Tag: writing

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!

Post Clarion West

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General RamblingsLeave a comment

As promised, I’ve tried to gather my initial thoughts about my experience at Clarion West this summer. I’ve been home for about a week now, but I don’t feel like I’m back quite yet. I don’t quite have the words.

All week people have been asking me, “How was it?” My answers have been short: It was fun. A lot of work. Completely exhausting. There were so many cool and talented people.

Blanket statements, I know. But writing workshops are a very individual experience. They are the sum of little moments; inside jokes, small victories, instances of crushing self doubt, moments of growth. Though we were all part of the same class, if you asked each of us what the last six weeks were like, you’d get 18 different answers.

Another popular question has been, “Was it worth it?”

For me, yes. I learned tons from listening to other writers’ talk about their viewpoints and methods. I loved the exchange of stories – the ones we wrote for class and the ones we told around the dinner table. I discovered some blind spots in my critiquing skills and was floored by how supportive and generous people in the community are. I wrote six new stories in six weeks despite being a slow writer. Best of all, I met some stunningly talented people that I hope to be friends with for a long time to come.

Was Clarion West necessary for my writing career? Probably not. Was it life changing? I have no idea. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

Yeah, it’s hard to describe.

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!

“A Place to Grow” is Live at Beneath Ceaseless Skies!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing Updates1 Comment

I’m happy to announce that my story “A Place to Grow” is now free to read at Beneath Ceaseless Skies!

I’m pretty excited about this one. It was a huge technical challenge for me and took many, many drafts to get right. I’m not exaggerating when I say it took years for me to learn how to pull this story off. (I think I wrote the opening paragraph back in December 2013?) I’m extremely grateful to my very patient friends and very patient editor who help me through the iterations.

The song I played on repeat as I was writing and revising this story was “Outro” by M83. Because, naturally, my characters needed an epic soundtrack as they were trying to rebuild the world around them.

Hope you enjoy!

Clarion West and Upcoming Publications

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings1 Comment

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.

2016 Year End Post

On By A. T. GreenblattIn General Ramblings1 Comment

Even in the best of times, these types of posts are always awkward for me to write. And 2016 has been a rough year on many different fronts. It feels a bit selfish to be posting this today (especially today) in the wake of all that’s happening in the world.

But terrible global events shouldn’t negate our small triumphs. So we fight on.

In terms of writing, 2016…hasn’t been bad to me. I had three short stories I’m proud of published in markets I really loved. These stories are:

They Said the Desert – Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 2016

A Non-Hero’s Guide to the Road of Monsters – Mothership Zeta, May 2016

Dido, Retold – Strange Horizons, September 2016

And as if that wasn’t awesome enough, “A Non-Hero’s Guide to the Road of Monsters” is going to be reprinted in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017. How cool is that?!!!!

horton-yearsbest2017-cover

(Here’s the full Table of Contents.)

I’m hoping to post a “Fiction I Loved This Year” compilation here soon. Maybe in a few weeks, when I’ve caught up a bit on my “To Be Read” pile.

Special thanks to all my friends who offered encouragement, read rough drafts, and just listened when I was frustrated. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Story Sale to Mothership Zeta!

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

Hey, so you know this post I made a while ago? Yeah, I figured out how the story ended. And made that “placeholder” title the “real” title. Also, sold it to Mothership Zeta!

So, I’m beyond thrilled. One of my biggest worries when writing this was how will I find a home for it? It’s way too light and silly for most short story magazines. But I loved my character’s voice, so I wrote it anyway. After sending it out a few times and getting rejections that said “Good story, but not a good fit for us” I was worried I was right.

But then this brand new magazine called Mothership Zeta came along looking for fun, trope-bending stories and well, you can figure out how it went from there.

So I guess my point is write what you want. There will always be new markets and anthology calls. The universe is expanding and it has a way of making room for our stories.

A Non-Hero’s Guide to the Road of Monsters will appear in Mothership Zeta’s Issue #3 in March, 2016.

And It’s Live! Voices in Solitude at Daily Science Fiction

On By A. T. GreenblattIn Publishing UpdatesLeave a comment

Yay! Daily Science Fiction has emailed Voices in Solitude out to subscribers today! This is my second time appearing at DSF and being a long time reader of the magazine, I’m thrilled.

For those of you who aren’t subscribed to DSF you can find the story posted here.

If you want to know which song was my soundtrack as I wrote this story, you can find it here.

Apologizes for my lack of response on social media today. I’m currently traveling abroad and my email is being less than helpful. Also, I’m relying on WiFi. Also, I’m having too much fun wandering around the city to bother checking my devices regularly.

Regardless, hope you enjoyed the story!