Awards eligibility post 2018

Well, it's here. Awards season is upon us, or at least nominations season for the upcoming awards season.

As always, publishing as Jennifer R. Donohue. I am also now eligible for the John W. Campbell award.


My short stories:

"A Thing With Feathers" was published in Mythic Delirium

"Surveillance Fatigue" was published in Escape Pod

"Bread and Milk" was published in Under the Full Moon's Light

"The Glint of Light on Broken Glass" is in Truancy 5




My novella "Run With the Hunted" is available in paperback and on many digital platforms.

March came in like a lion and is still an lion and

We had cold temperatures and snow all through March, as though the season was making up for mild (ish?) weather in December. (Not in January. January sucked.) But, birds are starting to come back, and some sad confused little crocuses bloomed next to the library building, so hopefully spring asserts itself, well, soon.

I'd already mentioned that A.C. Wise reviewed "A Thing With Feathers" in her Words For Thought blog on Apex, and Maria Haskins also reviewed it on her blog! I am forever pleased that people like my words, and I am forever grateful to those writers for reviewing them. Also, importantly, they do seem to really see and understand what I'm getting at.

I had no new acceptances in March, and am eagerly awaiting my Escape Pod publication of "Surveillance Fatigue" in a week and a half or so. Also, big news, the Hugo Award nominations were announced yesterday and Escape Pod is on that list!

Something to consider, if you like reading the darker end of science fiction and fantasy: The Dark is Kickstarting funding for their next two years. They publish amazing materials, and would like to increase the amount of money they pay their writers. Also, at the higher end of the rewards, there are things like a story critique by Nin Harris, a lovely writer and a PhD holding teacher and scholar, so if you're writer and have those kinds of funds laying around, don't miss this chance!

Also, as it is April 1, Camp NaNoWriMo has (in theory) commenced. I don't have writing plans this month, strictly, but rather rewriting plans. I'm going through Learn to Howl once more with feeling, in order to fix setting issues and some places where the story sags, and hopefully I can get this thing published this year!


And, last but not least, my Writer Friend Tori Curtis (of Eelgrass fame) has had her short story "Upon Your Marriage to a Redcap" published in Iridium Zine. It's a delightful story that I've known through various iterations, and I'm happy that it's found a home!

Awards Eligibility 2017

I had two stories published this year, both at the lovely Syntax & Salt. They're great people to work with, and I've been so thrilled with the response both of these stories have gotten. It makes me happy when my stories make people....well, not happy, I guess, they aren't happy stories, but they reach people, anyway.

First up was Daddy's Girl, which was published in June 21 2017. Maria Haskins reviewed it on her blog back in June (thank you, Maria!)  and it is on the SFWA Nebula Reading List 


The other story was published on October 31 2017, "Aground, Upon the Sand", and was their Fall Flash Fiction contest winner.

December 2016 and year end wrap up

Well, 2016, I hope you're happy with yourself. What a year. Everybody knows what I mean so we won't get into that because I don't want to and you can't make me.

So let's talk about writing! On January 1 of this year, I talked about my goals for 2016. I did not do the Book Riot Read Harder challenge, and actually only read 14 books this year. Lots of short stories, though. So I've got a goal related to that for 2017 that I'll squeeze another blog post out of.

Just Writer Things: Reading

So this week, I was invited to do my first reading under the auspices of being a Published Author. My local arts council has a writer's salon once monthly, with an open mic first, and a published author to round it out. This month's published author became ill and had to cancel, and they called me!

It was an interesting experience, and a positive one. The crowd was somewhat small, and seemed very receptive, overall. I read the entirety of "The Lion and the Dragonslayer" (published in Mosaics 2). I'm not sure how long it took me, but it was long enough that I could feel when I was rushing myself and try to slow it down. I stumbled over words sometimes, but so did everybody else, so whatever. I was also, once again, reminded of the value of reading one's work out loud as an editing tool. Mostly, there are a few words I would've cut just because of redundancy or clumsiness, and I left some of those words out in the writing.

I also really understand the value of WATER. About halfway through I became acutely aware of my thirst, but I had not previously grabbed a bottle of water and didn't want to interrupt myself so I soldiered on. The podium was also somewhat small, and I was already somewhat leaning on it (not the best approach) and also resting my paperback copy on it (this worked out better, but I really need to get contact lenses again. I kept having to reposition my glasses, and I know that little gestures like that when one is on stage seem like terrible fidgets).

There was a little Q&A afterwards (which I took a bottle of water for), which was interesting. I was able to confirm I have had more "The Lion" stories planned, actually. I'd only ever finished one other, but I should read it back ove and edit it, and finish others. Definitely something to look towards for information, as time goes on.

All in all, I was very happy to be invited to read, and very happy to do the reading. I thought it went well, and that everybody stayed engaged throughout my little adventure story.

Mosaics 2 now available!

I announced my acceptance into Mosaics 2: a Collection of Independent Women back in February, and the time has finally come. It's here, it's here!

The Kindle date still appears to be May 1, but if you want to order the paperback, you could have it by Wednesday! Isn't it lovely, sometimes, to be living in The World of Tomorrow?

My included story is "The Lion and the Dragonslayer": when the village of Orford asked for help with a dragon, they didn't expect the king to send a woman, no matter how big her sword is.

(I was particularly pleased with my little story blurb there; I typically struggle quite a lot with producing an interesting summary of literally anything, much less what I've written.)

In conjunction with this publication, I've created a Goodreads author profile . I hope to see titles of other anthologies, and my own books, attached to it pretty soon!

Obviously, I encourage you to get the Kindle or paperback of Mosaics 2 (or get it from your local library! And request that your library orders it; mine is, as volume 1, anyway, was available through the book distributor Ingram) and I also encourage (entreat?) you to review it on Goodreads and/or Amazon. Every time you review a book, an author gets its wings. Or something.

Trust

Last weekend, for Christmas, I drove to New Jersey and back to spend it with my grandparents and family.

I do a lot of thinking while driving because really, what else are you going to do? I mean, I talked to the dog some, but she just laid on the back seat, and it isn't like I could turn around to look at her, so no input there.

 (not representative of our most recent trip; she now has a harness with an attachment that a seatbelt goes through)