"Naturally, she turned Mike into a dog."

My story, "Naturally," is now live for your reading enjoyment at NewMyths.com. And yes, it is about a rather creative solution to a difficult relationship.


I tinkered with this one for a long time and am delighted that it found a home at NewMyths. Be sure to stick around are read the rest of the amazing stories in issue 33 and beyond!

This seems to be my month for dog stories. Sometimes it just works out that way.

End of the year Potpourri: Rocking the Writers of the Future, Izzy Crow, and Surviving December

 

Izzy Crow

I’m currently writing Chapter 11, as soon as I finish, I’ll be taking a some time to reoutline. I love outlining. I need to outline, but my outline is not a static document. The first draft is full of discoveries and course corrections – everything is fluid. So, at about the 25 percent point, I’m going to take a step back and look at the big picture again and redraw my map a bit. I still don’t think I’ll have it outlined all the way to the end, but that’s okay. Maps of undiscovered territory are always a bit sketchy.

 

After skipping a few quarters, I sent a story to Writers ofthe Future this fall and it received a Silver Honorable Mention, which is the category just below Semifinalist! Essentially, this story made the top 50. I am quite jazzed and have already sent this story off to a pro market. Hopefully I’ll have publication news for it before too long.

The last story I sent to WOTF, by the way, was Futile theWinds, which garnered an Honorable Mention and was published in Interzone.

December is a tough month to write through, what with the crushing amount of errands and non-negotiable family obligations joyful Christmas shopping, decorating, and precious family time.*

Returning to my outline will be a relief from pushing the narrative forward on my novel. Seriously, a novel is an endurance event. In the afterglow of my WOTF success, my December writing assignment is to rewrite a novelette that I’ve been tinkering with and send it off to the contest. I just keep repeating to myself, “write a little every day to keep the holiday insanity away.”

 

* Precious family time is the one part I unironically love. That and time to knit.

Daniel Ausema and the Meaning of Place in Fiction

Meadow to forest to pond, ecotones are everywhere.

Today, Daniel Ausema, contributing author in Ecotones is here to talk about his story of place in SFFWorld.com’s fourth anthology.

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The first time I heard the word Ecotone, it was for the literary magazine of that name. I didn't know its meaning, only that the journal's tagline was "a journal of place." Place to me is vital, both in real life and fiction, especially the natural surroundings—whether that's the deciduous woods and glacial lakes where I grew up or the mountains outside my door today. When we moved here I cared more for the view of those mountains and the prevalence of hiking, biking, and running trails than I did about the quality of restaurants and nightlife.

In writing, I'm often told that my stories have a strong sense of place, that people feel present within the imagined confines of the story. Even when that setting is surreal or out of the ordinary, readers sense that care I have for the physical surroundings. One of the joys of reading fiction of any kind is being brought to an unfamiliar place (or seeing a familiar one made new); one of the joys of writing speculative fiction especially is conjuring such a place out of words.

So when the anthology's theme was announced, I liked it even before I'd read the explanation. An anthology about place, an anthology of stories that take note of and celebrate their settings and the physical world around them? Sign me up.

Then I read the definition of ecotone and the full explanation of the theme and found it to be different: not about place per se but about those border zones where one real or metaphorical place blends into another. If anything, this made me like the idea even better.

First, there's a long tradition in fantasy and folktales that the border between regions is important. Dawn and dusk, the shoreline, the cusp of adulthood, the edge of the forest, the turning of the year. These are key places (and times) where magic often seeps through.

The more I thought about this, the more I began to see all the possibilities. Borders are everywhere, literal and metaphorical places and times that bleed into each other. Those ecotonal zones are such a powerful place for a story to take place. I might even be tempted to say that at some level they become a key part of Story to make it real.

Add to that the ecological aspect. I grew up in a family that placed a high value on science and the natural world. We traveled to scenic places and even at home noticed the details of nature. My older brothers ended up with degrees related to ecology and biology, one as a teacher and the other as a park ranger. And I have been both involved in various environmental education settings.

So the theme of the anthology is a great fit for my interests, and add to that the keynote writers: I didn't know the full list of great writers who would be in the anthology, but I knew it'd be a great lineup. The chance to join such a group of excellent writers was one I couldn't pass up.

