Coming soon! "Nothing Left But Mud" with Sword & Kettle press

Hello! I have news for you!

A few months ago (March?) I got a story rejection and took to twitter, saying something along the lines of "due to current events, I'm not sure this scifi story is even scifi anymore" and called it a maybe-apocalypse at the Jersey Shore, about horseshoe crabs and stuff. Because I am g r e a t at summarizing things in zippy and compelling ways.

Well, Kayla Allen who owns Sword & Kettle press asked me to send it to her. And then Kayla said "hey, we'd like to publish this, what do you think?" and I said "Yes, please and thank you!"  (further summarizing, of course.

So now, Friday July 31, 2020 is when my short story "Nothing Left But Mud" will become digitally available through Sword & Kettle press, with a physical little book version of it coming sometime after!

Art is by Anna-Rose Schenerman and LOOK AT IT



The title comes from the Rudyard Kipling story "The Crab Who Played With the Sea" (and that crab is not a horseshoe crab, but it was still...thematic, y'know?) and the story is about a pandemic, and being home with your parents at the Jersey Shore, and trying to survive, and trying to maintain hope. I wrote a hopeful store for once, gentle readers! I am very excited for it, and I do hope you read it and enjoy!

 It is now for sale digitally on the Sword & Kettle Etsy store!, and I'll update when the physical copy is available.

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!

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! "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!

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.

Happy December! My Writing Year in Review

Wow, is it December? This year has been both extremely long and also gone in the blink of an eye.

If you're a person who nominates for awards and things, may I direct you to my Awards Eligibility post?

So, how was my writing year?  Pretty amazing, actually. Even not including my Patreon, I've had more stories published this year than I have to date, with three already out, one of which is in a pro market, and the final one forthcoming on Boxing Day. I've also had one more acceptance (so far!). Contract forthcoming, so I'll announce more when I can.

Though speaking of that pro market...."Surveillance Fatigue", published in Escape Pod, qualified me to become an Associate member of the SFWA.....so I applied and was accepted!  It has also made me Campbell eligible and every time I mention that I realize I should look into it further but, here we are. I also joined the Science Fiction Writers Codex

July 2018 writing goals roundup

Happy July, friends! Are my American readers having the same heatwave that we've just been hit by? I both love it and don't...if I was at the beach, I'd truly love it. These are beach days, to be sure.

I encourage you to check out my Patreon. This month's story, "The Wave", is a somewhat beachy wave. You can read the author notes there without any cash on the barrelhead, but I'll say, the story was inspired by my recent reading about Big Wave Surfing, and by Coca cola's "have a coke with" campaign (the bottles have peoples' names on them). I just moved up the timeline to be a near future, perhaps a few decades beyond where "Daddy's Girl" would be.

In general writing news, I wrote three first drafts last month (!). One of them came out much longer than my stories normally go (almost 14,000 words) and seeing as how  Fireside is having a novella call next month...I figured I'd try to lengthen it for that submission window. It's an interesting exercise, just casually saying "well I need to add 6k to this story", when so many of my stories are around 2000 words in total. I can definitely write 6000 words by then, but whether they are meaningful words which fit the story and improve it remain to be seen.

This month is also a Camp NaNoWriMo and for once, I'm not really certain what to consider my "main" project. I should work on rewriting the middle book of the werewolf trilogy. I should work on this novella for Fireside. I could do both, and that might just be what ends up happening.

Happy June! It's like summertime!

Hello Friends! Did you miss me?

I have some news for you.

On May 18, my fiancé and I became *DRUMROLL*  husband and wife

We got together wayyyyyy back in college, in 2001, and we were engaged and bought a house and a dog together, and now every once in awhile we look at each other (even today, on our two week anniversary and say "we're married" with big dumb smiles on our faces).

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!

What happened in February?

Happy March! We got about a foot of snow to welcome the month with! Wouldn't it be nice if that didn't happen? I got a snow day, anyway.

My story "A Thing With Feathers" that I talked about in my January post is now live on the Mythic Delirium website!

ALSO!  A.C. Wise reviewed "A Thing With Feathers" in her "Words for Thought" column posted by Apex Magazine , and I think wrote some very good and thoughtful things on the piece. I appreciate both her review and the understanding of my story that she possesses!

In other fiction news, the acceptance that I mentioned is my story "Surveillance Fatigue", which is currently scheduled to go live at Escape Pod on April 12! It will be available there in both text and audio, so if listening to stories isn't your jam, you can still take it in.

I wrote one short story in February, tried furiously to finish it for the Sword & Sonnet deadline so I could sub a second story, and then realized, first, that it was 1500 words too long and there wasn't any way I was going to cut it down in time and second, it kind of didn't fit the theme anymore anyway? So I only subbed one story to that anthology, which was rejected, but sent on to the next market! So we march on ever hopeful, etc.

