In the summer of 2021, I read a mind-blowing science article about how plants might possess some rudimentary powers of perception. It sparked me to write “Cottonwoods,” which turned into an almost unspeakably sad story, making me very happy. You cry, I smile. That’s just the way art works, man. I’m very grateful to the editors …
Is it a poem? Is it a story? Does it follow the rules of haiku? Does it break them? The answer to each of these questions is “Yes!” This was such a fun piece to write. I love working within limitations, and I especially love the concision and economy of haiku, but my natural mode …
The news reports of the chaotic and terrifying withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 made an impression on me. Since fiction tends to be my way of processing reality, a story started brewing. My imagination led me to set a fictionalized version of those events in a near-future France, transposing …
Have you ever wished for your problems to not just be solved but annihilated? Googled an old lover, found them on social media and lingered over the send button? Wished for the sudden upheaval of your own life? If so, here’s a cup of hot cocoa for you. This story, “My Fire Still Burns,” started …
It’s a great honor to have my novelette, PLANETFALL, appear in the May/June 2022 issue of Analog Magazine. I’ve been submitting to Analog since the early ’90s, and their rejections have been papering the walls of my study for three decades now, so it’s especially gratifying to finally break through. This story is a stand-alone …
This short story, “Jaguarhead,” is one of my favorites from the last couple of years, written after my partner’s scooter was stolen from the parking lot of her apartment complex in Austin, TX. The sense of violation of a theft like that left a bitter taste, but converting it into the raw material for a …
It was such an honor and a pleasure to work with the Split/Lip editorial team to get this short and very strange piece, “Dog Chasing Waves,” ready for publication in the January 2022 issue. I’m very proud of how this one turned out. The unusual format initially presents a barrier to the narrative flow, but …
I’ve been getting rejected by Analog Magazine since the early 90s, the days of typewritten manuscripts and rejection slips on letterhead in self-addressed stamped envelopes. This month I finally got an acceptance, for my story Planetfall, a stand-alone chapter from my novel SPACESHIP DAYS. It won’t be out for a few months, but until then …
This was the year that last year’s time in quarantine began to pay off in publications and recognition. There were also rejections–lots of rejections. Ninety-one of them, so far. There are the pieces which were accepted: Grind Them Bones to Dust appeared in Meridian (Issue 45) Blue Clouds appeared in The Daily Drunk Skylark appeared …
The Pandemic Year was a slow time for publishing but a packed time for writing and scheming. I received about 89 rejections, and just three acceptances, but the first one was a doozy (!!). These are my stories that saw print in 2020: Young Americans (awarded first place in the Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction …