It is sometimes said that you can't teach someone how to write comedy. I think that's a bit silly, though -- I think it's more accurate that you can't teach someone how to write something universally funny, because humor is tied so closely to our hindbrain animal limbic system electrical zoomies that what each of... Continue Reading →
Spring 2022 Class: “Writing Short Fiction”
I'm stretching my wings, folks, and taking 20+ years of experience writing, editing, and publishing -- not to mention three-odd years' worth of podcast hosting -- to the classroom. This spring I'll be teaching a practical, nuts-and-bolts approach to writing short fiction at Assabet After Dark, the largest adult continuing education program in metrowest Massachusetts.... Continue Reading →
How to sell your fiction
...and other sentences that are easier to say than they are to accomplish. But on the other hand: it's also not hard to sell your fiction, not in this golden age1 of short fiction publishing. At the end of the day, there are a lot of places that can publish your fiction... depending on what... Continue Reading →
Upcoming appearance: Worldcon!
Holy crackersnacks, I was invited to be a panelist at Worldcon! This year it's being hosted by Discon III from December 15-19, 2021, in Washington, DC. Paraphrasing their site bio a little, Worldcon is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS); it was first held in 1939 and, with a pause for... Continue Reading →
2021 Award Eligibility
Check out the story I wrote this year that's eligible for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and any other award your heart sees fit to nominate it for.
Issue 24, containing: Some (Lengthier) Editorial Notes, A Day of Hours, Commonplaces, &c.
I have come to a realization, which is as follows: I have not been writing this magazine, because with every issue I feel compelled to both maintain the previous issue's style and also, somehow, expand, nautilus-like, into further whimsy. Having done this maintenance, this expansion, I am then confronted with starting the next issue-- and I look down the issue's long dark hall, where every door is one I must open and examine and write out before I can shuffle on to the next. The exit sign will not turn on until every last room has been described in some way that gets closer and closer to the Platonic ideal of parodic microzine excellence, which is rather a lot to expect from basic electrical wiring.ย
Upcoming appearance: Readercon!
Join me at Readercon (August 13-15, 2021), which'll be online and running for the low weekend price of $25 this year. Join me at Readercon (August 13-15, 2021), gone virtual and running for the low weekend price of $25 this year. It's a conference on imaginative literature that focuses almost exclusively on the written work, and I've loved it for years.
Issue 23, containing: Commonplaces, &c.
Strangely, it turns out that my capacity for original words does eventually reach a limit. I've been working on a (very late) chapter for my editor, and the whole of my thought has been turning toward it, even while the weather improves, new people are met, and the housing market turns weird. Things I'd like to spend time noodling out here are instead being transmuted into fiction.
New short story: “DEMON FIGHTER SUCKS”
I have a new short story out from Apex Magazine, "DEMON FIGHTER SUCKS".
Issue 22, containing: Odd Housemates, Syllabub, Letters, Commonplaces, &c.
April is a cruellish month, forgoing lilacs in this dead land and therefore being not much fun.ย