Fireside Magazine is opening for submissions in April, from April 23-April 27 (and with a  limit of 4k words!), and I know what I'm going to send them.

Interestingly, "too long" is not a story problem I tend to have. Many (most?) of my shorts are between 1500 and 3k words, with some reaching upwards of that, at 5k, and a couple of random novellas. It does make submissions interesting, though, if your story is too long for one venue and too short for another one. Submission guidelines are an important thing to pay attention to, friends!

Writing in January (lots of deadlines!)

It's February already (or finally, depending on how your January went!)

My short story "A Thing With Feathers" is live on Mythic Delirium's website! You can also get the entire issue on Amazon or Weightless Books if that's more your style (no physical magazine, alas).

I finished three stories in January. One of them was something I'd started last year and messed around with a lot, trying to figure out point of view (first? close third? omniscient?) and tense (past? present?) and finally I was able to bring it home. The other two I wrote for submission calls, and have already been rejected for those anthologies. On one hand, that's a letdown. On the other hand, I really like it when responses are prompt. It means I'm not waiting for months. It means I can send another story. Or write another story, depending on how specific what they want is (Sword & Sonnet is pretty specific).

I also got an acceptance in January! They'd held the story for awhile, and also kindly let me send an updated version of it (of course I figured out a better way to end it after submission) and I'm very excited to announce this one when I'm able! I think projected publication date is April, so stay tuned, space cowboys.



Some recommended listening when you read "A Thing With Feathers" (I wrote the story before I ever heard this song or heard of Meg Myers, but it's a good fit!)

The (Writing) year in Review

It's New Year's Eve, I should probably do this right?

I once again met, and exceeded, my goal of completing a piece of writing each month, which makes me think maybe I should add to my writing resolutions in some way. Maybe go for two? (and give myself a pass on that in NaNoWriMo months?)

I completed 22 things this year. Two of them were book two and three in the trilogy that Learn to Howl begins, so now I just need to go through Learn to Howl (at least) once more with feeling™, and then make it publication ready. I've made a significant change in the setting, from Somewhere in North Carolina to, instead, Somewhere in the Pine Barrens. Story wise, it still fits/works/makes sense, and from an author standpoint it makes sense because, y'know, I'm from New Jersey. I'm not from the Pine Barrens, but *spoilers* there's only so long the characters stay there. So I'm looking forward to that.

Some of the stories I've counted as completed this year are pretty comprehensive rewrites of stories I wrote prior to this year, and it's given them good new life, so I've got high hopes for their submissions success in the coming days.

Some people on Twitter are talking about like, their total wordcounts and stuff, but I don't typically worry about that unless it comes to submissions (whether a story is too short or too long) or novels (where there is a generally accepted length for a genre). So I'm not going to go open all 22 of those files and tally it up because, well, I don't want to. It's a lot. It's at least 150k because of three months of NaNoWriMo, and then the other additional stories.

Which brings us to my submissions (and rejections) and publications!

I had three stories accepted this year. First was Daddy's Girl in Syntax & Salt, which is also on the Nebula Reading List (the actual Nebula Ballot will be released I'm not sure when, and the actual voting is from March 1-March 30). The second story was "Aground, Upon the Sand", also in Syntax & Salt, winning their Fall Flash Fiction contest!

And hey you should go read Syntax & Salt, who in the coming years have a plan to do things like improve the rates they pay their authors, have an editor dedicated to making sure their authors stories are nominated for awards, that kind of awesome thing.

My third story acceptance is "A Thing With Feathers", coming out literally tomorrow (January 1!) in issue 4.3 of Mythic Delirium. The whole issue is available for Kindle here for $2.99, but if you don't want to do that, my particular story will be on their website in February.

In total, I submitted 173 pieces in 2017. Of those, there are still 19 submissions I'm still waiting on (even though 1 of them will probably not reply, if other writers' experiences are anything to go on). I received 106 form rejections and 53 personal rejections, which is almost three times the amount of personals I've received in prior years.

So next year, I hope to get more acceptances, publish my werewolf trilogy, and write at least as much as I did this year! I might also get that Patreon started (though I guess with the recent Patreon drama I'm glad I held off on that a bit?) If you'd be interested in being one of my patrons and maybe have any kind of specific "gee I'd really love it if Jen did X and I'd totally pay a dollar or whatever a month for it" let me know!

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.

My story came in first place at Syntax & Salt!

My latest short story "Aground, Upon the Sand" took first place in Syntax & Salt's Fall Flash Fiction contest. 

