Category: Publishing Updates

Where the latest publishing news can be found.

Overdue Post: Essays, Classes, and Recommended Reading Lists

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings, Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I posted and I definitely should have put together a few blog posts for these announcements instead of lumping it all into one. But it’s been a busy few weeks and I’d rather spend the rest of the day working on fiction rather than writing blog posts, so here we go…

In the last few weeks, I’ve had:

  1. An essay published!
  2. I’m teaching an online class and registration is open!
  3. Two of my stories made the Locus Recommendation Reading List!

1. “The Magic of the Right Story” – New Essay in Uncanny Magazine

I’ve been experimenting recently with writing more essays and I’m excited to share that “The Magic of the Right Story” is now free to read on Uncanny’s website

This is a personal one – written over a few months while I struggled to get back into writing again after upending my life. It explores what makes a story resonate both as a reader and a writer.

2. Clarion West Online Class – “How to Write Emotionally Engaging Characters in Short Fiction” – April 15th, 2023

Back by popular demand, I’m teaching this class again for Clarion West Online. It’s an hour and a half lecture with some tips, tools, and tricks for making the characters you’ve made up really come alive for readers in a short story.

Clarion West also has a whole host of other cool online classes too.

3. My stories are on the 2022 Locus Recommend Reading List!

Every year Locus Magazine publishes a list of all the books and stories that reviewers have enjoyed throughout the year. And from that long list, the finalists are chosen for the Locus Awards. I’m thrilled that two of my stories are on that list this year: “A Record of Our Meeting With the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised” and “If We Make It Through this Alive”

If you’d like to vote for either of those stories or any others on this excellent list, you can do that here.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this – My short story recommendation the week is “Clay” Isabel J. Kim over at Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Story to Be Reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy, Vol 2!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

So, I took a break last week and didn’t post on this blog. And by “take a break” I mean I took some time to wander the city and do some fun things. Then, I used the remaining hours of the weekend to finish revisions on a story I owe. Which, if it all works out, should be available to read sometime in February or March 2023!

I’m such a party animal.

But I do have some news I can talk about publicly this week. I’m excited to share that my story “A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised” is going to be reprinted in Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Anthology! This story was originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and in terms of structure and voice, it’s one of the most ambitions pieces I’ve attempted to date. So I’m thrilled it has been chosen!

The full list of stories in the anthology can be found here. I’ll share the release date of the book when I know when it is.

Short Story Recommendation of the Week: We, the Enchanted Castle by Mae Juniper Stokes over at Strange Horizons.

Year End Eligibility Post 2022 and Where Else to Find Me

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings, Publishing Updates1 Comment

It’s that time of year again and I’m not talking about the holidays, though I’m excited for American Thanksgiving next week. (Four day weekend and homemade cranberry sauce!) Award season for the science fiction, fantasy, and horror community has begun, and it’s good practice to post a year end round up of your work and where to find it.

Also, since Twitter seems on the verge of collapse, I thought I’d mention that you can find me on Mastodon at @atgreenblatt@wandering.shop.

Also, I’m hoping to post on this blog weekly.

Okay, onto the stories. It’s been a bit of a rocky year for me in terms of writing, but three stories of mine were published and in some excellent venues.

A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised

Published March 2022 in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 7,600 words (novelette)

“It should be noted here, at the beginning of the record, that the decision to invite such an esteemed and unknowable entity was not made lightly nor without a great deal of heated debate among the crew. [Addition: Upon reflection, Pilot Uma and Navigator Wilson conducted most of the debate and, ultimately, made the decision. The events that followed could have perhaps been avoided had they sought wider counsel.] However, it was agreed by all that the potential results were worth the risk. The crew was eager to

Cover art. Astronaut like explorers in foreground, giants in the distance
Ancient Ones by Jose Borges

If We Make It Through This Alive

Published January 2022 in Slate Magazine. 7,000 words (short story)

“The open road is just potholes and misery, but Sabrina loves it anyway. Not that she has anything against the national train system, trains are great. But it’s the challenge, the potential to rebuild everything, that has her doing final checks on Gran’s old Jeep at the starting line of the Great American Road Race.

