It's a Jumble

"Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind." --Tara Westover, from her memoir, Educated . 

October is here, first drizzly and gray, now bright but sharp with cold. It’s time to bundle up in sweaters, make stews and soups, and cuddle with good stories and a cup of tea. Here to keep you company are some stories I loved from late summer and the earliest fall. Stories of darkness, healing, love, and passion “The Last Epic Pub Crawl of the Brothers Pennyfeather” by L. Chan in The Dark Chan is one of the most wildly inventive writers I know, and this story shows off his pyrotechnics of imagination, his poetic language and humor. . . as well as a delicacy of emotion that is all the more powerful for its restraint. Bob and Bill are the Brothers Pennyfeather, a duo of ghost hunters/exorcists who have been trained in their Work by their mother. After a job gone terribly wrong and mutual absence, the brothers reunite for one last epic pub crawl. Creepy ghosts abound at each pub they visit, and brotherly snark and banter enliven the night. But there’s something much ...

My story, "The Things That We Will Never Say" was translated into Vietnamese! The translation is now out in the Vietnamese science fiction fanzine, SFVN, translated by Long Nguyen, and you can check it out here . This is perhaps one of the coolest things I've yet had happen as a writer. I can't read or understand a word of Vietnamese, but it's thrilling to know that my story is now available to readers in a different language. The layout of the magazine is just gorgeous--check it out! In other self-promo news: My latest story, “The House of Illusionists” in Liminal Stories , has been getting some very kind comments. It was featured in the Barnes and Noble Science Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog , and it has now also been listed on the Nebula Reading List! “The Things That We Will Never Say” is on the Nebula Reading List list this year, as well! And finally: The lovely writer Francesca Forrest has a new novelette out today, The Inconvenient God, p...