gwynnega

Today's mail brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #82, featuring my story "Still Life" (partly inspired by a dreadful former neighbor of mine, though really he was so much worse than the character in my story), as well as work by Francesca Forrest, Jennifer Crow, Sam Derby, Gretchen Tessmer, Rachel Cordasco, Jordan Hirsch, Sophia D. Merow, David Kloss, Ed Ahern (and art by John and Flo Stanton).

This magazine is an enduring bright spot amid the current terribleness.

My collection of short fiction, Sinking, Singing, came out in October. Writing-wise, the year was mostly taken up by revising my novel Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, working on a sequel, and doing yet more revision of Thank You! (Fortunately, I really enjoy spending time with these characters.)


fiction

Sinking, Singing (Aqueduct Press)
Includes four original stories ("The Discography of Theodore Grayson," "A Good Cast Is Worth Repeating," "Resolution," and "De Bergerac Duels His Dragon") as well as seven reprints ("We Gotta Get Out of This Place," "Emily and the What-if Imp," "Sinking, Singing," "Beyond and Back," "The Clockwork Cat's Escape," "The Two Mrs. Mansfields," and "A Wild Patience").


poetry

"Universals" in Dreams & Nightmares #126 (January 2024)

poetry reprint

"midas" in FUMPTRUCK: Open Letters, Essays, Fiction, Poetry, Artwork & Other Creations for & Inspired by the 47th President of the Divided States of America, edited by Anonymous (Written Backwards Press)

Today is the official release date of FUMPTRUCK: Open Letters, Essays, Fiction, Poetry, Artwork & Other Creations for & Inspired by the 47th President of the Divided States of America. It includes my poem "midas," originally published in Not One of Us, as well as work by a plethora of wonderful writers.

Also today, I'm on an episode of the Coffee Fueled Stories Podcast! We talk about my new collection Sinking, Singing, my novel Can't Find My Way Home, the writing process, the 1970s, coffee, and more.

My collection of short fiction, Sinking, Singing, is available from Aqueduct Press. It contains four new stories, as well as work previously published in GigaNotoSaurus, Escape Pod, Fantasy, Not One of Us, Mermaids Monthly, The Cascadia Subduction Zone, and Shimmer.

"A young girl hears unsettling messages in the grooves of an old record album. A washed-up horror star gets a second chance at stardom, but at a great price. A robot rebellion is fueled by the poetry of Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde. In this collection of short fiction, some characters seek to escape (often through music or magic), while others choose to remain in the beautiful, albeit damaged, present moment."

The book, part of the Conversation Pieces series, is available from Aqueduct in paperback and ebook formats. The ebook is also available from Amazon.

Aqueduct Press has a page for my forthcoming collection of short fiction, Sinking, Singing! (It's not a preorder link, but you can read a sample from the book.)

At Readercon, I read from my novelette "A Wild Patience" (originally published in GigaNotoSaurus and reprinted in Escape Pod), which I am particularly happy to include in the collection.

I am delighted to announce that my collection of short fiction, Sinking, Singing, will be published by Aqueduct Press as a volume in the Conversation Pieces series. It will include previously published work (such as my novelette "A Wild Patience," originally published by GigaNotoSaurus), as well as four new stories. I love working with Aqueduct, and many of the Conversation Pieces volumes are huge favorites of mine.

The mail brought my contributor's copy of Dreams and Nightmares #126, featuring my poem "Universals." The poem started out as my attempt to write about classic Universal horror films in the style of Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons.

I am in the midst of polishing Thank You for Sending Me an Angel. This is vastly more enjoyable than writing a query letter and synopsis (though those things are happening too).

I spent the bulk of 2023 revising my novel Thank You For Sending Me an Angel (only two chapters to go!), but all my publications this year were poetry.


"when Ruth invented the Empathy Pill" in Kaleidotrope (Spring 2023)

"ode to The Swarm" in Penumbric (April 2023, Vol. 6, Issue 6)

"dear Tom Cassidy's daughter" in Strange Horizons (10 April 2023)

"dear Aunt Clara" in Not One of Us #75

"the jacarandas consider blooming" in Worlds of Possibility Anthology, ed. Julia Rios

"the ending" (reprint) in The Deadlands: Year One

The mail brought my beautiful hardcover contributor's copy of the Worlds of Possibility anthology, edited by Julia Rios! It includes my poem "the jacarandas consider blooming" with gorgeous color art. The whole book looks superb.

I had a wonderful Readercon, which is a good thing, considering how difficult it was to get there. Bad weather resulted in my flight being diverted to Pittsburgh, where we sat in the plane for three hours and in the terminal for another hour. Fortunately, we didn't have to spend the night in Pittsburgh, though I didn't make it to my hotel until after 3 a.m. Once there, it was great to catch up with friends, and I thoroughly enjoyed the panels and readings I participated in and those I attended as an audience member. The Sylvia Townsend Warner panel and the Fantasy Magazine reading were especially rich.

There are friends who I wish could have been there, and other friends I only got to see in passing, but I'm very glad I attended. For the most part I was impressed by Readercon's COVID precautions. I was less than thrilled that some participants ignored the very clear masking requirements or treated them as something to negotiate on a case-by-case basis.

Now I am home and wildly jetlagged (after a blessedly uneventful trip home), and I'm happy to reveal that my poem "the jacarandas consider blooming" will appear in the Worlds of Possibility anthology, edited by Julia Rios! I got to debut the poem at Julia's Readercon reading, which was a lot of fun.