A. Merc Rustad's Blog: Robots With Keyboards

I’m delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of Carlie St. George’s short story collection, You Fed Us To the Roses! Featuring ten contemporary dark fantasy and horror stories, You Fed Us to the Roses: Stories will be released October 18, 2022 from Robot Dinosaur Press.

Pre-order now!

“You Fed Us To the Roses is a book that presses Scream Queens against Riverdale and says “now bite!” A dizzying journey through a world you will recognize, populated by people you’ve likely met—because they are you, and me, and all of us. A treat, a nightmare.”

—E. Catherine Tobler, author of the Nebula-nominated The Necessity of Stars

cover art by Evangeline GallagherAbout the Book

Final girls who take care of each other. Dead boys still breathing. Ghosts who whisper secrets you can never share. Angels beyond the grave, yet not of heaven. Wolves who wear human skins.

Featuring ten contemporary dark fantasy and horror stories, You Fed Us To the Roses is a visceral, triumphant collection by Carlie St. George that you won’t want to miss.

Stop by for the murder…and stick around for the feels.

The artwork is by the incredible artist Evangeline Gallagher! Just LOOK at that cover, how fricking awesome is it?! It has all the vibes of the stories collected inside, and more.

I had the absolutely pleasure of acquiring and editing Carlie’s collection for Robot Dinosaur Press, and I cannot wait to share this with you all.

“Carlie St. George’s stories take you on a journey through anger, hurt, sorrow, and hope. They’re unsettling and hauntingly beautiful and speak of truths hidden just beneath the surface, daring you to look, asking you to understand. You Fed Us To the Roses is unforgettable.”

—Damien Angelica Walters, author of The Dead Girls Club and Cry Your Way Home

When I asked her thoughts about the collection, Carlie has this to say:

“The first obvious question while putting together any short story collection is this: 

How many stories documenting a deep and abiding interest in slashers can one realistically get away with? Is it 3? Because I have 3, and I’d rather like to keep them all. See also: werewolves, witches, found families, fairy tales, meaningful platonic relationships, and the occasionally soul-crushing battle that is trying to survive adolescence.

You Fed Us to the Roses is a collection of contemporary dark fantasy and horror, and I had a lot of fun putting it together. I mean. It’s a bit nerve-racking, honestly. But it’s pretty exciting, too, creating a new home for all my final girls, dead girls, psychics, and sidekicks. 

Feel free to stop by for the murder, and stick around for the Feels.”

About the Author

Carlie St. George is a Clarion West graduate from Northern California who sleeps during the day, works at night, and thinks entirely too much about TV, fairy tales, and horror movies. Her short fiction has been previously published in Strange Horizons, Nightmare, and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, among other anthologies and magazines. Find her chatting about writing, Star Trek, and other random nonsense on her blog mygeekblasphemy.com or at her Twitter @MyGeekBlasphemy.

Follow Carlie and Robot Dinosaur Press on twitter for updates and more exciting news. (Let me tell you, the hardback and paperback editions—which will be pre-orderable in a couple months—are utterly sumptuous works of art. I’ll have pictures to share soon!)

I wrote this out of sheer frustration just now; no idea what to do with it, probably shouldn’t post it, but you know what, fuck it. My brain is like this all the time. It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. I wish it was quieter in here.

(I added gifs to break up the tedium of text. Because while maybe not mentioned, I am always picturing gifs.)

You wake up to your alarm.

Your dreams were wild, as usual (you were Venom seeing The Avengers in a theater, but then had to go steal and inflatable car to escape a horse ranch that was a front for time loop generating weapons used by bad guys).

You start humming your alarm sound (just in your head) five minutes after you turned off the app on your phone. You start getting ready for work. Forget your phone in the bathroom.

gif of Homer Simpson getting a pot of coffee poured into his mouth

Dig through the clean, unsorted laundry that has been in this basket for a week. Try to remember where you put your belt. Check your phone for any texts. Get distracted putting on socks by playing Pokemon GO. Cat needs food, so you escort him downstairs. Forgot your glasses upstairs. Grab those. Where are the keys? Should probably eat a snack before leaving. Open the fridge. Forget what you were looking for. Still mentally looping the alarm sounds from earlier, annoyed at yourself for that. Try to think of a different sound. Random pop song comes on in the radio station installed in your brain. You HATE this song. Fuck. Oh, right, you need to go to work.

