Movin' On Up (or at least stepping laterally)

Hey, all! For anyone who might have bookmarked this site (who are you and thank you), I just wanted to let you know that I've moved. From this point forward, the sheilacjohnson.net domain will redirect you to my spiffy new WordPress site at sheilacjohnson.wordpress.com. I'm grateful you've read my posts here, and I hope you'll follow me there.

Thanks!

Tales of the Rose Knights

Since January, Daily Science Fiction has been posting ongoing entries in this particular series of tales every other Wednesday. You don't get to know everything about the world in which the Rose Knights serve. You just get glimpses into their lives, a different story for a different knight, just enough to give you an idea of who these fighters, almost all women, truly are. And they're beautifully written stories, and I've spend most of these particular Wednesday mornings trying to figure out how to encourage the day to pass more quickly so that I can go read the new story on my lunch break.

But don't take my word for it. Read the Tales of the Rose Knights here.

American Writers Museum Survey

Forgot to post this when it became available last week. But! If you're interested in the American Writers Museum (coming to Chicago in 2017!), or you simply want to have an existential crisis trying to pick just one worthy author and one worthy book you think the museum should include, then take a look at this survey linked below.

Don't make me choose, please don't make me choose, aaaaaaaaaaah!

Philip Levine

News from the world of poetry isn't the kind of news that always makes it through the chatter; if you're not keeping up on your reading or your podcasts, you might miss some of it. I was sad and ashamed to learn only recently that Philip Levine, one of my favorite poets, died last year.

Yep, he was old, but he knew what it was like to be tired, and lacking money, and worked to the bone by some demanding jobs, yet still in love with the world. If that doesn't make him a poet for our age, I don't know what does.

Read "What Work Is" by Philip Levine

"There Are No Carriages or Footmen in the Suburbs"

Heya! I have to say, I like this possible trend of being able to announce stories getting published at the start of the year.

I've known that this story was going to be featured on Black Denim Lit for some time; now I'm very happy to get to share it with you. It features Death moving into a suburban duplex, so I hope you enjoy it!

Click this link to read "There Are No Carriages or Footmen in the Suburbs"

2015 in Notes

When you work on writing stories, it's hard to show people what you're working on via social media or a website because, oops, putting stuff online usually counts as publishing it in the eyes of magazine editors that prefer to be the first publishers.

But held up between my fingers is 2015 in my notebook. This is where most of my Saturday and Sunday mornings or afternoons went after I got my shit back together in the spring; this is my year in review, heh. For a lot of these stories, this is closest they'll get to being seen, because the work was just practice or wasn't good enough. Others have been read aloud or will be read aloud. And some of those I hope to collect with other ones in a pretty package later this year.

I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone else interested in the moderately insane craft of writing, and I'm certainly not saying I'm harder working. Just that I tried, and I hope to try some more, and I'm out here, and thank you.

Daily Science Fiction

So. A few years behind the times, I know, but a couple of months ago, I stumbled across Daily Science Fiction. Now, it's become something I really look forward to reading on the weekdays.

For those who aren't familiar with it, here are the important points that I hope will motivate you to check it out:

1. It's free.
2. It delivers a new short story to your inbox every weekday.
3. It features stories from new and established writers alike, so it does wonders for exposing readers to authors they might not know.
4. It's free.

Below are two of my recent favorites. Check them out--maybe you'll enjoy them, too!

"What Wags the World" by Sarah Pinsker
"In Autumn" by Theodora Goss

Earbuds

I had thought about putting together a short story collection this year. Ended up not doing it, but for a good reason: one of the stories I really want to include, "Earbuds," got accepted into Allegory E-zine, which means the rights to it are tied up for a bit, heh.

Anyway, the fall/winter issue of Allegory came out today with "Earbuds" in it. I don't submit many stories, but I do like this one, and I hope you'll enjoy it if you read it (psst, it's free). Special thanks once again to Michael Penkas for reading it over and helping get it into shape.

Click here to read "Earbuds" on Allegory!

Current Comic Book Reading

I finished one six-issue music-based comic book miniseries only to have another one start. Yay and dammit, all at once, for a new limited 'Phonogram' series! ("Dammit" only because I like having money.)

Every Day I'm Tumblin'

That's not true at all.

