I’ve got some ground to cover, so I’ll get right to it:  Triangulation: Habitats is releasing soon.  Here’s that IndieGoGo link one more time if you’d like to support the anthology and get some cool incentives.  In other fiction news, I sold a short story to Fireside Magazine!  It’s called “Song of the Balsa Wood Bird,” due out next year. 

For reprints, my story “Exchange (A Coral Study)” will be in Mermaids Monthly later this year, in the All Ages: Young to Old issue.  And the podcast Black Women Are Scary, which celebrates and produces short horror stories by BIPOC authors, will feature my flash story “Neck of the Woods” this fall. 

Let me pause here.  Folks, I can’t tell you how much I deeply admire each of these publications, whether they’re new or recently reinvented.  I’m so honored to be part of them. 

Okay, now for the workshop news:  Elizabeth Beechwood and I are baaaack …  We’re offering our three-hour workshop on Creating Nonhuman Characters once more online, this time through the Hugo House.  Registration opens next month.  For more info on this Nov. 21 virtual workshop, see my Events page and the Hugo House fall catalog (which is packed with fun, in-depth classes for writers).  There are scholarships available.  We welcome writers of all genres, forms, experience levels, backgrounds, etc.  I hope you can join us.

My latest poem, “A Pixie Built a Human House,” appears in the inaugural issue of Pastel Pastoral Magazine, available today.  I’ve always loved the idea of fairy houses, so reversing the scale was great fun.  The first line (also the title) popped into my head while I was on a walk and processing a frustrating event in my life from the day before.  You might consider this poem about parental love the yang to the yin of my horror story “Hell-ium Balloon,” as I coyly referenced when that story came out earlier this year in Last Girls Club. 

By the way, I have another fairy poem due out next month in the anthology Into the Glen: Into the Light, and a dark fantasy poem scheduled for this fall in The Common Tongue Magazine.  And later this month, some big news on my fiction and a workshop!

Parsec Ink has just launched an Indiegogo campaign to bring Triangulation: Habitats to the masses soon, very soon.  Please consider making a donation if you can, or help get the word out to support the anthology.  My story “Discount Night at the Haunted Eco Lodge” will be part of this assemblage of speculative stories and poems about sustainable habitats. 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/habitats-short-story-anthology#/

By the way, one of the perks you can sign up for is a set of 5 books, including a copy of 2017’s Triangulation: Appetites, which contains my second ever story sale—and it’s still the only place you can find “Little Seed”!  Curious? 

Oof, that heatwave that hit the Pacific Northwest last week was rough.  First, we had record temperatures here in Beaverton, then it followed my family across the Cascades to central Oregon, where we’d booked a vacation in Sunriver just outside Bend.  On the way over, we saw eerie evidence of last year’s wildfires, with huge swaths of darkened, discolored forest, and here and there new houses and other buildings under construction.  

Turns out that most houses in Sunriver, at least at the time I’m writing this, don’t have air conditioning.  Then halfway through the trip, on our way out of the High Desert Museum, our car decided that it didn’t need air conditioning either.  Suffice to say, we had quite the adventure. 

We made the most of it, though, getting the kids on horseback for their first time, taking them rafting on a slow part of the Deschutes River, and getting them in touch with some of their roots at a Peruvian restaurant.  And the High Desert Museum has really expanded since my last visit there years ago, with a great mix of indoor and outdoor exhibits.  We had to rush through the outdoor ones, though, since it was well over 100 degrees. 

Definitely a memorable trip!  I’d ambitiously hoped to finish drafting a story during this vacation, but the heat and resulting lack of sleep baked the creativity and focus right out of me. 

In other writing news, Locus published an article about this year’s Nebula Conference in their July issue.  Also, I have some very exciting news to share later this month, involving a new story sale, a workshop, and an anthology release!  In the meantime, stay cool.