Find your keys. Put on your jacket. Get out the door only to realize you forgot your mask (again). Go back inside. Pet the cat. Find your mask. Get in the car. Forgot you were going to eat a snack. Too late now, you’re already running behind. Maybe coffee? But that will make you later. But you really want it.

You put on an audiobook (this one is about the history of beer) because it’s both background noise and also allows just enough focus so you process the information while not being distracted driving. You remember you were going to get coffee as you pass a sign on the highway. Welp, you may have time after you get to work.

a small penguin with a hat and briefcase walking fast

Park in the ramp, put your keys in your pocket. Immediately check your pocket because what if you forgot to put the keys in there? Nope, you’re good. Head into work. Goddamn pop songs on the overhead speakers in the lobby. Now that one about “fight song, take back my life song” is stuck in your head. Get to the office. Log into work computer. Still want coffee. Check the time. Okay, not bad. Check your phone. Ooh, you should spin the nearby Pokestop. Oh, and feed your buddy some berries. Crap, you need to go check on a room set-up. Okay, after this, seriously, coffee.

Randomly start playing the piano version of “Mein Herz Brennt” in your head. Thinking about emails you need to reply to. Oh, and you should probably check Slack. Also Twitter.

Get coffee (finally). See the snow outside. Reminded that you want to finish watching that episode of The Good Place. Maybe on lunch break. Food sounds good. You were going to get a snack. Sip some coffee. The noise levels in your head drop a couple notches when the caffeine hits. Ahh.

gif of The Good Place where Elenor sees the green text on the wall stating “Welcome! Everything is fine.”

Back in the office. Need to clean your glasses. Forgot where you put the case with lens cloth. Oh! Need to print some documents for an apt later. Thirsty, go get some water. Realize toes of work shoes are worn. That reminds you, expense reports are due. Oh, and you should probably look into getting new shoes.

Remember those dreams? Haha, those were wild. Makes you long to write some fiction. After work. The news is on in the break room (while you fill up your water cup). So depressing. Log into Twitter on your phone. GOD, even more depressing. Switch to Pokemon GO again. Ooh, a cute owl-thing!

Go back to the office. Forget you were in the middle of catching a Pokemon as you check your work email. Respond to one email. Clean up the inbox. Gotta do the daily tasks.

Oh, right, your glasses case is in your backpack. Still have that dumb pop song from earlier in your head. Try to drown it out with playlist songs on the laptop. Click through half a dozen songs before you play one. Really should clean up this playlist sometime.

a woman saying “…and it’s only noon.”

Did you reset the office wall clock? Gotta do that. Ooh, right, need to make sure there are printouts of diagrams for set-up later. Coworker tells you about this cool plugin; spend five minutes watching videos about it, it’s super cool.

Back to work. Breakfast? You’re hungry now. The caffeine has kicked in so you feel calmer, more relaxed and focused. Randomly remember you need an oil change. Get random lines from Peacemaker stuck in your head (the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid exchange). Spend a solid three minutes looping it while trying to remember what it’s FROM.

Close out the tabs for Waves Clarity VX (so cool). Organize the pens on your desk. Throw away some scrap paper. Need to clean out this stainless steel tumbler that has been on the desk for awhile. Got to remember to take it home and wash it. Actually, should go get more water first. (Paper cup.)

Food sounds really good. Gotta check an email. Nothing new. Okay, well, “Mein Herz Brennt” is still going (in your head). Love this version. Remember you got tickets to see Rammstein this summer. Got to put in the time off request for the next day.

It’s only 9:30am. You’ve been up since 5:30am. Still haven’t completed these work tasks that take, like, a minute. After food. Oh, got to remember to text your roommate about lunch plans. And got to clean the cat’s litter box when you get home.

Look at cat pics on your phone. Ooh, your buddy found a candy in Pokemon GO! Still not food. Maybe skip breakfast? Nah, then it will be harder to focus. Have the alarm sounds from this morning repeating in your head now. Dammit. Okay, turn on some music. That reminds you, you need to check the schedule to make sure you correctly updated everything for this week.

Oh snap, gotta do a couple tasks for secondary job. Really want to write today. Should finish reading this great non-fiction book too. Although playing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla when you get home is a lot more tempting. But first the cat litter. When you get home. Should probably get food.

Maybe more caffeine? It’s a Monday. Lack of sleep, DST bullshit. Totally justified.

Check twitter. Close twitter. Immediately open it up again. Close it. Check slack. Close it. Check email on your phone. Nothing new in the last thirty seconds. Thinking about clowns. IT Chapter 2 is back on HBO Max, maybe you’ll finish watching it. You should get a new planner. Work email is still quiet. Reminder to self: need to get a new key made, ask engineering to put in request.

Look at this braindump. WTF, right? How did you write this much in like 15 minutes? Time is weird. “Mein Herz Brennt” still in your head. Better than pop music. Gotta stop. Food is calling. It’s 9:38. You’re here until 2pm. Want a nap already. Maybe more caffeine.

gif of man hammering shelled peanuts on a table, with text “this is your brain”

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN EVERY FUCKING MOMENT OF EVERY DAY. The details (the noise) changes. The chaos doesn’t. It’s so loud. Even when you sleep. You gotta keep moving to get some quiet. Doesn’t always work.

Okay, going to get food now, for real. And also more coffee.

Update, I did get food. ^-^ And coffee.

Somehow there are only two weeks left of 2021 (wtf), so here’s a rundown of the stories I had published this year. I’d be honored if you check out my work and consider it for your ballots!

NOVELLA

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt (September 2021, Robot Dinosaur Press | dark fantasy | 32,000 words

Skythulf wants to live. Raised in the fight pits, trained to kill or be killed, he yearns for freedom that’s out of reach. He’s a scythewulf: a wolf-shifter considered neither fully man nor beast, his life worth nothing to his keepers…until Brennus, knight-champion of Saorlland, rescues him from certain death and offers him a new life.

When he mistakenly kills a corrupted nun, Skythulf has one chance to redeem himself and restore his honor. He must run with the Wild Hunt: an age-old trial of blood and courage, where every step hides peril and carnage. If he survives, he will be pardoned. If he fails, Brennus will die brutally at his side.

Few have ever returned from the fae-haunted land, where horrors unnamed dwell beside the enchanted and the damned. There is no rest, no relent, and no mercy.

In the Wild Hunt, you run or you die.

(NOTE: If you’re a SFWA member, the ebook is available to download in the forums!) 

SHORT STORIES

Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts (January 2021, Apex Magazine | dark fantasy | 5300 words)

The Machine Is Experiencing Uncertainty (April 2021, Escape Pod | science fiction | 5,000 words)

Steadyboi After the Apocalypse (December 2021, Friends for Robots: Short Stories, Robot Dinosaur Press | science fiction | 4,200 words)

The Loincloth and the Broadsword (December 2021, Friends for Robots: Short Stories, Robot Dinosaur Press | fantasy | 3,200 words)

NOTE: If you are an SFWA member, the original short stories from my collection will be available in the forum on release day (12/21/21)!

Thanks for reading, friends!

—Merc

I’m so excited to announce my forthcoming novella, The Wolf Among The Wild Hunt, a dark fantasy about a disgraced knight who must survive a night among the most deadly hunt ever known. The incredible cover artwork is by Asmo Grimae and there are six luscious b&w illustrations by Andrew Garin!

cover artwork by Asmo Grimae

Skythulf wants to live. Raised in the fight pits, trained to kill or be killed, he yearns for freedom that’s out of reach. He’s a scythewulf: a wolf-shifter considered neither fully man nor beast, his life worth nothing to his keepers…until Brennus, knight-champion of Saorlland, rescues him from certain death and offers him a new life. 

When he mistakenly kills a corrupted nun, Skythulf has one chance to redeem himself and restore his honor. He must run with the Wild Hunt: an age-old trial of blood and courage, where every step hides peril and carnage. If he survives, he will be pardoned. If he fails, Brennus will die brutally at his side.

Few have ever returned from the fae-haunted land, where horrors unnamed dwell beside the enchanted and the damned. There is no rest, no relent, and no mercy. 

In the Wild Hunt, you run or you die.

back cover preview

Available everywhere September 14th, 2021, and published under the Robot Dinosaur Press imprint (a subsidiary of Chipped Cup Collective).

Ebook (DRM-free)

Amazon

B&N (coming soon)

Google Books (coming soon)

Gumroad (coming soon)

Apple Books (coming soon)

Paperback

(coming soon)

If you’re a reviewer and would like an ARC (ebook/PDF only at this time), please email me here and I’ll be happy to provide you with a copy at the end of June.

Brains are weird and difficult. As an autistic writer-person with ADHD, my executive dysfunction is pretty boss-level. It’s frigging hard to combat; it’s physically exhausting, mentally frustrating, and emotionally draining.

