Shiny writer things!

Thing the first: A panel! On March 25, I’ll be participating in Storycrafting Sessions: Drafting, a free one-day virtual conference hosted by Weeknight Writers. I’ll be on the 5:30 p.m. EST panel, “Nailing the Ending: How To Write a Satisfying Story Conclusion.” There are some other great panels lined up as well, and did I mention registration is free?

Thing the second: A publication! Issue 6 of Weird Horror Magazine is out this month, and it includes my flash story “Dead Maiden Chic,” as well as some badass cover art, which Super Great insisted on showing off with the help of some friends:

Thing the third: A sale! My short story “The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen,” which was originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, will be appearing again in audio format thanks to the lovely folks at Cast of Wonders. Release date TBD. This story is close to my heart and, of all the stories I’ve written over the years, still one of my absolute favorites, so I’m happy to see it get more love.

Thing the fourth: All the novels! A few weeks ago I finished revisions on a fantasy novel that has now been tossed out to first readers so I can figure out what else needs tweaking. Tentatively titled Barren Water, it’s a bit of A Handmaid’s Tale blended with magic and an Old West-ish fantasy world. And now I’m outlining a horror/supernatural romance novel where an opera singer recovering from an onstage nervous breakdown takes a job housesitting an isolated beach home during the off season only to become entangled with a ghost and a cursed piano. This will be my first stab at a novel-length work set in the contemporary world rather than a secondary fantasy world, so all new challenges!

Miscellaneous Updatery

Oh, right, I have a blog. Hi, blog.

So what’s been happening since I’ve been gone?

For starters, two shiny short story sales!

My fantasy story “Ceiling Snakes and Slithering Saints” will be appearing in Mysterion later this month. Thrilled to be making my second appearance there.

And just announced, my story “Self Storage” is going to be included in the awesome-looking anthology In Somnio: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror, forthcoming from Tenebrous Press.

And that back burner novel idea I babbled about in my last post way back in February? It has been officially moved to the front burner since then. As in I am about 20,000 words into the novel now. After doing some research and preliminary worldbuilding, I decided to try out the Snowflake Method, which I’d read/heard a lot about but had never given it a whirl. Now I am why-wasn’t-I-doing-this-before levels of in love with it. It was fun! And I have an outline! There’s a plot! And I didn’t break my brain developing it!

Speaking of, I should probably be writing, huh?

Since I’ve been gone…

Is this thing on?

*blows dust off blog*

*coughs uncontrollably*

Yeah, so it’s been a while. W’sup?

Me, I’ve spent the last . . .

*checks date of last post*

*falls out of chair*

*picks self back up*

Three years, huh? Okay, since October 2017 . . .

I wrote only a small handful of short stories. More on that in a sec.

I sold some short stories, and I had some short stories published. Yay!

I finally finished the steampunk fantasy novel I began back in . . .

*checks notes*

*falls out of chair again*

*decides to just stay here on the floor*

2015, huh? Well, there’s a reason it took so long, and that reason is short stories. They are fun and shiny and I kept getting distracted by them. But probably around the same time I fell off the blogging map, I decided to give the novel my full focus so I could actually finish the darn thing. The result: I actually finished the darn thing. Go figure.

Short stories did happen, but as a breather between novel drafts. And more are happening now that I’ve moved on to the oh-so-fun agent querying part of the novel process.

That brings us to the present. November 2020. Which is, um . . .

Yeah, I’m just going to leave it at writerly things for now or else I might lose my desire to resurrect this blog. Please scream inside your hearts.