Robert E. Keller

Bewildering Stories biography

to Bewildering Stories bibliography

My speculative fiction stories are published in or have been accepted by the following magazines: Labyrinth Inhabitant, Silver Blade, Alien Skin, Everyday Weirdness, Wanderings, MicroHorror, Dark Fire Fiction, and Mirror Dance.

I grew up in Northern Michigan and still live there, deep in the country, surrounded by forests, rivers, swamps, and lakes. As soon as I was old enough to read, I took an interest in fantasy and science fiction.

I’ve been writing since the early 1990s. I started out using an old electric typewriter, which was quite a pain to work with when it came time for revisions. I’m somewhat a perfectionist, and my pages had to look flawless. Unfortunately, this required a lot of re-typing. Later, I learned to cut, tape, and copy my paragraphs, which made it a little easier. Fed up with that, I finally bought a computer, and there was no looking back.

I didn’t write much until about 2003, when I began working on the one of the novels I’m currently seeking to sell. 2008 was a very productive year for me, as I started to tinker with short story writing and managed to create about thirty of them over the summer and fall. Of the first few I submitted, only one was published. I got a little smarter with targeting my markets after that, and three were accepted from my second crop.

I’ve had my stories accepted by both paying markets and respectable non-paying markets, and I’m proud of both and I consider both to be valid. I don’t self-publish anything for sale. I expect my work to be published by others, on its own merits. I have nothing personal against authors who self-publish, but I like the challenge of getting others to accept my work.

For me, writing isn’t about making money or getting famous. It’s about the challenge to reach deeper and write something extraordinary — or at least entertaining. (I am in the entertainment business, after all.) I’m driven to write the most compelling fiction I can, and if my books and stories get accepted and the career aspect advances — great. But that’s only a secondary goal to my desire to tell a great story. That’s what makes writing worth it to me, and why I love it.