Awards Eligibility 2023, Jennifer R. Donohue

 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 non-series novella publication of 2023 was a weird west, Between the Blood and the Sun. It's about faith, and dying, and some of the inspiration came from Val Kilmer's performance of Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993)

I had THREE! original short stories published in 2023.

"This is Not the Only Kingdom" was in issue 4 of Old Moon Quarterly [5000 words]

"The Oyster Widow" was in Saltwater Sorrows  [7000 words] (And is in the same word as my 2022 novella, The Drowned Heir)

"Solar Sonata For Four Hands" was in Robotic Ambitions [3900 words]

If you are reading for awards and need copies of any of these, please don't hesitate to reach out to me and we can make it happen! 

Awards Eligibility 2022, Jennifer R. Donohue

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. 

Awards Eligibility 2021, Jennifer R. Donohue

 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

2020 Awards Eligibility Post, Jennifer R. Donohue

 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

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!

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.

September happened, I know it did

September went both very quickly and very slowly. Which is just how time works, I suppose. It's always just a matter of perspective.

Are you ready for my Super! Special! September! News?

It's not another story acceptance, and I haven't finished my third werewolf book yet (though I did make it my official project for NaNoWriMo this afternoon. My handle over there is GingerGunlock  if you want to buddy up). I haven't even done the rewrites on books 1 and 2 yet.

Writing in August, Hurricane Harvey, and Patreon

Well, no new story acceptances to announce from August, unfortunately. I did, however, write two new stories in August. It's kind of funny, I'd had a discussion with my Author Friend Tori pretty recently about how my short stories are indeed very short. Sometimes under two thousand words, mostly under five thousand. Well, in an interesting departure, one of my August stories topped 8000 words in its first draft! I've trimmed some in rewrites, tightening sentences up, but it's interesting to look at the outliers in my collection of stories to submit.

And wouldn't you know, the second September happened, it got COLD and RAINY. Like, calm down nature, I really like it when fall is kind of long and warm.

But now I'm gonna shut my mouth about the weather because holy shit Hurricane Harvey. I'm from the beach, but have never had to endure the hardships and losses of a hurricane (they mostly blew out to sea when I was a kid, and I was living in New York by the time Sandy happened).

I hear tell the Red Cross actually isn't the best place to donate to in the case of disasters, and so here are some places to look into if you have some cash to give:

Here's a list of Texas food banks  Feeding Texas is another organization.

The Houston Humane Society website is here, and they also have a Hurricane Harvey fund that can be directly donated to.


The North Texas chapter of the Society for Children's Books Writers and Illustrators is having a silent auction.

The Texas Diaper Bank helps with supplies for children, but also seniors and people with disabilities. AARP also has a Harvey Relief fund (apparently they've already met their initial matched goal of $1.5 million!) and Portlight Strategies dedicates itself to aiding people with disabilities.


(I don't have a relationship with any of these organizations and don't have detailed info on them, I just poked around a few places to see what people were talking about)


And while we're on the topic of donations, Strange Horizons is having their annual fund drive! I've read them for years and years, and have been submitting stories to them for a long time, and they regularly publish stories and poems that I love to read.

A thing I've been considering is a Patreon. It's how a lot of creative folks are getting stories and poems and a wide variety of other things directly to fans; some people make a few dollars a month, some people make a few thousand dollars a month (*cough*AmandaPalmer*cough*). Occasionally when I've had an acceptance, and acquaintances have read the stories, they've then asked where else they could find my writing, so it could be useful in that regard. I could use it to release exclusive short stories which have not been picked up by other markets (I actually, in conversation with one of these acquaintances, was like "ohhh so this is why Patreon can be a big deal for some people" and they were like "yes, Jen. Yes.")

Additionally, I could use it for teaser content leading up to the release of the werewolf trilogy (which could then help defray the costs of self publishing), that kind of thing. So if you have any experience with Patreon and have thoughts on the matter, I'd absolutely love to hear them!

Looking back on January 2017: how'd I do?

White rabbits!

It's February already!

January went well. I wrote a story, currently titled "The Mountain's Wife", and really it might just stay that way. It's not quite ready to be sent out yet...there's something it needs, and I'm not sure what. So it waits.

I also got over my "reader's block" a bit and read three books! I've added the pages "Readings 2017", and I'm keeping track not only of the books I've read, but also the short stories, poems, and longer articles. I realized that for one, even when I'm not finishing books it doesn't mean I'm entirely not reading and two, it'd be nice to keep track of those great stories, etc. that I read for if/when I want to refer back to them.

The book I read most recently was Eelgrass, by Tori Curtis , who blogs here and tweets here and is in my writing group, so I did kind of cheat by being able to read/hear some of the novel before it was published. Also, I did a livetweet as I read, which I've collected via Storify.

