It’s that writerly tradition: the year-end post! I don’t always make one, but I usually wish I had. This year I received the gift of an unexpected day off from work and I’m going to make the most of it! 2017 short fiction from me, which I hope you’ll kindly consider when making your award nominations: “Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies: a bleak and difficult start to the year, even more than usual for my work. This story doesn’t make it easy for the reader. “Dinners in Wartime”, Liminal: this one’s also quite bleak, inspired by the suicide of someone I cared about. Trigger warning, friends; I don’t know if this story’s emotional payload will hit you the way it hit me to write, but please take care of yourselves. “Yellowcat”, Grain Magazine: not actually available to read online so you’ll have to trust me on how fantastic it is! “Le lundi de la matraque (Nightstick Monday)”, Strange Horizons: Immortal screwup Gus Hillyard returns in this story of a violent moment in Canadian history. Gus is always willing to take up someone else’s fight, and not always able to tease out who’s right or […]
Unveiled!
Tenea D. Johnson and Steve Berman have announced the table of contents for Heiresses of Russ 2013, and guess what…I’m in it. “Harrowing Emily” by Megan Arkenberg“Reality Girl” by Richard Bowes“The Witch Sea” by Sara Diemer“Saint Louis 1990” by Jewelle Gomez“Narrative Only” by Kate Harrad“Nightfall in the Scent Garden” by Claire Humphrey“Elm” by Jamie Killen“Beneath Impossible Circumstances” by Andrea Kneeland“One True Love” by Malinda Lo“Winter Scheming” by Brit Mandelo“Feed Me the Bones of Our Saints” by Alex Dally McFarlane“Nine Days Seven Tears” by JL Merrow“Oracle Gretel” by Julia Rios“Otherwise” by Nisi Shawl“Chang’e Dashes from the Moon” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew“Astrophilia” by Carrie Vaughn“Barnstormers” by Wendy Wagner I was also really happy to note that last one, Wendy Wagner’s “Barnstormers”, which first appeared in Ideomancer. (I was the slush reader who caught that one–for some reason this always makes me feel extra-pleased when the story goes on to do well!) Strange Horizons makes a great showing, too: several of these stories first appeared there, including mine, plus work by editors Brit Mandelo and Julia Rios made the list. I’m proud to appear in this company. Go here to look at the cover! […]
2012 in Review
Some statistics from the writing trenches this year: Rejections nearly tripled vs previous years. Not an accident–submissions also nearly tripled. Acceptances dropped, with no new pro sales in this calendar year–only reprints. Of course I feel less than happy about that, but I see it as a result of a strategic change I made: I focused on my novels in the early part of the year, and didn’t finish any new stories until quite late in the year (and still haven’t finished the final drafts of a couple of them). I now have a nice crop of things that are ready, or almost ready, to submit in the new year. I got to see my work reprinted in not one but two print anthologies, which was pretty exciting–I now have two lovely paperbacks on my desk, between bookends which are optimistically huge and heavy, built to bracket a whole lot more books. I remain less prolific than I would like, and too easily derailed by life events. My goals for 2013 include constructing a writing plan that will hold steady not only in the weeks where everything is golden, but in the weeks where I have a three-day migraine, a […]
Best Canadian Speculative Writing
Imaginarium 2012 is coming to bookstores in July! I’m pretty excited about this–I’ve never been in a Year’s Best Anything before, and holy mackerel, look at the other names on that table of contents. David Nickle! Amal El-Mohtar! Gemma Files! Cory Doctorow! Peter Watts! A great day for Ideomancer all round: honourable mentions also went to Ian Donald Keeling’s Ideomancer story, “Broken”, and to publisher Leah Bobet’s “Stay”. I also find it strange and hilarious that both of the anthologies I’ve been in this year have cover images featuring a face with an eye full of binary code: […]
Story Hat Trick
I remember saying to my husband, while writing “Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot“, that no one other than me would ever want to read this story*. Then I sold it. Then I sold it again. Then I discovered that Ellen Datlow gave it an honourable mention in Best Horror of the Year #4. You know what? Now I’m going to finish writing all the other stories that I was sure no one would want to read. *He reads all of them anyway. That’s one of many reasons why he’s my husband. […]