Necro-ing this blog to post a link to a recording from Rainbow Space Magic 3.0, in which I talked about both the art and the nuts/bolts of writing short fiction, specifically through a queer lens. My fellow panelists were amazing and I had a great time at this great little con!!

What else, since I have not posted since 2021…we’ve moved to Seattle. I’ve published some things. We bought our first (town)house! It’s been a lot of activity, but I’ve done my best to keep my head above water.

I especially want to point to Shining Bursa and the Listening Post, a weirdish space fantasy published in Clarkesworld this month. I had a magical time cramming everything I love to write and read about into its 5,000 words, and I hope some other weirdo likes it too. Welcome the joy of alien bug overlord romance into your life.

My story, “Barter Queen,” was reprinted in MetaStellar today! It’s a post-apocalyptic YA yarn about femininity and the fragile magic trick of political power.

Check it out here.

March has been a good month for me! You can read or listen to The Dame With the Earth at Her Back now.

In retrofuturist/noir outer space, a comedienne accidentally gets herself involved in a resistance movement when all she really wanted to do was heckle a drug deal from onstage. Includes: a gay disaster protagonist, resistance to fascism, and some extremely bad jokes (in some cases literally stolen from my dad). I love the narration Tina Connolly performs, slow and smooth.

Check it out!

Check it out here. It’s about art history, colonialism, and—that old standby—alien invasions.

I owe a lot of the inspiration for this story to time spent in Spain, either as a student or as a language-learning program assistant. I spent a LOT of time in museums, which introduced me for the first time to a discourse that preoccupies art historians the world over: how do you teach the public about a piece of art out of its historical context? Or, more tricky, a piece out of its cultural context? How do you avoid perpetuating a narrative about art and its value that’s been so thoroughly written by the “victors”?

The architecture of Spain was also a big consideration for me, especially in Andalusia. The physical manifestation of conquest as “building your church on top of the other guy’s” clearly stuck with me.

I’ve finally been strongarmed into creating a website!

I’ve been writing original fiction seriously since 2015. That word—“seriously”—is pulling a lot of weight here.

In 2015, I considered “serious” to be a completed novel draft. In 2016, it was completing multiple short stories in a year. In 2019, it was attending the Viable Paradise workshop. In 2020, it was working as an editor with LSQ—and getting anything done at all, amidst pandemic lock-down and plans for my much-altered wedding. (It was also joining SFWA as a full member! An exciting last-minute development.)

Now, in 2021, I’m aiming for a completed and revised draft of something every month. This feels sustainable to me between other projects: interactive fiction, fanfiction, expeditions into the world of baking, and maybe even GMing a ttrpg or two.

I can’t promise sustained blog activity, but I’ll give it a shot. I am, and will always be, a Person With Opinions.