New Story: “How They Name the Ships.” Ship Names, Naming, and Identity in Space Opera.

a blue-green rose on a black background
Frozen Wavelets, issue 5 cover

I have a new piece of flash fiction out today in Frozen Wavelets that explores ship names and artificially intelligent spaceships, titled “How they Name the Ships.”

The Somsei Republic name their Ships after important historical figures (usually male). The Ucchou Federation gives Ships use-names like any other citizen, and let them select their own personal names. The philosophical alien Kfuul and the brutal Kháos Empire follow their own rules for ship names, as always. Even the repulsive, symbiotic Brakm have a specific way of naming the Ships they have scavenged.

But what names do the Ships take for themselves?

To find out, you’ll have to read “How they Name the Ships,” out now in issue 5 of Frozen Wavelets: https://frozenwavelets.com/issue-5/how-they-name-the-ships-by-stewart-c-baker/ (It’s only 750 words. You might like it!)

What’s the Story about?

On a surface read, the story tackles the tried and true space opera trope of amusing (or odd) ship names, with examples from several human and non-human polities that range from the droll to the disturbing.

A few examples (or formulas) from the piece:

  • Nju Confederation Ship (NCS) Stability
  • Philosophical concepts, references to obscure texts, and complex word games are popular among the alien Kfuul.
  • NCS Hair Bog
  • Kháos Empire ships are named for acts of violence, types of deadly sickness, and cats.
  • Yet Another Bloody Disagreement, a ship from the anarchic anti-polity The Tumble, which was aptly and abruptly disintegrated by a rival faction while speaking before the Ucchou Federation parliament.
  • Ucchou use names for ships tend to involve words of motion and allusions to important events.

Of course, the story is about much more than space opera tropes. Each section in the piece deals with a specific polity and details not only naming patterns, but what (if anything) ships can do if they disagree with or dislike the name they’ve been given.

The last section ponders what the ships themselves do, and how to otherwise get by while living in a society that’s potentially hostile to your own sense of identity — if not your very existence as an independent being who can make your own choices.

And that’s what the story is really about under the surface level levity: identity, the power names have, and how to stay true to yourself when the society you live in won’t accept who you are.

Ship Names and Space Opera

Anyone who reads space opera will immediately think of a few authors whose space opera settings play with the idea of ship names. Indeed, there’s a whole Wikipedia page that just lists fictional spacecraft.

a red spaceship hovers over water on the front cover of The Player of Games by Iain M Banks, an author well known for playing with ship names
Iain M. Banks’ The Player of Games (not the cover I have, but this one has a ship on it!)

Alas, though! That page is woefully deficient in my own view, as it contains not a single ship from Iain M. Banks’s Culture series of books — apparently due to an admin deciding it was “fan cruft,” if this Reddit page is accurate.

Banks’s work was formative of how I approach reading and writing space opera, and Culture ships (listed here) are definitely the go-to for clever, ironic, or surreal ship names, to the point where space-related things in real life are now named after them.

The Wiki page also lacks ships from works by newer authors who are just as brilliant as Banks, and also play with the trope, like Aliette de Bodard in her Xuya Universe stories and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor in their Sunlords of the Principality stories.

So, with that in mind, here is a short list of my own personal favourite ship names from other authors’ work, and the stories they appear in.

My Favourite Space Opera Ship Names

  • Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn – From the story of the same name by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor. Features poetry, a child refugee, defiance of protocol, tragedy, and hope (2017, Lightspeed)
  • The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods – From Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard. Poetry (yes, I know), found family, criminal hijinx. Awkward human-Ship romance that everyone but the participants can see is obviously there. What’s not to love? (2020, Subterannean Books)
  • Size Isn’t Everything – From Iain M. Banks’s Use of Weapons. And yes, the ship in question is quite large…
  • Of Course I Still Love You, also from Banks, this time from Player of Games. Notable particularly because SpaceX has a drone ship named after it in real life.
  • Starbug – The name of the shuttle in British SF sitcom Red Dwarf. Known for being uh… less than reliable.
  • Justice of Toren – The starship now known as Breq, the protagonist of Ann Leckie’s fantastic Ancillary Justice and its sequels.
  • Heart of Gold – The “sleekest, most advanced, coolest spaceship in the galaxy” in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. (Stolen by that ne’er-do-well Zaphod Beeblebrox.)
a spaceship flies in front of a planet against a backdrop of stars, leaving a brighly colored wake
Image by Tombud

“How They Name the Ships”

Thinking about these and other ship names from space opera definitely played a part in how and why I wrote “How They Name the Ships.”

