Two of my career goals were met at the end of July: joining SFWA, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, and Codex, an online community for "pro-level speculative fiction writers." I'm so thrilled that my story sales this year have pushed me to the next level where I could qualify for these groups. I'm looking forward to improving my writing and getting more stories published in the future!
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Clarion West Write-a-Thon 2022
This summer, I joined the Clarion West Write-a-Thon for the first time! I've been so busy with it, that I've forgotten to do a blog post until now and we're already in Week 5. It's almost over! There's been virtual writing sessions and helpful webinars that I've joined along the way, but the most beneficial part for me has been signing up for the Flash Fiction Critique Groups.
In June, I was matched with 5 other writers. We've exchanged flash fiction stories each week and sent critiques to each other. I haven't been workshopping my stories very much since Covid began (and my college courses finished), so it's been really helpful to get back to giving and receiving feedback! It's pushed me to finish up a lot of story ideas that I had sketched out, but hadn't actually taken the time to complete. I have a lot of revisions to do now to get these stories sent out on submission.
Saturday, July 2, 2022
Publication: "Raspberried" from 101 Words
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Mid-Year 2022 Publishing Stats
Now that it's the end of June, here's a mid-year update on my publishing stats for January to June of 2022 (short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry):
4 Acceptances (Born in the Watchmaker's Garden, Dental Hygiene on Orbital Station #57, The Tale of Starling, and Raspberried)
Bonus (1st place in NYC Midnight Short Story Round 1)
23 Rejections
32 Submissions
8 Pending
4 Publications (Luna Britannia, Dental Hygiene on Orbital Station #57, The Tale of Starling, Born in the Watchmaker's Garden)
My goal this year has been to submit something at least once a week, and I've met that goal with 32 submissions so far! I also passed my submissions total for all of 2021, which was 29 subs.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Micro Fiction Acceptance! "Raspberried"
I received an acceptance email last Sunday from 101 Words, a site that publishes micro fiction stories that are exactly 101 words long!
I submitted a story to them that I originally started as a poem. But as I've been practicing flash fiction and micro fiction over the last six months, I decided to turn the poem into a teeny tiny story. "Raspberried" is not as speculative as my other fiction stories. It deals with reflections on life and death and, of course, raspberries. My early title for it was "Bury Me With Raspberries" and I use the made-up word 'raspberried' at the end to convey this idea of the homonyms 'berry' and 'bury' that intrigued me.
I'll share the link to the story when it is published!
- Meg
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Publication: "Born in the Watchmaker's Garden" in HyphenPunk Magazine, Issue 4
The full eBook for HyphenPunk Magazine's Issue 4 was released today! Happy Summer Solstice, readers. Read some awesome -PUNK stories in this issue including my Clock-Punk fairy story inspired by radioactive material used in watchmaking in the early 20th century!
Buy the full eBook issue for just $2.99 here: HyphenPunk Issue 4
Happy reading!
- Meg
Thursday, June 16, 2022
NYC Midnight Challenge Updates
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Cover Reveal for HyphenPunk Magazine Issue #4
Look at this beautiful art for the cover of the upcoming Issue #4 of HyphenPunk Magazine! Such a treat to see my name here for my clockwork fairy story "Born in the Watchmaker's Garden."
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Publication: "The Tale of Starling" from Pumpernickel House
Issue 1: The Blue Door from Pumpernickel House has been released! My story "The Tale of Starling" appears in this issue. It started as a NYC Midnight writing prompt and I'm so thrilled it found a home in a magazine.
I have a description of the story and its origins on a previous post here: Round 1 Story
I'm really looking forward to receiving the paperback version of the issue! You can purchase it here: Amazon paperback or Kindle version
A short excerpt of "The Tale of Starling" is below.
Thanks for your support, readers!
- Meg
Monday, May 30, 2022
NYC Midnight Short Story Round 2 Results
The results were out earlier this month for Round 2 of the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. Unfortunately, my story (details here: Round 2) didn't make it into the top 5 stories for my group, so I won't be moving on to Round 3.
I'm looking forward to results from the 100-Word Microfiction contest and the prompts I will get for the first round of the Flash Fiction competition!
This month has been so busy with my kids' end of school year activities. I'm finally getting some breathing room this weekend. Preparing for summer activities and fitting in writing time again! I'll be posting about my latest short story publication soon, as well as my plans for finishing my novel this summer!
Happy writing, everyone!
- Meg
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Short Story Acceptance! "The Tale of Starling"
Monday, May 9, 2022
Publication: "Dental Hygiene on Orbital Station #57" in Solarpunk Magazine
Friday, May 6, 2022
Micro Fiction Acceptance! "Dental Hygiene on Orbital Station #57"
Monday, April 25, 2022
More Short Fiction Contests
Monday, April 11, 2022
Round 2 of the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge 2022
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
NYC Midnight Short Story Round 1 Results
- advancing writers will be placed into new groups
- each group is assigned a new Genre, Subject, and Character
- within 3 days each writer submits a story with the prompt in under 2000 words
- then the top 5 from each group will advance to Round 3 in May
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Publication: "Born in the Watchmaker's Garden" in HyphenPunk Magazine
https://hyphenpunk.com/fiction/born-in-the-watchmakers-garden/
The story will be published in an eBook for Issue 4 of the magazine in June.
