Desert Fact and Fiction

I hope you’ve been having a wonderfully cromulent fall –

It’s been an eventful time for me since I last wrote back in July, both on the writing and personal fronts.

The biggest news I have is that first of the two stories I sold this year is up as of this week at Giganotosaurus! This one is a novella-length gothic cyberpunk story about forgetting, and I’m quite fond of it. This was a cathartic story for me to write, as I was trying to work out some feelings that kept haunting me from a relationship that took me years to accept I would never get any resolution for unless I made it for myself. It’s set out at a real place (East Jesus) out by the Salton Sea that I’ve been to a number of times, as a dear friend of mine is one of the caretakers (::waves to V from across the internet::). If you like the story and/or just dig East Jesus’ mission, consider donating to their flood relief campaign, as the entire museum is under threat from additional catastrophic flooding due to climate change. They are a charitable organization, so any contributions are tax deductible as well!

I’ve had another essay come out in Asimov’s slightly spooky September/October issue – this one about all three iterations of The Thing. It was super fun to dig into John Carpenter’s life and work, as he’s made a lot of my favorite horror movies, and getting to watch his entire body of work while researching the essay was a real treat.

Upcoming writing things to keep an eye out for – I’ve got another essay in the upcoming January/February 2024 Asimov’s on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Hollywood blacklist; I’ve got my first Science Fact article coming out in Analog, on the SF concept of genetic memory and the science of epigenetics; and I’ll have at least one more story coming out sometime next year, also in Analog about two women trying to make homemade gnocchi at the end of the world. Updates will happen as this is more to update!

Otherwise life continues to be eventful. Another successful Youtopia has passed, and my theme camp continued to be one of my favorite spots to hang out at. There was some excellent art, including an ersatz National Park sign and kiosk that some friends were responsible for making that came out even better than I could have imagined (I helped with a bit of prose-sprucing up for a few of the kiosk items).

My partners and I then took a trip out to Chicago (as neither of them had ever spent much time there) so they could hang with my family and see the city. The heatwave from Youtopia followed us home, and we had some wonderfully unseasonable weather for the duration.

I’m looking forward to the winter – I’ve got some fiction I’d like to get back to (at least one short story to finish up, and maybe I will actually get that novel I wanted to start this year started).

Hope you’re all doing as best as can be expected (better even, as is appropriate).