My latest novella, Amusement Park Arcana, is available now!
You can get it in ebook or paperback, from a variety of locations. It is also available to order via Ingram, which means your local bookstore or local library can also order it!
If you have already ordered or preordered it, thank you! If you could leave a rating/review at Amazon, Goodreads, Storygraph, etc. if/when you read it, it would really help me out.
Hello, and what a year it has been!
a little low on the short fiction content (just one original on not-Patreon), and then the longest novel I've ever written, and then the EIGHTH Run With the Hunted novella!
"Dare Seize the Fire (6000 words) appeared in The Future Fire
"To Be Merciful; or, Light After Darkness" (3058 words) can be read on my Patreon (I've made it free)
my novel Burn Up in Victory is available where books are sold!
Run With the Hunted 8: Neural Howlround, and the rest of the series, are available far and wide! This includes Itch, which was a new platform for me this year.
(if you are reading for awards and would like copies of my longer work, please email me)
Great news! My short story "doorbell dot mov," which appeared in The Deadlands in 2024, is on the Locus Award ballot! You can vote for it, for free, to be Best Short Story!
This is, as far as I know, the first time any of my writing has appeared on a ballot! I love this story, so I'm so happy to see it there. If you love it too, anybody can vote in the Locus awards! There's a demographic survey first, and then the ballot comes after.
Voting closes on April 15, which is coming up soon!
These are my awards-eligible works published in 2024, and where to find them!
novelette:
"The Ensanguined Shore" (~9700 words) appeared in issue 68 of The Future Fire
short stories:
"In the Pines" (5125 words) appeared in issue 297 of Interzone
"Auguries" (4500 words) appeared in issue 3 of Gamut (and is free to read on my Patreon)
"doorbell dot mov" (1500 words) appeared in issue 34 of The Deadlands
novella:
Run With the Hunted 7: The Casino Job (37000 words)
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This ongoing series is also eligible for best series! (series total is ~245,000 words thus far)
novels:
I like to think that I update this blog once a year, whether I need to or not (and I guess I need to, for awards eligibility ease)
And so I didn't make an actual post when my short story, "doorbell dot mov", appeared in issue #34 of The Deadlands, which was the Spring 2024 issue.
It's a very short story, 1500 words, and it's inspired by those youtube videos that are like, "what you'll see on this doorbell camera will shock you" or whatever. You know, spooky found footage stuff that's often in compilations.
The Deadlands has been a goal market for me since day one of its existence. Short stories about death? That's my deal. Additionally, they've got a broader publishing imprint, Psychopomp, which publishes novellas and novelettes.
I'm talking about this all for a few reasons. One, "doorbell dot mov" has been reviewed in Locus twice now, and recommended both times by the reviewers! (Paula Guran and A.C. Wise). "doorbell dot mov" is a story that's awards-eligible for 2024 (so that's, a big list. The Nebula, the Stoker, the Hugo, Shirley Jackson, Subjective Chaos, whatever the award they give out at Dragoncon is called, etc. etc. etc.) so if you're in a story-nominating mood and like my writing, keep that in mind!
And the final reason is that Psychopomp is fundraising for 2025 and to that end, they sell coins for the ferryman. There's also a limited edition pin, and beyond that you can buy the novellas, the 2024 print issues, a 2025 digital subscription, etc. etc. so check it out!
in 2023, I published my DEBUT NOVEL! Exit Ghost came out in March, and I've been pitching it as modern witchy girl Hamlet at the Jersey Shore. It is a little genre-wobbly; it's possible a fan of litfic would enjoy it, it's somewhat gothic, it's modern fantasy, it's dark and witchy and (eventually) bloody.
My debut novel, EXIT GHOST, is now out in the world!
You can order it in ebook on nearly platform, in hardcover through Bookshop.org (this is an affiliate link) or Amazon or your local indie! You can request your local library order it, because your local library does want to know what its patrons want to read, and probably have a request/suggestion form right on their website!
That's right, you heard it here first (if you didn't see it on Twitter, or Instagram, or hear it from me in person), I'm releasing my debut novel, Exit Ghost, on March 7, 2023!
I queried this novel for 2 years, starting right before the pandemic really kicked up stateside. Not the best timing on my part, with what otherwise would've been great timing; witchy books are/have been in, and this is a witchy book!