I don’t know if I can add to the conversation about ship names, what they mean, and why they’re so popular in space opera with such a small story, but it was a fun one to write, all the same. And I hope, if you read it, that it brings you something — whether that’s a moment of levity or something deeper and more lasting.

Again, you can read “How they Name the Ships” in issue 5 of Frozen Wavelets, out now: https://frozenwavelets.com/issue-5/how-they-name-the-ships-by-stewart-c-baker/

2019 original fiction publications

Hello, readers! I haven’t been updating this blog, so consider this post a belated announcement of my 2019 publications.

I’m going to list them in reverse chronological order (most recent first!) but if you’re reading for awards season, I’m particularly pleased with “Three Tales the River Told” (bleak eco-SF) and “How to Break Causality and Write the Perfect Time Travel Story” (zany time travel), both of which are flash fiction.

“Music, Love, and Other Things that Damned Cat has Peed on”

punk rock future

Kimiko just wants to find love and make music, but her cat has other ideas. And then there’s that old book she unearths, the one with all the weird runes and descriptions of human sacrifice. It’s creepy, but pretty fucking punk.

Inspired by the true story of my cat, who went through a phase of peeing on damn near everything. (Reader, he did not like his litter box, apparently.) Contains broken bones, pseudo-Lovecraftiana, queer characters, and, well, what it says on the cover, really. Sorry-not-sorry.

Published in October 2019, in Zenon Publishing’s A Punk Rock Future, which has punk stories that range from fun to serious from a lot of brilliant authors. Erica Satifka! Sarah Pinsker! Maria Haskins! Spencer Ellsworth! Available on Indiebound, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

“Three Tales the River Told”

Siu Fan wants to be a star. But when she takes a contract that will get her new fans–and her sent to the environmentally hostile surface world to hike a dry riverbed–the experience will change far more than her follower count.

Published in August 2019, in Nature. Read it for free online, and follow it up with my guest post on the Future Conditional blog.

The title came first with this one. For that, I’m indebted to Vylar Kaftan, who runs an annual Title Rummage Sale contest on Codex Writers Group where you write a story from someone else’s title, and to Aimee Ogden, who provided the title itself.

“The Colours of Europa, the Colours of Home”

(CW: death of a child; parental grief)

When Yihan’s youngest daughter dies of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, she buries herself in her research, taking a position on Ling-Xian Station searching the Europan sea for exotic microbes that could be used in new kinds of antibiotic. But will her search for forgiveness–and her guilt at not being there–keep her away from her living daughter, left at home in her grandmother’s care?

Published in August 2019, in Little Blue Marble. Read it for free online or you can wait a bit and purchase the 2019 anthology.

“How to Break Causality and Write the Perfect Time Travel Story”

translunar travelers lounge

Jaunts through the Mesozoic, plots to assassinate H.G. Wells, questionable writing advice, splitting headaches, and the importance of a balanced breakfast. All this and more, just because you stole your future self’s time machine…  A cautionary tale of what happens when you sacrifice everything for your art and/or when you take advice too literally.  (Or something.)

Published in August 2019, in the inaugural issue of Translunar Travelers Lounge. Read it for free online or purchase a copy on Amazon and support this great new market!

Author and tireless reviewer Charles Payseur had some very kind things to say about this one:

I do appreciate that the story mixes these things that are rather ridiculous, almost joking, and mixes in some much more real moments. Angst and fear and uncertainty where the second person “you” of the story just wants so badly to be a writer, to be an Author……… It’s a surprisingly deep and complicated piece, given that it might be easy to read it solely as a joke.

“Things that are rather ridiculous” being mixed with “real moments” is very much on brand for at least half of my flash fiction, so give this one a read!

“Communications from the Honeymoon Suite”

five minutes at hotel stormcove

Dr. Laurie Vernederen will do just about anything to prove her theories and get tenure–including a jaunt back through time from Hotel Stormcove’s most luxurious suite. But of course, with time travel being time travel, there’s never a guarantee of being first…

The anthology this was published in, Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, required each story to take place over five minutes. Each of the five minutes in my story is represented by snippets of some kind of communication from a different century–starting in the 2160s and going all the way back to the 1700s. (Because time travel, of course.)

