Writer
Hi. I wrote a new book, in a new series, and I can’t wait for you to read it!
THE MISFIT & THE BEAST is a gripping, emotionally charged contemporary teen romance about first love, high school theater, and the courage to break the rules, be true to yourself, and follow your heart, no matter what.
Pre-order your copy today and take advantage of the special prices!
Out on June 21, 2023 (the first day of summer).
Flash stories are very short — under 1500 words. Since many of my short stories grow into novelettes lately (7,500 – 17,000 words), writing flash is a challenge. So I’m especially thrilled that two flash stories of mine got recently published!
Both stories are dark science fiction and set in outer space. If you have a chance to read them, I hope you enjoy! Free to read online, but please support the magazines if you can. Thank you!
This weekend (July 29-31) I attended my first Confluence in Pittsburgh, and I’m so glad I did!
Confluence is a small but incredibly fun, welcoming & inspiring conference that brings together writers, editors, readers & fans of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It’s organized by Parsec, Pittsburgh’s speculative fiction organization, and I highly recommend it. I had a blast.
Here are some highlights.
Writing can get lonely, and I haven’t been to any writerly event since the pandemic started, so the biggest highlight of the conference for me was the people (isn’t it always?).
I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to catch up with old friends, see some of my Twitter friends face to face for the first time, and make new friends & connections. (I wish I remembered to take more photos!)
It was lovely to finally meet Susan Kaye Quinn, a scientist-turned-science-fiction-writer like myself, and my long-time inspiration and role model in the indie publishing world. Like Susan, I crave and try to write science fiction that’s hopeful & optimistic, at least to some degree, including solarpunk. After all, science fiction can do more than identify problems and warn of dangers ahead. It’s also a laboratory for ideas and a testing ground for solutions. (In my excitement, I forgot to take a photo with Susan. Next time!)
It was also terrific to hang out with my writer friend Marie Vibbert; to talk short fiction with Scott H. Andrews (editor of Beneath Ceaseless Skies), Neil Clarke (editor of Clarkesworld), and Charlie Oberndorf; to swap novels with Shannon Eichorn (I can’t wait to read Rights of Use); to chat about the writing life with Herb Kauderer; to play board games with Michelle Steiner and Mowgli Assor, both librarians extraordinaire; and to meet so many other amazing writers, editors, publishers, and fans.
Another highlight of the conference was the programming. Lots of fun & informative sessions to attend! But don’t take my word for it – see for yourself. The full Confluence 2022 schedule can be found here.
I had the pleasure of moderating two panels (with thanks to the Confluence organizers for trusting me with the job!):
Finally, I participated in “Your Story’s First Five Pages” writing workshop taught by Scott H. Andrews, and it was excellent! A lecture on short-fiction craft from a long-time editor is always a treat, but we also submitted, read, and discussed each other’s work (the first five pages of a short story, as the name of the workshop suggests). Thank you, Scott! The workshop was super helpful. Now to apply it to my own short fiction…
In conclusion, I can’t wait for Confluence 2023!
I am thrilled that the 2022 Clarion West workshop is back in person, and a new cohort of writers gets to travel to Seattle and write, read & discuss speculative short fiction for 6 weeks. Congratulations & best wishes to all of them!
And to celebrate, I’m participating in the online Clarion West Write-a-Thon again. Both to get some serious writing done and to help to fundraise for the future Clarion West workshops.
My goal for this Write-a-Thon is to make progress on my current writing projects. That’s all. These projects include my neuroscience-inspired thriller and a handful of short stories, since I always juggle multiple manuscripts. Anything counts: words added to the manuscript, notes in a notebook, tweaks to an outline.
In addition, every day, I will feature a different speculative short fiction magazine, with links to their website and to their listing on the Submission Grinder.
There are so many excellent magazines out there, publishing amazing flash, short stories, novelettes, and novellas, that I decided to highlight only the newer, smaller ones. The order is random. (I literally wrote down the magazine names on pieces of paper and drew one name for each day.)
