April.....fools?

So hi

What's been going on?

I hope you are well

Because. Um. Yeah. Lots going wrong in the world, isn't there?

I'm happy to report, for my part, that while the library is closed, my coworkers and I all still have jobs. Many of us even have job duties that we can still perform from home. This is a privilege that I am VERY thankful for; I feel unbelievably lucky.

And we're seeing now just how much libraries can still do from home. There are digital escape rooms, there are livestreamed storytimes (with many publishers and children's book authors generously saying "yes, it's okay to read my books for these." Many ebook lending restrictions have been lifted, and I know at my library, Hoopla, our newer streaming service, has been wildly popular. Run With the Hunted, et al will eventually be added to Hoopla...Draft2Digital started that process back in like, November, and I think both services were unprepared for how many people were gonna say yes all at once.

One of those work-from-home things is my writing group. We've just had a big email ol' email chain, that I kick off each Saturday with a collection of writing prompts, and people who feel up to it send back what they came up with. I've been working on a short story in this way, bit by bit, prompt by prompt. I'm not really sure how it will end up, but that's taking shape. It's interesting to write in that way, letting people read it as you go, instead of after you've ironed out the wrinkles and tacked down the edges and done things like give people names (....whoops...)


I've been putting the prompts on my Patreon, for free. And I'm going to link the ones I've got so far right here:

Digital Writing Group! Prompts, volume 1
Digital Writing Group! Prompts, volume 2
Digital Writing Group! Prompts, volume 3
Digital Writing Group! Prompts, volume 4
Digital Writing Group! Prompts, volume 5
Digital Writing Group! Prompts, volume 6

In addition to that, I've been working on Run With the Hunted 3: subtitle to be determined, and making satisfactory progress on that. I've even got a coveer in the works! So I'll let you know here, and everywhere, when there are pre-orders for that.

I also plan to do an omnibus that collects the first three novellas under one roof, as it were. I'm thinking hardcover AND paperback for that, which means I'll be wrangling with the Ingram book formatting program. So that'll be a new experience! And then I'll  need a cover for THAT too. So...any suggestions would be welcome!

And last but not least, I've had two short stories published so far this year! The first is "For Thine is the Kingdom", which appeared in Truancy in January. The second is "Black Market Cheerios", which appeared in Lamplight Volume 8, Issue 2, in March.

For news along these lines,  you can subscribe to my TinyLetter, which I send out with slightly more frequency than I blog anymore (I used to blog a lot...I guess now you can tell that I'm writing more!)

Stay safe out there. Stay home if you can. It's a great time for reading, and for writing, if you can. Or baking bread, as so many people are doing. Or cross stitch or doing the plank challenge or binging everything you never got around to on various streaming services.

Until next time!

Welcome to 2020!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a safe and happy holiday, and that you have a good and prosperous year ahead of you!

2019 was a pretty darn good publishing year for me. I tweeted about it, but I'm happy to recount here!

I submitted stories 162 times and received 11 acceptances! 11!!!

109 of my rejections were forms, 39 were personals, and I still have 18 stories pending.

I had 4 original short stories printed: "For Whatever We Lose", "The Pearls That Were His Eyes", "Fundamentals of Search and Rescue", and "One Hundred Years".

In addition, 2019 was certainly the Year of the Reprint!

"Sugar and Spice" and "Daddy's Girl" were both reprinted in audio format. "The Wave", from my Patreon, was reprinted in actual print.

I wrote 4 short stories, and started far more (at least a few of which are pushing the boundary of what 'short story' means and are edging more into novella and novelette territory, which is great, because there are so many places to send those pieces [Narrator: there are not.]) I wrote 1 novella, Run With the Hunted 2: Ctrl Alt Delete. I wrote 1 novel, which I will be querying, after people read it, I polish it, more people read it, and I polish it more.  Oh and after I write a query letter and a synopsis.

I feel like when I was querying The Last Song, far fewer agents wanted a synopsis up front. I don't know if this is because many agents are using Querymanager now, or if in general it's just a better strategy for them. and I knew I'd have to write a synopsis, I just didn't think it'd be immediately.

2019 Awards Eligibility!

2019 has been my best publishing year yet! I can only hope 2020  keeps the ball rolling.

I am eligible for the Campbell Award, and I am listed on the site as an eligible author.  It was also just renamed the Astounding Award, though the site doesn't reflect that yet.

