Happy 2013! No Resolutions. Well, maybe just one.

This is normally when I look back over the previous year and make some resolutions for the new one, but I’m sort of off resolutions. It’s not that I don’t have any goals or good intentions to enumerate. To the contrary, I have many items I’d like to accomplish, improvements I’d like to make, tasks I want to complete. But coming off of 2012, I find I made all my deadlines and am caught up on my urgently outstanding to-do items. Aside from feeling like I should beware the impending Apocalypse, it makes me realize that I haven’t found resolutions all that helpful. When a deadline pops up, I’ll work my ass off to meet it because that’s what I do with deadlines. When a project lands on my plate, ditto ass ditto off ditto just ‘cuz. And I’m fully aware of personal items I’d like to address with an eye towards improvement as they’re largely the same ones dogging me most if not all my life. Me making a list isn’t going to up my motivation or change my work habits, or at least it certainly hasn’t up to this point.

So I’m going to skip the resolution list-making. Instead, I’ll just resolve to do my best, and if/when my best doesn’t pan out the way I’d like, I resolve not to let it get to me.

In lieu of a list of resolutions, herein a rundown of my work published in 2012:

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*reprint
†free fiction

Free this Weekend: InterGalactic Awards Anthology Ebook

This weekend (March 24-26), the Kindle version of the InterGalactic Awards Anthology: Volume 1 will be free at Amazon.com. In addition to my story, “Beautiful Winter,” it includes work by such luminaries as Peter S. Beagle, Aliette deBodard, Marie Brennan, Alethea Kontis, James Maxey, Jason Sanford, and Eric James Stone. Don’t miss out on getting it for free! Continue reading

Shared Worlds SF/F Teen Writing Camp 2012 Registration and Fund Drive

The Shared Worlds SF/F Teen Writing Camp is a summer camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where up to 50 teen writers come from around the world, including Japan, Indonesia, and Germany, to learn, practice, and hone their writing skills and creativity, guided and instructed by top professional writers. The camp’s assistant director is the fabulous Jeff VanderMeer, and guest writers for this year’s camp include New York Times bestsellers Julianna Baggott, Naomi Novik, and Tobias Buckell, as well as Prix Award Winner Karin Lowachee and Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer.

Shared Worlds 2012 Critter Map

At Shared Worlds, students form teams in classrooms to build entire fantasy or science fictional worlds in the first week and then write stories in those worlds the second week. They also get to attend author readings, take field-trips to bookstores, and create videos about their imaginary worlds.

The camp is supported by Amazon.com but is funded in large part by donations which help to ensure that attending the Shared Worlds Teen Writing Camp can be a possibility for all registered students, no matter what their financial need—which brings us to the “Critter Map.”

With website created by filmmaker and writer Gregory Norman Bossert, artwork by Jeremy Zerfoss, and compiled and edited by Therese Goulding, it includes story contributions from writers including Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Scott Westerfeld, Gene Wolfe, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and even yours truly. So head on over to check out the Critter Map. Click on a critter and read its story. And please donate what you can to this great cause!

Groundhog Day Free Fiction x2: The King of Rabbits and Moon Lake Podcast and Ginormous Multi-author Book Giveaway

Happy Groundhog Day! What better way to celebrate the beginning of February than with free fiction?

Free fiction the first: The podcast of “The King of Rabbits and Moon Lake” is now up at Journey Into…, read fabulously by the talented Rajan Khanna. Listen, enjoy!

Free fiction the second: A bunch of us writers have come together to coordinate a massive book giveaway contest, “Crossing the Streams.” Check out my Book Giveaway page for details.

Biba Jibun at Pseudopod and Adventures in E-book Publishing Update

First and foremost, “Biba Jibun” is now up at Pseudopod for your free listening pleasure, read by the talented Kara Grace. Enjoy!

Next, laid out in quasi-scientific fashion, an update on my foray into releasing some of my previously published and out-of-print short fiction as e-books: Continue reading

Requiem Duet, Concerto for Flute and Voodoo now out in Daily Science Fiction

Hurray! My short story, “Requiem Duet, Concerto for Flute and Voodoo,” was published by Daily Science Fiction today. Subscribe to this excellent publication, read, and comment at their FB page!

Slowly coming back to life after Dragon*Con. Had eyeball-deep chaos, had mega stress, had hella good time. Longer post later. Maybe. Still shambling back to life. (Don’t know why, but it seems that I always have something come out while I’m immersed in—or in this case, recovering from—Dragon*Con.)

The Wish of the Demon Achtromagk Now Up at Drabblecast Celebrating H.P. Lovecraft Tribute Month

Just got word from Norm Sherman, Editor/Producer of the Drabblecast podcast, that my story for their H.P. Lovecraft tribute month, “The Wish of the Demon Achtromagk,” is now up! Checkout the fabulous artwork by David Flett: Continue reading

Mortal Clay, Stone Heart (excerpt)

The anthology The Dragon and the Stars is a finalist this year for an Aurora (Canada’s highest science fiction award) in the category of Best English Related Work, so I’m swiping a page from Eric Choi and Derwin Mak’s playbook and publishing an excerpt of my story, “Mortal Clay, Stone Heart,” for folks to consider when they’re casting their votes:
Continue reading

Balloon Animal Protagonist: The Life and Times of Penguin

A couple folks have asked me about an off-the-cuff remark I made at JordanCon at one of my panels. The question had to do with the gender of the protagonists I write, and I replied that I’ve written all manner of protagonists in my stories, including a balloon animal.

Nope, I wasn’t exaggerating. I have indeed written a balloon animal story, “The Life and Times of Penguin,” originally published in issue #18 of the Aussie ‘zine Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and reprinted in Farrago’s Wainscot, Escape Pod, and the anthology Triangulation: Taking Flight. It was actually my homage to Voltaire’s Candide.

Curious? You can read it for free at Farrago’s Wainscot or listen to the Escape Pod podcast.

December Tanuki-Kettles

As I mentioned in a previous post, I contributed a story to the December Lights Project, an online compilation of uplifting and warm short stories. My story, “The Tanuki-Kettle,” is now up! This story was originally published in the July, 2007 issue of Cricket and was reprinted in my collection, Returning My Sister’s Face. Hope you enjoy it!

As a bit of festive synchronicity, Geoff and Anne got me a tanuki teakettle for Christmas! Continue reading