Dagan Books released various electronic versions of its anthology FISH earlier this year, and I’m ever so pleased to pass on the news that the paper version is now available as well.

The book has a fantastic line-up, including my lovely fellow Clarion West 2011 classmate Maria Romasco-Moore (whose story in the anthology is one of my favorites!) and heavy-hitters like Ken Liu and Cat Rambo. The stories are beautiful and dangerous and deliciously weird, and if you’re at all into speculative short fiction, I highly suggest you take a look. My own story, “The Applause of Others,” has received excellent reviews so far from both SF Signal and A Fantastical Librarian.

To purchase a digital version directly from the publisher: epub or mobi.

Or, if you prefer, you can buy from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Kobo.

Lastly, the shiny new paperback version is now available at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

As far as my story goes: “The Applause of Others” was written in my final week at Clarion West, almost two years ago now. It was my first time consciously threading in certain themes and metaphors, and while I’m still not sure how successful it was, it was fantastic practice.

I had a lot of fun writing about my home town, too; I’ve written novels set in Amsterdam before, but they’re not likely to see the light of day anytime soon. If you want to hear me wax poetic about canals, here’s your chance.

Lastly, in case anyone reads the story and blinks at the MC calling her dads by their first names… During Clarion West, one classmate pointed out that they were dubious about that aspect. Why wouldn’t Floor simply call them ‘Dad’ or some variation thereof? Wouldn’t she do that under other circumstances?

Basically, the answer to that is ‘no.’ When I drafted the story, her parents were a straight couple, and Floor did the same thing. (I took a look, and it turns out I actually shared an excerpt at the time. Ha!) Floor’s parents see themselves as being all modern and cool, and being on a first-name basis comes with the territory. I think this happens in the United States, too, but perhaps to a lesser degree?

When I waved my author wand and turned not!Mom into not!Dad, I didn’t immediately realize how calling them by their first names might be perceived given the different context. After some waffling, I ended up keeping it as is. It just fit them in my head. In addition, when I researched whether kids being on a first-name basis with their parents was indeed more common in NL vs US, I stumbled upon several queer parents who go by their first names for practical reasons, which set my mind at ease.

Anyway, if anyone did raise an eyebrow at it, I hope this clears up the what and why

Hi guys!

I’m traveling to the US for two weeks come Tuesday, so this is a bit of a drive-by post. That means the return of my old friends, BULLET POINTS:

• The Clockwork Phoenix 4 anthology won’t be out for several months–but we just got our first review! Lois Tilton takes a look at the anthology at Locus Online, and has good things to say:
  

  The tone ranges from dark to heartwarming and simple. The overall quality is high (…) Several of the pieces are quite challenging. Readers will do well to pick up a copy.

  An excerpt from her thoughts on my story “Lilo Is”:

  A surprisingly real and sad story.

• The e-version of the FISH anthology is live! I was holding off on posting an official announcement about this until the paper version came out, but I didn’t want to leave it out of this round-up. FISH contains my week six story from Clarion West, “The Applause of Others,” which is set in Amsterdam, and contains a magic eel and a teen girl.

  The stories in this anthology are wild and varied and lovely. If you’re interested in whimsical fantasy and science-fiction, you should definitely check it out. For a full table of contents and various ways of purchasing a copy, check the publisher website.

• The FISH publisher also interviewed each author in the anthology. Find my interview here.
• Story notes will come when the paper version is out.
• In YA news: These past few months, I’ve been active as a moderator of the OneFourKidLit group–a fantastic group of MG/YA authors debuting in 2014. We’re all introducing ourselves before we really get the content going. Here’s my introductory post with some fun Otherbound details, and I highly suggest you take a look at the other intro posts as well. These books, man. These books. My wallet is going to weep throughout all of 2014.
• This upcoming trip of mine contains stops in Boston, New York, and Austin, and meet-ups with friends, Agentlady Joan, and Editorlady Maggie. I will also consume copious amounts of frozen yoghurt. I’m beyond excited!

