It's a Jumble

  Some updates: (1) I’m delighted to say that I am now a book reviewer for Locus Magazine ! My first review appeared in the May 2026 issue, for S.L. Huang's brilliant novella, The Language of Liars. It's about an adorably nerdy (and naive) linguist who infiltrates a mysterious alien race to try to understand their secrets. It's a tautly plotted spy-thriller mystery, and also a sharp and devastating meditation on exploitation, greed, and the power of language.  Here's a screenshot of part of my review below! You can buy the full issue here . Book and short story reviews eventually appear online some time after print publication. I'm delighted to be writing for such a storied publication, the trade journal of the science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction field. I'm also delighted that one of my own stories, "Lotus Dew for the Emperor's Tea," got a shout-out from short fiction reviewer Maria Haskins in her column in the same issue.  (2) Dovetai...

  January 1. A new year. Time to look forward. . . and on this day, a day of quietness and family for me, also a day to look back at the year before.   In terms of professional writing and publishing, 2022 was perhaps my most outwardly successful so far. I published in high-profile, dream markets. I had my first stories narrated in podcasts! I sold a collection of stories. I tried new things that scared me—including my first foray into the personal essay form. Along the way, I made new friends and contacts and had fun.   Some things that happened in 2022, to remind me when I’m feeling down: Published “An Address to the Newest Disciples of the Lost Words”  in Lightspeed Magazine, January 2022 (3357 words).  “Before We Drown”  in The Future Fire, January 2022 (flash fiction, ~1000 words). “Once on a Midsummer’s Night”  In GigaNotoSaurus, February 2022 (~7500 words). “The Bones Beneath”  in Podcastle Magazine, June 2022 (5659 word...

I am late with this, as with everything these days. I had only one piece of fiction published this year: “Taiya,” which appeared in the fall in The Future Fire . But this one piece has received more attention than any other short story I’ve written. It’s received some wonderful reviews. Maria Haskins and A.C. Wise both featured it in their recommendations . It’s listed in the 2017 Nebula Suggested Reading List. And today I found out that it’s also featured on The Book Smugglers website in “12 Short Stories as New Year’s Resolutions.”  (Click on those lists above, please. They feature amazing, amazing authors and works that I love, and I am still stunned to be listed alongside them.) It means so much to me that “Taiya” has gotten this attention. It means so much to me that this story resonates with people. This was one of those stories from the heart; this was the first story which truly scared me to write. I described some of its inspirations and background, an...

So last month we went to Hawaii. We flew from Michigan to Honolulu. We stayed in a hotel on Waikiki Beach and on our third day there we saw this.  It's a double rainbow! Look closely for the second, fainter rainbow to the right.  We walked under rainbow shower trees and by flowering plumeria, among the luxury stores and high-end glitz of Waikiki. We kept going back to the Japanese food court across the street from our hotel. There, we stuffed ourselves on Japanese curry (tonkatsu with curry is the best), musubis, and ramen the likes of which we have never ever had here in the Midwest. Rainbow shower tree in Waikiki Japanese food so good, we just kept going back We used Lyft for the first time and discovered that Lyft drivers are often very colorful characters. Husband and I were particularly taken with the man who was sooo excited to tell us all about his start-up business developing customized cannabis-d...

I have been listening to sad songs in languages I cannot understand. It started when I stumbled on a Twitter link to  this song . I cannot understand Mandarin; I had not, until recently, ever followed either of the musical artists featured in the video. I am not in exile, far from home and family. And yet I’ve been obsessed with this song of homesickness, listening over and over to the ache in the vocals, the clear longing in every line.* There is a word in Portuguese for longing. Months ago, I stumbled upon  this BBC travel article   describing it:  saudade . Saudade is untranslatable, writer Eric Weiner asserts before translating it thus: Saudade is a longing, an ache for a person or place or experience that once brought great pleasure. It is akin to nostalgia but, unlike nostalgia, one can feel saudade for something that’s never happened, and likely never will. At the heart of saudade lies a yawning sense of absence, of loss. Saudade, writes scholar Aub...

I’ve lived most of my life in Michigan, but only last week did I really visit the Upper Peninsula. I saw Lake Superior for the first time, which means that I have now finally seen all the Great Lakes. My girls on the shore of Lake Superior My family and I took a boat cruise on Lake Superior, that great, cold, inland sea. We saw cliffs streaked with ancient mineral stains, worn by wind and waves. We hiked to see waterfalls (so many waterfalls!) We ate pasties, the hand-held savory pies beloved in the UP, brought there by Cornish immigrants who worked the copper mines generations ago. L akeside cliffs in Painted Rocks National         Lakeshore  Waterfalls in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore I’m reminded, again, of the treasures we have in America in our national and state parks, in the areas set aside for conservation. The UP is protected forest and lakeshore; blue waters and empty beache...