So, if you like fantasy, and selkies, and the ocean, and #ownvoices novels, definitely have a look at Eelgrass (currently available in paperback and on Kindle).

I finished October Madness early. No, I don't care that early is "cheating".

I don't know what it was this year, all those stories on submission made me super frenetic about how I had all those stories on submission. So I loaded up the submission queue super quick and then crouched over my email like



via GIPHY

But, I soldiered on and got it done!

31 submissions for the 31 days of October! Of those 31 submissions, I have received 11 rejections. I'm not going to give you the form/personal breakdown, but I will tell you....one of those rejections was a one hour rejection,which was a first. I mean, don't get me wrong, the agony of Schrodinger's Submission is real, but one hour? Ouch.



via GIPHY

I also know that submissions are very subjective. There could be a specific issue an editor is building, and an editor's taste and vision is always a factor as well. It isn't necessarily a value judgement. Etc. Etc. It's hard to keep that emotional balance on a day when you get 4 or 5 rejections, though.

But, the fact that I still have 20 submissions from just October is staggering. And 5 more from prior to that, with a grand total of 25 submissions, 24 of them unique submissions (I simultaneously submitted that one story which had its submission birthday. What've I got to lose, right?) That's an awful lot of short stories I think are ready enough to be out there, just waiting for the right editor and market to say yes, and that's something I'm pretty proud of.

September 2016 Goals Roundup

Well. September seemed like a reallllly long month to me. You?

Lots of writing in September. A lot of it was Shadowrun writing (not the same character as in "A Shadowrun Story" which, improbably, has become one of the most popular posts on this blog, but a character with similar elements. She's also a decker, for one. It goes from there), and some of it was workshop writing, as my writing workshop has begun again. Workshop writing is not always complete, though I do have one flash piece to show for it, and what we did today (which is October 1, and will not count for my September goals, mais oui).

March 2016 goals roundup

As of this writing, I'm up to 6 completed first drafts in 2016. I finished two more stories in March (one on the very last day of March), and have submitted one of  my January stories. There's at least one other I think may be close to ready for its first foray into the world. Or I should let it sit longer, read it again, work on it a little more. I think I'm in the habit of jumping the gun.

I've received a query rejection and two short story rejections last month. I have a number of short stories out (11? I think it's 11) and the wait is starting to really grind on me. It does that; I agree with Tom Petty, waiting is the hardest part. Same with queries. I haven't sent out any new ones in awhile, and I'll  probably work on revision pretty soon. Not now, though.

I've completed all my edits (I think) for the Mosaics 2 anthology. I've written my author bio and my story blurb, and even got an author photo I don't hate with my lovely coworker's help. 

I've begun my "Untitled April 2016" #CampNaNoWriMo project. It's something to do with the Westward Expansion in America, sequoia trees, mysticism, and dragons. I'm aiming for novella-ish length, 25k words, and from there I can either pare down to acceptable lengths for magazines, or expand into a more substantial novel length. I've actually  made a gesture at outlining, which really was more of a list of "this happens. Why?" "this character. What do they want?" Which is a kind of goal-oriented focus I don't always have when writing a story.

I will probably also be working on at least one short story this month, because it seems like I always need at least one alternate project to give my "main" project breathing room. The writing workshop at the library tends to give me a lot of story stubs which can be polished and expanded, and it will likely be one of those that I complete. Or maybe not. I've got some ideas floating, some with a few sentences written. Overall, I feel like my writing is in a pretty good place. I'm glad I've set this "at least one story a month" goal.

Who are you people and why are you in my house?

Okay, we've slid past October's halfway point. Where am I? Where are you?

Lazy Link Roundup™ October 20 2014

So I haven't had any rejections in a few days. It's kind of weird. I've submitted to Spacesuits and Sixguns, Betwix, Tin House, and Asimov's Science Fiction since last I reported. A couple of days I've subbed two in one day, but overall I have 26 submissions planned just now, even if they don't match properly to the days. This week's Chuck Wending flash prompt is only 500 words instead of 1000, so I may dash that out to bring the current total to 27. Another couple stories are almost done, but I know better than to try too hard with shorts.


In novel prep news, a couple of links I've perused lately. Not all of these are novel prep, but some are. It's almost always justifiable.

October Madness update, 10/10

Well, I'm slowly starting to run out of stories. I think I only have 6 left which are "done" and/or "ready". Have to spit-shine the others, which at one time I thought were ready. Funny how opinions change.

Let's see, on October 8, I sent a story to Apex. October 8 is also the day I received my first rejection of the month, from Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. That story will go out again before the end of the month.

On October 9, I sent a story to Urban Fantasy Magazine, and then jumped the gun (went to bed before midnight) to send a story to Buzzy Mag.

