2022 in Review & Awards Eligibility

Another year, not just come and gone, but survived and conquered! I only published 2-3 original stories in 2022, but I sold a lot of pieces (13 acceptances, including 7 reprints, 5 originals, and 1 that didn’t become a sale), so expect a bumper crop of short fiction from me in the next year or so. This year I only produced a couple of new stories, because a most of my time has gone into science, parenting, and the Cyborg Space Opera Cold War Spy Novel, which is currently at about 62k words.

If you’re just here to learn where to find me in the Decaying Social Media Hellscape, scroll on down to the bottom.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for some stories to enjoy, or reading for SFF awards, I’d love to share these 2022 publications with you!

Original Stories

1. A Start to Judgment – Kaleidotrope, September 2022 (epic fantasy, 1500 words). Guilt, self-recrimination, messing with Chosen One tropes. CW: suicidal ideation.
   • “Arsha plays the role expected of her, though she’s known for years how their rebellion will end.”
   • Reviewed by Maria Haskins and Sam Tomaino
2. The Successors – Shoreline of Infinity, December 2022 (science fiction, 1900 words). Immortality, death, robots grieving for humans.  One of my most neuroscience-inspired pieces, as detailed in the story notes.
   • “Sandarac knew he should call himself lucky to watch his human die and reawaken. Most androids never got a human at all, let alone the chance to lose one.”
   • If you can’t afford to buy the issue of SoI, contact me for a private copy of the story.
3. [Not Nebula-eligible in 2022]: A Living Planet – Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Jan/Feb 2022¹. First contact, loneliness. Based on the true story of being The Martian’s Husband.
   • “Be the sturdy rock of home, the planet’s solid ground awaiting her return.”
   • PDF version available here, other formats on private request

Reprints

1. Conference of the Birds – Dreamforge Anvil, Fall 2022 (science fiction, 3900 words). AI and distributed minds. Another one of my neuroscience-heavy pieces, I wrote a whole article about the underlying science.
   • “No program-layer could predict what a human might do, but Surveillance Hub could see everything that mattered.”
   • Original publication: Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Jan/Feb 2021
2. Eight Reasons You Are Alone – Flash Fiction Online, June 2022 (science fiction, 900 words). Conscience and self-definition.
   • “If I asked you what kind of person you are, you wouldn’t know the answer.”
   • Original publication: Nature Futures, November 2021
3. Machines in Motion – Holiday Leftovers anthology, B Cubed Press, December 2022 (steampunk, 4200 words). Grit, engineering, sacrifice.
   • “Eszter spent her first battle in breathless fear, not of some errant shell or cannonball, but of the engineers.”
   •  Original publication: Hybrid Fiction (defunct), Sep 2020.

Other Award Recommendations

If you’re nominating for the Hugo Awards, I hope you’ll consider Escape Pod for Best Semiprozine. We’ve put out a lot of great stories, and been at the vanguard of Escape Artists’ efforts to do right by our authors in every way we can.

Also, please consider our co-editors Mur Lafferty & Valerie Valdes (as a two-person team) for Best Editor Short Form!

Social Media

Twitter has been the writers’ mainstay for many years, but it’s currently undergoing… challenges. I’m still over there for the foreseeable future, but I’ve also staked out a presence on Mastodon and (to a lesser extent) Instagram. I technically have a Facebook page but it’s rarely active, mostly just updates. You can always check my Linktree page for secondary/new places that might arise. But the best way to keep up with news about my stories & science is via my mailing list, right there in the sidebar!

1. On bookshelves Dec 2021, which means it was Nebula eligible as a 2021 story