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.
I’m writing this tonight from my desk in my living room/office while eating dinner. It’s been that sort of weekend. Not bad, but gone too quickly. My desk sits in front of a window and from it I can see the people in the apartments across the street, in their kitchens or dining room or hybrid spaces like mine. I know they can see me too.
Do neighbors in NYC wave to each other? Or do we politely pretend we don’t have windows into each other’s lives?
I was going to talk about my writing this week, but honestly, works-in-progress are not very interesting to talk about because it’s usually the same update week after week: Still writing and still revising. So I’ll just say that one delightful surprise was getting the Long List Anthology, Volume 8 in the mail! This has my story “Questions Asked in the Belly of the World” as well as many other amazing pieces published in 2021. As a reader, I alway really enjoyed this anthology series.
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!
Things have been quiet on this blog for a while, but then again, life has been fairly quiet since I started quarantining mid-March. I’ve been writing. Slowly. But I’ve also been taking time to take care of myself. (Lots of walks, yoga, good cooking, and books.)
Which is all to say, that I do have some news to share today. I’m excited to say I have a story in the Weird Dream Society anthology! What’s particularly exciting about this project is that it’s a charity anthology benefiting RAICES. And it’s available for pre-order right now. It contains many, many amazing writers and benefits a fantastic organization. It also has a reprint of my story “They Said the Desert” with was originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies!
That’s it for now. I hope you are all safe and healthy and finding some time to do the things you love.
It’s that time of year again where writers and readers start looking back at what’s been published in the last 12 months. I think I say this every year, but I really mean it this time: 2019 was an INCREDIBLE year for me in terms of publishing. I had 6 short stories come out in professional markets and my first nonfiction essay, as well as a handful of reprints.
Here’s the list. Some stories have an audio version too. They can be found at the link.
The lakeside painter is lying, but no one seems to care.
It’s a beautiful lie, even Elodie will admit that. There are two lovers on the pier with the painter, sitting for their portrait, and she’s honest about the way the light of the setting sun catches their hair, the way the breeze ripples their clothes, how they lean into each other. She gets so many details right that even Elodie doesn’t notice what’s missing at first.
I lost my favorite fingers as I was walking to the library. Spotting it first from the corner of my eye, I glanced down. A gasp seized up in my throat. Instead of the long, beautiful, expertly manicured prosthetics that Sonya made me, there were ten empty nubs. And the grief I’d been carrying these last few months grew heavier
Team Work – Fireside Magazine (with an audio version available) – 1,000 words.
I was never an amazing Super. I only joined the team because I wanted to be with people like me. I never thought I’d, you know, try to save anyone.
So, my first bit of exciting news is that my story “Heavy Lifting” is going to be republished in Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year Vol. 4! This story first appeared in Uncanny’s Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction and it’s quite dear to me. It was also my attempt to learn how to write better science fiction stories, since I naturally gravitate towards fantasy.
Second, I’ll be attending the International Conference of Fine Arts (ICFA) again this year. I’m excited and looking forward to meeting new and old friends there. Also, I’m going to be reading with some awesome people!
Schedule: Author Reading 9 – Thursday March 14th – 4:15pm-5:45pm
Hosted by Mimi Mondal. Authors are Sarah Pinsker, Julie C. Day, A. T. Greenblatt, and Jean Lorrah.
If you’re going to be at ICFA, please feel free to come say hi!
So, I have two bits of publishing news to share with you today.
First, Uncanny has accepted my story “Before the World Crumbles Away” for publication! I’m so excited this story has found such a great home and this will be my third (!) fiction publication in Uncanny.
Second, the anthology, Women Up to No Good, which contains my story “Five Meters Ahead, Two Centuries Away” is now available for pre-order, which you can get for Kobo or on Amazon.
So basically, it’s been a good time for stories that have titles that ends in “Away”. Maybe I should title more stories that way.
As soon as I heard that there was going to be a Disabled People Destroy anthology series last summer, I started plotting.
If you’re not familiar with the Destroy project, it’s a series that started with Women Destroy Science Fiction when critics said that woman writers were ruining the genre. Since then, there’s been Queers Destroy Science Fiction and People of Color Destroy Science Fiction (As well as Destroy Fantasy and Destroy Horror editions). Everyone working on these anthologies, from the writers to the interviewers to the editors, are part of the marginalized group of that particular anthology. Most of the characters in Destroy stories are too, because the idea behind this series is not so much to destroy, but to normalize narratives that have often been left out (or worse, badly handled) in the genre.
Disabled People Destroy was a project I’d hoped to be part of for a very long time.
So, I’m pleased to announce my story “Heavy Lifting” is now free to read online. It took me many drafts and much pacing and wringing of hands to get this story right. But it’s important to me to create disabled characters who are well balanced, otherwise healthy, and are perfectly willing to go on an adventure.
Sort of like me.
I always write to music. Strangely enough, I never found the perfect song to be the soundtrack of the story while I was writing it, but settled on “Shadow Preachers” by Zella Day because of deadlines. Also, I liked the song.
Hope you enjoy!
P.S. My personal essay for the Disabled Destroy series is also free to read here.
So I’m home from my adventures in Seattle. I’ll have a post up about my Clarion West experience tomorrow, but first, I wanted to point to a Kickstarter that’s happening right now and a contributing essay that I wrote for it.
Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction is a continuation of an anthology series focused on underrepresented authors and characters in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Previously, there have been Destroy anthologies for women, people of color, and queers and they’ve all been excellent. Now it’s time for disabled artists to destroy stereotypes in speculative fiction too. Here’s my personal essay on why disability representation in fiction is important.
Okay, so that’s one big piece of news. My other exciting announcement is that my story “Graffiti Guardians” will be published in Mythic Delirium! I believe it’s going to be in Issue 4.4, but I will post an update when I know for certain.
That’s all for tonight. Post-workshop thoughts to follow shortly!
As usual, I’ve been neglecting this blog again, so as usual, I’m cramming several good news announcements into one post.
The biggest announcement is that I’ve been accepted into Clarion West’s Class of 2017! For those of you who are not familiar with the program, Clarion West is a six week writing workshop in Seattle for speculative fiction writers. Each week is taught by a different writer or editor who’s established in the field. This year the instructors are Daryl Gregory, Kij Johnson, John Chu, Connie Willis, Daniel Jose Older, and Pat Cadigan. Every week students are expected to write a new story and only 18 students are accepted into the program every year.
I am SO. EXCITED. I’ve been hoping to have the opportunity to go to one of the Clarion workshops since high school.
Okay, so I’m also thrilled to announce that two stories of mine have been accepted for publication! The first of which is called “Five Meters Ahead, Two Centuries Away” which has found a home in Upper Rubber Boot’s Broad Knowlegde: 35 Women Up to No Good anthology. The second is a flash fiction piece titled “Listen and You’ll Hear Us Speak” which has been accepted by Flash Fiction Online (one of my favorite flash fiction markets!) I’m not sure when these pieces will be out yet, but I’ll update the “Publications” page when I know.
Lastly and on the topic of stories coming out, “A Place to Grow” will be live in Issue #225 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies next week! Of course, if you’d like to read it RIGHT NOW you can get a copy of the issue here. This time, I’m sharing a Table of Contents with the fabulous Caroline M. Yoachim and her heart-wrenching story “Carnival Nine.” (Seriously, go read it.)
That’s it for now! I’m planning on having a short post about “A Place to Grow” up in a few days.
Curiosity Sometimes Pays Off 