Not that Gran would’ve recognized her beloved car.”

Cover art. Tricked out Jeep with solar panels
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo/Slate. Photos by Ruben Hanssen/Unsplash, Ravi Sharma/Unsplash, Brandon Green/Unsplash

The Music of a New Path

Published June 2022 in the Bridge to Elsewhere Anthology. 4,000 words (short story)

“Tessa rubbed her face. Click, click went her teeth, but now, her only accompaniment was the ship’s deep hum. The junkyard man had warned her she was on borrowed time with The Castaway when she’d bought it, but there was something, something that Tessa couldn’t quite name, that whispered, Don’t give up on the ship. Not yet“

Cover of Bridge to Elseware

That’s it! What have you read this year that you’ve loved? Have you published something that you’re proud of? Please feel free to leave a comment!

New Story “A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised” at Beneath Ceaseless Skies!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

I’m a little late to posting about this new story because my life has been a bit insane. A little over a month ago I accepted a new engineering position and now, a handful of weeks later, I’m sitting in an apartment in Brooklyn with my laptop and other essentials, but with most of my belongings in storage.

I’m still reeling from all the changes, but I’m also excited.

But right before I decided to upend my life, I wrote this story. I created it very quickly – when I was extremely tired and my exercise schedule was messed up (hence my writing productivity was also messed up.) I wanted to tell a time-looping story, but I all my initial ideas feel too much like Groundhog Day. The idea of revisions and how a story can change over time has always fascinated me. How you can redirect a story by adding little details here or reframing a moment there. So I decided to try that on an extreme scale with this story.

“A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Possibilities, Revised” is one of the most difficult stories I have ever written.

At some point, I wasn’t even sure it made sense to anyone but myself – that’s how zoomed in I was to each sentence and every worldbuilding detail. I couldn’t see the larger picture anymore. So I’m eternally grateful to Beneath Ceaseless Skies editor Scott Andrews and my beta readers for their help on this one.

I figured a time-looping story needed a looping song as its soundtrack, so I was listening to Zoë Keating “Possible” on repeat as I wrote and rewrote this story.

Hope you enjoy this science-fantasy story!

New Story: “If We Make It Through This Alive” Up at Future Tense Fiction

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New story days are the best days. And I’m thrilled to say that my story “If We Make It Through This Alive” is now free to read over at Slate.com’s Future Tense!

I’m so excited to share this story with the world! It’s about a road race across America in a climate-wrecked future where the highway system has been abandoned and trains are the main mode of transportation. I’ve been working on this piece for several months now and it was definitely a challenge to keep it in the short-story word range. There’s a wonderful companion essay to the story “How Heeding Disabled People Can Help Everyone Survive a Crisis” by Damien P. Williams.

This story has several point-of-view characters, each with her own history and goals. One of the biggest challenges was to make sure each character had a chance to tell her piece of the story and to make sure she came alive against the backdrop of where she came from. So, it made sense for Sabrina, Jody, and Fern to have their own theme songs while I was writing this story.

For Sabrina, the song was “Artificial Nocturne” by Metric. For Jody, it was “I Need My Girl” by The National. And for Fern, it was “No Lights, No Lights” by Florence + The Machine.

As always, I hope you enjoy the story and the essay!

It’s 2022 and Things are Happening

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings, Publishing Updates1 Comment

Is it too late to still be wishing everyone Happy New Year? I think January 19th is riding that edge, but since this my first post of the 2022, I feel like I can get away with it. So anyway, Happy New Year! May 2022 be full of happiness, success, and relaxation for you. Because what’s the point in welcoming a new year if not to hope for something a little better than the year before?

Anyway, the end of 2021 was crazy busy for me – full of projects I couldn’t talk about yet. I still can’t talk about a few of them, but I share a few things.

First off, I have a story coming out later this month in Future Tense Fiction! The theme was the future of transportation, so I reimagined the Great American Road Trip. It was a fun project to work on.

If all goes to plan, I’ll have another story out in February in one of my favorite magazines, but the details are still being worked out for that.

In addition, I have two stories coming out in two different anthology projects. The first of which is Bridge to Elsewhere by Outland Entertainment which is to be released in June. This anthology is all about spaceships and their crews. The second one is Luxcon Anthology with speculative stories based or inspired by Luxembourg. The anthology should be coming out in spring or summer 2022.

Lastly, I’m going to be teaching another class for Clarion West Online this spring. It’s called “Persisting as a Short Story Writer” and it’ll be held on April 10th, at 1pm PST. Spots are still available if you’re interested.

I’m not sure what my conference schedule looks like for this year yet. Honestly, any and all travel plans I had for 2022 are being reevaluated in the face of this never ending pandemic.

More news to come soon!

New Story: “The Stop After the Last Station” in Uncanny Magazine!

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I’m excited to announce I have a new piece published in the November/December 2021 issue of Uncanny Magazine! It’s called “The Stop After the Last Station” and I still can’t believe I got away with writing this story. I always try to do something new with every story I write and in this case the experiment was “Can I tell a story that in reverse?” It took me a while to get this story right. If you’re curious, I chat about the process with Lynne Thomas over on Uncanny’s podcast.

Also, as a warning, 75% of my upcoming stories have a train or trolley in them. I don’t know why this is my current obsession, but it is.

My soundtrack for this story was “Georgia” by Phoebe Bridgers.

Hope you enjoy!

New Story: “Questions Asked In the Belly of The World” Published at Tor.com!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

Dear S—-,

I need you to keep me honest. In the next story I write I’m not allowed to use my favorite props, i.e. body-less voices, ghosts, and characters whose lives revolve around making things. Bonus points if no one gets eaten.

In the meantime, I’ve created a monster.

This was an email I sent to my friends in November 2015 when I asked them to read a very early and very rough draft of this story. It was only a shadow of what this story would become, but I knew even then that there was something in it worth telling.

I’m very pleased to announce that that first draft became “Questions Asked in the Belly of the World” and it is now live and free to read over at Tor.com.

This is a story that took me five years to get right, partly because it was outside my skill level to tell until recently and partly because it took me a while to figure out what the story was actually about. It is one of the strangest stories I’ve ever written and one of my most ambitious ones to date.

My writing soundtrack to this story was “Arsonist’s Lullaby” by Hozier.

Hope you enjoy my monster!

New Essay Published at AAPD

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing Updates1 Comment

Hello Friends!

This is simply a quick post to say that I have a new essay published on the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) blog. It’s called “A Million and One Different Ways to Find Your Artistic Voice” because apparently, I have a thing for long titles.

Here’s the description.

A. T. Greenblatt, a Nebula Award winning writer and mechanical engineer in Philadelphia, shares insights into her own journey in finding her artistic voice. Her essay includes plenty of nuggets for other disabled creatives about perseverance, introspection, and community, each important parts of the journey towards finding a unique voice as an artist. Greenblatt also shares about her internal dialogue over disabled characters in her writing and what meaningful representation means

AAPD Newsletter

I had fun writing this essay and hope it’s helpful!

New Story: “The Family in the Adit” in Nightmare Magazine!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

I’m happy to announce my first horror story is now live in Nightmare Magazine! It’s called “The Family in the Adit“. I’ve never written horror successfully before and this was an experiment in stretching my abilities as a writer. I’m quite pleased with the result. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the history or the process of creating this story, because I do that here.

The song I used as a soundtrack for this story was “Tell Mama” by The Civil Wars.

Hope you enjoy the story!