Wendy N. Wagner

This week brings so much exciting news, friends!

For one, I’ve got a new workshop coming to both Zoom AND real-life in October. I’m co-teaching with Gordon B. White a class about writing horror! It’s a 3-hour, in-depth workshop on the genre, and you know it’s going to be a great time. For more information, check out the Cascade Writers’ website.

I have a new story coming out this season: “No God of Bread or Debts.” If you like fiction about obsession and unhappiness, this anthology is for you! It’s called Morbidologies, and my story in it is set in the 1950s in the bowels of a science building on the University of Oregon campus. I’m really excited to share it.

And here’s something else that’s fun! A few months ago, I adapted my novella The Secret Skin into a screenplay. For fun, I entered it into the screenplay contest for the H.P. Lovecraft Festival. And guess what???? MY SCREENPLAY IS A FINALIST!!!! I couldn’t be prouder. I also can’t wait for award ceremony on October 8th. My fingers will be crossed!

Looking for a new short read? I have a short story in the recently released By the Light of Camelot, edited by J. R. Campbell and Shannon Allen. I wasn’t expecting this book to come out for another month or so, but it looks like Amazon has it already.

I really enjoyed working on my story for this one. The piece is called “Loyalty of a Thousand Years,” and it’s inspired by the story of the Fisher King. Intrigued? Here’s the first paragraph:

Boris closed the apartment door behind him, hung up his work jacket—first checking the embroidered dancing rats and cockroaches for loose threads—set his boots on the rack beside the radiator, and went straight to the nearest calendar to make his daily notes. He kept a calendar in every room in case he came seriously unstuck in time, and he updated each one every few hours. He couldn’t remember when the days started bleeding together, but a written record seemed to help.

Enjoy!

My Astoria-inspired story, “Drift Right,” is now available to hear at Pseudopod! It’s part of their Artemis Rising special series, which features women creators in genre fiction. You can check it out here.

Next month the anthology Swords v Cthulhu will be released. It looks like it’s chock full o’ fighting, tentacles, and all around fun!

My story in the anthology, “Ordo Virtutum,” is inspired by the life of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century Christian mystic. If you like Lovecraftian adventures packed full of adorable nuns, this is for you! And if you’re the impatient type, right now you can read a tiny teaser from the story on the publisher’s website.

As a horror reader (okay: horror lifestyle enthusiast), I feel like horror is always in season, but some flavors are more tastier at different times of the year.

Summer? It’s for slashers and serial killers.

Fall? Ghosts.

Winter? Supernatural monsters.

But spring is for Lovecraft.

There’s nothing like sitting on your couch while it’s drizzling outside, the flowers starting to bud, the birds chirping cheerfully, and reading about some loathsome New England horror, preferably with tentacles. I’ve done most of my Lovecraftian reading and writing in the spring, too–it just feels right!

If you’re looking for a good spring read, I hear that the anthology Autumn Cthulhu—which includes my short story “The Black Azalea”–has started going out to Kickstarter backers. “The Black Azalea” is one of my favorite pieces, so I can’t wait for people to start reading it. And while it’s set in October, I feel it’s a delightful spring read.

I hope you’re all reading good things, creepy or not!

I’m delighted to announce that my story “Three Small Slices of Pumpkin Pie” is up today on Farrago’s Wainscot. The magazine focuses on the literary weird, and I’m happy to say I share a Table of Contents with the wonderful Hal Duncan, whose grasp of language is spectacular.

This is one of my favorite pieces that I’ve ever written, so it’s wonderful to be able to share it with other people.

Here in Stumptown this weekend was CthulhuCon, sort of a snack-sized Lovecraftian convention to tide over fans until H.P. Lovecraft Film Fest returns to its October slot. I made it to the con on Saturday and had a wonderful time. Tons of friends had showed up, and the programming was incredible. Highlights included tremendous art, panels with Lovecraftian scholars S. T. Joshi and Leslie Klinger, gaming creatives Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws, visits from the Lovecraft impersonator Leeman Kessler, and a delightful performance by Mike Dalager–the musical mind behind the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s new album of Innsmouthian jazz standards, Live at the Gilman House. Let me just tell you: if you like musicals, you won’t be truly happy until you’ve heard “My Funny Valentine” with all-new tentacular lyrics.

With all this squamous, cthonic energy in the air, it makes sense that Word Horde revealed the cover of their new anthology: CTHULHU FHTAGN! This is the third Lovecraftian anthology editor Ross Lockhart has put together, and the line-up looks terrific. I’m very excited about my story in the book, “The Long Dark,” which is a SFnal take on Lovecraft, with an ending I really enjoyed writing.

On the editing front, I’m reading submissions for Nightmare Magazine‘s Queers Destroy Horror! special issue this month. I’m having a great time reading all these dark stories, and I think the issue will be fantastic. Look for it in October!

Personally, I’m facing a delightful challenge: I’m working on my first campaign for our Call of Cthulhu role-playing group. I’ve never been a game master before, but it’s my turn to step up to the plate and scare/torment/entertain my gaming group. Fingers are crossed that I don’t suck!

My three-part serial, “Winter’s Wolves,” is going up on the Paizo site! The first chapter has already posted, and the next two will be available on 3/12 and 3/19. I really enjoyed creating the characters of Lugh, Irlu, and Grotnir, so I’m very excited to share it.

“Winter’s Wolves” is set about a month before the beginning of Skinwalkers, so it’s a great way to prepare for what you’ll see in the novel!

Just a quick update! If you’re looking for a good read, the anthology What Fates Impose is out now! It’s a beautiful anthology with lots of cool stories about fortune telling. My story “Power Steering” is just one of many fun reads inside its covers.

I’m off to go pound revisions on Skinwalkers and hopefully do some Halloween costume planning.

what fates impose

If you’re hankering for an apocalyptic poem with some salty atmosphere, I have to recommend my poem “Not With a Bang, But Waves Whispering,” out in the latest issue of the Lovecraft eZine. I’m super-stoked to have a piece in this publication, which is my absolute favorite online magazine–and to make it even more awesome, I’m sharing a table-of-contents with my good friend Ed Morris. I can’t wait to see Ed and the zine’s editor, Mike Davis, at this weekend’s HP Lovecraft Film Festival!

Last week I got my manuscript turned in for the novel I’ve been working on, so hopefully I will be stirring up some new short stories and poems over the next few weeks, before jumping back into novel revisions for a different project. It’s always so fun to have free time for more experimental work!

Also, this is a spot of old news, but I’m so proud that I have to shout about it here: my story “Barnstormers” is going to be reprinted in Heiress of Russ 2013: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction. I can’t imagine a better honor for that story!

Wendy N. Wagner

Category Archives: New Story to Read!

Screenplays & stories & workshops, oh my!!!

Arthurian delight

Need a spooky new tale?

A sip of Cthulhu!

Nothing says “spring” like Lovecraft

A new story out today!

Cthulhu Boogaloo

New Jendara story!

What Fates Impose

New poem and good news