Tag: news

Story Live at Podcastle and New Story Sale

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

Brr, it’s cold out there. Actually, I shouldn’t be complaining because from where I sit, it’s only freezing and not the extreme subzero temperatures that other parts of the country are dealing with today. But it’s an excuse to stay inside and write a blog post.

Well, actually my reason for writing this is that I have more writing news.

First, in my previous post, I mentioned that Podcastle – the fantasy fiction podcast – was going to be narrating my story “A Place to Grow”. That podcast is now live and you can listen to it here! They did a fantastic job with the story!

My second piece of news is that I had another story accepted by Clarkesworld Magazine! (Yes, two acceptances in a month. Yes, I’m still stunned.) It’s called “Give the Family My Love” and I believe it’s coming out very soon. I’ll do my customary companion post here when the story is published and available to read online.

Honestly, I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve had so much good news in the last few weeks.

That’s all for now. For those of you in winter climates, stay warm. For those of you who aren’t, enjoy the sun for us.

Parsec Award Nomination!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings1 Comment

Earlier this year, “A Non-Hero’s Guide to the Road of Monster” was narrated and podcasted by Podcastle. Earlier this week, I found out this episode has been nominated for the Parsec Award in the category of Best Speculative Fiction: Short Form!

The Parsec Award was first started in 2006 to honor Speculative Fiction Podcasting. Every year fans submit their nominations and from them, a steering committee chooses the finalists. Then, a panel of judges chooses the winner.

I’m so excited that this story has been nominated! Special thanks to Khaalidah Muhammed-Ali and Jen R. Albert, the editors of Podcastle and the narrator, Mike Flinchum.

It’s uncertain when winners will be announced, but I’ll keep you posted! (The pun, of course, is intended.)

“Heavy Lifting” Now Live in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

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.

Publishing Updates, Fundraisers, and Readercon!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

In my typical fashion, I have neglected this blog and so I’ve had a few announcement pile up since my last post.

Publishing

  • The contract has been signed so I can officially announce that my story “Heavy Lifting” will be published in Uncanny Magazine‘s special issue of Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! It’s scheduled to come out in the September/October issue.
  • I also had a story accepted by Fireside Magazine! This is my first story to appear in this magazine and I’m so thrilled. Not sure when it’s scheduled to be published yet, but I will update the blog when I know.
  • Lastly, my story “And Yet” published by Uncanny Magazine back in March has been translated into Chinese by Science Fiction World. This is my first translation and I’m told this is one of the most read science fiction magazines in the world!

Fundraisers

  • Clarion West – the workshop I was fortunate enough to attend last year – is running its annual writing challenge to support current and future students. I’ve signed up and am looking for sponsors. If you’d like to read about my goals and the rewards I’m offering sponsors, here’s the information.
  • And if we hit our sponsorship goal, my class is doing a joint project with the prompt “Mars is Burning”.
  • Woman Up to No Good is an anthology project that has a current for funding. It’ll have my story “Five Meters Ahead, Two Centuries Away”.  Check it out here.

Readercon

This is just to say I will be at the conference this year. Feel free to come say hi!

And that’s it! Until next time, lovely readers.

New Story: “Graffiti Guardians” in Mythic Delirium

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I’m very pleased say that “Graffiti Guardians” is now available to read in Mythic Delirium’s 20th anniversary edition!

I wrote this story a few years ago when I was feeling hopeless about writing and wondering if it was worth all the time and energy I was pouring into it. This story was a reminder to myself that art is important, unexpected, and unpredictable. And I hope that if you’re facing similar struggles now, it will encourage you of that too.

Soundtrack: I wrote this story to Sharon Van Etten’s “Serpents” on loop.

Thanks for reading!

“And Yet” Now Live at Uncanny Magazine!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing Updates1 Comment

I’m so excited that my story “And Yet” is now up and free to read at Uncanny Magazine! This is a story I care deeply about, though it’s not personal. I’ve never been to a haunted house and my parents have always been super supportive. But it’s important to me because I want there to be more disabled characters in fiction that aren’t viewed through the lens of their disability. Who are individuals, first and foremost.

