Comings and Goings – Late May & Early June 2022

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

I can’t remember when I posted here last and honestly, I’m a little too lazy right now to check, but I think it’s been a while. I’m slowly getting used to living in a new city. Or at least getting a little less lost, which is nice. I’m really enjoying the springtime greenery and looking forward to summer.

Speaking of upcoming things, I will be at the virtual Nebula Convention next weekend (May 19th-May 22nd). I also have a virtual reading at NYRSF on June 7th. Here’s the information for both:

At the Nebulas, I’ll be on two panels:

The Future of Disability Representation – May 20th at 3pm PST – with Effie Seiberg, Andi C. Buchanan, Nicola Griffith, A. T. Greenblatt, and Nalini Haynes

Description: Writers with disabilities prop up excellent examples of representation, discuss how to overcome harmful tropes and stereotypes, and explore, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the future of portraying disability in SFF.

The Second Person and You – May 22nd at 10:30am – P H Lee, Suzan Palumbo, Lauren Ring, Eden Royce, and A. T. Greenblatt

Description: The second person is often regarded as difficult, complex, or experimental. But it doesn’t need to be! Explore how your work could benefit from this technique with authors who have intentionally and successfully written from this perspective.

My second event is an author reading at the NYRSF series. It will be streamed on the internet free for all on June 7th at 7pm!

Hope to see you virtually!

Where I’ll Be (Virtually) April 9th and 10th!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention Sightings, General RamblingsLeave a comment

Hope this post finds you all healthy and safe. I’m going to keep this quick today because I’m not feeling well and am quite tired, but I wanted to let you know that I have some exciting things going on next weekend. And it will all be online!

  1. First up, I’ll be on a panel at Luxcon 2022. Troubling Tropes: Depicting Disability – Saturday at 9:00am ET
  2. Next, I have a reading at Flights of Foundry. Reading – 10:00am-11:00am EST in The Eyre. (Note: An hour is a long time to read, so I probably read for 20-30 minutes and host a kaffeeklatsch-like Q&A the rest of the time.)
  3. Lastly, I’ll be teaching a class for Clarion West Online called “Persisting as a Short Story Writer” from 4:00pm-5:00pm. Here’s the details. There’s still a few spots available!

Hope to see you (virtually) next weekend!

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!

Worldcon 2021 Schedule

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

I’ve been under deadlines for the last few weeks and I’m only just getting to this post now. I’m literally sitting in the hotel lobby as I write this. Which is to say I’ll be at Discon III (aka WorldCon 2021) this weekend! In person! I’m excited to see people in real life again.

Here’s my schedule:

Thursday, Dec 16th, 11:30 AM  –  Kaffeeklatsch with A. T. Greenblatt – Suite 325 Side Room              
Thursday, Dec 16th, 1:00 PM  – Signing – A.T. Greenblatt – Autograph 3  

Friday, Dec 17th, 7:00 PM – Panel –  Writing Short Fiction – Blue Room

Saturday, Dec 18th, 10:00 AM – Panel –  Story Structures Besides the Hero’s Journey – Older
Saturday, Dec 18th, 4:00 PM  –  Panel –  Why Do We Love Novellas and Novelettes? – Cabinet Room  
Saturday, Dec 18th, 8:00 PM –    Hugo Award Ceremonies!        

The Hugo will be streamed on Saturday night and I’ll update this post with the link when I have it.

In the meantime, please feel free to come say hello to me if you are at the convention. Apologies in advance – I’m terrible with faces in the best of times, so if I don’t recognize you, it’s not personal.
               

Year End Eligibility Post 2021

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I’m not sure what happened to 2021. Where 2020 seemed to drag on and on, 2021 flew by. I suspect the pandemic has truly warped my sense of time. It’s a little frightening.

In terms of writing though, 2021 was another amazing year. I had one novelette, four short stories, and one essay published. One of my stories from last year was a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards. My work has been translated into a half dozen different languages, including Klingon. I got an agent and I taught my first writing related class.

I’m still stunned to be honest.

Anyway, if you’re catching up on reading from 2021, here’s my work that came out this year:

1. Questions Asked in the Belly of the World

  • Published in Tor.com – September 29, 2021
  • 9,000 words
Cover Art by Rebekka Dunlap

2. The Stop After the Last Station

  • Published in Uncanny Magazine – Issue 43, November/December 2021
  • 3,000 words
  • Audio version at the link
Cover Art by Grace P. Fong

3. The Family in the Adit

  • Published in Nightmare Magazine – Issue 103, April 2021
  • 3,000 words
  • Audio version at the link
Cover Art by Alexandra Petruk

4. RE: Bubble 476

  • Published in Asimov’s – March/April 2021
  • 5,100 words
Cover Art by NASA

5. The Memory of a Memory is a Spirit

  • Published in Lightspeed Magazine – Issue 129, February 2021
  • 4,000 words
Cover Art by Grandfailure

6. Essay: A Million And One Different Ways to Find Your Artistic Voice

  • Published by AAPD
  • 1,000 words

That’s what I have for 2021. What have you read and loved this year? I’m always looks for recommendations.

Happy reading!

Bridge to Elsewhere Anthology Kickstarter

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As I write this, it’s almost the weekend and I’m settling in for a few days of story revisions and writing related work. I have a handful of stories coming out in 2022 if all goes well – two that are finished and accepted, one that I’m revising this weekend, and one that is only a few opening sentences in my notebook. (That last one is a problem child.)

However, one of the two finished stories is going to be in the Bridge to Elsewhere anthology, edited by Julia Rios and Alana Joli Abbott, published by Outland Entertainment. The anthology is centered around space exploration and daring crews. My story “The Music of a New Path” is about an AI ship that changes course without warning, while the crew races to figure out why before it’s too late. It was fun to write!

The project is currently running a Kickstarter and the list of authors included for this project is amazing. Please consider supporting the anthology here.

That’s it for now. I’ll be posting my year end eligibility post at some point this weekend. Probably.

In any case, thanks for reading and I hope you are staying safe and happy wherever you are.

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

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

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!