One of the neatest things about this one, to me, is that the publisher printed each of the story’s five sections in a different, era-appropriate font. So the 2005 instant messaging communication is in AOL-style Times New Roman, the newspaper clipping from the 1800s is presented in a newspaper-like font, and so on. 

Published in Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove by Atthis Arts publishing. The anthology is a lot of fun, so go pick up a copy at the Atthis Arts web store!

Untitled Nopperabou Game

Bonus!  In late October, I wrote a piece of interactive fiction (IF) for Ectocomp, an annual IF competition with a spooky theme.

Because I’d been playing the marvelous Untitled Goose Game at the time, I wrote a parody of it set in 1800s Japan. So if that sounds like your jam, check out Untitled Nopperabou Game on itch.io for free.

(Also, because I realized I didn’t have one before, I added a page on this site which lists all my interactive fiction.)

“Music, Love, and Other Things…”

punk rock future

Kimiko just wants to find love and make music, but her cat has other ideas. And then there’s that old book she unearths, the one with all the weird runes and descriptions of human sacrifice. It’s creepy, but pretty fucking punk.

“Music, Love, and Other Things that Bastard Cat has Peed on” is inspired by the true story of my cat, who went through a phase of peeing on damn near everything. (He did not like his litter box, apparently.) Contains broken bones, pseudo-Lovecraftiana, queer characters, and, well, what it says on the cover, really. Sorry-not-sorry.

Published in October 2019, in Zenon Publishing’s A Punk Rock Future, which has punk stories that range from fun to serious from a lot of brilliant authors. Erica Satifka! Sarah Pinsker! Maria Haskins! Spencer Ellsworth! Available on Indiebound, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

New Stories in Translunar Travelers Lounge, Nature, and Little Blue Marble

I have two new flash fiction pieces and one longer short story out in the virtual wild this month. Two are fairly depressing near-future SF stories that involve climate change and the third is an off-the-rails time travel romp. So that’s fun?

How to Break Causality…

First up, in new magazine Translunar Travelers Lounge, is the fun one of the batch, “How to Break Causality and Write the Perfect Time Travel Story.”

What do you do when a future version of yourself shows up with a time machine while you’re struggling through a first draft? Steal her time machine for inspiration, obviously! This one should appeal to time travel fans, writers, and secret time travellers who have accidentally set causality reeling while trying to convince their former future self not to go back in time to tell their original past self to steal their original future self’s time machine.

I mean… We’ve all been there, right?

I’m joined in the table of contents by friends Aidan Doyle and L Chan, along with a bunch of other authors I’m looking forward to reading. If you have $3 to spare, please consider purchasing an ebook copy of the magazine so they can stick around and publish more issues. We need more fun SFF in our lives!

Three Tales the River Told

Next up, in Nature magazine’s “Futures” feature, is “Three Tales the River Told,” a fairly bleak little story about the effect Anthropocene climate change could have on our vital, life-giving rivers.

Siu Fan wants to be a star. But when she takes a contract that will get her new fans–and her sent to the environmentally hostile surface world to hike a dry riverbed–the experience will change far more than her follower count.

This is my fourth time in Nature and it’s always a thrill to be in such a widely-circulated, well-respected magazine. As is traditional, I wrote a blog post which talks about the inspiration for the story so be sure to give that a read after you’ve read the story itself!

“Three Tales a River Told” came from–among other places, a title. Over at Codex Writers Group, Vylar Kaftan sometimes runs a “title rummage sale,” where you pick a title supplied by another author and write a story to it. In this case, the title was written by Aimee Ogden. Thanks, Vylar and Aimee!

The Colours of Europa, the Colours of Home

“The Colours of Europa, the Colours of Home” (cw: parent dealing with death of a child) is the third new story out there, in Canadian climate change magazine Little Blue Marble.

Yihan lives on Ling-Xian station, working on a scientific mission scanning Europa’s sub-surface ocean for exotic microbes and avoiding thoughts of home as much as she can. Will a message from her mother–and another from her sole surviving daughter–finally help her put her guilt about the past at rest and return home?

Little Blue Marble is a great magazine, and relies on its supporters to keep putting out work that centers our changing climate. You can support their mission here.

What Else am I Doing?

