Tag: science 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!

Schedule for Capclave 2023

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Convention SightingsLeave a comment

As promised, here’s the second post of the weekend. I’ll be at Capclave on Sept. 29th – Oct 1st. As always, I’m so excited and it’ll be wonderful to meet up with old friends and make new ones.

Here’s my schedule:

  • Rejections Happen – Saturday, Sept 30th @ 10am EST
    • The life of a writer involves hearing many variations of the word “no.” Rejection comes with the territory but that does not make it easier to experience. Panelists discuss coping with rejection, how to continue writing through them, and what you can learn from receiving a no.
    • Panelists: A. T. Greenblatt, Ef Deal, Nate Hoffelder, R. Z. Held, Scott Edelman
  • Author Reading: A.T. Greenblatt – Saturday, Sept 30th @ 12pm EST
    • Don’t know what I’ll read yet. Open to suggestions.
  • Friendships in Science Fiction and Fantasy – Sunday, Sept 30th @ 10am EST
  • Writing Through Adversity – Sunday, Sept 30th @ 11:30am EST
    • Writing is hard enough but writers are also full human beings dealing with obstacles that can make it difficult to maintain a creative practice. From financial and family responsibilities to chronic pain and other mental and physical challenges, panelists talk openly about coping with daily pressures that often interfere with one’s writing life
    • Panelists:  A. T. Greenblatt, R. Z. Held, Samantha Katz, Sarah Avery, Scott Edelman

If you’re going to be at Capclave this year, please come say hi!

The Speculative Fiction Ecosystem

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings1 Comment

I’ve talked about this before, in person and on this blog, and I’m absolutely not the first person to say this, but short fiction is incredibly important to the health of the speculative fiction industry. It is where writers get to explore, experiment, and often get their first publication credits. Which in turn makes them more confident about joining and engaging with the community. Essentially short fiction has been the germination place for many of our favorite writers’ careers. Short stories are also available to readers all around the world because most SFF magazines are free to read online, reaching an audience who might not have access to books. It’s where the conversation in genre is happening in real time, because short fiction is published within months, not years, as it for novels. As Kij Johnson once said “the science fiction and fantasy genre is always in conversation with itself.”

Except, even in the best of times, most magazines barely have enough funds to keep running. According to Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld Magazine less than 10% of readers subscribe to most online magazines. Scott Andrews of Beneath Ceaseless Skies says “Percentage of BCS readers in 2022 who supported the zine financially (subscribers & donors & Patreon supporters) was 0.7%. 99.3% did not. (For anyone who’d like to support us, we would be grateful! Here’s the BCS Patreon that only 0.7% of readers support the magazine.”

These are not the best of times.

A few months ago, Amazon announced that it will be ending it’s Kindle Newsstand Service, and switching to a Spotify-like model of payment. Meaning that publishers will only get a fraction of the income they were once making through the service. Jason Sanford has an excellent and full write up about it here. This doesn’t include the slow, but steady collapse of Twitter, which is how many magazines, writers, and readers talked about and boosted stories they love. Or the influx of AI written stories, which has bogged down editors.

I have been writing short speculative fiction for over ten years now, and have seen several ups and downs in the industry, but this time I’m worried that many beloved venues might close, leaving holes in the industry that will be difficult to fill.

Short fiction is a major component in the foundation of science fiction and fantasy fiction ecosystem and one that desperately needs any support we can give it. So, if you’re able, please consider supporting one or more of these magazines. Listed in no particular order:

Again, if you like my work, please consider buying a subscription or donating a few dollars to one of these publications. Most of them have published my work at some point. More importantly, they have published the work of hundreds of other writers as well.

My short fiction recommendation for the week is Crown Prince by Melissa Mead over at Cast of Wonders. Mead was a prolific short story writer, who like me, had cerebral palsy too. She died far too young in February 2022 and this story has been published posthumously with permission from her family.

Year End Eligibility Post 2022 and Where Else to Find Me

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings, Publishing Updates1 Comment

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.

A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised

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

Cover art. Astronaut like explorers in foreground, giants in the distance
Ancient Ones by Jose Borges

If We Make It Through This Alive

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.”

Cover art. Tricked out Jeep with solar panels
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo/Slate. Photos by Ruben Hanssen/Unsplash, Ravi Sharma/Unsplash, Brandon Green/Unsplash

The Music of a New Path

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“

Cover of Bridge to Elseware

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!

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!

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

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

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.