In my first week at Clarion West in 2011, we received fascinating writing exercises that resulted in some good stuff, but they weren’t “official” Clarion West stories in the sense of being passed around the class and critiqued. Our first proper stories happened in week two, during Nancy Kress’s week. Mine was about a spider-girl named Lilo.

Lilo is adorable.

That was my most popular story during the workshop, and probably the one I’m most proud of, too. As is usually the case, that also means it was incredibly difficult to sell.

I was getting ready to shelve the story when the absolutely perfect opportunity presented itself: after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Clockwork Phoenix 4 opened to submissions. And, after a nail-biting wait, I just received word that editor Mike Allen has accepted my story for publication.

“Lilo Is” will be published in Clockwork Phoenix 4, due out in July 2013. Excuse me while I high five the WORLD.

When was that again?

Oh yeah.

Corinne Duyvis’s debut OTHERBOUND, where a seventeen-year-old boy finds that every time he closes his eyes, he is drawn into the body of a mute servant girl from another world — a world that is growing increasingly more dangerous, and where many things are not as they seem, to Maggie Lehrman at Amulet, by Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency (World English).

Yeah. That’s a real-life, genuine PM announcement for the book previously known as Blink–with an exciting new title and an even more exciting new home in the form of Amulet Books/Abrams Books. It’s even got a Goodreads page!

If I sound calm about this, it’s purely because I’ve already spent the past month freaking out about it. Which means, yes, I got the deal before I hooked up with Agentlady Joan. I’ll talk about that more tomorrow.

For now, let’s talk Otherbound. Because Otherbound (I’m saying it a lot to get used to the new title) is… it’s near and dear to my heart. It’s the book I wrote after returning from Clarion West. It’s the book I queried after breaking up with my agent. It’s the book I was getting ready to shelve, as much as it killed me. It’s the book that made me go, “If people don’t want this, I don’t know what else I can throw at them. I gave this my everything.”

But people do want it. Otherbound is going to be on real-life bookstore shelves. With a cover. Pages. My name on the front. A book.

One with dunes and magic and curses and school plays. With disabled characters and brown characters and queer characters and characters who are all at once. With nifty made-up animals and markets and death and sign language and storms and pain. With characters who gave up and characters who can’t. I put so much in this book that I love, and I’m thrilled beyond reason that I get to share it with the world.

So thanks to my friends, and to my CPs, and to my family, and to Maggie and to Joan, for making this real.

It. Happened.

Is finally live! At Strange Horizons! Which requires all the exclamation marks I can get my hands on.

I’d love it if you checked out “Eight” when you find some time.

Excuse me while I go off to alternate between bouncing and chewing my nails

Worst title ever, I know.

Anyway! As I mentioned on Twitter a few days back, I made a new short story sale, this time to the Dagan Books anthology FISH. My first anthology sale! Neat. The story is titled “The Applause of Others”, and it’s about magic eels in Amsterdam. No, not electric or moray eels — we definitely don’t have those in the canals — the other kind. The kind you smoke and eat.

Anyway x2, if that story concept sounds familiar, it’s because I mentioned it before — it’s my week 6 Clarion West story. One story down, four to go!

The anthology will be out on February 8, 2012, has a lovely cover, and one hell of a ToC. I’ll be reunited with editor K.V.Taylor and author Cate Gardner for the first time since last year’s inaugural Red Penny Papers issue, and other nifty people in the ToC include my loverly Clarion West classmate Maria Romasco-Moore (High five! Affable mofos repra-zent!) and Cat Rambo, whom I also met in Seattle this year.

This is going to be one gorgeous book.

Hey. A non-scheduled post. I guess that means I’m still alive!

[Good news imminent. Stick with me, here.]

There are all kinds of things I’d like to say about being here at Clarion West. What I’m experiencing. Things I’ve learned. How awesome it is to be having Pop-Tarts and chocolate chip pancakes again. How I’m savoring every last bit of the salty liquorice I brought because I know it’ll be a while before I get to have any again.

Instead, I’d like to bring up a post I wrote a couple of months ago, just before the new year: A Year of Failure, or, Holy Shiz, I’m OK!

