"The Big So-So" Now in Audio; Classes at PCC!

Pleased to report that my short story "The Big So-So," originally published late last year in Interzone, is now out in audio on Escape Pod! This is a story very close to my heart, as discussed in the story notes, and I'm happy to see it released to a wider audience (the text is also there if you prefer to read it). And if you like this story, there will be another one set in the same world out in the Kickstarter anthology A Punk Rock Future sometime next year, as well as a novella that is currently in the early editing stage. Fight the entropy of a world gripped by drug-withdrawal-induced ennui with a maybe-magical garage band straight outta Pittsburgh.

Also, I'm teaching another round of my six-week "Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing" adult extension class at Portland Community College. It will run on Saturday mornings from January 26 through March 9, 2019 (with the week of February 23 skipped due to Rainforest Writers Retreat -- put it on your calendar for 2020!), and will be back at the Southeast Campus. You can register here, or email me at the link at the PCC site for more information.

See you in hell, 2018!

Story Notes: "Like Fleas on a Tired Dog's Back"

It's been a while! About five months, to be exact. In that time I've finished one instantly trunked novella, one short story, and another novella that is my heart's true joy. I also had two short stories published which I'm going to talk about now!

Interzone no. 275 includes my flash story "The Fate of the World, Reduced to a Ten-Second Pissing Contest," which is the third-longest story title I've ever written. It's a nasty little story about (of course) aliens who make life pretty difficult for a handful of barflies. You can get it and four other stories at the link, one of which ("The Purpose of the Dodo Is to Be Extinct" by Malcolm Devlin) is one of the best stories I've read this year. So you might want to get this issue for that story alone.

The other story, "Like Fleas on a Tired Dog's Back," isn't officially published yet; it will be in the anthology Nowhereville from Broken Eye Books. However, if you don't want to wait you can read it right now! Eyedolon Magazine is a Patreon-based dark/weird fiction publication where you can read stories slated to appear in Nowhereville and many other anthologies! Sign up here for as little as $1 a month and read my story along with all-new work from Kathe Koja, Lucy A. Snyder, Bogi Takács, and Ramsey Campbell.

After her parents are thrown from their car, killed by a moment of planetary betrayal, Megan comes back to the city where she grew up.

The city is of course Pittsburgh, and our planet is pissed off at humanity, just because we destroyed it. Go figure. Earth only has a moment to get its revenge, but it does it in style, creating a catastrophe that spans the globe and leaves aftershocks of both the physical and psychological kind. Humans attempt to survive using technology, but modern-day band-aids aren't going to fix things this time.

Obviously this is a climate change story, based on the Gaia hypothesis. A few months before I wrote it, I read an article about a parasite that makes you allergic to red meat, which made me wonder if the Earth has fail-safes: mechanisms that kick into action when its survival is threatened, that slant the behavior of humans toward ways more befitting to the planet's health. The idea of the Earth suddenly waking up and shaking off its human parasites like the fleas we are was just so appealing. This is also a sibling story, with the bond between Megan and her brother Kyle alternately strained and close in the wake of mass revenge.

Anyway, I hope you read it, either on Eyedolon Magazine or in the Nowhereville anthology when it comes out. I've been exploring climate change in many of my recent not-yet-published pieces, although really, that's just called setting something in the real world now. Watch out for the firenados!

Two Great Kickstarters

There's a couple of Kickstarters running this month that you all should be aware of, and here's a little bit about two of them!

First up is the Kickstarter for Welcome to Miskatonic University and its companion book It Came from Miskatonic University by Broken Eye Books, two anthologies about college life in Arkham's hallowed educational institution. If funded to the $17,500 level, It Came from Miskatonic University will include a co-written story by me and my spouse/in-house editor Rob McMonigal called "The Last Observer." Although Rob has been editing my work since 2012 (when I got my head out of my ass and started writing again), this is our first time tag-teaming on a story, and I really hope it sees print. The books also feature work by Angela Slatter, Jennifer Brozek, Kristi DeMeester, and many other horror and weird fiction authors. There's a lot of different book levels and goodies available for rewards, including a critique by me of any work of fiction up to 10,000 words in length. You can support the Kickstarter here!

There's also a Kickstarter running for two more years of The Dark. Publishers of quality unsettling fiction for the past several years, The Dark features a wide variety of diverse writers, with over half of the published stories being by women and over a third by people of color. Some of my favorite stories from the past few years of The Dark have been Carrie Laben's "Postcards from Natalie" (which won the Shirley Jackson Award!), "Five Boys Went to War" by Amanda E. Forrest, and "The House That Jessica Built" by Nadia Bulkin. My own quantum suicide story "Lucky Girl" appeared in the September 2017 issue. This Kickstarter also has a reward tier that includes a critique by me (again up to 10,000 words). Support The Dark at this link!