We've got people visiting this weekend, so I've already sent Saturday's sub to Shock Totem.

What I'm talking about when I talk about Science Fiction

Science Fiction is a continually compelling genre. For me, anyway. Judging from the number of space and clone and and and things coming out, it is for a lot of people.

So, what's my first mental impression when I think "Oh, SciFi"?

Space. Really and primarily, space. Space travel, space ships, worlds that are not Earth. Worlds that may once have been Earth. I sometimes think about things like my brain in a robot body (or a cloned body! Thanks Richard K. Morgan, for Altered Carbon and the subsequent two books. I'd love for there to be more).

If there's a science for it, there's a fiction for it, so Science Fiction possibilities, in my mind, are fairly infinite. But when it comes down to it, when I write (or make gestures at writing) what I think of as "Science Fiction", I'm reaching back to that Golden Age of Space Travel and Possibilities, where Man willingly travels at the behest of his (or her; I'm using "Man" as the gender neutral noun here) government to Explore and Discover and what have you. I want that mood of the indomitable spirit, the inquisitive attitude, the endless question of "What will we find and how will we survive it?"

I've already got an idea somewhat laid out for a near-future Moon novel. I now, I think, have the most nascent dream of a novel somewhere along that timeline, after the events of Untitled Moon Novel are said and done, and we (meaning Earth People) have moved even further.

What do you think of when you think of SciFi, be it books or movies? 

Something to aspire to

So Janet Reid, from whom much literary wisdom flows, posted about Michael Seese. He's a writer who just spent all of October submitting a story or poem or something each day. Which is awesome.

See, if you want to get published, it isn't enough just to write. This is a grave disappointment that each of us reaches at some point in our, er, "development". As I commented on Ms. Reid's post, nobody's going to do this for me. It isn't like Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery where her Uncle Jimsy finds her trunked manuscript, thinks it's good, and sends it off to a publisher who accepts it right off and BAM Emily is successfully published. She's one of my favorite L.M. Montgomery characters and, unlike the Anne books, the Emily books are only a trilogy.

So. We write but it isn't enough. We much write and spit shine and sand edges and shellack and polish. Then, we must write the Dreaded Query Letter™, which must be hooky and snappy and explanatory and not clichè unless it's just the right kind, and which must be a distilled 250 word form of mind control to make somebody want to read your pages. And request your full. Then talk contract. Then sign. Then send it around to publishers. The Dreaded Synopsis™ is in there somewhere too (and I need to write one for Learn to Howl come December, if I'm going to make the Angry Robot Books open submissions deadline).

So it's important to get your work out there. Get eyes on it (or ears on it, as I did last week with the help of my friend Jacob Burgess). Write, write, edit, write, and submit. Since I just received a rejection from Glimmer Train, I looked the story over again, edited it a bit more, and sent it off to Agni. I sent another one to Lakeside Circus, which is published by Dagan Books (I actually almost sent this one to Strange Horizons, then realized I'd already received that particular rejection from them. It pays to keep a spreadsheet for your submissions and rejections, kiddies!).

I don't have 31 spit-shined works of fiction to sub so I can do 1 a day for a month, but I've been poking around in my "Writing" folders, looking at what I thought was finished, what I know isn't finished, and all of those irritating files I have which are only a couple of sentences and were clearly meant to go in a direction at one time. I have stuff I can work with, and stuff I need to "bring up to code", as it were (removing 'that' whenever possible, that kind of thing). It's funny how organic a process writing is, how things change shape even as you're doing them.

Two Year Anniversary

Two years ago, I wrote the Pilot post of this blog.

At the time, I was under contract to publish an anthology of short stories with a small press. The date kept getting pushed back, though, and then the publisher went on hiatus. So I asked for my rights back. Said publisher seems to not be operating as such any longer. So, I guess I dodged a bullet?

I started this blog with the purpose of "building my platform", getting people interested in my writing, et cetera. My intent for this blog has always been more than Buy My Book! shilling, though. I wrapped up that very first post saying

"I feel that a good writer needs to read.  I believe that a good writer learns about the world, and never stops learning, regardless of whether there's a classroom. Writing, authoring, is a process and a journey, and I hope you enjoy coming with me. "

I still believe these things; it's one reason I'll post on seemingly random topics, like black market rhino horns and James Bond's pants. They're things I've learned about, and find interesting, and all of that is story fodder. I will probably never write a story that revolves around said pants or rhinos, but it might come up in conversation. I might throw it in for flavor, a cultural reference instead of a literary one.

So, to those of you who are still reading, thank you! To those of you who are new, thank you and welcome! I hope you enjoy my crazy train of thought here, and I hope to one day be able to write a post in which I do, in fact, suggest that you buy my book.