Apocalypse... Now!

It's release day!!! How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters, my first collection, is now available in nearly every online store you can name, which are all helpfully collected on this page. Copies ordered through Fairwood Press are already on their way to readers. You can also ask your local bookstore or library to order it, and I hope you do because libraries are great!

Having a short fiction collection has been a dream of mine for a long time. While I've had two longer things published (Stay Crazy and Busted Synapses, please buy/read/review those as well kthx), short stories are where I started and honestly where I feel most at home, inasmuch as I feel at home with anything related to writing lately. I really think these stories are the best thing I've ever done, and I hope some other people like it too.

But wait, there's more: I'll be at OryCon 42 this coming weekend (November 12-14, 2021), along with Patrick Swenson of Fairwood Press (who, yes, will have copies of my collection and many other great books!). Here's where I'll be if you want to come say hi:

 
Writing Short Fiction
Friday, November 12, 2021, 4:00 PM, Jantzen Room
A detailed look into the unique craft of creating original worlds in fantasy, sci-fi, and the paranormal. Whenever a writer begins a story, their goal is to take the reader to places they’ve never been before. What are some essential questions one needs to ask themselves about their world? Learn the various techniques to make worlds as original as possible. We will also discuss how to research, plot, and develop a setting.

Worldbuilding 101
Friday, November 12, 2021, 5:00 PM, White Stag Room

A detailed look into the unique craft of creating original worlds in fantasy, sci-fi, and the paranormal. Whenever a writer begins a story, their goal is to take the reader to places they’ve never been before. What are some essential questions one needs to ask themselves about their world? Learn the various techniques to make worlds as original as possible. We will also discuss how to research, plot, and develop a setting.

Be a Writer? Yes, You Can!
Friday, November 12, 2021, 7:00 PM, White Stag Room
If you've been dreaming of writing fiction, but you've struggled to finish your first project--or worse, gotten crushed by rejections!--this is the panel for you. Learn from experienced writers how to get going, keep going, and believe in yourself.

Autograph Session
Saturday, November 13, 2021, 1:00 PM, Art Show Foyer

All Planets Are Not Monocultural
Saturday, November 13, 2021, 6:00 PM, Pendleton Room
We get it, lazy writers and movie makers give you an entire ice planet that is somehow inhabitable. Or a jungle that goes on forever. Earth is not a mono-culture, why should your SF worlds be? We'll talk geography and how the terrain will impact your politics and biology for your aliens.

Reading
Sunday, November 14, 2021, 11:00 AM, Overton Room

Hope to see you there!

HOW TO GET TO APOCALYPSE AND OTHER DISASTERS Blurbs, Giveaway, and More!

My debut collection How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters comes out in a month! And to celebrate, I'm giving away at least one and possibly two paper ARCs. Just fill out this survey with your contact information and your favorite fictional apocalypse. Due to international shipping costs and the fact that the last few things I sent overseas I can't ship a print ARC out of the United States, but I can send an eARC if you win (or hell, just if you ask nicely).

In the meantime, you can still pre-order H2G2A&OD directly from Fairwood Press, as well as at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books2Read (digital), and my local bookstore Powell's! If you use Goodreads, you can add it to your to-read list, or post a review if you have an eARC. And if you're a reviewer who's interested in getting an eARC, email me at satifka at gmail dot com!

Here's some more stuff that people have been saying about my collection with the very long title:

"The stories in Satifka's debut collection are inventive and gritty, bleak and satirical, hilarious and horrifying. Her work is reminiscent of Philip K. Dick at his best in revealing the struggles and resilience of everyday people caught up in the machinery of the future."

— Tim Pratt, author of Prison of Sleep and the Axiom series 

"Satifka is one of the most exciting writers around and still sadly under the radar. Her mordant stories grapple with technology and society in a way that brings to mind the cyberpunk greats. The tales in her first collection range from a grim story of dead children turned into flesh puppets for a TV show to an incredibly effective response to Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."

— Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic

"Satifka (Busted Synapses) presents 23 strange and captivating stories about the end of the world. None of these endings call for rains of fire and brimstone. Instead, these apocalypses are most often brought about by extraterrestrials, and the tales explore a wide variety of human-alien relationships . . . displaying wide-ranging creativity. Fans of speculative fiction are sure to be pleased."

— Publishers Weekly

 

And while I'm not sure of my schedule yet, I'm definitely going to be at OryCon 42 the weekend after my book release, and there'll be copies there! So lots of ways to get a copy of H2G2A&OD in the very near future.

Coming Soon-ish: HOW TO GET TO APOCALYPSE AND OTHER DISASTERS (My First Collection!)

Today is my book conception day! How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters, my first collection, will be released in November 2021 by Fairwood Press! Here's the description from the website:

The apocalypse can take many forms. Possibly our end will come by way of an addictive cell phone game that manipulates its users into a crowd-sourced mass murder. Or perhaps our downfall involves aliens drugging us into bliss and then taking it away. Maybe it'll be technological redundancy that leaves loved ones without a purpose, or corporations replacing the natural world with creatures more amenable to market pressure.

All these apocalypses and many more can be found in Erica L. Satifka's debut collection, which gathers together twenty-three short stories from the past decade, including from Clarkesworld,,Lightspeed, Interzone, and The Dark.

While I've published one and a half novels, my first writing love and main focus has always been short stories and it's been my forever dream to have a collection. And Fairwood Press was at the top of my dream publisher list, having put out many of my favorite collections over the past decade. So needless to say, I'm thrilled in ways mere pixels can't express.

So what's inside? HTGTAAOD contains twenty-one of my previously published stories from such venues as Interzone, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Shimmer, as well as two or three original stories, one of which will be set in the Busted Synapses universe.

You can/should pre-order How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters on the Fairwood Press site. If you're a reviewer and want to get an advance review copy, please also get in touch! I am really excited about this collection, and I hope that you will be too!