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Want to read Daniel’s story of a special magical place? Want 13 other great, ecotoned stories from professional and amateur writers from around the globe?

Then look no further than Kickstarter campaign!

Enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card by posting a link to this post on Twitter or Facebook. Remember to use the hashtag #Ecotone and come back here to let us know you promoted our anthology (provide link). The winner will be contacted via the email address used to comment. And we’ll announce the winner at the end of the blog tour (December 5th, 2015) on SFFWorld.com’s main site.

If you are curious, check out what other contributors have to say on this Ecotour check out the links below:

• Ecotones Guest Blog Post - Victor Espinosa 
• Why Ecotones? - Jon Laidlow
• Ecotour - N. E. White
• Ecotones Anthology - The Mary Sue
• Ecotones Pro-Am Anthology - Cli-Fi.net
• Climate Fiction Update, It’s now Eco-Fiction - Claude Nougat
• Eco-Fiction

Check Out the Ecotones Kickstarter

The Ecotones kickstarter is live!

The anthology will be published digitally in December. Donating now to the kickstarter is a great way to get your copy at rock bottom prices. Any amount you donate will show your love and support to all the writers who participated in this anthology.

The Silva isn't the first story with ecological themes that I've written and I'm sure it won't be the last. I am delighted that it found such a wonderful home. I can't wait to read the other stories in this book.

It has been a pleasure working with the editor Andrew Leon Hudson, and I have no doubt that he's put together a top notch anthology. This is SFFWorld's fourth anthology, each with a different theme. If their site is anything to go by, it's a good guess that they are all worth reading. If you have a little extra dough to throw at the kickstarter you can add the previous anthologies to your reading list.

Novel Progress and Other Irons

The Novel
I’ve been working my way through the first draft of what I’m calling my first novel. I have written a couple other long – um – things that, while technically novels, well, let’s just leave them in the drawer filed under “experience.”

Izzy Crow is the working title and the name of the protagonist. Here’s the proto logline: 

Freed from a powerful spell after centuries, a fairy tale princess must learn to live in the modern world.

I have a lot of irons in the fire, so I’ve set what I hope is a reasonable goal of completing a chapter a week. I’ve added a word count progress bar to the sidebar in order to keep myself accountable to y’all. 

Other Irons

I’m about halfway through the University of Iowa’s How Writer’sWrite Fiction mooc and really enjoying the experience. The syllabus is well thought out and the lectures have been useful and thought provoking. While I have not spent a lot of time on the teaching team discussion boards there are plenty of opportunities to interact with both teachers and students

The writing assignments are thoughtful and challenging enough to have me stretching my writerly muscles. It’s genre friendly but literary over genre, which for me who writes in both, is a refreshing change, and just the thing I needed to shake up my writing.

The feedback/critique element is a bit hit or miss, but I expected this. (All of the feedback on the writing assignments is student on student. The teaching team is in place to support the lecture discussion threads.) This is a "massive" and "open" course, so there are all kinds of people participating for all kinds of reasons and at all levels of ability.

I think what I am enjoying the most is connecting with writers from all over the world. I hope to not only generate some material that will be converted into complete short stories over the next few weeks, but also to form some budding friendships with other writers who I would have otherwise never met.

The Ecotones Anthology

My story, The Silva, will be appearing in Ecotones, SFFWorld's  fourth annual anthology.

The table of contents has been announced, and boy howdy am I in some amazing company: Ken Liu, Tobias Buckell, and Lauren Beukes!

The kickstarter for this anthology will be debuting next week, so you’ll be hearing more about it and all the great stories within soon!

Read My Post-Scarcity Day-After-Thanksgiving Tale at Devilfish Review

The idea for Black Friday came to me while contemplating the ruination of one of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving is like the easy-going uncle of holidays, it shows up a couple months into the school year grind for a long weekend of cooking and eating while near continuous football games play in the background. Not that it can't be tricky, centered as it is around sitting down with relations with whom you may or may not see eye to eye. If sharing an annual meal includes an argument or even a family dust up, well, that too is an American tradition. Think about how many times a family gathered around the Thanksgiving table has been featured on the stage, in movies and TV dramas? Annual ordeal, priceless family bonding, or both--Thanksgiving is a touchstone of American culture. 