Still plugging away at the novel, sigh! The summer was largely a wash–we sold our house and moved into a new one, and that took up a lot of time. That, and a few setbacks in terms of “Hey let’s completely change the 3rd act of the novel” and “Hey let’s also completely change the 2nd act what could happen HA HA” means I still have a lot of work to do. But I’m still aiming at the end of the year to be finished, so … buckling down!

“Communications from the Honeymoon Suite”

My story “Communications from the Honeymoon Suite” is out today, in Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove from Atthis Arts Press.

Buy a copy of Hotel Stormcove

The anthology is a collection of (over 50!) stories that take place in the fictional hotel, each in the span of approximately five minutes. My story follows two time travel researchers backwards over five centuries, with one minute per century. Will Dr Vernederen put her arch-rival in her place, or will Dr Marteau come out on top after all? Or will the two of them find something unexpected in the distant past instead?

You’ll have to order a copy of the anthology to find out!

(If you can swing it, the print version of my story has extra-fancy typeface formatting.)

Other updates

2018 in Review: My Publications and Editing

2018 was a year!

As is traditional, I’ve collected descriptions of and links to the stories I’ve published this year below. Since a lot of my time goes into editing for sub-Q Magazine, I’ve also included a run-down of what we’ve accomplished there in 2018.

If any of the below is new to you, I hope you enjoy it! :)

Short Stories

I had four original stories published this year (as well as a smattering of reprints). Here are the originals:

“Memorial Park”

Constellary Tales, November 2018 (1000 words; content warning: child death)

A woman tries to come to terms with her young daughter’s death—and her own guilt over not being there enough throughout her life.
Read “Memorial Park” online at Constellary Tales

“Words I’ve Redefined Since Your Dinosaurs Invaded My Lunar Lair”

Flash Fiction Online, October 1, 2018 (1ooo words)

Can a Supervillain please just get a break? Doctress Doom confronts her nemesis — and calls into question the good-vs-evil nature of superheroics. Plus: Dinosaurs.
Read “Words I’ve Redefined…” at Flash Fiction Online

“Failsafes”

Nature Futures, September 5, 2018 (950 words)

A scavenger in a post-apocalyptic future finds a hidden cache with long-lost technology that just might make people’s lives better — and discovers something more important about the nature of community.
Read “Failsafes” at Nature

“The City, Like Time”

Kasma SF, April 2018 (4500 words)

Jeron returns to her home city after a lifetime of living in the wastes. Will her old friend Ameren remember the pact they made together?
Read “The City, Like Time” at Kasma SF

Editing

In addition to writing my own stories, I’m editor-in-chief of sub-Q Magazine.

sub-Q is, to my knowledge, the only magazine which focuses exclusively on interactive fiction: stories told in the browser (or with other technology) that require interaction of some kind from the reader in order to complete. We’ve published a game a month since I took over last November, and I’m very pleased with the submissions we’ve had and the games we’ve published.

If interactive fiction sounds like fun, check out the magazine at: https://sub-q.com. And if you’re an author and want to write some, check out our ongoing game jam and themed submission window, which both run until December 15th. (We’ll re-open to general submissions some time next year.)

SFWA

Beyond writing and editing, I’ve been active on a couple of SFWA committees over the past year (Game Writing and Short Fiction).

The biggest visible outcome of all this has been the announcement of the new Nebula for Game Writing, which I’m excited about!

If you’re nominating things for the Nebulas this year, don’t forget to add any games you’ve played that you thought were outstanding—and “games” means any type of game with a narrative element, whether it’s a video game, tabletop RPG, card game, or strange, unclassifiable thing. There are also no wordcount requirements: fellow Game Writing Committee members Andrew G Schneider, Monica Valentinelli, and Andrew Plotkin and I worked hard to make the new award as inclusive as possible.

If you’re a game writer or designer and have questions about the new award, or want to share your work with SFWA members, the best person to contact is the Nebula Award Commissioner, Jim Hosek, at nac@sfwa.org. You can also see the full Nebula rules on the Nebula website here: https://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules/

Two new flash stories + reprints and an audio reprint

Gack! How is it October?

I have been bad about updating, but have two new stories to share, as well as some reprints and an audio reprint from the past few months!

New Flash Stories

In “Failsafes,” which went live September 5th over at Nature Magzine, a scavenger in a post-apocalyptic future finds a hidden cache with long-lost technology that just might be the key to making people’s lives better — starting with her own. There’s also a bonus blog post which talks about my inspirations for the story, including musings on the Long Now Foundation, librarianship (of course), and the importance of the human element in the sciences.

