Here’s a video of me reading my own poetry for the first time, with SFWA’s Speculative Poetry Open Mic. I have not listened to it because I cannot bear listening to myself, but I have hopes that other people feel differently about it….
Tag: publishing
Back on pilgrimage
Good news, fellow humans! My short story A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places, which appeared last year in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, is a finalist for the WSFA Small Press Award for short fiction.
I am seriously chuffed about this for a number of reasons. One, you know how everyone always says it’s an honor just to be a finalist? You know why they say that? Because it is in fact an honor just to be a finalist. So many wonderful stories come out in this field every year that–well, you’ve seen my yearly recommendation lists. They’re quite long. Winnowing them to any smaller group? Amazing, thank you, could easily have been a number of other highly qualified stories by wonderful writers, I am literally just glad to be on the team and hope I can help the ball club. Er, programming staff.
But here’s another reason: if you’ve read that story–which you can do! please do! it’s free, and it turns out people like it!–you will immediately see that it is a story about a disabled person. That disabled person is not me, does not have my family or my career or anything like that. But it is my disability. I put my own disability into this story. I gave someone with my disability a story in which they do not have to be “fixed” to be the hero. And…this is not a disability-focused award. This is just an award for genre short fiction. So I particularly appreciate that the people who were selecting stories looked a story with a disabled protagonist whose disability is inherent to the story without being the problem that needs solving and said, yeah, we appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate you too.
A bridge too far
New story out today in Clarkesworld: A Shaky Bridge ! This one is more directly referential to current events than most of my science fiction, while also drawing on my experience with my dad having strokes. So this is not the most happy-clappy upbeat story I’ve ever written…but it is one that I feel good about having out there, and I hope you’ll like it too.
When listicles go wrong
New story out today! Things I Miss About Civilization appears in Nature Futures. Just a scientist, a slightly broken spaceship, and the great expanse between galaxies….
JR Dawson launch party!
My friend J.R. Dawson is launching their second book, The Lighthouse at the End of the World, and I get to be part of the festivities! We’ll be at Moon Palace Books at 6:00 p.m. on July 29, having a lovely conversation about this book and the previous book and other stories and life in general, and you can come join in the fun!
Trade show! in! spaaaaaace!
New story out today in Lightspeed magazine: All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. Visit the space gift shop trade convention and learn who’s most likely to try to ruin things for all of us (hint: it’s Earth people, UGH).
Don’t miss the Author Spotlight discussing the story afterwards!
SFWA Poetry Open Mic
I’ve been reading my own prose in public for audiences for more than 25 years now, and I’ve even thrown in a poem or two as spice. But this Saturday is the first time I will be doing a dedicated poetry reading! If you’re a Nebula attendee or a SFWA member, please join us on Saturday, June 28th, at 11 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Central).
When it all changes
New story out today in ebook format! Print copy to follow for those who want that. “The Things You Know, The Things You Trust” appears in If There’s Anyone Left, vol. 5. It’s a look at life’s constants in the face of great change, which are sometimes where we hope they are and sometimes…other places.
With the RIGHT sort of person of course
New story out today in Nature Futures–Disconnections! For those pesky young people who are just not optimizing social media to its full advancement potential….
more than all the courage I can muster up inside
New story out! “If the Weather Holds” appears in the Mar/Apr 2025 issue of Analog. For all the work we have ahead, we’ll need a big team…and just the reasonable people won’t do. Analog is available for order here.
Yes, I wrote this because the Indigo Girls left this title lying on the table when they called their song “The Wood Song.” The ways of creativity are mysterious and here we are.