And I don't even like turkey! Our family tradition, in fact, is to create our own quirky meal (alternatives have included quail, octopus, and lobster). Of course we prepare so much food that we can eat of the leftovers for the rest of the long, lazy weekend. We also make a point of not shopping at all for the entire weekend. All that mindless consumerism, the crowds chasing after phyrric savings--it's bad for the digestion.

While the Black Friday tradition is fading, it's only because stores are starting to open on Thanksgiving day. Sad. 

So, that's how this story got its start. Although I'm not exactly sure how the tooth fairy got involved.

I'm delighted that this story found a home in Devilfish Review among so many other great stories and poems!

I'm Back and I Promise to Stop Neglecting You!

Photo by Matthias Haker

Hello poor neglected blog. While I’ve been away planning and now writing this novel, I’ve missed you.

No, really!

So, I’ve decided to try to come by a little more often, albeit for short visits. No long think pieces for now.

As if I’m not busy enough, I’ve also decided to participate in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program’s MOOC “How WritersWrite Fiction.” I’m posting today because it’s not too late for you to sign up.

MOOC stands Massive Open Online Course. It doesn’t cost anything and there is no obligation to complete assignments. But, I believe there will great rewards for participating in the course. “How Writers Write Fiction is currently in its welcome week. The first official class will be Thursday, October 1, so there is still time to join. Writers, both aspiring and experienced, from all over the world are participating. I audited their poetry course earlier this year and while the video lectures were awesome and the writing assignments looked well thought out, one of the biggest benefits is a chance to meet and interact with writers from all over the world.

I’m looking forward the experience. I think it will be useful for my writing in general, and hopefully, for my current novel in particular.* 

If you decide to join in you can do it here. Once you've signed on, be sure to find me on the message boards and say hi!

* More about the novel-in-progress next post, which will be soon. I promise!

Read "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast" at the Lovely Saturday Night Reader

Today you can read my story, "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast," at the Saturday Night Reader's lovely website. It's flash fiction, so it will only take you a minute. Stick around to read some of their many other short stories. There's a lot of diversity in style and content in these pages, so there is something for everyone. 

I can't really say how I came up with a time travel story influenced by Alice in Wonderland, but this one sure was fun to write!

Illustration for Alice in Wonderland by Arthur Reckham

Review of december magazine

Summer is winding down and my work on the novel is ramping up.

Not much to blog about this week. Instead you can click on over to the Review Review to read my review of december magazine. Another strong literary journal that covers a broad range of poetry, essay and fiction.

The Nephelai's Song

Czech designer, Kateřina Smolíková, captures the wonder of bioluminescent sealife in her breathtaking glass chandelier design -- to me, this looks like a wonderful design for a living spaceship!

The story I wrote for SFComet, The Nephelai's Song, is now available to read in English. 

SFComet is definitely worth keeping an eye on. Every month five writers are given a prompt and must write a short story in ten days. My prompt was  "echo from the future," and The Nephelai's Song is what I came up with. To date, all the stories are no longer than 2,500 words, but according to their home page they are upping the word count, so some longer stories will be on the way!

Check out their archives for more great science fiction stories!

Armadillocon 37 Report

First things first, one of my favorite flash fiction stories is currently up at the wonderful Flash Fiction Online. Even if you’ve already read it, be sure to stop by and check out all the other fabulous stories featured at this excellent venue!

I’ve spent this week resting up and catching up after a wonderful Armadillocon 37. This is a small literary con, which makes it extra friendly as you keep seeing the same faces at panels, readings, in the audiences, and passing each other in the hallways. The guests, James Morrow and Ken Liu, were super friendly and fun to talk with, which really set the tone for the weekend. The programming was excellent this year, and I had to make a lot of tough choices. Here’s what my con looked like.

THE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP

The Writers’ Workshop went well. We spent the morning in two in-depth panels (the topic varies every year).  First we discussed how to structure your work. Questions and comments covered works of all different lengths and types. Later we talked about how to go about assessing what you’re working on, with larger thoughts about managing projects and the writing life. Between these two panels, the workshop attendees broke out into small groups for a quick and quite entertaining writing exercise.

