I, for one, welcome the oncoming apocalypse

My new story, "Houses Without Air,” will be published in THE END IS NIGH, the first volume of The Apocalypse Triptych, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. The book goes on sale March 1, but is available for pre-order now.

Here’s the cover copy:

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.

But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories.

Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse.

THE END IS NIGH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others.

"Final  Exam" will also be reprinted in Wastelands 2, the follow-up to JJA's very successful Wastelands anthology, coming February 2015. The table of contents is crazy impressive! 

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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

anthologies, apocalypse, publishing, weird fiction, writing

Horror Recommendation

From earlier this year - "No Breather in the World But Thee" by Jeff VanderMeer. Not sure why it came back to me this morning, but it did, and I had to revisit it. Apologies if you planned to sleep soundly tonight.

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Friday, June 21, 2013

horror, recommendations, voice, weird fiction

Asimov's

I received my contributor's copy of the June 2012 Asimov's in the mail yesterday. I'm sure it goes without saying that I'm thrilled my story "Final Exam" has found such a great home...but I'll say it anyway. This may be my favorite of all the stories I've written. Yes, that's a hint--go check it out!

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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

publishing, science fiction, short story, weird fiction

How Many Miles to Babylon? in Chinese

Clever members of Yeeyan are translating "How Many Miles to Babylon?" into Chinese. Cool!

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Thursday, February 09, 2012

chinese, science fiction, weird fiction

New Year at Lightspeed

My story "How Many Miles to Babylon?" appears in this week's issue of Lightspeed (along with an author spotlight).

As you're probably aware, Lightspeed and Fantasy Magazine have now merged into one super-fantastic magazine, which means Lightspeed publishes two stories this week. And the other one in this issue is "Blue Lace Agate" by the indescribably awesome Sarah Monette. Pardon me while I fangirl in the corner.

*fangirls*

Hope your New Year is a safe and happy one.

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Sunday, January 01, 2012

Lightspeed, Sarah Monette, science fiction, short story, weird fiction

Issue 3 of Lacuna, and Kephalopods!

Issue 3 of Lacuna is now online! This is our fullest issue to date, and hopefully it's got something for everyone.

My story "Hieronymus" appears in Issue Two of Basement Stories. This one's a tough bugger to categorize; a secondary-world weird tale with a healthy dose of environmental conciousness. If, you know, your environment includes unspeakable creatures of the dark and damp...

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Friday, October 15, 2010

historical fiction, Lacuna, publishing, weird fiction, writing

Website functioning again!

My freewebs site was sorely in need of an update, and a number of the links had completely ceased to function. Everything should be in working order again. (If you do find a bad link, please let me know!)

A few of my stories and poems had become inaccessible when they were removed from the internet or when the publications they appeared in shut down. For those of you who missed "Leanansidhe" (July 2007), "A Choice of Treason" (November 2007) and "The Shadow of Nemesis" (July/August 2008) the first time around, they are available now.

Don't thank me until you've read them, though. "A Choice of Treason" in particular was a very early work.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Cthulhu fhtagn, fiction, poetry, voice, weird fiction, writing

A Work out of Progress

I vaguely remember writing these three hundred words or so sometime last spring, but for the life of me I can't remember what the story was about (aside from, clearly, la bête du Gévaudan). Perhaps posting the not-story here will jog my memory; if not, I hope you enjoy not coming along for the ride as much as I do.

* * *

We did not learn of it in the usual way.

On September 20, 1765, a black carriage shuddered to a halt outside my family’s house in Langogne. The final rain of summer fell in warm gossamer sheets, washing black Languedoc mud from the coach’s wheels and the shoes of its occupants. My sister Antoinette emerged, dressed outlandishly as usual with travel-stained lace and ropes of damp fox-fur at her cuffs; if it weren’t for the black ribbons and grave expressions her companions wore, I would never have known something was amiss.

“Mélisande!” Antoinette opened her arms to me as I flew down the brick steps, her white clock flowing off her shoulders like cream. The rain sheeted over her sharp cheekbones and caught, pearl-like, on her eyelashes and crisp red curls.

