Had a great time at the Muddy Goose anthology reading at BOLD Coffee & Books last night!  A treat for me was getting to read part of a scene from “The Queen of All Roses” that takes place in the Goose Hollow section of Portland where we were, within view of the light rail station I mention in my story.  On top of that, Cyrus Amelia Fisher, the author who read right before me, was wearing a sweater with carnivorous plants on it—my story features carnivorous plants!

Looking ahead, I’ve had a recent batch of acceptances mixed in amongst the usual dose of rejections.  First, my story “Gearheart” will be part of the anthology Clocks from Little Key Press.  Second, my story “The Sauce Packet King of the West Hills” will be reprinted in Small Wonders. Third, I’ll have a poem called “Avenue of the Peaceful Giants” in The Ranger’s Almanac.  Those are all due out next year. 

And fourth, squeaking in at the tail end of this year, I’ll have two new poems in SpecPoVerse.  Look for “The Poison Dart Frog Prince” and “El Grotesco” coming very soon.  I’ll pop in with news on those probably right around New Year’s. 

In the meantime, happy holidays, everyone!  Take care of yourself and each other. 

You can hear my eco-horror story “Discount Night at the Haunted Eco Lodge,” set in the Ecuadorian rainforest, on the podcast Scary Stories Whispered in the Rain.  When I came up with this title, it cracked me up, and I knew I had to bring it into being somehow.  Conjure it, you might say.  This is one of the writing projects I worked on during the worst of the COVID lockdowns.  Escapism at its finest, even if it meant the research involved picking up library books at a curbside table while fully masked, dreaming of faraway places while mostly trapped at home.  The story first appeared in the anthology Triangulation: Habitats, and it’s fun for me to hear it now read aloud. 

In poetry news, my “Ode on Keats’s ‘Ode on Indolence’” has been reprinted in The Hyacinth Review.  It first appeared in The Decadent Review.  I have to be honest about this one, I wrote it as an undergrad.  I had an assignment to write an essay about an ode, and I figured that the best way to show that I understood odes would be to try writing one.  This poem was the result (I’m happy to report that I got an A on the assignment and the professor read the poem to the class).  It took me years to work up the courage to send it out.  Don’t self-reject, my friends! 

I’ve got an update on the in-person reading for The Muddy Goose—but first, here’s the link to our video event from earlier this week, in case you’re unable to join us in Portland. 

Now, if you want to meet some of the contributors, we’ll be at BOLD Coffee & Books on Friday, Dec. 19 at 7pm. 

One more piece of news, my story “Discount Night at the Haunted Eco Lodge” (originally from Triangulation: Habitats) has been reprinted in the Scary Stories Whispered in the Rain podcast.  Currently the episode is only available on their Patreon (go check it out if you’d like to support the podcast).  I’ll post again when it becomes available to the public. 

One more reminder that I’ll be hanging out online with other contributors to The Muddy Goose Guide to the Weird Northwest anthology tomorrow evening, hosted by Vintage Books Live!  This isn’t quite a reading…  We’ll find out together what topics get explored and what tangents get traversed. 

And for those in the Portland area, we’ll have a fun in-person event later this month.  Announcement coming soon. 

I got word that my story from the Claw Machine anthology, “Narrowly, Narrowly Caught,” has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize!  This is my story in which a high school reunion and memories of grad night collide, and a claw machine reveals more than seems possible.  I leaned into my economics background and my interest in arcades for this one.  It’s the closest I’ve come to one of my stories having an actual soundtrack. 

It’s also a story in which I challenged myself to make the act of prepping a salad as tense and meaningful as I could, as evidenced here (yes, that is my actual, deplorable handwriting): 

Needless to say, I’m honored that the editor selected my story! 

My newest story, “The Queen of All Roses,” is part of The Muddy Goose Guide to the Weird Northwest: A Playable Adventure anthology from Demagogue Press.  The front cover has a playable version of the Game of the Goose, and the stories and poems have characters embarking on dark journeys involving real landmarks in Oregon and Washington.  Technically, this book had a special pre-release edition earlier this year at Worldcon, but it’s officially available today. 

So, what did I write about?  I may have created a cryptid… 

“The Queen of All Roses” took inspiration from my late nights commuting home from grad school on the MAX light rail train, plus input from my California nieces and nephew on arriving in Portland’s recently updated airport, and how I grew up visiting the International Rose Test Garden in Portland’s Washington Park. 

In fact, my younger son joined me on a research trek to the rose garden for this story.  We got an appropriately eerie day, with lots of fog. 

I also drew upon a stop our family made during our road trip to the Bay Area last year.  We checked out the Darlingtonia Trail to see a bog of pitcher plants. 

If you want to know how I meshed all that in under 3,500 words, you’ll just have to read it! 

I had a great time this past weekend at the Speculative Sundays reading!  Joshua Gage’s poetry is fantastic, and Akua Lezli Hope is always a gracious, engaging host.  In case you missed it, here’s the link to the recording.  And remember, there’s still one more session of this reading series for Speculative Poetry Month coming up this Sunday, featuring poets Angela Acosta and Alicia Hilton, two of my occasional “TOC (Table of Contents) buddies.”  We’ve cooked up some free giveaways that attendees can sign up for, too, if you’d like to see more of our work.  

Soon I’ll be transitioning to some fiction updates, including the Muddy Goose anthology. 

I briefly studied dramatic monologues in college and always thought it would be fun to write one.  This is a type of narrative poem where we hear from one speaker who gradually reveals more than they might realize as they speak.  Fun, right?  I decided to write one using a ballad form. 

My resulting poem, “The Emerald Tapestry,” has just been published in Corvid Queen, the online fairy tale magazine from Sword & Kettle Press (who also published my Elgin Award-winning chapbook!). 

One more reminder that I’ll be one of the readers for Speculative Sundays, a free online poetry reading series, this Sunday, Nov. 16 at 4pm Pacific time.  Come end your weekend strong with some poetry! 

And as I’ve mentioned, I have a new story in the anthology The Muddy Goose Guide to the Weird Northwest.  We’re cooking up a fun event to be hosted online by Vintage Books (they’re the bookstore that hosted an event for the Claw Machine anthology earlier this year).  Mark your calendars for Dec. 2 at 7pm Pacific time for this new one. 

I realize I’ve been keeping quiet on my actual writing these days.  Autumn is usually good to me.  Last month I broke through a block that had me stymied for a while, and I penned a few poems, started a couple new stories (I like to have multiple going at a time), and got an influx of research for a story that’s been eluding me for years.  My process is slow, so I’ve got to enjoy whatever progress I can claim.  And always aim to make the end product worth the wait. 

It’s the time of year for spooky poetry!  Once again, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has assembled some treats for you in the form of audio readings of members’ dark verse, curated this year by Miguel O. Mitchell.  You can hear me reading my poem “Peter Pumpkin Eater’s Most Delectable Carving.” 

If that leaves you wanting more, tickets are now available for Akua Lezli Hope’s Speculative Sundays free online poetry readings.  I’ll be bringing a mix of fantasy, science fiction, and horror on Nov. 16.  Here’s the full lineup for next month: