Whoops, it's been a minute, huh?
Popping in for a pandemic post - this story came out in The Drabblecast and I'm quite proud of it. Give it a listen if you've got the time!
And here's a lovely review of the story on Tor.com
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
New story in Defenestration!
I have a new story out today with the unlikely title of "Earnest, the Chicken-Headed Penis Boy", in Defenestration Magazine, edited by the incomparable Andrew Kaye and Eileen Lavelle. Unlike "Navel Gazing", this one is NOT inspired by my boyfriend :)
It did, however, originate from a conversation about masturbation (as so many story ideas do!) that I had while on vacation in New Orleans with my boyfriend. And then, as so many of my stories do, it turned into a story about me and my chicken-headed penis. Much like Earnest, I am often a victim practitioner of magical thinking, and my ability to believe the best in people despite all evidence to the contrary sometimes gets me into trouble. But sometimes it makes the world a more beautiful place! (See? That's magical thinking at its best right there!)
Anyway, please go and read it, and while you're at it, read the whole damn magazine. Then spend a couple of hours getting lost in the archives, which is what I did a few weeks ago. It's good stuff :)
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Biennually...
Hey, Three People that Read this Blog (hi Mom!)
When I first started this blog with the highest of hopes and the best of intentions, "Getting updated once every other year" was not part of its mission statement. But this thing called Life (ok, ok, this thing called "Laziness", which starts with the same letter) got in the way, and here I am, posting after a two-year hiatus. In that time, I could have a) committed a financial crime, been sentenced, served out my term and be back home now, b) finished writing my novel, c) erected the Eiffel Tower, d) trained my recalcitrant dog to stop barking at strangers.
Sadly, none of these things were accomplished by me. (Well, not sad about the financial crime, although I'd like to think that if I committed one, at least I'd have some money)
I did have a story, "Why Does the Manatee Sing?" published in the anthology Daughters of Icarus, put out by Pink Narcissus Press, and I'm quite proud of it. It is part of a series of stories I like to think of as "Mothers and Monsters", which are all stories about motherhood in the realm of fantasy. "A Nice Jewish Golem" is another entry in this set. Some of them are funny, but most of them are tragic in one way or another, because sometimes being a mother is HARD (and also because I'm just morbid and I enjoy writing tragedy).
A beloved friend of mine says that everything I write is autobiographical, and though I publicly disagree, I have to admit that she is probably right. "Manatee" started out as an anomaly in my collection: a nod to fatherhood, and how often it is undervalued in our society. I wanted to do a role reversal and write about a society where one parent is often assumed to be uninterested in child-rearing, relegated to the fringes of parenting because of gender.
It turned into something much more personal when I was separated from my own children temporarily, and the desperate loss and alienation I still feel when I can't be with one of them. Whenever I re-read this story (and let's face it, I'm exactly the kind of author to re-read her stories instead of writing new ones - O procrastination, you are so like a bad boyfriend that I cannot break up with) I have to get up and hug my boys. They don't know why I'm interrupting them and they find it immensely annoying, but that's just too bad ;)
And that's my update. I have a new story coming out next week, and a post ready to go for that. My soon-to-be-famous writer friend Angus was the one that pointed out that I really must update my blog if I have a new story coming out, and he is correct, as always. The new story has nothing to do with mothers, but everything to do with magical thinking, so there you go, it's another story about me!
When I first started this blog with the highest of hopes and the best of intentions, "Getting updated once every other year" was not part of its mission statement. But this thing called Life (ok, ok, this thing called "Laziness", which starts with the same letter) got in the way, and here I am, posting after a two-year hiatus. In that time, I could have a) committed a financial crime, been sentenced, served out my term and be back home now, b) finished writing my novel, c) erected the Eiffel Tower, d) trained my recalcitrant dog to stop barking at strangers.
Sadly, none of these things were accomplished by me. (Well, not sad about the financial crime, although I'd like to think that if I committed one, at least I'd have some money)
I did have a story, "Why Does the Manatee Sing?" published in the anthology Daughters of Icarus, put out by Pink Narcissus Press, and I'm quite proud of it. It is part of a series of stories I like to think of as "Mothers and Monsters", which are all stories about motherhood in the realm of fantasy. "A Nice Jewish Golem" is another entry in this set. Some of them are funny, but most of them are tragic in one way or another, because sometimes being a mother is HARD (and also because I'm just morbid and I enjoy writing tragedy).
A beloved friend of mine says that everything I write is autobiographical, and though I publicly disagree, I have to admit that she is probably right. "Manatee" started out as an anomaly in my collection: a nod to fatherhood, and how often it is undervalued in our society. I wanted to do a role reversal and write about a society where one parent is often assumed to be uninterested in child-rearing, relegated to the fringes of parenting because of gender.