After her father is murdered and an attempt is made on her life, New Jersey heiress and witch Juliet Duncan is supposed to be concentrating on getting better and moving forward. Instead, Jules summons her father's ghost using her blood and tears and his old rotary phone to answer the question: who did it? He reveals it was Hector, her dad’s best friend and her mom’s new fiancé.Certain her life is still in danger, Jules flees the family estate to the Asbury Park apartment she shares with her best friend and fellow witch, Ashes. When another friend joins them, all three women get caught up with a secret boyfriend who’s also big into magic, but in all the wrong ways, all while Jules wrestles with whether her father’s ghost was telling the truth. But what Jules does know is that power has its cost, and she is more than willing to pay the price in order to get her revenge.
Where can you get it? Pretty much everywhere! I'm doing the ebook in my typical way, with distribution far and wide, and the hardcover is through IngramSpark, which means that bookstores and libraries who order through Ingram can just order it with no special considerations necessary. Indeed, I would be thrilled if you'd request your local library order it. A handy link where you can choose whatever digital store you please (and some physical stores) is here:
https://books2read.com/ExitGhost
It is already listed on both Goodreads and Storygraph, and if you do read it, I encourage (beg) you to rate and/or review it there and on Amazon!
I have had seven original short stories published in 2022
"Every Quivering Fold of Flesh" was published by The Future Fire
"One to Sit in Judgement" was published by Air and Nothingness Press in The Spirit Machine
"Boys of Summer" was published by Corvid Queen
"Mistempered Weapons" was published by Kaleidotrope
"A Country of Eternal Light" was published by Apex Magazine
"On What Wings" was published by Fusion Fragment
"Into the Dark" is in Issue 86 of Fantasy Magazine
Additionally, my novella The Drowned Heir is eligible in that category, and is available on most digital platforms, and wherever you buy your hardcover books.
The latest installation of Run With the Hunted came out on October 31, and thus Run With the Hunted 5: Insert Coin to Play is now available to purchase in paperback and ebook!
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Surprise, I have a new dark fantasy/horror novella coming out at the end of August!
I am self publishing it. It is available for ebook preorder (with the hardcover to follow)
"When her uncle dies at sea, a third child with no place in society undergoes a ceremony to house his spirit and take his role, diminishing the family’s loss. But her uncle’s spirit hasn’t settled the way it’s supposed to, and will not content itself with shore-bound business. Her uncle’s spirit insists, angrily, that it was not just a storm that killed him and wrecked his ship, not a rogue wave; it was an unthinkably large monster.
Then his lover comes knocking with news of an adult son who has set sail along the same shipping lane, and dead uncle and living niece must work together to save a son neither of them knew existed."
AND I have a blurb: "Profoundly poetic and infused with fascinating magic and myth, this book spoke to me deeply of the struggle between hereditary duty and the yearning for adventure. Hungry monsters and rogue waves lurk with ill intent below family secrets kept too long. I could taste the salt water in every line -- a triumph of nautical storytelling, as fascinatingly and carefully crafted as a swift ship." —Premee Mohamed, Nebula Award-winning author of And What Can We Offer You Tonight
I have had five original short stories published this year!
"Sailing to Byzantium" is in Fusion Fragment #4.
"How Do You Grow?" is in Hexagon 4
"All This Darkness" is in Apex 123
"The Mountain's Wife" is in The Future Fire
"I Am Tasting the Stars" is in Translunar Travelers Lounge
As October draws to a close, I know there's one thing on everybody's minds: the next installment of Run With the Hunted!
Run With the Hunted 4: VIP is available for ebook preorder now, on the platform of your choosing! The paperback will swiftly follow.
'Funny, twisty, and full of surprises, 'V.I.P' is a boot-scootin' good time as well as a cleverly unexpected addition to this series of heist books!' - Premee Mohamed
In the fast paced, tech heavy future, even cowboys get the blues. Bristol is unwinding at a non-work party when she's approached by a bullrider with trust issues; he's had enough injuries that he can't do the rodeo circuit anymore, and he's got a deadline to get married and claim his family fortune if he wants a ready-made alternate career path. With Bits and Dolly posing as her bodyguards, Bristol is plunged into the social lives of the ostrich ranching elite. It's rife with rivalries and there are parties for days, but when people from Bristol and the team's past catch up to them, the race to the altar takes a left turn.
