Tag: fiction

Notebook that has "Year End Review" written on it. Pen is leaning on the notebook and a full coffee mug besides it. On a dark wood background

2025 Year End Eligibility Post

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings1 Comment

What a difficult year. We’ll leave it at that.

But I wrote a TON and I am incredibly proud of what was published this year and what is going to come out next year. (Some of which I can’t announce yet.)

Here’s what came out this year.

The Short Stories

In the Shells of Broken Things – Clarkesworld Magazine – June 2025

“Get your hands dirty. The motto of anyone who grew up in the Evergreen Dome, which included my grandparents, my parents, my great aunts and uncles, and all of their friends. When I was a teen, I threatened to have those words tattooed over the backs of my hands and never leave the house. A hollow threat—I’d always been restless.”

Cover of June 2025 Issue of Clarkesworld Magazine
– Short Story -7,000 words

Adventures on the Omega Train at Night – Sunday Morning Transport – April 2025

“Plenty of people navigate the night trains regularly—but you need to have the right constitution for it, a good head on your shoulders, and a firm internal compass to not get lost for days or weeks. Or sometimes, longer.“

– Short Story – 3,600 words

The Wanting – Night & Day Anthology edited by Ellen Datlow – September, 2025

“There was plenty of debris in the road, trash, broken glass everywhere, and other undefinable objects littered about, some of them stretched beyond recognition like old taffy. Shapeless lumps of people twitched under blankets on the sidewalks.“

– Short Story – 2,800 words

The Novelette

View Window – Strange Horizons – June 2025

“In the driftwood and flotsam of his once carefully assembled life, Oliver decided to move in the city. Which was to say, leave his apartment.“

Strange Horizons kickstarter banner. Face in a black background with white stripes over tops
– Novelette – 9,900 words

The Essay

Accessibility Toolkit for When Things Go Wrong – Uncanny Magazine – January 2025

“I’m writing this essay because in recent years, I’ve noticed a gap between accessibility plans and what happens when that plan doesn’t play out as expected.“

Cover of Uncanny Magazine Issue 62
– Essay – 1,600 words

If you’re still here, at the end of this post, thank you! I hope your end of 2025 is full of good things and good company.

May 2026 treat you well.

Cover of June 2025 Issue of Clarkesworld Magazine

New Story: “In the Shells of Broken Things” at Clarkesworld!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

Time has been a strange and warped lens these last few years. I didn’t realize it until finished this story and I looked at my submission history that I hadn’t sent a story to Clarkesworld in four years. In my mind, it had only been a year or two.

Which is all to say, I’m so thrilled to have a story published in Clarkesworld Magazine again! This one is called “In the Shells of Broken Things” and it took me a while to get it right. It was one of those stories where I didn’t know what it wanted to be for many drafts. But oh man, when the story finally came together, it was one of those moments that make writing worth all the work.

I based the protagonist disability on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID, neither of which I have. So, I needed to do a bunch of research for this story and get some sensitivity readers to go over it. I also got feedback from a friend dealing with a long term injury who gave me suggestions for emotional beats.

My point is, even when you have a disability, you still have to do the work to get it right in your art.

My soundtrack for this story was “Be On Your Way” by Daughter. (Yes, I have my favorite writing bands.)

And if you’d like to check out some stories about characters with ME/CFS/Long COVID by writers with ME/CFS/Long COVID, I recommend:

Hope you enjoy the story!

Black and white paper cutout of a rocket ship in a sea of stars.

New Story: “Adventures on the Omega Train at Night” at Sunday Morning Transport

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

It’s been a few months since I updated this blog, but that’s about to change. I’ve been writing a ton recently and this is the first of a series of stories that are coming out in the next few weeks in a variety of places.

As of this morning, “Adventures on the Omega Train at Night” is now live over at Sunday Morning Transport. You’ll need to sign up to read it, but this is a link for a free 60-day access to the magazine. https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/smt2024

This was a fun story to write – the seed of the idea came to me when my friend and I were trying to get home after an event in Manhattan and the train went express midway through the trip. And I said “Well that’s we get for taking the train after 10pm, you can never guess where you’ll end up.”

I’m trying not to write too many stories inspired by NYC, but this one wouldn’t leave me alone. So many of the little details are pulled from real life and places as well as the awful comments from strangers. (Which, fortunately, didn’t happened all in one night.)

My soundtrack for this story was “Things Behind Things Behind Things” by Bon Iver.

Enjoy!

P.S. My story recommendation this time is Butterfly Pavilion by G. Willow WIlson

Award Eligibility Post 2024 and Looking Forward

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings2 Comments

I’m sitting in my Brooklyn apartment, watching the remaining snow drip off the buildings. It’s a good metaphor for an in-between state. For transitions. Going back over my year-end post from last year, I described 2023 as a rollercoaster. There was definitely some of ups and downs in 2024, but I think this year was more about waiting. Waiting to see if a major expansion of a short story to a novella would work as I rewrote it one chapter at a time. Waiting to see if my engineering company would right itself and stabilize after a year of extreme uncertainty. Waiting to see how the US election would shake out.

I don’t want to talk about the election. I’m cleaning up my novella as we speak and my company ended up collapsing in the beginning of November, leaving me unemployed for the first time in my career. Which is an uncomfortable feeling, but I have been writing more than ever, and that has been a wonderful gift.

Not too many of my stories came out this year, but that’s how publishing shakes out sometimes. (By comparison 2025 is shaping up to be a windfall.) But in terms of writing, it was a good year. I taught some online classes for Clarion West, was on some fun panels at conventions, and staffed at the Alpha’s Workshop for Young Writers over the summer. I wrote a guest editorial for Asimov’s and for the first time, a story of mine was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award!