HyphenPunk previewed the story perfectly in this tweet & excerpt:
Thanks for reading!
- Meg
Monday, March 14, 2022
Short Story Acceptance! "Born in the Watchmaker's Garden"
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
NaNoWriMo 2021 Wrap-Up and Next Steps for 2022
New accountability post for my novel progress in 2022!
I finished up last November's NaNoWriMo with 33,568 words in my novel draft after writing on 27 out of the 30 that month. I'm now looking at doing another rigorous plan to get the draft finished up so I can send it to beta readers.
To get back into the mode of my story, I've been working on making lists of my characters, place names, and other terms used in the building of the novel's world. I'm also going to reread the 33k words I've written and update my chapter-by-chapter outline. Then I'll keep going, full steam ahead, to The End around 100k words.
Here are some details I posted last November about my WIP novel:
My goal is get back to writing every day if I can, even if it's just a few hundred words.
Happy writing, everyone!
-Meg
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Publication: "Luna Britannia" in For Page & Screen Magazine
Monday, January 24, 2022
Round 1 of NYC Midnight's Short Story Challenge 2022
I entered the NYC Midnight contest for the first time this month with the Short Story Challenge. There were over 6000 writers entering this first Round!
How it works:
- writers are divided into groups of around 28 people
- each group gets a prompt of Genre, Subject, Character
- within 8 days each writer submits a story with the prompt in under 2500 words
- then the top 5 from each group will advance to Round 2 in April.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
My Favorite Short Fiction Stories Read in 2021
I read A LOT of wonderful short fiction this past year, so I want to share a list of my favorites.
Some of these of were published in anthologies that are available for purchase, others are free to read online. I will link to as many as possible! I'll also add my one sentence description of each story.
In no particular order, here are my favorite speculative stories read in 2021:
"With the Nectar Comes the Sting"
By Jennifer Hudak
A shifting POV between mother and daughter tells a very unexpected superhero origin story.
Published January 25, 2021 in Apparition Lit, free to read online here:
https://apparitionlit.com/with-the-nectar-comes-the-sting/
"What the Humans Call Heartache"
By Jiksun Cheung
A drone takes a detour from her regular path.
Published April 26, 2021 by Arsenika, free to read online here:
https://arsenika.ink/fiction/what-the-humans-call-heartache/
"Springs Eternal"
By J. Nelson Jr.
Some very, very, very old friends meet up... once again.
Published July 27, 2021 in Alphanumeric from Zoetic Press, free to read online here:
https://www.zoeticpress.com/alphanumeric/2021/6/18/springs-eternal
"The Robots of Eden"
By Anil Menon
A family in the future deals easily with life's troubles in this story I wanted to read again and again.
Published March 12, 2019 in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color,
link to buy the anthology here: Bookshop paperback
"Crush"
By Sarah L. Hawthorn
A slow-burn creepy tale about a college student consumed with caring for a houseplant.
Published August 19, 2021 in GROWTH: A Speculative Young Adult Collection from TL;DR Press,
links to buy the anthology here: Amazon paperback or Kindle version
"Don Queerxote"
By Jennifer Lee Rossman
A teen in a solarpunk future avoids her homework and follows her crush to a protest.
Published in Fall 2021: Issue 1 by HyphenPunk, free to read online here:
https://hyphenpunk.com/fiction/don-queerxote/
"Discontinuity"
By Jared Millet
A captain tries to keep her sanity and her memories to complete her vital mission through space.
Published September 17, 2021 in Issue 125 of Apex Magazine, free to read online here:
https://apex-magazine.com/discontinuity/
"Tidings"
By Rich Larson
Time jump through a future with creative solutions to some of society's biggest problems.
Published September 14, 2021 in Fix's Climate Fiction contest from Grist, free to read here:
https://grist.org/fix/imagine-2200-climate-fiction-tidings/
"The Catcher in the Eye"
By Ai Jiang
A girl who sees ghosts through only her right eye tries to keep it closed until... she doesn't.
Published in November 2021 in Issue 78 of The Dark Magazine, free to read online here:
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/the-catcher-in-the-eye/
"Drifting"
By Christopher R. Muscato
When ships are damaged and stranded in space, one young woman proposes an unconventional solution.
Published on December 20, 2021 in Optopia Zine, free to read inside Issue 4 here:
https://issuu.com/optopia/docs/issue_4
I encourage you to not only read these stories, but also purchase or donate to the magazines and presses that have published such great work!
Happy reading!
- Meg
Saturday, January 1, 2022
2021 Publishing Stats
Happy New Year ‘22!
My 2021 publishing stats (creative NF, short fiction, flash fiction, & poetry):
3 Acceptances ("A Library on Wheels," "Yoko and the Sunbeam Garden," and "Luna Britannia")
23 Rejections
29 Submissions
4 Pending
2 Publications ("A Library on Wheels" and "Yoko and the Sunbeam Garden")
(Bonus: 1 Long listed story)
After a hiatus in 2020 w/ only 1 sub, this past year has been my busiest yet! I'm looking forward to submitting more stories and poems in 2022, as well as finishing up the next draft of my novel.
Happy writing, everyone!