This is going to be a very quick post because I really want to finish revising a chapter of my novella this morning. So, two speedy, but exciting announcements!
I wrote about what it’s like to be an engineer at a vertical farm for a guest editorial in Asimov’s Magazine May/June 2024 issue! You can read it here. This is the first time my engineering career and my writing career have crossed paths.
“Waystation City” is on the Locus Awards Reading List and you can vote for it here until April 15th! This story was originally published in Uncanny Magazine and was picked up for podcast by LeVar Burton Reads last December. There’s so much great work on this list and I’m thrilled to have this story among them.
Okay, I’m heading back to my imaginary world. Have a wonderful Sunday!
One last post in 2023 to wrap up an exciting month of publishing news. I’m happy to share that a new short story is now up and free to read over at Lightspeed Magazine. It’s called “Mindfulness and the Machine” and it was one of the only things I was able to write in my first six months in NYC. I talk a little more about that in this essay and I also have an Author Spotlight interview to go along with the story.
My short fiction recommendation this time is a story from the same issue To The Waters and the Wild by Izzy Wasserstein.
I hope 2024 will be a safe, healthy year for you, and a little more joyful too. Happy New Year and as always, thank you for reading.
I’ve been sharing this news on social media this week, but am only now getting around to writing a blog post about it.
First, I’m thrilled to share that my story “Waystation City” is featured on the latest episode of LeVar Burton Reads! For those who aren’t familiar with this podcast, Mr. Burton handpicks and reads twelve different short stories every season. As someone who has been a longtime fan of the podcast and of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I was absolutely floored when I found out this story was selected for Season 12 of the show.
“Waystation City” was originally published in Uncanny Magazine earlier this year.
Second, I’m also happy to share that the essay I wrote for Locus Magazine’s special short fiction issue is now free to read online. It’s called “Writing Short Stories in the Margins“. It’s about how short stories were the perfect art form for me when I started writing and how that opportunity is under threat for newer writers. Unfortunately, many SFF magazines can still use some help staying afloat and if you’d like to do so, here’s a good list to start from.
I’ve fallen off the wagon with adding these to the end of my posts lately, but my short fiction recommendation this time is The Sound of Children Screaming by Rachael K. Jones. (Warning it’s seriously dark, but timely and potent. CW: Gun violence, child death, child endangerment.)
I wanted to put a quick post up today that I have a new essay online at Fantasy Magazine. It’s called “More Than A Journey” and it’s about storytelling that’s shaped by more than one character. I’m thrilled to have a piece in this magazine. I’ve adored Fantasy Magazine’s fiction and essays and I’m heartbroken that they are closing shop in October.
If you read or care about SFF short fiction, please subscribe to some magazines so that this doesn’t happen to others venues. Here’s a list of some you can support.
One last note, I made a mistake on my last post. I’ll be reading at Story Hour tomorrow, August 30th at 7pm PST, NOT Thursday.
I’m a few days late with this announcement, but I’m excited to share that I have a new story up in the Magic the Gathering universe called “Battles in the Fields and in the Mind.” It’s a side story to the main March of the March storyline and I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to return to Zendikar and continue Nahiri, Akiri, Kaza and Orah’s story, as well as get to know Linvala and Tazri. It’s a grim tale, but it does offer a spark of light.
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:
An essay published!
I’m teaching an online class and registration is open!
Two of my stories made the Locus Recommendation Reading List!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.”
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo/Slate. Photos by Ruben Hanssen/Unsplash, Ravi Sharma/Unsplash, Brandon Green/Unsplash
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“
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!
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.
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.
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.
Curiosity Sometimes Pays Off 