In it, I mentioned three things I’d meant  to accomplish in 2010 — sell a short story that was on submission early that year; get into Clarion West; sign with an agent.

None of those happened. And I was OK with that. Hence, uh, the title.

Enter 2011.

January 21st: I received an offer from Agent Michael.

January 31st: I accepted that offer.

March 3rd: Clarion e-mailed that I was accepted into the San Diego workshop.

March 12th: Neile Graham called with the news that I was accepted into Clarion West, as well. I accepted on the spot.

March 15th: Strange Horizons sent me an R&R regarding a time travel story called Eight.

April 20th: I sent in the revised version.

June 17th: I traveled almost 5000 miles to attend Clarion West in Seattle.

June 25th: Strange Horizons e-mailed to tell me they accepted Eight for publication. I stomped downstairs with my netbook under my arm and freaked the hell out of the students diligently writing in the main living room by going “ZOMG YOU GUYS YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS. FIRST PRO SALE. STRANGE HORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONS.”

Basically…

Basically I am in love with 2011.

In November, prepare to receive a giant, giant headache from time travel complications.

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about dead trees*, but hey, sometimes you have to try new things.

That’s kind of a round-about way of announcing that the first quarterly edition of Crossed Genres just went live. It includes my short story “Rule of Threes” from their most recent issue, plus a whole heap of other no doubt fabulous stories that I can’t wait to dig into as soon as my own copies arrive.

(After I flip to the page I’m on, of course. This is my first print sale and I’m all giddy at the thought of seeing my name on paper.)

If you’re interested in taking a look, the book is available on Amazon, CreateSpace, and in various ebook formats from the publisher’s website.

Also: how nifty is that cover?!

* Actually, it’s up for debate: Am I more excited that a story of mine is seeing print, or that something actually pops up when you search for my name on Amazon? You decide.

It’s February 1st — which means the 27th issue of Crossed Genres is live! Go read my story “Rule of Threes” if you’d like to see teenagers die gruesome deaths in the Australian desert.

I mean, really, who wouldn’t? Right? Right! … Right?

Note to self: make some time in the next few days to check out the fancy stories/writers I’m sharing an issue with.

In different news, I got my agent edits this afternoon, which is a) LIGHTNING FAST and b) really exciting.

I’m going to have to get used to all these things I hadn’t expected. The weirdness of saying ‘my agent’–yeah, I saw that coming. But no longer needing to check QueryTracker on a daily basis? Merrily skipping agent interviews now that I no longer have to check if they happen to be into my brand of fantasy? That’s just bizarre.

Back to work!

… from all the lovely comments here, on Twitter, at the Secret Agent contest, on AW, in e-mail, in your own blogs… You guys really know how to make a super exciting thing even better. I’ve been walking around with a goofy smile on my face all day.

In this grueling in-between period — I’m still working on that ‘patience’ thing us writers are apparently supposed to have — I’m aiming to keep busy. I put together a Scrivener file for this really neat superhero novella I’ve been planning for a while. I want to get a start on that this week. Can’t hurt to get some new words out, right?

I’m also trying to get back into the Always Read the Fae Print mood properly in order to figure out the sequel. I actually made a start on that sequel back in November ’09, but never got far, and after that… well, I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to write it. So many other projects have taken up space in my head since then that it’s taking a while to get back into the right mindset. Good thing I still have a soundtrack for it in my iTunes — that’ll speed things up!

I also have even more shiny news to share: my short story “Rule of Threes” will be in the February issue of Crossed Genres. The month’s theme is ‘tragedy’. Truly, there’s nothing more tragic than man-eating Australian salamanders. Some of you might’ve listened to this story back when it was published at Sniplits; the version that will be published now is a good 1000 words lighter, so it should be a much tighter read. I’m really excited, not just because of the obvious, but also because the story will be in the magazine’s first quarterly publication — which makes this my very first print sale. You have no idea how long I’ve been looking forward to that.

So basically: life is super exciting. To be continued.