I am grinning so hard here. I just found out I sold my story, “The Rainbow Flame,” to Uncanny magazine, which is such an amazing publication. I’m honored!
The editors pushed me to take it just one tiny bit further before they accepted the piece, and I think the story’s definitely better for their guidance. I can’t wait to share it with you!
Read MoreHappy new year, everyone (at least per the Gregorian calendar). I am peeking out of my warm and cozy writing nest to announce that my first published poem, “The Nagini’s Night Song,” about a nagini (half-serpent, half-human being from Hindu and Buddhist mythology) is now available!
Read MoreI’m happy to share a few cool things with you before I go out to run some errands. (A writer’s life–so very glamorous.)
First, I’ve sold a couple poems to Mythic Delirium, “The Nagini’s Night Song” and “Star Fishing,” for publication in 2015. I’m super excited about this! I used to think I could never write poetry, and then . . . Don’t worry, I’ll definitely let you know when they’re out.
Read MoreFutures & Fairy Tales: A Kaleidoscope of Diverse Adventures
For this fabulous night of sf/fantasy, we’re combining two groups of authors into one big YA event! The Futures & Fairy Tales Tour comes to Philadelphia with Claire Legrand (Winterspell), Sarah Fine (Of Metal and Wishes), and Sarah Raasch (Snow Like Ashes), presenting books inspired respectively by The Nutcracker and The Phantom of the Opera, and another that’s described as “Game of Thrones meets Graceling.”
Read MoreYou can buy Kaleidoscope today! I’m so excited; I’ve been waiting to share my color vampire story with you for a while, and now I can. It’s a story about hunger and art and sisters and belonging. And eating colors, of course.
Read MoreHi, everyone! I hope you’re having a good summer (or winter, depending on where you are). I am, though it’s flying by. I’ll tell you why below, but first, some news!
I recently had my first ever poem sale—“The Nagini’s Night Song,” to issue 1.3 of Mythic Delirium! I could not be more excited about this and am super grateful to C.S.E. Cooney, Julia Rios, and Mike Allen for their editorial guidance. I can’t wait to share it with all of you.
Read MoreSometimes you write short stories about color vampires and sleeping beneath blankets of sea, sometimes you critique other people’s equally odd and wonderful stories, and sometimes, well, sometimes you apply for writing workshops and find out you got in.
In other words, I’ve been accepted to Viable Paradise XVIII!
Read MoreI’m so delighted to announce that my short story “Krishna Blue” will be in the amazing lineup of the forthcoming YA speculative fiction anthology Kaleidoscope. Check it out below!
(Yay, wonderful diverse fiction that isn’t just about being diverse!)
This story is particularly dear to my heart; I began it in 2006 at Clarion, when I had the idea of an artist who eats colors, and then I kept rewriting it over the years until I finally got it right.
Read MoreAspiring novelist and fellow Sirens Conference goer Artemis Grey invited me to take part in the My Writing Process blog tour, and though I normally don’t do memes, Artemis is too awesome to refuse. So here are my answers to four questions.
Read MoreIt’s been a long, especially challenging winter in my part of the world, and even though spring has sprung, we’re still dealing with cold weather and the threat of yet more snow. I spent a lot of it feeling blue and trapped beneath my electric blanket. But nothing can stop the crocuses from popping their purple heads out of the ground, just as nothing can stop the light from growing longer every day. Happy things, these.
Read MoreI am committed to living a magical, creative life. I’m a writer, as you know. Writing’s not always easy, and I don’t do it as regularly as I wish, but I am a writer, and I make stories. But there are other ways creativity manifests in my life, and I want to talk about them now.
Read MoreOne of the greatest things about the Internet is the ability to talk honestly about life, to make yourself vulnerable and know you might be helping someone in the process. I can’t count the times seeing someone tell their truth has let me know I wasn’t alone. That affirmation, especially in this age of social media, where it seems like everyone else has found the secret to a perfect golden life—well, it’s a balm for my heart and a reining-in of my depressive tendencies.
So let me tell you a secret, and maybe it’ll help you, too.
Read MoreSo I have two exciting things to kick off this October:
First, my dear, dear friend Jennifer Walkup is officially a published novelist! Her debut YA paranormal, Second Verse, is out in the world as of yesterday, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. It turned out so beautifully, just as beautiful as the words inside. I got to watch this go from an early draft I critiqued to a final book, and I feel like a proud auntie. Go forth and get yourself a copy!
Read MoreHello, hello! Life’s been here and there and everywhere, but today I’m back on the blog with a treat for you. Copper artist and debut author Clovia Shaw has graciously agreed to write a guest post about what inspired her to write her new urban fantasy novel, Nogitsune.
Lincoln Black is nogitsune–a “field fox” cast aside by his family, an outsider among the hidden community of American kitsune descended from the shapeshifting fox-wives of Japanese folklore. When a curse pushes his harmless taste for his lovers’ vital energy toward monstrous, uncontrollable hunger, Linc is forced back to the one place he’d—almost—rather die than go for help: home.
Read MoreI’m super excited to be going to Readercon (www.readercon.org) for the first time! It’s a fun convention for people who love books, and it takes place in the Boston/Burlington, MA area from 11 to 14 July. Four whole days of talking to awesome people, eating good food, thinking about books, and generally having a blast! Some friends I can’t wait to see again, and others I’ll be meeting for the first time.
Here’s my schedule, in case you’re in the area. Hope to see you!
Read MoreSpring! Hooray, it’s spring (even if a bit of chill lingers like a unwanted memory of winter, haunting and gray around the edges but fading with each day that passes). And with spring comes the need to wake up, stretch, and refresh the creative spirit with movement. Like the purple crocuses dotting my lawn, I find myself eager to rise from my winter hibernation, tilt my head skyward, and greedily drink up every cheery yellow ray of the sun.
Read MoreI’ve basically fallen off the face of the earth lately, thanks to freelance deadlines and other things, but I am thrilled to be back long enough to share some wonderful news with you. My dear, dear friend Jennifer Walkup has been given the go-ahead to share the cover for her debut YA novel Second Verse.
I read Second Verse while it was in draft form, and I’m super excited for this wonderful part ghost story, part thriller to appear on shelves this October, just in time for Halloween!
From Friday’s fortune cookie: “Through greater effort and hard work a precious dream comes true.”
That could not have come at a better time!
I’m feeling a bit at loose ends right now, since along with eating Chinese food on Friday, I also finished the final pass of my novel Sipping the Moon and sent out my first batch of queries to literary agents. (Eek!) Wow, I can’t believe it’s finally at that stage. I’d worked on the novel since 2007, tossing out drafts and starting over until it finally felt book shaped and the best I could make it. So now it’s time to trust, to go read other people’s words, and to write more of my own.
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