My dear friend J.Z. Kelly has a blog post detailing the reasons why you should preorder RWTH: VIP
New story day!
My latest, "I Am Tasting the Stars" is out now in Translunar Travelers' Lounge!
This has been an interesting market to try and crack (as we in the business say), as part of their stipulation is that they want fun stories. And in many ways, fun is subjective and arguable, and in other ways, it really very much is not. If you're familiar with my stories, 'fun' isn't really one of the main themes you might consider me to typically cover.
It is both a climate change story, and a 'the bombs dropped' story, told by a narrator who was nine years old when the word that was ended. And back then, when the world ended, she made a list of the things that should be gathered and saved and experienced, so that people would remember. The last item on the list is the one this story concerns itself with, a bottle of champagne.
Please go read it, and I hope you enjoy! Maybe fun isn't what I normally write, but even so, it is a very 'me' story!
A few years ago, I read a couple of longform articles on Mt. Everest and the way that sometimes bodies became like landmarks to other climbers, and the subsequent recovery efforts that were made to get those deceased climbers down off the mountain. In the way of things, it left an impression, but kind of just got loaded into my subconscious.
And that's where "The Mountains Wife" came from. It's a fantasy story, maybe a little bit of a horror story. There are dogs but (spoilers) the dogs are okay. The narrator (and indeed, almost everybody in the story) is unnamed, another of my hallmarks.
The Future Fire does a great job when it comes to publishing (This is my second story with them; last year, they published "Know They Will Die, Under the Salt of It.") Their editing is smooth and reasonable, and stories have illustrations! What a luxury, as an author, to have an illustrated story.
Additionally, this is my 29th short story publication! This does count prints and reprints, but it is 29 times that somebody read my story, said "Yes, we want to publish this" and did!
Stay tuned next month for number 30...
My latest short story is now available in issue 123 of Apex Magazine! It will be free to read on June 1, but the full issue is only $4.99 if you can't bear to wait. It's called "All This Darkness," from the Bruce Springsteen song "Land of Hope and Dreams."
It isn't about Bruce Springsteen, though, and it isn't a New Jersey story. It's inspired by Shamokin, Pennsylvania, where my grandparents come from. It was a coal mining town, until the mines closed, and so my story is about the generation of kids that thought they would graduate high school (or not) and go to work in the mines, like their parents before them. Until the mines closed. And then they went into the mountain anyway.
I do hope you'll give it a read, and enjoy! They also interviewed me, which was really fun and interesting.
Edited to add: Here is the direct link to my story: https://apex-magazine.com/all-this-darkness/
My latest short story is available to read in issue 4 of Hexagon magazine!
It is called "How Do You Grow?" and is about symbiotic teeth, and growing up, and the things that adults tell children sometimes as they're growing up. The title is from the Anne Sexton poem "Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman"
In his Quick Sip Review, Charles Payseur calls it "an unsettling but effective read," and I do tend to trust Charles' judgement.
One of the stories nearest and dearest to my heart, "Sailing to Byzantium," is now available in Fusion Fragment magazine's 4th issue!
It is a pay what you want PDF, or you can get a physical issue or $23.99 Canadian. They sent me a contributor's copy, and it is a very high production print work!
If you liked some of my other short stories, "Daddy's Girl" and "For Whatever We Lose" specifically, then this story is an examination of similar themes.
It's a story that was rejected by some as too literary, and by others as too genre, and I'm still not really sure what to call it necessarily. But it's found its home, and I hope that it is read widely! Tell your friends!
I had five original stories published this year!
"For Thine is the Kingdom" appeared in Truancy magazine in January
"Black Market Cheerios" appeared in Lamplight volume 8, issue 2.
"Nothing Left But Mud" was published as a standalone by Sword & Kettle Press in July.
"Defend Us in Battle" appears in the Hear Me Roar anthology, released in September
"Know They Will Die, Under the Salt of It" appeared in The Future Fire in October.
Additionally, I released the third Run With the Hunted novella, Run With the Hunted 3 Standard Operating Procedure, in October