“Bienvenue, sister,” I said hesitantly, holding her out at arms’ length. All around us, footmen vied with the family servants to get her luggage in out of the damp. None of Antoinette’s men would meet my gaze. “Where’s Michel?”

At the sound of her husband’s name, my sister pursed her lips in a sharp, familiar gesture of despair.

That was how we learned that our protection from la bête du Gévaudan had run out.

* * *

“And what, pray tell, is so damn hard about writing a letter?”

“Père.” Antoinette frowned, her long fingers loosening the clasp of her cloak. A slow puddle spread across the parlor floor at our feet. “Do you mean to say you aren’t pleased to see me?”

“Don’t needle him,” I whispered. Antoinette’s only answer was to shove her cloak into my arms and hiss at me to hang it up.

Papa leaned back in his chair. His dark eyebrows—the only spots of color in his face—met in a straight line over his crooked nose. “You should be in Paris, Antoinette.”

“There’s nothing for me there.”

“Célestin Charbonneau is there.”

“As I said.” She folded her hands at her waist, resting her elbows on her hips. “Nothing for me.”

* * *

Apparently, that's as far as I got. Your guess is precisely as good as mine.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Cthulhu fhtagn, historical fiction, horror, weird fiction, writing

NaNoWriMo - Short Story Edition!

Once again, I am attempting to write 50,000 words of short stories in the month of November. Because, at the moment, my brain will explode if I write one more productive words, I am now going to do something decidedly unproductive--a first line meme.

Here are my projects for the month:

Naxos: The Ford died with a hiccup and a puff of smoke three miles out of Naxos, Wisconsin. I looked over at Ari in the passenger seat, she looked and me, and we said oh shit pretty much simultaneously.

The Prince of Skyrats: Skyrats swarmed in the gallows-yard the day their prince was hanged, both the gray and dull-eyed birds whose wings fluttered like tattered bits of rag, and the other kind, who were also gray and dull-eyed and ragged. The guards watched them warily, from a distance. The Prince of Skyrats did not see them at all; a black silk blindfold covered his face, leaving him blind and voiceless.

The Bluebeard Room: "No," said Evangline Leighton, "I would not open that door for all the jewels in the Tower of London."

Madam Pneuma: Mrs. Barlow stabbed a needle through the fabric, heedless of the danger to the black velvet of her skirt. “I still don’t understand it,” she said, ostensibly to the room at large, though her gray eyes never moved from mine.

Embers: It was a burning day.

Sixty-Four: [None yet.]

Oxymandias: [None yet.]

Four Burning Things: Mama Babel sets the coffee pot on the fire, stirring it with her bayonet to keep the gritty stuff from burning.

The Widow's Island: You will wake to the sound of singing.

Jaquemart: There was blood on the stage.

The Setting Sun: The night before she died, I dreamed of Sephone.

The Celebrated Carousel of the Margravine of Blois: [See pictures here.] The house is called Summerfall, and it stands at the end of a long white drive lined with plane trees and elm.

The Kindness of Ravens: On your first day in the desert, they will bring you food.

Wish me luck!

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Friday, November 06, 2009

Every Day Fiction, fantasy, flash fiction, insanity, proprietary glee, short story, updates, weird fiction, writing

Arthur Machen Pumpkin

My nerdhood continues to emerge.

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Friday, October 30, 2009

art, ghost story, horror, insanity, weird fiction

The Nerdiest Pumpkin Ever?

Well, yes. This was last year's Holloween pumpkin, a tribute to M. R. James:







This year's pumpkin (which may actually be a gourd) is much more elaborate and even nerdier--a tribute to Arthur Machen's "The White People." More pictures will follow.

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Sunday, October 04, 2009

art, ghost story, horror, weird fiction

Don't make me open another magazine!

The last time I couldn't find a magazine in a given genre, I created one. For the sake of my sanity, save me from doing it again by helping me find a ghost story market!

When I say "ghost story," I mean it in the M. R. James sense, or the sense of Lovecraft - Cthulhu. With the closing of The Willows, is there a current market for weird fiction that isn't cosmic horror? Where would you send a story that has more in common with "Count Magnus" than "The Call of Cthulhu," or "The White People" than "The Haunter in the Dark"?

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

ghost story, help, publishing, weird fiction