Often times, I feel like I’m playing an RPG and I’ve encountered a locked door; I need wha’s on the other side, but I don’t have a key, and the game mechanics have literally made it impossible to get through the door any other way.

But where is the key? That’s the problem: nobody knows.

You ever have those days where you feel like you should be able to do something, like sending an email or doing an errand, but there’s a brick wall between your awareness of this need, and your brain’s ability to satisfy the need (aka Do The Thing)? The electron signals just can’t make it through this barrier. It’s not that you’re lazy or don’t want to—it’s that you can’t.

(gif of Hellboy (2004) saying “See, I don’t like that.”)

You may want to do it so badly it makes you sick with anxiety that you aren’t doing the thing…but your saving throws are natural 1s, you have no bonuses, and you get nowhere. There is a mechanic in place that will not let you pass this wall, however much you want to go through.

Sometimes you can decide that this door is just a bonus, a side-quest you don’t have to finish. But usually giving up is harder than running in place, stuck behind that locked door. At least when you’re running in place, you’re still doing something, even if it’s wasting energy and howling into the void.

(gif of Stitch, from Lilo & Stitch, banging his head against a wall)

As a level 30 warrior, you’re pretty good at smashing stuff with your battle axe. You can take on bandits and dragons and giants with no problem. Your armor is buffed and you can haul around a couple hundred wheels of cheese in your backpack if you want. Hell, your lockpicking skills aren’t too shabby either: you’ve got 99+ lockpicks and a couple of potions to boost your skill. Master locks on chests and gates to a dungeon may be a challenge, but they aren’t impossible.

So you’re bludgeoning your way through living skeletons, looting bookshelves, and you can even solve those goddamn puzzle doors without setting something on fire or getting shot full of poisoned darts. Up ahead you see a new door, just a plain wooden affair; you swagger up to it, confident you’ll be in the next room full of treasure and enemies in no time.

But this door is locked, and it requires a key.

You don’t have the key.

(“This lock cannot be picked. It requires a key.” Iron Door in Skyrim.)

Now, if this wasn’t a video game, maybe you—level 30 mighty warrior with a battle axe—could hack that door to kindling and move on. In the movies, heroes kick in locked doors all the time! How hard can it be?

But in this game, you have no way to get through that door unless you find the key. The mechanics simply will not allow you to pick the lock, break down the timbers, or find a way around through a hidden passage. You need a key. The game will not let you progress until you have it. There aren’t any cheat codes or hacks available to magically transport yourself to the other side of the door.*

*(Yes, I know there are mods for some games, and glitches happen, and patches are released to fix weird bugs. For the purpose of this analogy, pretend that you need the key to the door in any given situation.)

So where’s the key? Is it on an enemy? Hidden in a chest further back in the level? Somewhere else on the map entirely?

If you’ve played the game before, you may have found the key once and you know where to get it. But let’s say you don’t have that experience. After searching and searching, with no luck (because, let’s face it, sometimes these keys are infuriatingly hard to find) maybe you do a quick google search or watch some YouTube walk-throughs that guide you through the problem.

That key was on a table at the entrance to the dungeon! Great, now you have to walk all the way back to the beginning of the level map, grab the key, and make the tedious return journey to that locked door. It’s a lot of time, effort, and frustration at times.

However, once you get through the door, there’s a sweet loot chest: shiny armor, a magical new axe, and some awesome potions to revive you after the boss fight.

(Skyrim: a fighter with sword and shield battles a dragon )

The rewards behind that locked door may vary; sometimes it’s a helluva lot of work to find the key, too, so the reward isn’t as cost-effective. But there are advantages: next time you replay this game, you will know where to look!

On new levels, you might do some extra searching to see if you can find a key you may need later; perhaps you’ve bookmarked a wiki that walks through all specific dungeons types, so you know where to find answers when you get stuck. There’s nothing wrong with having a toolkit outside the game to help you play and minimize your frustration when you encounter obstacles.

(Talion standing before an Ithildin door in Middle-earth: Shadow of War)

I was lying in bed the other night, my brain spinning like the ambigious top in Inception, berating myself that I spent three hours playing video games instead of sending one email that I’d been putting off for days. It’s a two sentence email! Surely I, a bunch of anxiety stacked in a trenchcoat, could make a passble effort of adulting and send this email?

The internal dialogue went like this.