However, I have been trying to use Tumblr more. I've started a blog there with the main goal of finding stories, poems, and similar bits of creative writing that I really like from other Tumblr users. I reblog 'em as I find 'em (which, again, is only every few days), because every good writer can use support and appreciation, no matter how small the show.

So come join me on my Tumblr, Reading Under the Night Light, if you're interested!

Thoughts on Being a Writer

Here's the thing:

I think that anyone can be a writer, but that not everyone who has ideas and can assemble coherent sentences is a writer.

Good creative writing involves choosing just the right word for the moment, along with paying attention to the ways words and sentences come together and the effects that, together, they create.

In short, writing is a craft. That means that it's hard work, and a good portion of the time, it'll make you want to set yourself on fire and jump into a pool of gasoline.

But if you're a writer, you won't want to spend your time any other way.

Jerome Charyn's 'Bitter Bronx'

I've had pretty good luck in terms of quality when going to the library and checking out random books that I otherwise know nothing about from the new releases shelf.

An excerpt from one of my latest happy finds:

"Whatever music I have had risen from the bedlam of the Bronx, all the staccato sounds, the syncopation of sadness and loss."

Holy $@(%. That's just from the author's note.

Seriously, that's from Jerome Charyn, and if you enjoy language like that that pares down sentences until only the right words are left, I really recommend checking out his story collection Bitter Bronx. "The Cat Lady's Kiss" reads like a fairy tale perfectly transposed to New York and rolled around in grit.

I mean, damn.

Subway Book Review

A very nifty idea for a blog. Uli Beutter Cohen asks people on the subway to tell her about the books they're reading.

Check it out here: Subway Book Review

Shut up and take my money!

I was going on about this delightful ad in the back of the May/June The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction to all of my co-workers earlier in the week, so I figured I should share it here as well.

 

Judy Blume

On June 17, Judy Blume is coming for a talk as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. I'm torn between going and enjoying myself or staying at home and not wishing that I had a battering ram to get through Wednesday evening traffic.

So until I decide, I have this lovely interview to tide me over:

Judy Blume on Writing, Twitter, and Vaginas

I wish I, too, could sit and talk with Judy Blume, about vaginas or otherwise.

Things I've Enjoyed Recently

It's always tough to figure out what to say when it comes to updating this site. Yep, I'm still working on writing. Nope, I haven't done as much with my stories as I want to. I feel confident of about maybe five percent of what I write. The rest of it requires me to go back, edit madly, start new stories, and hope to get better.

My Saturday nights are quite exciting. The stuff of legend, you can be sure.

Anyway, in addition to scribbling my own stuff, I also read and listen to the stuff that other people create. Here's some stuff I've enjoyed in recent weeks:

1) Trubbled Youth by Felipe Echevarria

Because it feels like an old-school zine, and because I love how expressive his figures are. This was one of my favorite finds of C2E2 2015.

2) "21 Steps to Enlightenment (Minus One)" by LaShawn M. Wanak, read for PodCastle by Khaalidah Muhammed-Ali

PodCastle often makes for excellent listening for a long work commute, and this story caught me right from the start with its premise. I wouldn't have guessed that the story developed the way it did, which was part of why I loved it so.

3) The Sculptor by Scott McCloud

The major plot points seemed familiar (Pregnancy! Death! A manic pixie dream girl!), but there were so many of the small notes that were just right, from the way that David's first attempts with his artistic gift don't meet with success to the conversations he has with Uncle Harry (actually, throw in all of the conversations about art--they felt painfully real). And Scott McCloud's artwork is solid and subtle, but I thought it made the most of the medium. And I cried at the end.

Hope you've been enjoying some good stuff on your end, whoever and wherever you are!

Little Free Library

Sometimes, at the end of a bleh week, you take a walk on a day like yesterday and see something like a Little Free Library on the lawn outside of someone's house. And it's wonderful.

For more information on the Little Free Library project, check out the official website! Seriously, don't you want a little home for books on your front lawn, too?

While Browsing the Books

Why do I have a feeling that this section of the store might not be entirely accurately labeled?

Amazing Fantasy

Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics in Tinley Park​ was the first dedicated comic shop I ever visited, so I went out yesterday to see it one more time before the big move to its new location. Only when I got home and looked at this photo did I notice the little yellow plush sitting inside the security mirror up right. Somehow, its presence there seems entirely fitting.

Cover Girl

This is one time I'm glad that I judge books by their covers, darn it.

I know nothing else about this book, but I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it.