My scifi short story, "For Whatever We Lose", was published in Luna Station Quarterly

My fantasy short story "The Pearls That Were His Eyes" was published in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine issue #75

My steampunk short story, "One Hundred Years", was published in the Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline anthology

My scifi short story "Fundamentals of Search and Rescue" was published in Dreamforge, issue #3.



The other short stories I had out were reprints (3! reprints!) or on my Patreon. The Patreon ones are eligible, and  if you are reading to nominate, I can make them available to you directly!

In total, I had 9 acceptances! One was in a dream market, Apex, that has sadly shuttered, or perhaps gone on hiatus. That story is traveling through slush piles again. I also had an anthology acceptance that will no longer be published, as that publisher has also shuttered. So hopefully 2020 is kinder to remaining and future markets!

Now Available! Run With the Hunted 2: Ctrl Alt Delete

Happy Monday!  The long-awaited sequel of Run With the Hunted is now available in ebook or paperback form!

In the fast-paced, tech-heavy future, even hackers need to take a break. Bits isn’t working right now, and instead spends her days in VR, making necessary additions to the immersion’s neglected night sky. When Dolly shows up with a problem that needs solving, Bits can’t just boot her. Especially not when she finds out Bristol’s been arrested and they have a narrow window of opportunity to bust her out. There’s something wrong, more than jail, more than the effects of all that time in VR, but she can’t remember. She and Dolly have to hit the road first and figure out the details later, because if they lose track of Bristol now, they might never get a second chance.

Publication! "Fundamentals of Search and Rescue" available in DreamForge issue 03!

I've finally had a Doberman story published! It is in issue 3 of DreamForge!

"Fundamentals of Search and Rescue" is a story about a space elevator disaster, and canine search and rescue, and also Doberman ownership, which is the only kind of dog ownership I actually truly know. I've known other dogs, sure, but they haven't been <i>my</i> dogs.

and LOOK, Dreamforge does art for every story!

I named the Doberman Riddle, in homage to Susannah Charleson's dog Puzzle. Susannah Charleson's Scent of the Missing is why I got interested in reading about Search and Rescue to begin with; her book is amazing, and when I was done, I looked further on the topic. A few years later, in my writing group, we sat down and I set the timer to write, and the first sentence came out:

"The space elevator breaks with a noise like thunder rolling cross country." 

You can subscribe to Dreamforge here!

Publication! "The Pearls That Were His Eyes" in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine

Greetings!

My short story "The Pearls That Were His Eyes" has been published in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine issue #75! They are based in Australia, and there is no physical edition of the magazine, though the ebook is a pretty reasonable $4.95.

"The Pearls That Were His Eyes" is a weird story, I'm not gonna lie. It fits into the same witchy world as "Sugar and Spice" (reprinted this year in The Overcast) and "Be Careful What You Wish For" (available on my patreon and in HML Writers Volume 1) and opens with a witch making a contract with a non witch who knows that they exist but that's about the extent of it. But, he needs a door opened, and mundane means aren't getting the job done.

(contains a dog!)  (yes, he is fine)

It is thematically on point with all of my witch stories, which I actually did-and-didn't do on purpose. Like, every one of these stories has been about power and curiosity and hubris, and the choices that people make, but it isn't like I make an outline (hah) with these bullet points (hah) to make sure that I cover everything. It's just the nature of the beat I suppose.

So, I do hope you check it out, and I do hope you enjoy it!

ALSO, I have two forthcoming publications in September! "Fundamentals of Search and Rescue" will be in DreamForge magazine on September 1, and "One Hundred Years" will be in Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline on September 3, so preorder today!  (both contain dogs) (yes, the dogs are fine)

Eating Authors, and a Big Deal Patreon release

Have you heard of Eating Authors? Every Monday, author Lawrence M. Schoen poses the question: "Tell me about your most memorable meal." And this past Monday, April 29, it was my turn! Many thanks to Lawrence for having me, and I was also happy to comb through my food memories and see what I produced.  Lots of fantastic posts are there, and it's easy to spend quite a lot of time reading about other people's awesome meals!

In other news, the first of the month (as you may or may not know) is Story Day on my Patreon! This month, I have the pleasure of sharing with my patrons my short story "Purity", which was a finalist for the 2017 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award. I'm a little shocked that I didn't blog about it at the time, but honestly, "finalist" is "close, but no cigar".

But, the site is still up for that year, so you can see the proof:

So, for $1, you can read the short story that came this close. The author notes, as always, are free. I really like this story a lot, and I'm happy to finally have it in the world, and maybe get some eyes on it. So, tell your friends!

Speaking of friends, here's a picture of Ulrike and her best dog friend, Nova, at the dog park the other day.