I’m really excited about the new writing workshop I’m offering through Clarion West this fall. It’s called “Does This Come in Another Size?” and it’s for writers who are thinking about making the jump from short fiction to novel writing … or for writers who have been working in novels but might benefit from creating short fiction. Here’s the class description:
Have you ever written a short story only to be told you’ve written the first chapter of a novel? This four-session workshop will help you decide what to do when you’re in that situation—and how to maneuver your terrific ideas into the forms that fits them best.
Over the course of four weeks, we’ll use discussion and critique to delve into what makes a terrific first chapter of a novel and contrast it to the shape of a stand-out short story. We’ll also explore audience expectations, the creative life, and our relationships to our craft. Come build your craft in a small, fun community!
We’ll meet the first Tuesday in October, then take a week off to work on projects that we’ll then bring back to the group to share and discuss. The course covers 4 Tuesdays (10/6, 10/18, 10/25, and 11/1), and there are some free seats available. For more information, check out: clarionwest.org/find/does-this-come-in-another-size-with-wendy-wagner
It turns out that Lane is just as excited about horror as I am (and that’s saying something!), so I’m thrilled and delighted to get to work together. Hopefully we’ll be able to usher lots of slimy, spooky, and all-around weird stuff into the world!
Bittersweet feelings about this one—I’m delighted to finally have a short story podcast by J.S. Arquin’s Pacific NW-focused fiction podcast, The Overcast! But I’m sad, because it’s the very last episode of the show. J.S. has simply gotten too busy to continue the project.
Consider this fantasy tale, “Words of Power” (originally published in the anthology Shattered Shields, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt), a farewell story for the podcast.
A few weeks ago, my friend Jim Freund (who produces our podcast at Nightmare Magazine) asked me if I’d like to be a guest on his podcast. I was excited about the idea, but I got a little nervous once he told me it was actually a radio show on New York’s WBAI public radio station—and that the show had been running since 1971! My mind was blown when he started talking about all the amazing guests he’s had on the show over the years. If you’ve read a SF/F novel published since 1970, there’s a good chance Jim has had them on the show to chat.
Jim and I had a wonderful conversation about the different kinds of horror and how my goal at the magazine is to find a horror story for everybody. You can listen to our chat here in the WBAI archives!
When David Agranoff contacted me to let me know that he loved The Secret Skin and wanted to chat about it on his podcast, I jumped at the chance! I had very briefly met David at HP Lovecraft Film Festival about a decade ago, but I’d never gotten a chance to really talk to him. It turns out David is a terrific reader (and writer!) who had lots of great insight into not just my novella but lots of other great reads. I got off Zoom with about a million books to add to my to-read pile! If you haven’t checked out his podcast, you ought to.
You can check out video of the podcast on YouTube or listen to it on iTunes.
I can’t believe it!! The Secret Skin has made the 2021 Locus Recommended List! It feels like some kind of miracle.
I am also super excited that Nightmare had four stories make the list and Lightspeed seven. It feels so good to see the authors I work with get some recognition.
I wrote a short essay about one of the towns where I lived as a young person—a shrinking, dying town with an amazing cemetery. Luckily, the good folks at The Deadlands gave my essay a home and released in this month’s issue. I hope you enjoy it!
Here’s wishing you and yours a fantastic new year—and a terrific time saying goodbye to the old one. If you’re a cocktail tippler, the good folks at Lit Reactor put together a fun list of cocktail recommendations to go with delicious books. If you wondered what The Secret Skin might taste like as a cocktail, be sure to check out this great post!
Sadie Hartmann reviews books all over the place, including the celebrated horror magazine, Cemetery Dance. Not only did she give The Secret Skin a stellar review over at the magazine, she put it on her list of favorite 2021 horror releases.
But that wasn’t the only Best Books of 2021 The Secret Skin made! Back in November, The Washington Post compiled their list of the year’s best SF/F/H novels and The Secret Skin made the cut! That post is behind a paywall, but you can check out the full list on Locus.
I can’t tell you how terrific it is to hear that readers I really admire have enjoyed this novella! I hope it continues to connect to people, because this little book means an awful lot to me.
Is it really December already? Much like it has for everyone, 2021 has been an absolute whirlwind for me. There was some bad stuff (like it hitting nearly 120 degrees in my neighborhood) and some good stuff (my husband taught the dog to sit!), but on a professional level, this was a VERY exciting year.
Here’s a list of everything I published this year and what it’s eligible for, award-wise:
• “The Suburbs Are Delicious,” 99 Tiny Terrors, edited by Jennifer Brozek (October 2021). This was my only piece of short fiction! It’s a fun flash piece, so I don’t think it’s eligible for anything. But if you know anybody who’s really scared of spiders, they should avoid this one.
• “Telling Stories of Ghosts,” Apex Magazine. (Spring 2021) This little piece of nonfiction is eligible for the Bram Stoker award, Short Nonfiction category. It’s about way American practices about death can deeply scar children.
• The Deer Kings, JournalStone Press (August 2021). This horror novel is eligible for the Bram Stoker award, Novel category. If you like books that pit children against terrible evil or about communities secretly sheltering evil cults, this one is for you!
• The Secret Skin, Neon Hemlock (October 2021). This gothic novella with dark fantasy elements is eligible for the Bram Stoker award, Long Fiction category. It’s also eligible for the Nebula award, Novella category, and the Hugo award, Novella category!
I also have a super-gloomy essay about cemeteries coming out in the December issue of The Deadlands, but it’s not out yet.
Editorial stuff:
I started editing Nightmare Magazine this February, and it’s been a great experience! We’ve published a terrific mix of horror and dark fantasy. All of those stories are eligible for the Bram Stoker fiction awards. We published a few novelettes that qualify for the Long Fiction award: “Darkness Metastatic,” by Sam J. Miller, “Rotten Little Town: An Oral History (Abridged),” by Adam-Troy Castro, and “We, the Girls Who Did Not Make It,” by E.A. Petricone, but the rest are all Short Fiction. All of our H Word columns are eligible for the Bram Stoker award for Short Nonfiction, too!
Because Nightmare contains a mix of horror and fantasy content–and because I’m also the Senior Editor at Lightspeed–I think I’m probably eligible for the Hugo Award, Short Form Editor.
Other awesome stuff:
It’s been a terrific year for the horror genre! It’s been so wonderful to see up-and-coming indie writers like Hailey Piper and Eric LaRocca get so much critical recognition, and I was so happy to see Zin E. Rocklyn‘s novella Flowers for the Sea make so many year’s best lists. These three writers are really pushing the genre needle into weird and wonderful places, so I hope you get a chance to check them out!
Thanks to everyone who made 2021 such a terrific year–and here’s hoping next year is filled with joy!