We broke out into our assigned critique groups for lunch, so that we could get to know each other a little better before diving into the critiques. Martha Wells and I had five bright new writers, all with interesting stories or first chapters. Even the newbies did well, both giving and taking critique like pros! Covering five manuscripts in three hours is a tad exhausting, but so rewarding.

Another big benefit for workshop participants is that they get so spend early Friday forming connections with their fellow workshop attendees, so they already have a couple dozen familiar faces going into the rest of the weekend.

I think the concom’s commitment to this workshop, which feels like an integral part of Armadillocon (and not just a tacked on event as it can at other cons), is one of the reasons that Armadillocon continues to have a well-deserved reputation as an excellent literary/writerly con.

THE PANELS

The hard part about being on programming is that I now have commitments, and can’t get around to see all the panels that are scheduled at the same time as the ones that I’m on!

I was a little nervous about my first panel, “The Work of James Morrow.” While I have loved everything of his that I’ve read, I have only read a fraction of his books! Luckily, I was in the company of some great minds such as Jacob Weisman, Chris Brown, and Claude Lalumiere. As with all good panels, it became a conversation that covered Morrow’s works and their universal themes of human nature, theology and philosophy. James Morrow and his wife attended the panel, and were darlings, heartily rooting our conversation on! It was a delightful hour and such a pleasure to meet the man whose works I’m so enjoying!

I attended the “Silkpunk: Asian themes and influences in SF/F” panel. Ken Liu, Jake Kerr, Wesley Chu, and Justin Landon among others discussed the use of Asian themes, and the nature of cultural difference between east and west as we might see it through genre literature. The take away was that we are all more alike then we might assume, though there are some interesting differences between story forms and the expression of common themes via fable and various mythologies.

Ken Liu also gave a fascinating talk about the nature of translating literature titled “Betrayal With Integrity: Conformance and Estrangement in Translating Chinese SF.” As the title suggests it was full of thinky thinks. As someone only tangentially interested in the nuts and bolts of translation, I was completely fascinated and gained insights that will forever change how I view translated texts.

I thoroughly enjoyed the panel I was on titled “How Would the Discovery of Alien Life Affect Us?” moderated by the lively Aaron de Orive, with William Ledbetter and Patrice Sarath among others. We discussed the effect of confirmed contact with alien life might have on international geopolitical scene, then tracked back to talk about the problem of recognizing alien life and communicating withbeings that may very well be unimaginably different from us.

Then it was on to an excellent panel on the hot button topic, “The Hugo Award’s Struggle for Relevance” expertly moderated by Michelle Muenzler, with Lou Antonelli, Justin Landon, Marguerite Reed and Jacob Weisman. This curated discussion about the Hugos, slate voting, and the Sad Puppies. The discussion was both passionate and illuminating.

Then I was up for “SF as a Survival Guide.” (Personally, it was more about me surviving in a conscious state for a 10:00 p.m. panel!) We discussed a variety of different apocalypses featured in popular media, including Zombies, nuclear war, and natural disasters. We also covered Kaiju  (e.g. Godzilla); stay out of urban centers was the take-away there. Long-term survival would look pretty pastoral, and we agreed that this might be part of the appeal of these kinds of stories – a chance to hit the reset button.

My last panel of the con was “Short Fiction You Should Have Read Last Year” with K. B. Rylander, Eugene Fischer and myself. After discussing our favorite stories, and stories that made a splash this year, we talked about great venues to find, read, and listen to great short fiction. I will post a list as soon as I locate my scrawled notes from Sunday morning.

MISCELLANY

I heard Patrick Sullivan read a fantasy story of magic, love and zoomorphic calligraphy. I also listened to a suspenseful excerpt from Patrice Sarath Bandit Girls novel.

Jacob Weisman, founder of Tachyon Press was back with his usual selection of great books. When not at panels or readings, I spent some time chatting with him in the buyers’ room. He's another very approachable pro with lots of good insight into the business. I love that Tachyon publishes short stand-alone novels (call them long novellas if you prefer), as that’s my favorite reading niche. I picked up Shambling Toward Hiroshima by James Morrow, and We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory. In the buyers room, I also finally got my hands on a copy of Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, a book I’ve been waiting to read for a while now. Hopefully, one day I’ll see her on ArmadilloCon’s guest roster!