I won’t lie: it feels presumptuous to be writing this post, even if I don’t mention “award eligibility.”
I have been writing and self-publishing for five years, but in many ways I’m still finding my voice and learning the ropes. It’s definitely not a quick or easy journey!
But, in the spirit of treating my fiction writing as a career as well as a passion, I want to get in the habit of reflecting on what I accomplished in terms of both writing and publishing, and use it to set better goals for the future.
So here is my 2021 in review, divided into three categories:
My first series bundle collects the first 3 books in my YA near-future science fiction series about extreme racing and bionic tech: SAND RUNNER (Book 1), CAGE RUNNER (Book 2), and GHOST RUNNER (Book 3). Published in February 2021 exclusively on Kobo (for now).
Science fiction flash fiction (995 words) published in Fifth Di… in June 2021.
Science fiction/ biopunk short story (1350 words) published in Hyphen Punk in June 2021. (The POV character, Mira, briefly appears in SAND RUNNER.)
Science fiction novelette (9950 words) inspired by neuroscience research on therapeutic effects of acupuncture — meshed with lab politics, secret romance, and irreverent humor. Published in Aphelion in November 2021.
Paranormal/ dark fantasy romance with a twist (short story, 1475 words) posted on Wattpad and my website in October 2021.
LitRPG portal fantasy (short story, 2075 words) posted on Wattpad and my website in November 2021.
Dark fantasy about the writing process (flash, 960 words) posted on Wattpad and my website in November 2021.
Paranormal love story (11,500 words) published on Amazon (for now) in November 2021.
This is a new series and a new genre for me: contemporary romance without any speculative elements. Romance is all about characters and relationships, so my goal is to both expand my range and strengthen my craft.
Book 1 in the series is complete at 106,000 words. I am also 68,000 words into Book 2. My plan is to write 3 books in this series and edit them together, and then publish all 3 on a rapid-release schedule. I am also writing some tie-in short fiction to gift to my readers.
Here are the two main characters, Ana and Cory, as I imagine them. (Artwork made with Artbreeder.)
Same plan as above. Book 1 is finished (at about 80,000 words), but I want to write books 2 & 3 as well, edit them together, and publish the whole trilogy on a rapid-release schedule. It requires a lot of patience, but I believe it will be worth it.
Currently on hold with a market I really love (fingers crossed).
Lately, all my short fiction grows to novelette length. No regrets in this case, though, even if it might be harder to publish. I am very fond of the characters, and I hope my readers will enjoy them too.
This post is getting too long, so I’ll only mention 2 things here, not to torture you, kind souls who are reading it.
I had an author newsletter before, but I’ve neglected it to the point of almost murdering the poor thing.
But an email list is still considered a key marketing asset, and I subscribe to a lot of author and writing-related newsletters myself and enjoy them. So I finally got over my resistance and reanimated Vera Brook’s newsletter in 2021.
You are welcome to sign up for it here: http://eepurl.com/cTQmKD! 🙂
I loved, loved, loved participating in the Clarion West Write-A-Thon 2021, to support their amazing Clarion West speculative fiction workshop & other events. Participants set their own goals, write alongside the Seattle workshop participants, and help raise funds for future workshops.
In addition to a daily writing goal and a fundraising goal, I pledged to read a short story a day. You can see a partial list of the amazing short stories I read, with links to where you can read them as well, on my website. I also included some writing & publishing resources. I hope you will find them useful.
And that’s all she wrote! I’ll tackle my writing & publishing goals for 2022 in a separate post.
Thank you for reading, and all the best in 2022!
This story haunted me for a few years before I figured out how to tell it. I can’t wait to share it with readers.
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Here is a teaser for THE KISS.
In the dark, without the unfamiliar face to confuse her, the embrace was achingly familiar. Every inch of her body responded to it. But how was that possible? A stranger held her. They’d never met before. Unless…
