple of months back. He was old and struggled a little to get around. He mentioned to me that he was a first responder for 9/11. I asked him if he had health problems from that. He tapped his chest with his fingers and said, "Oh, yeah." I said, "That sucks." He said something I wish I could quote but I can't remember it. What was more important than the exact phrase was the meaning it conveyed which was essentially, the damage is part of who I am. Life shapes us while we shape it.

I take this not as celebrating victimization. It could feel that way in that he brought up his role during 9/11 without being asked. I feel like I would have a hard time keeping that to myself too. We each have some aspect of our lives that makes us feel like we were cheated out of something that most other people seem to have gotten: food, love, peace, normalcy, whatever. That absolutely sucks, but each of us has our own story and most of us go through something horrible if we only live long enough.

I take this as our story. The physical body and the non-physical mind become records of everything we've ever experienced and thought. If we start out as a blank journal, we end up covered in scribbles and words and doodles, with torn pages, mutilated covers, water damage, piss stains, and a plethora of other harsh treatments. This is what happens to journals and other physical objects over time, including us. It's completely understandable to be bitter, but maybe there will come a time where you integrate your damage as so much a part of yourself (along with all the love, thrills, and card games you've gotten to enjoy) that you simply see it as you.

As I digested what this guy told me, I was reminded of a couple of lines from Jean Cocteau's Orpheus which reached into my core the first time I saw the film. Near the end, Orpheus is about to be torn apart by an angry mob and says (in the English translation I saw):

"What does marble think when it's being sculpted? It thinks, 'I am struck, insulted, ruined, lost.' Life is sculpting me, let it finish its work."

My Sunday Updates Will Mostly Be Free To The Public Now

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 16:12:00 +0000

I quit social media again the other day, so to let people know what I'm up to, I'm going to try to get over here more. Also, my Sunday Updates on Patreon will be free to the public now except for occasional bits. You can read today's here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sunday-update-156013477. You can become a free member in order to get the Sunday Update in your email.

My Books Are FREE This Week Only!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:32:00 +0000

Hey, Gang, seven of my titles are free this week at Smashwords! Go here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=%22Matthew+Sanborn+Smith%22

If you're pissed because you paid cold hard cash for them in the past, sorry about that. Such are the vagaries of promotion. If you're happy because you don't yet have some of these books, you're welcome.

If you want to help a brother out, tell your friends and family they can read a whole boatload of my work for free. The hope is to turn people on to my work who aren't very familiar with it and win a couple of lifers to our (probably benevolent) cult. The offer's only good until Saturday, March 7th.

My novel is up there too! It was previously only on Amazon.

Thanks, Folks!

My Latest Collection Is Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 18:33:00 +0000

Hey! Go enjoy my latest collection, The Substitute Secret Agent and Other Stories at your favorite ebook dealer. The Cover art is by Kifécreations, and the cover design is by me. Here's the pitch:

A man finds work in a temporary field and is pulled into a world of death-by-advertisements, sugary sweet firearms, immortality as punishment, and love as the ultimate currency. Visit a city built on science and magic populated by twelve million members of a single family. A government operative in an alternate Brooklyn of the 1950s discovers why Earth's colonization of space has come to an abrupt halt. A slayer of monsters finds that his enemies have finally beaten fear savagely into him. The famished Minotaur hopes for dinner and finds romance. These and other strange tales await you within these pages. Come explore The Substitute Secret Agent and Other Stories.

Within, you'll find the following stories:

The Substitute Secret Agent
PetsParts
Hazel
Markers for Our Unborn Departed
The Orange Man
This Story Hates You
Asterion in Love
The Demolition Notice
220 Salamander Avenue, Ten Stories Down
The Adventurer at Night

Here are some links:

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Substitute-Secret-Agent-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0GDPDXQ19

Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-substitute-secret-agent-and-other-stories-matthew-sanborn-smith/1149081368?ean=2940183177503

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-substitute-secret-agent-and-other-stories?sId=a69bf13c-26ab-401d-9575-b1301ccddcc7&ssId=minBcs_2gAsfiLREi__kJ&cPos=1

Enjoy!

