Category: Publications

Reprint Double : Cruise Control

“Why the hell would I want to become a car?”

My short story Cruise Control is on the road again for reprints, twice in the last few weeks! You can find it online in the February 2023 issue of Flash Fiction Online, and Elijah Lucian has put together a great little audio version. It originally appeared in Fireside Magazine in 2021, but I’m excited to get it in front of new eyes and ears.

A bleak little tale of family resentments, retiree brains, and (in) self-driving cars. If you want to learn more about it – including the underlying neuroscience – check out my story notes from the original publication.

Publication: The Work-Clock

My gaslamp fantasy short story, “The Work-Clock,” is out today in Sunday Morning Transport!

This is the story of Apprentice Inspector Zek, who just wants to keep his job fixing the air-conditioning runes in the industrialized prison for the Evil One. Excuse me, the for-profit industrialized prison for the Evil One.

Funny thing. The world would bleed and die without an apprentice inspector to keep the Temple Works running, but didn’t mean the job paid well.

The story is free to read, but you can also get a free 60-day subscription to the Sunday Morning Transport here. Check it out, and consider supporting all the fine sources of short speculative fiction out there!

More story notes below the fold, will contain spoilers.

Continue reading Publication: The Work-Clock

Reprint: Machines in Motion

Late breaking 2022 reprint! The anthology Holiday Leftovers anthology (B Cubed Press) is out today with my short story Machines
in Motion. It originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of the now-defunct magazine Hybrid Fiction. I’m delighted that my gritty little tale is back online where the world can read it. Get yourself a copy, and support the
small presses that keep SFF publishing alive & scrappy!

This story is not about your Christmas-style holidays. It is about Shabbat, the weekly Jewish holiday of rest. But it has a dark and intimate angle on Shabbat, and on having the grit to do the work we choose, for better or for worse.

Also steampunk military fiction, because hell yes I write what I want.

Eszter spent her first battle in breathless fear, not of some errant shell or cannonball, but of the engineers.

For further story notes, check out Machines in Motion’s original publication post!

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!

Publication: The Successors

My science fiction short story “The Successors” is out today in Shoreline of Infinity 33!

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.

A short story about grief, and transformation. About the impossibility of human immortality, and what the AIs will do after we’re gone.

This is one of my most neuroscience-inspired stories. The explanation isn’t very spoilery: it only “spoils” the premise, which is fully spelled out in the first page or two. Nevertheless, I’ve hidden the details under the fold just in case.

Please consider supporting all the fine magazines that bring excellent short fiction to the world, and buy a digital or paper copy today!

Continue reading Publication: The Successors

Publication: A Start to Judgment

They think she can do anything. They're almost right. Her voice can destroy anyone but the two people who deserve it.My fantasy short story “A Start to Judgment” is free to read today in the Summer 2022 issue of Kaleidotrope!

Story content warnings: suicidal ideation, self-harm.

“A Start to Judgment” is a full-scale epic fantasy: preparation for the Final Battle against the malevolent god, the two-pronged waging of the Final Battle, and the face-to-face confrontation between hero and god. All packed into 1500 words (3-5 pages)!

Epic fantasy confrontation is a familiar trope. But how will it unfold differently if the Chosen One knows that her power comes from the very thing she is trying to overthrow?

Arsha plays the role expected of her, though she’s known for years how their rebellion will end. She thought she could endure one last survey of her knights and archers and footmen before the final battle, but the guilt still cracks her insides like a pickaxe. The free people of the world have placed their faith in her, the Chosen One. Tomorrow she’ll face the Flensed Lord and betray them all.

As always, support those fine websites that bring you so much free fiction!

Spoilery notes below the fold. Go read the story first, it won’t take you long!

Continue reading Publication: A Start to Judgment

Reprint: Eight Reasons You Are Alone

My science fiction story “Eight Reasons You Are Alone” was reprinted today in Flash Fiction Online! If you missed it when it first appeared in Nature Futures last year, here’s your chance to read my dark little story about sitting with the consequences of what you’ve done. You’ll have plenty of time to think, when there’s nobody left to talk to.

Flash Fiction Online has made the piece free to read. But as always, consider subscribing to the websites & magazines that bring you the free short fiction you love!

1. Haste.
Ceres Shipyard had enough emergency shuttles for almost everyone. But because of you, none of that mattered.

Short Story Sale: “Sufficiency”

Sale announcement: my science fiction short story “Sufficiency” will appear in Lightspeed Magazine! Publication date unknown, but sometime in the next 24 months.