Also, I’ve been having a lot of fun lately bending time in my stories and I love having protagonists that are problem solvers to the core.

This story started its life as my week 2 Clarion West story while Kij Johnson was teaching. It was also revised frantically this fall while I was house hunting. I can now say from experience that you probably shouldn’t work on a haunted house story while trying to pick out your next home. It just adds another weird layer of stress to the process.

As always, I listened to one song on loop while I wrote and revised this piece. So thanks Woodkid for “Land of All”

Hope you enjoy the story!

ETA: Oh, I was also interviewed up at Uncanny Magazine where I talk about the story and other things with Caroline M. Yoachim!

ConFusion Schedule 2018

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

Happy New Year!

In a few weeks, I’m heading to ConFusion in Detroit, MI. It’ll be my first time at this convention and I’m excited for it! The literary programing team was kind enough to include me on some panels. I also have a reading with the fabulous Marissa Lingen and Izzy Wasserstein.

Here’s my schedule:

11am Saturday Charlevoix – Using Real Scientific History To Enhance Fantasy World-Building
Secondary-world fantasies often draw on an ahistoric view of the past, intermingling technological, scientific, and social advancements that span thousands of years in the real world. The effect is quasi-medieval societies that are in some ways anachronistically modern, but in many ways far less advanced than the real-world cultures on which they’re based. Let’s talk about the real science and technology of the world’s post-classical eras and how we can use the real history of science and technology to build deeper and more interesting worlds.

4pm Saturday Charlevoix – Reading
A. T. Greenblatt, Marissa Lingen, Izzy Wasserstein

5pm Saturday St. Clair – Autograph Session (5 PM)
Come meet your favorite authors, artists and musicians and have them sign things! (Please limit your signing requests to 3 items per person.)

12pm Sunday Interlochen – The Setting As Character
In Science Fiction and Fantasy, settings can literally come alive–be it via the talking flowers of Through The Looking Glass or the rage of Peter Quill’s creepy dad-planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. In Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch universe where ships have minds, main characters can be both people and places at the same time. Are living settings a science fiction/fantasy extension of the classic “Hero Vs. Nature” story? How do they exist in conversation with real-world beliefs about whether the world around us has a will of its own?

2pm Sunday Charlevoix – A Novel Look at the Short Story
Short stories require a different approach to pacing, character, world-building, exposition, and plot than longer works. Let’s explore the tools we use to convey important information to the reader when we have a lot fewer words to do it with.

If you’re coming to ConFusion this year, I hope you’ll stop by at one of these panels and/or the reading and say hello.

Year End Eligibility Post 2017

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings, Publishing Updates2 Comments

So it’s that time of year again, where some of us are trying to catch up on the stories that we’ve missed in the last 12 months. As it happens, I’ve had two stories come out in 2017 that I’m quite proud of.

The first is “A Place to Grow” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

“She knew what the rational decision was. She understood that letting this world go was the safer choice.

But.

There was a small, insistent part of her that wouldn’t let her give up so easily.”

The second is “Listen and You’ll Hear Us Speak” in Flash Fiction Online.

‘“I have what you’ve lost,” you whisper in my ear when I serve you your drink, all sugar, all lies. “We’re going to be good friends.”’

I’m also looking for recommendations! What have you read this year that you’ve enjoyed?

New Story is Up at Flash Fiction Online

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing Updates1 Comment

Won’t lie, publication days are awesome. Technically, “Listen and You’ll Hear Us Speak” went live yesterday, but I was too brain fried last night to be trusted with stringing words together into coherent sentences. So here we are.

This very short story was an experiment to see if I could weave two parallel story lines with two separate points of view into a cohesive whole in a thousand words. I think it worked.

The song that was on repeat while I was writing/revising this story was “My Medea” by Vienna Teng.

Hope you enjoy!

Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction and Other News

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

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!