"All the Trees Will Scream" is available today!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 18:28:00 +0000

My latest story, "All the Trees Will Scream" (story 195 of The One-Thousand) is out today in the Winter issue of Trollbreath Magazine. You will need a 3-month membership for $5 in order to read it, but you'll also get the rest of the issue and the warm feeling that you're supporting the arts! Oh, how I envy you!

200

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 17:56:00 +0000

Just sent story 200 out the door. It's called "PetsParts" and it was inspired by my time working at AutoZone and my last dog dying of an enlarged heart.

199

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 14:50:00 +0000

I finished story 199 yesterday while avoiding other work. It's called, "This Story Hates You." It's a bit meta.

198

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 00:24:00 +0000

Just finished story 198, "The Demolition Notice," and sent it out. It combines two things I've done before, modular men and the Estate, the city of twelve million people all descended from one guy.

197

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Wed, 08 May 2024 00:29:00 +0000

Just finished and sent out story 197, "220 Salamander Avenue, Ten Stories Down." It's about a three people trying to work out their love triangle while on the clock and tripping on psychic manipulation. A good time will be had by all (except for those three)!

195 & 196

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 17:52:00 +0000

Damn, I need to post here more regularly. I completed story 195, "All the Trees Will Scream," two months ago. It's about a spy who goes undercover for centuries.

Story 196, "Asterion in Love," was done last week. It's a story that gives the Minotaur a happy ending (in more ways than one).

Longlisted for a BSFA Award!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 02:55:00 +0000

"Turf War 2200" has been longlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction. I'm pretty stoked!

Here's the list: https://bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-longlist

Here's the audio version of the story: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/spacecowboybooks/episodes/2023-02-15T00_06_45-08_00

And you can read it in my latest collection, Bleeding is Easy if You Know How to Open Up: https://www.amazon.com/Bleeding-Easy-You-Know-Open-ebook/dp/B0CRWY82NM

My New Collection Is Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:56:00 +0000

My latest collection, "Bleeding is Easy if You Know How to Open Up," is now up at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bleeding-Easy-You-Know-Open-ebook/dp/B0CRWY82NM

Here's a quick rundown:

Things are going to get strange from here. Fairy tales merge with science fiction to create a new mythology for the present. Those exploring the depths of Space-Time feel they’re trapped in terrible dreams and not experiencing the adventures they were promised. Lives are reflected upon from a future prison cell one shares with one’s family, or from beneath a collapsed building all alone in the darkness. Beauty is formed in the nothingness between works. Romance is sought in the face of mortality. Emotions are sold. Lawns are trimmed. Hope is found within Lovecraftian despair. Hope is found within Lovecraftian despair? That’s the most ridiculous sentence in this summary!

Stories include, and are limited to:

That Feeling You’re Feeling
Tempus Fuhg It
Expiration Date
I was Meant to Live Another Thousand Years
You Will Find Yourself Buried Beneath Rubble
Those Who Live in Negative Space
Turf War 2200
Life-in-Death was She
Three Princesses
Between Worlds
The Shallow One

My Latest Story Is Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 13:30:00 +0000

Story 171, "Their Heads Filled to Bursting" is out for your reading pleasure in the Autumn 2023 issue of Kaleidotrope! This one is a science fiction/horror story about a sensory-enhanced woman investigating a murder in a city where the governing AI is on the edge of breaking down. Enjoy!

194

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 14:29:00 +0000

I sent out story 194 of The One-Thousand, which is "Hazel," an alternate world 1950's secret agent story involving aliens. It was inspired by a few listens to Portishead's album, Roseland NYC Live.

No

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 20:07:00 +0000

I don't think this title deserves an exclamation point.