Anyway, these are the stories that were published this year and I would love if you gave them a read!

The Stories

If it were not for the stowaway, the soul retrieval would have been as easy as dreaming. Mika would go to her grave swearing this. (“Stealing, not retrieval,” Burt countered. “Let’s call it what it is.”)

– Short story, 6,800 words

There’s no one else on this unassuming highway, level for miles, hiding nothing among the wide flat boulders and bent grassland. But you know emptiness is sometimes an illusion, especially on this lick of road. Your knuckles are white on the steering wheel as you wait. For God knows what.

-Short story, 4,100 words

Upcoming in 2025

I have a growing list of works and events coming out or occurring in 2025. There’s a few things where the contracts have been signed, but I can’t announce them yet. Here’s what I can share:

  • Essay: Accessibility Toolkit For When Things Go Wrong – Uncanny Magazine, January 2025
  • Novelette: View Window – Strange Horizons – Summer 2025
  • Online Class: How to Get Unstuck with A. T. Greenblatt – Clarion West Online – April 5th, 2025 (open to enrollment now!)

If you’re still here, at the end of this post, thank you! I hope you have a wonderful New Years and, as always, thank you for reading!

Readercon 2024 and Event at Pandemonium

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

I’m so excited to be going to Readercon in person again this year! As I’ve said in the past, it’s one of my favorite conventions. But what makes this year noteworthy is that on Sunday, July 14th, I’ll be doing a special panel at Pandemonium Bookstore with John Wiswell, Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch, and Max Gladstone! (How cool is that?)

Here’s my Readercon schedule:

The Pandemonium Book store event is totally separate from Readercon and is open to everyone. It’s at 6:30pm on Sunday, July 14th. We’ll be having a Readercon-like panel, which basically means we’ll be geeking out about books and story craft for an hour. More information for that can be found here.

As always, I hope to see you at one of these events. Or if you run into me in the hallway or at the bookstore, please don’t hesitate to say hi.

My short story recommendation this time is The Spindle of Necessity by B. Pladek over at Strange Horizons!

New Story “Between Home and a House on Fire”

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

Technically, this came out yesterday, but yesterday I was busy. Fortunately, the story hasn’t changed since then.

Thrilled to share that “Between Home and a House on Fire” is now published on Reactor (formally Tor.com

This is a special one to me. It’s about the strange complexity of emotions you have as look back at your past self. It was originally based off a failed Choose Your Own Adventure style flash piece I tried a few years ago, but it became much more in the reshaping and combination of other ideas.

I’m very grateful to Jonathan Strahan and the Tor.com team for giving this one a good home.

My soundtrack for this story was “The Fall” by Gregory Alan Isakov

New Story: “A Black Spot Among the Chaos” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies!

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I’m excited to share that a new story is now online and free to read. It’s called “A Black Spot Among the Chaos” and it’s part of Beneath Ceaseless Skies’ science fantasy issue.

For those who don’t know, BCS is a fantasy magazine that specializes in stories set in imagined worlds (what’s often called secondary world fantasy). But every two years, they put out a special double issue of stories that blend science fiction, fantasy, and that other worldliness. Back in 2022, they published my story “A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised” which was a huge experiment in voice and complexity.

This time around, I took some of the core set pieces of “A Record of Our Meeting” – space ships, spirits/faeries, and jumbled, chaotic places and challenged myself to write a story where everything in that world went sour, including the characters. It was also my first time attempting an omniscient-like point of view, which was quite a learning curve for me. It took a couple of drafts to get this story right.

My writing soundtrack through the drafts was Eluvium’s Phantasia Telephonics, which always felt a little too hopeful for the story’s mood, but whatever, it worked. The process of creating a story on a blank page is still a mystery to me, even after all these years.

As always, if you like this story and want to support myself and other writers, please consider subscribing or sending a few dollars to Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

My short story recommendation also comes from this issue: “Doctor Souvenir” by Elly Bangs.

Hope you enjoy!

New Class Available at the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers!

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This is the first of two posts coming this weekend. Also, the first of a series of posts about writing related news over the next few weeks.

I’m excited to share that I’ll be teaching a new class on Oct 14th, 2023 called “Hitting the Road: How to Send Your Characters on a Road Trip.” It will be about 2 hours long and will be held online. There will also be a recorded version available if the timing doesn’t work for you. There’s also scholarships for students.

This is a completely new class for me and while I’ve taught a few classes for Clarion West Online and this summer at the Alpha Writing Workshop for Teens, this will be my first time teaching at The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers. I love journey stories (if you couldn’t tell from my work) and if you do too, I hope you consider signing up for the class!

New Essay Up at Fantasy Magazine

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

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.

Correction: Reading at Story Hour on 8/30!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

Update: Reading is on Wednesday, 8/30 NOT Thursday 8/31

I hope this blog post finds you well and that these summer months (in the northern hemisphere, at least) has been kind to. you.

It has been an incredible busy season for me. I’ve been working on several writing projects such as a story for this anthology and an essay that is going to be posted online at Fantasy Magazine later this week. I also attended Readercon in July and Fourth Street Fantasy in June. And this year, I was lucky enough to be asked to be a staffer at the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers.

So, yes, I’m both surprised it’s the end of August and also not.

But before the month closes out, I do have one more event. I’ll be doing a live reading this coming Wednesday, August 30th at 7 pm PST for Story Hour! I’ll be reading alongside Jean-Paul Garnier and we will each be sharing a short story. This event will be livestreamed for free over on Zoom and Facebook Live.

Hope you can make it!