It's a story that, once it formed in my mind, didn't take very long to write. I didn't have a false start, but I did have a false ending, that I went back and rewrote. Originally, it didn't quite strike the right tone for me. Now it does. and it strikes that tone for others as well; as some of my twitter buddies have said, in the way of the internet, that it has given them Feels. So I hope you enjoy it as well.

Syntax & Salt has been very good to me indeed. My previous story with them, "Daddy's Girl", is on the Nebula Reading List. Nominations for the Nebulas start November 15 and run through February 15, so if you know any SFWA members, tell them to vote for me!

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!

July 2017 goals roundup and Another Story Acceptance!

First thing's first: I got another story acceptance!  My short story "A Thing With Feathers" will be published in Mythic Delirum. I don't know when/what issue yet, so I'll keep you posted, but (obviously) I am super excited about this. A lot of amazing writers have been in their pages, including their most recent issue, which features JANE YOLEN, Mari Ness, Sandra Odell, Jennifer Crow (and many more).

I still have 14 other stories on submission (Well, 13, one is simultaneously submitted) and getting an acceptance has of course given me renewed hopes for those. Though I've said this before on Twitter (and maybe here too, I can't remember), I have to assume each time I send a story out that the answer will be yes. Otherwise, I would get far too discouraged and not send any out at all. So that's 14 potential "yeses" (well 13, as flattering as it would be to have two markets fight over one of my stories I think it would be very bad form on my part). I don't even know what I'd do if everything came back 'yes'. Fly apart with joy, I guess? With how many submissions I've sent out this year, and how I've been perpetually submitting in such volume, I probably won't separately do a month of "submit a story every day" in October as I have for the past couple of years. Part of the goal of that was to consistently be getting my stories into slush piles, and especially this year, I haven't slacked off on that.

But July, July was an interesting writing month. I rewrote not one but two short stories in July. And yes, I did in fact finish editing down The Last Song, fulfilling my CampNaNoWriMo goal. Now I need to write it back up again! And THEN I can query with it anew.

June 2017 Goals roundup

So June was pretty great!

My short story "Daddy's Girl" was published in Syntax & Salt and a lot of people have shared it across Twitter and said very nice things about it, which I really appreciate and which thrills me to no end. I try to share short stories when I've really liked them, and follow the authors on Twitter, and in this instance that story is mine and that author is me and it's a lovely feeling. Additionally, the Syntax & Salt folks were very nice and easy to work with, and I'd like the stories they'd run previously, which is why I submitted mine.

Oh, so have you tried out Inspirobot? You should. It's an AI built to generate inspirational phrases, and slaps them onto images. It's....interesting. Sometimes perfect, sometimes hilarious. Sometimes both! I may inflict some of them on my writing group as writing prompts. We'll see.

Interestingly, so far, every story I have had accepted was either 1. accepted its first time submitted or 2. the first time I'd submitted a piece to that particular market. Obviously, this trend has to break at some point, as I have more stories and am constantly sending them out. Though I guess I need to take a break on that pretty soon, if I'm going to be doing October Madness again this year. Though the point of October Madness is to get myself submitting stories, without having lapses, and clearly that is no longer a problem for me. So we'll see.

There are any number of short stories I have (still, forever and always) that I have started and that need to be finished. Some which have been rejected enough that they've received large overhauls and rewrites, some slated to receive such a treatment. I've got one story that was not originally speculative but is now and (I think) works pretty well that way. We'll see what the rejection letters (or acceptance letters?) have to say about that.

In June I indeed wrote a new short story, a cyberpunk-ish sort of thing concerning biotech and limb/body part replacement and personal security. It was also a romance, very technically, and written to a prompt from my friend Tori (the author of Eelgrass), who was trying to prevent me from jumping the gun and submitting May's short story too early. Because I don't really write romance, it was an interesting challenge, and she gave me these stipulations: "1 kiss, one loving description of a butt, flowers exchanged, and a meet cure. I also want one witty banter, a shooting range, and an assassination attempt."  It is to my credit that I did not in fact just cheat and write a Shadowrun story using one of my characters. I did also write a couple of Shadowrun stories, a pair of which were very fun indeed because they were the same scene/situation from two perspectives.

I have decided for July's Camp NaNoWriMo that I'll be rewriting/revising The Last Song. I've made a new and improved playlist, I have the most current draft printed out, I've been circling the characters in my head and looking at Detroit things again. I've also had the thought that maybe I shouldn't write it from the perspective of my rock star Orpheus, but I think writing it from my modern day Eurydice's point of view isn't actually the best plan. It's possible, certainly, and though she needs to be represented far more strongly than my current text does, I don't think that's the correct frame. So we'll see what happens.