It’s time for a summer flurry of book-related updates.  Get ready for me to be saying the word “soon” a lot. 

My fantasy novella, Thrice Petrified, is officially a year old tomorrow!  It doesn’t get much sooner than that. 

If anyone’s wondering if I have any other single-author book projects brewing, well, let’s just say I have some exciting news to share very soon.  Hehe. 

In the realm of me being one of many contributing authors, Sword & Kettle Press just posted a video of one of their editors, Naseem Jamnia, unboxing the proofs of their ten-year commemorative anthology.  The books should start shipping out to backers…soon. 

I received some early contributor copies of Wind Guide You, which I’m hoping will be available for the public to order, you guessed it, soon. 

I’ve got a poem forthcoming in a different anthology that I can’t reveal quite yet, but soon.  

SOON!  All right, until next time. 

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association just sent out the 2026 Rhysling Anthology to members, and let me tell you, I got the proof last month and was only tasked with checking my own poem in there, “The Emerald Tapestry.”  However, I got so immersed in all the other poems, I ended up reading the whole thing!  Seriously.  I think I did it in one sitting, too.  I’m honored to be included among some of my idols, friends, and colleagues.  And look at that gorgeous cover art by Julie Dillon! 

This is my second time making it into a Rhysling Anthology, and my first time as a finalist (it used to be that all nominees were included, but now there’s a new step).  Huge thank you to the jurors of the long poem category for taking a chance on my dramatic monologue ballad!  I’m not exactly sure when the book will available to order, but I’ve linked to it above for when the time comes. 

Ah, speaking of time, one unfortunate thing I have to share: The in-person reading for the Clocks anthology sadly had to be cancelled.  I believe plans are in the works for a replacement event…  I recommend keeping tabs on Little Key Press for details.  Sorry to disappoint.  In the meantime, the recording of our online Clocks reading is available for your enjoyment. 

I wanted to write an automaton story ever since college.  I studied the German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann my freshman year and was super creeped out by his story “The Sandman,” which features a lifelike mechanical person.  In my sophomore year, when my professor took me on as a peer educator, she let me choose a story from the syllabus to facilitate the discussion with the freshman students.  I didn’t hesitate in choosing “The Sandman.” 

Fast forward, oh, a couple decades, and I have a clockpunk story with an automaton of my very own out in the world at last.  “Geartheart” is part of the new anthology Clocks from Little Key Press.  I also mixed in a desire to create a female mad scientist character, along with fond memories of the early scene in Disney’s Pinocchio where Jiminy Cricket encounters all the music boxes and clockworks in Geppetto’s workshop.  A lot of my stories and poems pay tribute to my dad’s side of the family, the Ecuadorian side; my mom is half German, though, so I was pleased to branch out, take inspiration from Hoffmann, and honor that side of my family this “time.” 

This coming Tuesday, June 23^rd, I’ll be participating in an online reading for the release of the anthology Clocks.  Bookseller Christy from Vintage Books will be hosting us on their YouTube channel at 7pm PDT.  I hope you can tune in for some excerpts from our clock-themed stories. 

And if you’re in the Portland area, some of us will be at an in-person reading at Memento Mori Cafe on Tuesday, July 7^th.  Should be a fun time (pun intended)! 

I’ve been receiving some good news from publishers who will be featuring my work, namely that they’re receiving proofs and getting their books ready for prime time.  Sword & Kettle Press has their ten-year commemorative anthology just about ready to go, Little Key Press has the Clocks anthology arriving soon, and Sadwrn Press got Wind Guide You back from the printer after a delay. 

The first two projects successfully funded through Kickstarter.  My sincere thank you to everyone who supported these campaigns!  It makes a huge difference to the teams putting these books out into the world.  Contributors like myself have been paid in a timely manner for our words and art thanks to these preorders.  I’m excited for when I can share more about the poems, short story, and prose poem you’ll find in these books! 

In other good news, I’ve sold a story to Wyldblood Magazine, who first published my flash story “The Sphynx’s Blind Date” on their website and whose magazine covers always make me drool with their cool art. 

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced this year’s Rhysling Award finalists, and I’m thrilled to see my ballad “The Emerald Tapestry” listed among so many awe-inspiring poems!  Seriously, this year’s Rhysling anthology is going to be, as the kids might say, a banger. 

“The Emerald Tapestry” is in the Best Long Poem category.  I don’t write very many long poems, so to have had this one accepted at Corvid Queen and then recognized by peers this way, I’m truly honored. 

My poem “Anubis at the Arcade” is part of the Paying Tribute issue of Eye to the Telescope.  Angela Acosta curated this issue, and I’m excited that she chose to include my poem.  Funny thing, I was emailing author Sarah Titus about a different topic earlier this week, when it dawned on both of us that we’re in this issue together! 

My older son helped inspire “Anubis at the Arcade.”  He loves Egyptian mythology, and he explained to me how he thinks it’s too bad Anubis sometimes get a negative reputation due to his association with the afterlife, when his role could be more nuanced.  Around that time, I was reflecting about how arcades have changed since my childhood, and, well, my brain meshed the two ideas together.  I’ve mentioned in the past how I enjoy arcade settings.  I had a lot of fun writing this poem.  Enjoy! 

If you’re in the Portland area, I hope you’ll swing by the Beaverton City Library’s Local Author Fair next Saturday, May 16, 11am-2pm.  I’ll be hanging out at the table for the Oregon Chapter of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), along with author Vanessa MacLellan and chapter president and fellow author H. A. Spector.  We can be scary on the page, but we’re quite friendly in real life, I promise! 

We’ll have books for sale, including my (non-horror) novella Thrice Petrified, because it’s a genre-inclusive group that celebrates the range of members’ work.  But yes, there will also be plenty of spooky tomes to purchase at our table.  My friend Richard Leis will have a table as well, so be sure to visit him for more dark speculative poems and stories, too! 

Besides the usual rejections, I’m happy to report that I’ve had a couple of acceptances lately.  First up will be a poem, “Anubis at the Arcade,” due out in the Paying Tribute issue of Eye to the Telescope.  Then later this year, I’ll have a new fantasy story out called “Shades of Bruises and Blood” in Trollbreath Magazine.  I’m looking forward to when I can share more about each of these pieces! 

In the meantime, I’m chipping away at a longer (for me) fiction project, tinkering with some poems, and looking at doing some summer events. 

I really like small presses.  I like when someone has established a niche, built their community around it, and takes a lot of care putting work out into the world that is not necessarily market-driven.  (I say that as a business major; hey, I also majored in creative writing!)  I’ve been extremely fortunate so far in that I’ve had two books traditionally published, both by small presses, where my experience working with them was overwhelmingly positive.  Seriously, I count my lucky stars and wish that every writer could have that. 

You have a chance to show your support for Sword & Kettle Press, publisher of my Elgin Award-winning chapbook The Inca Weaver’s Tales.  Today they’re launching a Kickstarter campaign for Ten Years of Sword & Kettle Press, an anthology sampler of the chapbooks they’ve published over their first decade!  It will include an excerpt of my poetry chapbook, along with stories and poems from many others, all speculative, all crafted through a generous and inclusive lens of feminism.  Please check it out and help spread the word.