Me: It’s one email. We used to respond to dozens of emails at work every day.
Brain: No. Can’t.
Me: But why not?
Brain: YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH SKILL POINTS TO UNLOCK THIS FEAT.
Me:
Brain:
Me:
Brain: Also everyone thinks you are an absolute failure, just FYI.
Me: >_<

(Look, I know my brain is sometimes made of lies and I’m not an absolute failure; it’s just really inconvenient when my brain decides to fixate on this.)

(“No matching keycard” for I.T. supply closet in Prey)

Sometimes those locked doors that require a keycard are vital to the plot, or to getting that achievement.

Again, because of the mechanics—the way the game is programmed, its “brain”—you have no way to hack the system. You must abide by the rules in the game; you must acquire a keycard to enter this door.

Brains are basically the character menu: they hold the maps, the codex entries, the inventory list, the stats for your character, probably five billion random herbs you’ve collected, your active and finished quests (god, so many side quests…), books read, skill-set charts, and more.

You will probably get lost (basically 50% of any time spent playing a game is me getting lost), and that’s okay! Maps are confusing and directions are a lie, but either there will be clues or you can look it up—usually someone has found the answer and shared it for the other seekers. No judgment; we’ve banned asshole gamers from this post. If you need help, there is nothing wrong in seeking it—whether tips in-game or from a network elsewhere.

Because here’s the thing about game levels: you’re single-player, but you’re not alone. Most games have a logic to where the keys are found. You get a sense of where to look as you gain XP. If you can’t find it, someone else has probably faced this same situation and solved the puzzle, and will be happy to help you figure it out, too.

The trouble is, in life, sometimes there is no logic to finding the key. Maybe there’s a glitch. It’s floating over a mountaintop or you accidentally melted it for scrap and there was no warning to highlight that this action might be a BAD IDEA.

But the other thing about life is that there are many, many players out there documenting their playthrus. You can find a community, especially online, who have tips, tricks, and ideas on how to solve the unbreakable door puzzle.

(Room 302’s door from Silent Hill 4: The Room)

I started writing this post in early 2020, then forgot about it for a year, and in that interim, any idea what I was originally going to talk about (or how to wrap this up) has vanished from my head. Was there a point? Did I have some big revelation? I have no idea.

So let’s go with this: over the hellscape that was 2020, I have connected with so many folks who are also learning they have ADHD. I often see threads about overlap traits (ADHD and autism), ways executive dysfunction fucks you up, sometimes brain hacks to get around the things (like locked doors—we will fashion our own key!), and it’s incredibly validating. (Also painful, because yeeeeeep.)

There are resources people share; threads with links to other info and posts and videos and discussions; tweets about how lived experiences affect daily life in a neurotypical-centered world; writing-related discussions when one has ADHD. (Naturally I have not been functional enough to save links in accessible places so I have to trawl my twitter feed trying to find things. The links about are only a few grains of amazing stuff I’ve seen in, like, the last month.)

(gif of Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove saying “Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.”)

Everyone’s brain is unique and no singular solution will work for everyone. It’s a process to find the particular alchemical recipe that works for you. (Meds are great! Not everyone can access them or finds them effective! Don’t be a dick about this!)

For me, just realizing that the many doors in life likely have keys, and that there is a community out there willing to offer help and ideas on where to find the keys (or how to hack the lock or break down the door with cheat codes) has been a huge morale boost in the last year. Self-diagnoses are valid. Knowing that I, a person with terrible executive function, can turn to fellow brains and be like, “Yo, does anyone know where to find this key?” and most likely someone out there will be like, “This is where I found it in my playthru!” is a game-changer.

Doors will always exist. But if you need help finding a key, you aren’t alone. Together we’ll unlock the barriers and complete the quests.

(photo of my cat Tater Tot, an orange & white cat, flopped on his back with his feet in the air, lying in front of a closed door, with an open door in the background)

[Like what I’m doing? I have a Ko-Fi! Technically coffee relaxes me and helps me sleep—ahh yes, the wonders of an ADHD brain—but I find tea works much better in helping me focus. In which case, tips are for tea. :D]

2020 has been, without doubt, eighty-seven years and five lifetimes stacked in a trench coat. I had to look at my bibliography page to even remember what I had published this year, because time has no meaning and we exist in the gravity well of a black hole. Or so it feels!

[image error]gif of Doomguy fist-bumping a figurine of himself, from the DOOM (2016) videogame

But anyway, I did have several short stories published, and for those interested in considering my work for awards purposes (such as the Nebulas or Hugos), I’m flattered! And if you’re just here to read cool stories, I’M EVEN MORE EXCITED because I got you covered!

