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.

Publication!: The Wave, reprinted in Wizards in Space

I mentioned last month that my short story "The Wave" would appear in Wizards in Space magazine, and it has!  You can purchase issue 04 on their website, and it is a wonderfully produced little physical volume. Look at that cover! I'm very happy with it, and that they sent me a contributor's copy. There's something extra special when your words appear in print, as opposed to more words on the screen. Though, there's always something special about people loving your words enough to buy them, be that print or screen or whispering them into a conch shell that they hope a stranger passing by will pick up and put to their ear (note: this is probably not a viable lit mag model).

Here is my hard-won author dog photo of the issue with Ulrike. She wanted very much to nibble on the corners of this thing that I was propping against her.

If you both want the physical copy but also want to read it NOW, "The Wave" does appear on my Patreon, where currently a dollar a month gets you at least one new short story per month.

Also, if you would like more news and pictures like this, but in your inbox instead of via blogspot, you can now sign up for my TinyLetter! Probably also much more effective than a conch shell, and how often do you walk past a conch shell anyway? Hardly ever, I'd bet.

Publication! "For Whatever We Lose" in Luna Station Quarterly

Hello friends and readers, my second publication for the year has come out! (if you missed it, my first one was a podcast reprint of "Sugar and Spice")

"For Whatever We Lose" is a scifi short story that you can read now in Luna Station Quarterly. They also have a print edition, which is very nice. There will be an interview about it on their blog later this month so I don't want to retread too much of that ground accidentally, but I do want to say that the title comes from the ee cummings poem "maggie and milly and molly and may" and I'm honestly not sure if I should recommend reading the poem before or after reading my story, but that one informs the other just a little bit. It's one of the few times I haven't had a hard time coming up with a title.

If you liked my story "Daddy's Girl", it's a little bit along those lines.

Also, in upcoming publication news, my short story "The Wave" will be in issue 04 of Wizards in Space Magazine. You can preorder a print copy of it here, and I think it's coming out on March 22. "The Wave" previously appeared on my Patreon, so I was very happy to find it a home with a wider audience here!

Some puppy pictures

So I have an instagram that I, in interest of full disclosure, signed up for so that I could enter a "Free Boots for Life" giveaway. I didn't win the giveaway, but I kept the account, and have been sharing puppy pictures there. Occasional writing news too. But it's a weird app, and a weird format that doesn't quite interact properly with my brain. So mostly just puppy pictures.

But here are some for you, if you are not on instagram!

Sometimes I look over, and this is how Ulrike has decided to just hang out

She's also somewhat figuring out what blankets are for, and that they're awesome

And, she's been joining me in my X-Files rewatch.

Reprint Publication: Sugar and Spice

Hello friends!

When it appeared in the Summer 2016 issue of The Sockdolager, "Sugar and Spice" was the third thing I'd ever had accepted ever. Charles Payseur reviewed that issue on Quick Sip Reviews, and said quite nice and astute things about my story.

Well, The Sockdolager is sadly now closed, but fear not! You can now hear a new narration of "Sugar and Spice" on The Overcast! It is read by J.S. Arquin, who does a lovely job, and includes an afterword that I wrote at his request. He's got some interesting thoughts on the story which I will not say are right or wrong. Maybe give it a listen yourself, and decide.

"Sugar and Spice" is about witches and being neighborly (or not), and contains one dog who is not harmed in any way. It is the first "witchy" story I wrote, and in the same world as "Be Careful What You Wish For", which appeared on my Patreon, and in the HML Writers Volume 1 anthology. There are other completed stories in this world, and hopefully they'll be in the wild one of these days!

Happy listening!

Yes hello it is February (2019)

I guess I should have blogged last month but I didn't and here we are.

January was kind of a frigid blur and I didn't have anything come out anyway (other than Patreon stories. Hey, subscribe to my Patreon! $1 a month gets you at least one short story)

I DID have something else come out in December, though. I edited an anthology for my writing group, which you can get in paperback or in ebook on Amazon.

I've continued to work on Run With the Hunted 2: Electric Boogaloo (Run With the Hunted available on Amazon and Elsewhere, tell your friends! Rate on Amazon and Goodreads! I'm not one of those authors who reads my reviews and responds to them. I just read them. I need them.)

So far, for 2019, I have had four acceptances! That is already exactly as many as I had for 2018 so let's hope we're just going upwards from here!

Three of them haven't been announced yet, but I can tell you that my scifi short story "For Whatever We Lose" will be in Luna Station Quarterly on March 1! Mark your calendar, tell your friends, set up your Google alert. It's of the same, shall we say "tone", as "Daddy's Girl" (which was in the Summer 2017 issue of Syntax & Salt if you missed it).

 I may have more announcements for you later this month! Keep reading, stay warm.