In “Words I’ve Redefined Since Your Dinosaurs Invaded My Lunar Lair,” out October 1st in Flash Fiction Online, a super-villain confronts her nemesis — and calls into question the very nature of the good-vs-evil trappings of superheroics.

Reprints

My story “Raising Words,” about a young girl who struggles with her father’s changing identity in Yamato Japan, has been reprinted in Asian Birds and Beasts, an e-book anthology of stories from Insignia Press. This story was first published in now-defunct Penumbra eZine back in 2013. You’ll also find original and reprinted stories by Nidhi Singh, Amy Fontaine, Kelly Matsuura, Russell Hemmell, Lorraine Schein, Keyan Bowes, and Joyce Chng inside, so go grab yourself a copy!

I also have a reprint in another Insignia Press e-book anthology, Asian Science Fiction. This one features my story “Love and Relativity,” originally a Nature Futures story from 2015. Other authors in the anthology are Joyce Chgn, Nidhi Singh, Ray Daley, Holly Schofield, Jeremy Szal, L Chan, Vonnie Winslow Crist, so — again — consider purchasing a copy if you like Asian-inspired SFF.

Audio

Last, but not least, my story “Butterflies,” originally published in Spark in early 2014, has been podcasted by The Overcast. This one is about formal logic and the end of time, and I promise that’s more interesting than it sounds. It’s free to listen to on The Overcast‘s website, if you like podcast fiction.

Novel Update

Novel-wise! I have been going through and getting ready to make some major revisions to The Road that Spans the Sea, my in-progress epic fantasy set in a secondary world modeled loosely on early modern Japan. Only with, you know, blood magic and immortal sorcerers and pseudo-magical floating iron ore and reversed gender roles and stuff. I’m looking forward to digging into the edits, although I’m also mildly terrified! I gather that’s normal, though, for novel edits.

sub-Q Magazine

As I’ve mentioned before, editorial stuff at sub-Q is taking up a good bit of my time, too. I’ve recently revamped our submission guidelines, and we have some exciting stuff planned for 2019. If you like Interactive Fiction, or would like to try your hand at writing it, please keep us in mind!

Two science-fiction reprints in ebook anthologies + novel update

Two science-fiction stories of mine are being reprinted in upcoming anthologies.

The first of these, “Love and Relativity” first appeared in Nature Physics back in 2015. This time around, it will be appearing in Asian Science Fiction from Insignia, and should be available this coming Friday (July 20th).

The second, “Proceedings from the First and Only Sixteenth Annual One-Woman Symposium on Time Manipulation”, which previously appeared in Time Travel Tales, will be released as part of Timeshift. A pre-order link for that is available here–it releases August 1st.

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What am I up to otherwise?

Knuckling down and trying to finish revising a novel, mostly. THE ROAD THAT SPANS THE SEA is a roughly 110,000-word epic fantasy novel set in a secondary world modeled loosely on early modern Asia. It features family feuds, swordplay and other martial arts, banter, treachery and betrayal, a few too many orphan children, and at least one grouchy immortal warrior woman with (of course) a heart of gold.

Sound exciting? I’m planning to get it all wrapped up in the next couple of months and send it out to agents. Fingers crossed!

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(You might also notice that my website design has changed. Since I’m not updating this blog as often as I used to due to ALL THE THINGS, I decided to switch to a design that has a bit more static of a front page, and where it’s easier for me to highlight specific posts.)

One new short story, two new reprints

I’ve been bad about updating this blog lately. Sorry!

So what’s new?

First, the fiction!

My story “The City, Like Time” has been published in Kasma SF. It’s post-apocalyptic, and features creepy water ghosts, mysterious boxes, and betrayal. Go give it a read, and check out the glorious art by José Baetas!

On the reprint front:

My Gothic tale “The Mother of Sands,” which has appeared online at a few other places, is now out in print for the first time in an anthology from Old Sins publishing called Beyond Steampunk, which features steampunk-like stories set outside of the typical era and locales. My story is set in 19th century Latvia, and features all sorts of creepiness. If you like the stylings of Gothic literature, or if you like steampunk, go check out the anthology on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble’s web store. It’s available in print and e-book form.

My wacky SF flash fiction “How to Configure Your Quantum Disambiguator” has also been reprinted, this one in podcast form at the excellent Toasted Cake. Tina really nailed the narration to this, and I love every minute of it. (About 13 minutes long, for those of you who like audio fiction!)

