So this year I had a baby.
And so I can now say from personal experience to all those who have called their stories their “babies”: OMG ARE YOU F-IN KIDDING ME??!?!?! My stories never woke me up overnight every 60-90 minutes, crying for feeding/diaper change/cuddling, and even if they did I could’ve shouted, “Leave me alone, story!” and rolled over and gone back to sleep. BECAUSE LET ME TELL YOU, it’s pretty much impossible to write anything coherent when you are running on 3 hours of sleep at night that come in 1 to 1.5 hour chunks, meaning that (at least according to one’s Fitbit) you got AT BEST 20 minutes of deep sleep. So if my stories ever had the gall to try to make me function on 3 hours of sleep for weeks on end, you can bet that I would’ve abandoned writing entirely.
Sleep, y’all. It’s important.
(No I have not abandoned my baby, and I am now averaging at least 6.5-7 hours of sleep in 3-5 hour chunks, TYVM. It’s better.)
Anyway, since my stories are certainly not my babies, it is perhaps disingenuous to entitle this whole post “Things What I Gave Birth To: An Awards Eligibility Post,” but whatever, my creativity is not yet wholly up to par, and this was an excuse to show off my cute baby. (Also, she is related to the topic because I tell her all the time that she’d win the Cutest Baby Award. Though I admit to her that I’m biased and a panel of impartial judges might not agree. To which I’d then reply they’re CLEARLY WRONG, but whatever.)
Anyway, I had fiction published in 2019, and it is all eligible for awards the short fiction category if one is so inclined to nominate! In order of publication:
Wordslinger Wordwreaker, Cast of Wonders, 3/28/19
A weird-western-ish story in which a wordslinger battles the man who’d killed her sister. (I am very partial to this one, and if you have time for only one thing, I’d say please read or listen to this.)
The Second Julia, Daily Science Fiction, 4/2/19
A flash piece. Features a robot created to replace a woman’s wife and familial strife (rhyming intentional, but unlike “Wordslinger,” rhyming isn’t a feature of the story).
Love, Death, and Printed Burgers, Future Science Fiction Digest 6/15/19
A sentient burger printer struggles with the potential loss of its beloved pet.
I Send My Tower Walking, Fireside Quarterly, October 2019 (online publication December 2019)
My flash take on Rapunzel. Link (as long as I don’t forget because Baby) forthcoming when it goes live online.
Unto the Next, The Twisted Book of Shadows, October 2019 (available at Amazon Barnes and Noble Powell’s)
Two young teens, a haunted house, and some Mom issues.
Please to enjoy!
And bonus baby picture.