Each year on August 31st, author Cassandra Khaw invites people to celebrate by writing microfictions for other people (usually in the form of a prompt). It’s a wonderful tradition and so much fun to participate in! This year, I asked people to reply to me with a .gif and I would write them a tiny story in return. It’s a blast, writing these (and I get so many fabulous new gifs to add to my collection!)—and so I am collecting them all here for you to enjoy.

(A note that while I compiled these shortly after finishing the marathon, life events interupted; so a month later, I’m at last getting these properly formatted and collected here!)

The stories range from cuteness to horror, softness and creepiness. I’ve thus loosely corraled them by tone so you can read just what you feel like. Have fun!

Today is an exciting triple-release bookday!

I’m honored to have three stories out today, one in each of a three-book series edited by John Joseph Adams, Christie Yant, and Hugh Howey. This is a cool triptych: each author wrote a story for each book (pre-dystopia, current dystopia, end-dystopia) so each volume stands alone, but also creates a series of connected stories that build off each other if read in sequence.

I wrote a triptych about queer and trans people fighting against a horrible near-future U.S.

[image error][image error][image error](cover design by Inkspiral)

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (Book 1) – my story, “Trust In the Law, For the Law Trusts In You”

BURN THE ASHES (Book 2) – my story, “Believe In the Law, For the Law is All”

OR ELSE THE LIGHT (Book 3) – my story, “The Law Is the Plan, the Plan is Death”

(cw: my stories contain gun violence, domestic abuse, mass shootings, suicide, and death threats towards trans people; the focus is on how society and government silences and punishes queer & trans people, so there is a lot of darkness in these pages. But I promise each has a positive ending.)

I’m super proud of these stories, and it was a delight to work with the editors to craft this set of tales about resistance, defiance, and triumph in the face of evil.

RISE UP. RESIST. We don’t let the bastards win.

I thought of using a catchier title, but honestly when I went searching for lists with similar keywords, I got a bunch of “how to write” and “what is second person,” and since you obviously know what 2nd POV is.

Well, well, well…we meet post again. As the new awards cycles roll around (a perpetual motion machine of author anxiety) it is time to do a recap of what I had published last year! Which was a fair amount and I am super proud of all the stories! Yay words! ^_^

A note: stories in print anthologies will be listed under a previous name (A. Merc Rustad), but as of July 2019, I write under the name Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, so please do use that one when listing me as an author. Thank you!

Novelette



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With Teeth Unmake the Sun

Lightspeed Magazine

January 2019
8300 words
science fiction

a story about a world-eating wolf, their undying lover, gods and rebellion, chaos and lies. part of the Sun Lords of the Principality series on Lightspeed.

Short Stories



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Our Aim Is Not To Die

A People’s Future of the United States
(ed. by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams)

February 2019
5800 words
science fiction

a story about Sua, an autistic non-binary student, who chooses to help their best friend and an AI entity rebel against a totalitarian regime. near SF dystopia about gender politics, bodily autonomy, and art in defiance of tyranny.

[image error]
The Judith Plague

Do Not Go Quietly
(ed. by Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner)

April 2019
4500 words
science fiction/horror

a story about androids, Hollywood, 80’s slasher/monster movies, bodily politics, and ridding the world of men who would abuse those without power.

[image error]
Through Dark and Clearest Glass

Unlocking the Magic
(ed. by Vivian Caethe)

May 2019
6500 words
fantasy

a story about a non-binary priest haunted by the ghost of a man they accidentally killed; depression, friendship, mental health advocacy, redemption, and magic.

[image error]
Sweet Dreams Are Made of You

Nightmare Magazine,

September 2019
2200 words
horror

a story about a virtual reality game (game’s haunted), consent, and the terror of sleep and dreams. (Do you want to play Vore?)

[image error]
Break Free This Ground

Twitter / Strange Horizons (fund drive backer reward)

December 2019
1100 words
fantasy

when the earth insists you belong only to the ground, but you are made of air and want to fly, how far do you go to be your true self?

Short stories and novelettes are eligible for nomination in the Nebula Awards (science fiction and fantasy), the Hugo Awards (science fiction and fantasy), and the Shirley Jackson Awards (dark fiction, horror).

I would be honored to have any of my stories considered for your ballot, and as always, thank you SO much for reading and for your support. Happy 2020, everyone!