Second (and the reason I haven’t updated much) is that in December of last year I took over as editor-in-chief of sub-Q Magazine. I’ve been a slush reader for the magazine for several years now, and have had a story published there as well, and I’m happy to take my involvement with the magazine to the next level.

If you’re unfamiliar with sub-Q, we are a pro-rate-paying magazine for short Interactive Fiction (IF). Think Zork, Adventure, Monkey Island and other classic computer-aided fictive game/stories.

Here’s a link to the sub-Q submission guidelines.

I’d love to answer any questions about the magazine or submitting to it, if anyone has any questions!

It’s Awardsmas Eve! Here are some neat things I’ve had published in 2017

It is—once again!—that time of year. The time of year when speculative fiction authors cower under their bedding materials for an extra hour in the mornings. When all and sundry leave offerings on their blogs, Twitter feeds, front lawns, local librarians’ inboxes, writing website author threads, gubernatorial mansion front lawns, and—yea verily—unto the surface of the moon itself.  Yes, it’s the time of year when writers everywhere wake drenched in sweat, their innards burning with that mix of fear and excitement that means the awards fairy might just have visited.

That’s right, folks. It’s AWARDSMAS EVE! Uh, but at 9AM. So I guess it’s really AWARDSMAS EVE MORNING?!

Anyway, as is traditional on Awardsmas Eve, I offer up this humble list of my favourite fictive publications from calendar year 2017. I hope you find something you enjoy.

First up is the story with the shortest title I’ve ever written: “How I Became Coruscating Queen of All the Realms, Pierced the Obsidian Night, Destroyed a Legendary Sword, and Saved My Heart’s True Love,” (co-authored with Matt Dovey as Baker and Dovey). Essandra’s a simple woman. All she wants is adventure, romance, and enough piles of loot to fill an olympic-sized swimming pool. Oh, and maybe a slightly less annoying sword. Unfortunately for Essa, her adventuring companions Korgar and Elutriel decide their invasion of the Mad Wizard-King’s lair is the perfect time to compete for her affection…   First published in No Shit, There I Was… from Alliteration Ink, February 2017, and reprinted in PodCast (linked above). (Also noteworthy: The story and several others in the anthology feature art by Jane Baker, my talented wife!)

In “The Thing About Heisenball,” (Daily Science Fiction, April 2017), our narrator tries to put an end to what they think is an unsuccessful relationship. But first, their soon-to-be-ex, Paulie, drags them down to the gym for a game of Heisenball. With the many-world theorem in play, nothing is off the court…   This story is also an entrant in this year’s Quantum Shorts competition, if that sort of thing interests you!

“Kuriko” tells the story of a mechanical doll (からくり人形) with the unusual quality of being alive. When Kuriko’s inventor-father is killed by the greedy and ambitious lord of Tosa Province, will she ever be able to live happily again? A period piece set in the late Tokugawa bakufu. Published July 2017, in Guardbridge Books’ Tales of the Sunrise Lands. (This is one of the first stories of mine I ever really considered good enough for publication, so I’m very happy it found a good home.)

Another story with a Japanese setting is “Blood-Stained Letters Found in a Roadside Shrine on the Outskirts of Kyoto” (Syntax and Salt, September 2017). This epistolary piece explores themes of vengeance in a world peopled by bakemono like foxes and tanuki.

“Mercy at Eltshan-Time” (IGMS, December 2017) is actually not out yet! But I will update when it is. This story is a warm, uplifting holiday-themed story about far-future book curses, various mostly dead aliens, and other fun stuff. This one also features a bit of artwork by Jane, in the form of a string of alien language.

To round out this year’s Awardsmas Eve Morning offerings, a poem! “The Fragmented Poet Files a Police Report” was the first place winner (long form) in this year’s SFPA poetry contest back in late September. Go give it a read!

 

So. There we have it!  Although 2017 has been a raging dumpster fire in many respects politically and socially, It’s been a decent enough year for me in terms of publications.  In addition to the stories and poem listed above, I’ve had work published in Remixt, Galaxy’s Edge, and Kaleidotrope, and a few other places. You can see my full bibliography for the year in the “published fiction” section of my website.

Also, stay tuned for next week, when I’ll post something far more interesting than this: A list of mind-blowing stories I’ve read by other people this year.