It turned into something much more personal when I was separated from my own children temporarily, and the desperate loss and alienation I still feel when I can't be with one of them. Whenever I re-read this story (and let's face it, I'm exactly the kind of author to re-read her stories instead of writing new ones - O procrastination, you are so like a bad boyfriend that I cannot break up with) I have to get up and hug my boys. They don't know why I'm interrupting them and they find it immensely annoying, but that's just too bad ;)
And that's my update. I have a new story coming out next week, and a post ready to go for that. My soon-to-be-famous writer friend Angus was the one that pointed out that I really must update my blog if I have a new story coming out, and he is correct, as always. The new story has nothing to do with mothers, but everything to do with magical thinking, so there you go, it's another story about me!
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Drabblecast.org - A Nice Jewish Golem
Audio updates!
Also available in audio, Navel Gazing on Every Day Fiction. The reader, Folly Blaine, really nailed the audio on it - it's exactly how I imagined it my head.
And more stories have been accepted and are coming out - I'll update when they're available!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Hey look, An Interview!
Flash Fiction Chronicles posted an interview with me because Navel Gazing was the top rated story for the month of April. Thanks to everyone who rated the story - I love you all!
Now I feel like an actual authoress...
Now I feel like an actual authoress...
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
"Navel Gazing" out at Everyday Fiction!
My story "Navel Gazing" comes out today at Everyday Fiction!
Have you ever had a crazy idea and simply had to run with it? An idea that eats at you until you wake up at 2AM and grab your laptop and start pounding away at the keys? An idea that might cause someone you hold very dear to want to sneak into your room and cut off all your hair in an act of psychotic but potentially justified revenge? (Am I alone in that last one?)
So I have this friend, and this friend has an enormous bellybutton. Oh, I know you're thinking, how big could it be? If I bug out my eyes and whisper the word "freakish" would that conjure up images of a navel that could hold an orange?
When you open your eyes in the wee hours of the morning, convinced you must write a story about a cavernous navel, inevitably your mind will wander toward things that go bump in the night. Or maybe it's that things that go bump in the night have taken permanent residence in my head, but they sneak out in the middle of the night when my defenses are down.
Bellybutton + things that go bump in the night = a final draft in less than an hour. Sometimes writing really is inspiration rather than perspiration.
So what I really want to know is: Do you say bellybutton or navel?
Have you ever had a crazy idea and simply had to run with it? An idea that eats at you until you wake up at 2AM and grab your laptop and start pounding away at the keys? An idea that might cause someone you hold very dear to want to sneak into your room and cut off all your hair in an act of psychotic but potentially justified revenge? (Am I alone in that last one?)
So I have this friend, and this friend has an enormous bellybutton. Oh, I know you're thinking, how big could it be? If I bug out my eyes and whisper the word "freakish" would that conjure up images of a navel that could hold an orange?
When you open your eyes in the wee hours of the morning, convinced you must write a story about a cavernous navel, inevitably your mind will wander toward things that go bump in the night. Or maybe it's that things that go bump in the night have taken permanent residence in my head, but they sneak out in the middle of the night when my defenses are down.
Bellybutton + things that go bump in the night = a final draft in less than an hour. Sometimes writing really is inspiration rather than perspiration.
So what I really want to know is: Do you say bellybutton or navel?
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
FeatherLit Magazine Launches Today
It's Valentine's Day, and what better way to celebrate than the taste of literary eroticism at FeatherLit. Their first issue debuts today, and yours truly has a story in it, Safe Word.
I have to admit, I never thought that I'd be in a mag with "erotic" in its description, but then again, I didn't think I'd be in one that had "literary" in it either. And I'll confess, my story isn't all that erotic, but hopefully it will make you laugh.
And that leads me to some thinky thoughts about my writing, what I like to write, and how it seems to be different from what editors like to accept. I've got a trunkful of dark fantasy stories exploring motherhood from a monster's point of view, and I love them to death. But the only two that I've managed to get accepted are humorous stories. The first, A Nice Jewish Golem, is one of my Mothers and Monsters stories, but it's the only one that's outright funny. And Safe Word isn't about mothers or monsters at all.
It's too nice a day to have an existential crisis about my writing. Maybe next week.
I have to admit, I never thought that I'd be in a mag with "erotic" in its description, but then again, I didn't think I'd be in one that had "literary" in it either. And I'll confess, my story isn't all that erotic, but hopefully it will make you laugh.
And that leads me to some thinky thoughts about my writing, what I like to write, and how it seems to be different from what editors like to accept. I've got a trunkful of dark fantasy stories exploring motherhood from a monster's point of view, and I love them to death. But the only two that I've managed to get accepted are humorous stories. The first, A Nice Jewish Golem, is one of my Mothers and Monsters stories, but it's the only one that's outright funny. And Safe Word isn't about mothers or monsters at all.
It's too nice a day to have an existential crisis about my writing. Maybe next week.
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