A quiet little piece about needing to put down your living (plant) car. A little hopeful climate future, and a little bit of grappling with the American mythology of independence.

Jill wiped xylem from her gloves and closed her car’s leafy hood. She’d kept Snapdragon on the road for almost twenty years, and if the world would leave her alone, she could keep him alive for five more easy.

Publication: A Living Planet

My short story “A Living Planet” came out today in the Jan/Feb 2022 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact! This is my long-awaited “Martian’s Husband” story, inspired by my time at home during my wife’s year on Mars.

The spacecraft Hawai’iloa has fallen silent, halfway to Mars. Ethan’s wife is up there, receding and unreachable. But he still has a boss to win over, a job to keep. There’s nothing glamorous about his spot on the mission control team of an uncrewed orbital-cleanup spacecraft, but Ethan needs that simplicity. It keeps his eyes on the solid Earth and everything that might keep him sane, instead of raised to the emptiness above.

He’s waiting for word from space. But the Hawai’iloa might not be the only thing up there trying to contact Earth.

Despite the Jan/Feb 2022 cover date, the issue is available now in bookstores and online, though subscriptions may take a few more weeks to reach your mailbox. You can subscribe to Analog in print or electronic, buy the current issue from Amazon, email Analog (customerservice @ pennypublications.com) to buy copies of individual issues, or find them in your local bookstore. Download a pdf of the story here.

An electronic version is available to SFWA members on the internal forum, or by direct request. The electronic version will go public here once the story leaves exclusivity in February 2022.

Story notes will appear are now up on the Astounding Analog Companion blog!

2021 in Review & Awards Eligibility

2021 is coming to a close. It’s been a wild year by any metric, but I’ve brought you all here today not for annual angst, but to look back on my publications in the past year. I’ve published 6-7 short stories (four pro, two semi-pro), and sold three; wrote up two interesting bits of nonfiction; and sent my AI Cold War novel out on query.

Whether you’re looking for some stories to enjoy, or reading for SFF awards, I’d love to share these 2021 publications with you!

Short Fiction

  1. I Would – Fantasy Magazine, July 2021 (secondary world fantasy, 5600 words). A reverse heroic fantasy. About prophesied relationships, prophesied breakups, and using what power you have when someone else is the hero. If you want to read just one piece of mine this year (for award nominations or otherwise), this is the one I’d recommend!
  2. Conference of the Birds – Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Jan/Feb 20211 (science fiction, 3900 words). AI and distributed minds. My most neuroscience-informed 2021 piece.
    • “No program-layer could predict what a human might do, but Surveillance Hub could see everything that mattered.”
    • Reprints forthcoming in Dreamforge Anvil and Speculatief (Dutch)
  3. Memories of Fire – Translunar Travelers Lounge, April 2021 (contemporary fantasy noir, 4400 words). Jewish mythology, the 2011 Libyan revolution, and the tyrants of Heaven and Earth. This one still moves me, and I wish more people read it.
    • “I finally got my smoke. I enjoy them for the ritual, not the nicotine. A little fire, a brand-new drop of ash, the same little destruction every time.”
  4. Cruise Control – Fireside Fiction, July 2021 (science fiction, 1100 words). Unhappy families, retiree brains, and self-driving cars.
  5. The Promise of Iron – Kaleidotrope, September 2021 (steampunk, 5900 words). Hungarian Jews in a nineteenth century upended by steampunktech.
    • “Food and money are a greater fortune than the sight of machines, she told herself.”
    • Reprint forthcoming in War Torn anthology (Shacklebound Books)
  6. Eight Reasons You Are Alone – Nature Futures, November 2021 (science fiction, 900 words). Conscience and self-definition.
    • “If I asked you what kind of person you are, you wouldn’t know the answer.”
    • Reprint forthcoming in Flash Fiction Online
  7. [Not Hugo-eligible in 2022]: A Living Planet – Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Jan/Feb 2022, on bookshelves Dec 20212. 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

Nonfiction

  1. “Short Fiction Rejection Letters: Best Practices and Expectations” – SFWA Blog (August 24, 2021)
  2. “Embodied and Empathetic Minds” – Astounding Analog Companion Blog (February 2, 2021). Linked to “Conference of the Birds” above.

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.

Please consider our co-editors Mur Lafferty & S.B. Divya would make a great choice (as a two-person team) for Best Editor Short Form! They came in a very close second in the 2021 Hugo Awards, and Divya is retiring in April 2022.

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