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!

"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.

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.

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!

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.

Snark Notes

My supervisor at work runs an entertaining and informative book review blog called Snark Notes. Today the blog featured an excerpt from a conversation we had about the state of YA literature:

Sums it up pretty well, I'd say.

A Decent Start

I suppose that this is a decent way to start the new year. Not too long ago, I got word that one of my stories was accepted for publication in the digital magazine Beyond Science Fiction. Yesterday, I got word that the issue containing my story has been published. Yep, those all were good words to read.

If you'd like to read a few words yourself, you can check out "Super" along with several other people's works in the January 2015 issue of Beyond Science Fiction. It's a Kindle-only joint, so e-readers, deploy!

For a few people I know, the title of this song most aptly summarized their feelings toward 2014:


If that includes you, then I hope that you're on your way to a 2015 in which you're cursing more out of a feeling of exuberance than a feeling of frustration, because we all deserve at least that kind of joy.

So happy effing New Year, eh?

Best American Nonrequired Reading/Listening/What Is Storytelling, Anyway?

This is a picture of one of the pages inside The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014. What you're looking at is a script for an episode of Welcome to Night Vale, an independently produced podcast that I would say is rather popular in that just-below-the-mainstream-radar kind of way.

Your mileage may vary; I think this is pretty neat. Either way, though, the times, they are a-changin'.

Hairy, Naked Buds

That's what the descriptive URL for today's post on Monsters in My Backyard got shortened down to.

Wes and I are still going with the blog, though I switched to posting on Sundays to give us more time to produce the material needed. The image that Wes drew for today's post is my favorite of all the ones he's done so far.

Do have a look, won't you?

Monsters in My Backyard

So Wes and I started a blog, called Monsters in My Backyard, that combines his drawing and my writing, and we put the first post up today.

The idea is that we look at stuff from the nearby natural world, he imagines and draws a monster based on what he sees, and then I write about some of what science says is actually going on out there.

If you saw me pop up on Instagram as "monstersinmybackyard" a while back--this is what that was about. But we'd love it if you took a look if you're interested and shared it with anyone else you think might be interested, too.

Here's our first post: On Wood Decay Fungi, or, That Dying Tree Is More Alive Than You Think

And here's Wes's illustration for it:

Neuromarketing: Why Your Brain Loves Free T-Shirts

More stuff I did for work. It's pretty nice of them to let me babble on about science all the time, considering that the company's all about producing stress balls and pens.

Neuromarketing: Why Your Brain Loves Free T-Shirts

I Depleted Any Ability I Have to Think About Post Titles While I Was at Work

At my new(ish) job, I'm responsible for writing stuff, including product descriptions, social media updates, and blog posts about topics related to the company. The first blog post with my name on it went up this week. Have a look-see:

Nice Plastic Bottle You're Wearing: What You Never Knew About Recycled Fabric 

If the post title doesn't interest you, perhaps the fantastic image set I found for the header will: