New Stories: Intergalactic Medicine Show, Cats in Space

IGMS story art by Andres Mossa

My short story "The Species of Least Concern" is now available to read at Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show... if you're a subscriber. But hey, check out that art! This is a somewhat hard SF story about agribusiness run amok and deceptively adorable artificial animals, featuring a disabled protagonist in a futuristic corporate-controlled Kansas. It'll be temporarily unlocked for subscribers in two months, but if you want to read it now, subscribe! I hope to have story notes for this one in a bit.

And because these things always come in clumps, the short anthology Cats in Space, which includes my story "A Slow, Constant Path," is now available in hard copy from Paper Golem Press. See link here. What happens when human beings revolt on a spaceship staffed by talking robo-cats with electronic brains? Obviously, nothing good. Also includes stories by Jody Lynn Nye and Beth Cato, among others.

In other writing news, I am thirty percent of the way through the final ever pass through my novel. (Well, not counting the passes an agent or publisher will do. Let's not even think about those.) It's an excruciating process, to put it lightly. But so near the end(ish)!

New Story at Escape Pod, New Classes at PCC

My short story "The Silent Ones," originally published in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, is now available for free reading and listening at Escape Pod! Here's a sample:

Not everything happens all the time, everywhere. 

That’s the first line on every bit of literature dealing with the alternate worlds. Want to visit a world where the triple World Wars never happened? You can. Want to see a place where computers run on steam power and even the horses wear corsets? Go for it. 

This makes sense in context.

Or you can just muck about in a world full of beautiful hillbillies or debauched Atlanteans. That’s more your personal speed, anyway. 

Most of the planes open for travel aren’t that different from your world. The atmosphere has to be breathable, at least, and it’s helpful if the inhabitants are roughly human, and mostly your size. Nothing will destroy a plane’s Yelp rating quite like a tourist crushed by forty-foot-tall giants. 

Nobody stays in an alternate world for long. The languages aren’t remotely learnable, and the social structures are often even denser. But it sure beats a week at Grand Cayman! 

You keep the glossy travel brochures in your nightstand. Sometimes you fan them out, a little universe. And only fifteen days of vacation a year, you think wistfully.

Also, I have TWO classes upcoming at Portland Community College this summer! Here are the details:

First, it's the inaugural TEEN SF/F writing workshop, a four-day class where students aged 12-17 can learn the finer points of writing fantastical literature, receive feedback from their classmates, and most importantly have fun!:

Title: Teen Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop
Dates: July 14, 16, 21, and 23, 2015 (Tuesdays and Thursdays)
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:20 PM
Location: Southeast Center, 2305 SE 82nd Ave.
Cost: $65
Note: Please bring pen and paper or a computer to class.

I'm also teaching another adult SF/F writing class:

Title: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Dates: July 11 through August 1, 2015 (Saturdays)
Time: 10:00 AM - 11:50 AM
Location: Southeast Center, 2305 SE 82nd Ave.
Cost: $55

Hope to see you there!