192 and 193

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:47:00 +0000

I just finished writing a ten-minute play, Cheeseburger with Wings, for this year's ICFA and I thought it would be story 192. Then I realized the last one I wrote, The Three Spaces of Eve, back in March of 2016, was never added to The One-Thousand. Maybe I figured because it wasn't for money, it didn't count. But I wrote other freebies early on and they counted. So, I'm counting both of them now. And rather than fuck up the numbers I've assigned to things in between, I'm calling Eve 192, and Cheeseburger 193. And that's all I'll hear about that.

191

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 19 Feb 2023 17:49:00 +0000

Just finished and shipped out story 191, "The Grow-Your-Own-Dog Kit," a flash piece that is told from the kit's point of view as its very young user runs amok with its contents. So much fun!

Turf War 2200!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 01:39:00 +0000

My latest story is live on episode 60 of Simultaneous Times! "Turf War 2200!" (Story 175 of The One-Thousand) It's a stunning tale of love, anger, and lawn maintenance! Enjoy!

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/spacecowboybooks/episodes/2023-02-15T00_06_45-08_00

190

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 03:39:00 +0000

Just completed and shipped out story 190, "The Orange Man," a science fantasy about an immigrant who's in over his head in a strange new city.

How I Hope 2023 Will Go

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 16:51:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

So, yesterday I went over how badly I failed at my 2022 goals. I was struck by the fact that I may have written more words last year than any previous year and yet I finished less fiction than almost any year since I started writing... uh... thirty-two years ago?(!) Holy shit.

Anyway, I've only got one real goal this year and that is to finish and submit twenty-four short stories. I'll still track word counts and submissions, and I'm also going to help my dog lose weight by feeding her less and getting her to move more, but the only goal I'm going to be uptight about is finishing those stories. Flash fiction won't count toward the twenty-four (Though they will count toward the One-Thousand). I think if I can meet this goal, it will be a real turning point in my writing career. I'm excited and now I'm going to stop writing this, so I can start writing those. Have a great 2023!

How 2022 Went

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 01:55:00 +0000

Not so great!

Surprise! I only achieved one of my goals for 2022!

Goals and results:
1. Write an average of 1,000 words a day, which would come to 365,000 words for the year. Instead I wrote 187,240 words (assuming I don’t squeeze in a few more tonight) which is an average of 513 words a day, just over half my goal. However, I did beat the heck out of 2021's word count which was 115,213 words, or an average of about 315 words a day.
2. Finish my second novel, Hive Five. Instead, I’ve written through chapter 25 of the current draft, which is not the final draft. Yowch.
3. Read 104 books. Instead I read 57. Again, a little over half. My favorites were The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.
4. Have 50 Patreon patrons at the same time. Nope.
5. Weigh 225 pounds and don’t get heavier after I do. Nope.
6. Write 52 blogposts on The One-Thousand. Only 25, including this one.
7. Get my A.A. in English. A WIN! Yeah! But that one wasn’t really in doubt as long as I lived through the first third of the year.

I only finished six pieces of fiction and they were all flash fiction. Quadruple yowch. Most of those 187,240 words I wrote went to Patreon stuff and unfinished works.
I submitted 26 times to editors in 2022.
I sold two stories, both to podcasts.

I’m looking back on 2022 with disappointment, although I did have a couple of wins. I had a very hard time day to day while I was in the thick of it. Most Sundays and Mondays were pretty productive for me, and most Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays were dismal.
The new year is always an exciting time for me because I like the chance to start again and do better. Come back tomorrow to see what I’m planning for 2023.

New Mango! Smell Phone!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 01:43:00 +0000

There's a new Mango in town! Beware the Patronizing Mango 157, Smell Phone! Go enjoy it and send it to all your friends! https://www.patreon.com/posts/75806935

How Long Until The Right Accidentally Flies A Pride Flag?

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Sanborn Smith) — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 01:30:00 +0000