It was a quiet writing year for me, recovering from burnout and a world set aflame, reconnecting with my pen and looking for ways to fill the empty jars lining my inner sanctum.
Still, there is spellwork at hand, for three is a magical number in fairy tales. It establishes a pattern, bringing words power, like bright threads pulled into a tight, memorable weave. This year I had three original short stories, three reprints, and three poems published.
And there is light ahead. I’ve been working on a poetry collection and a novella (more news to come on these projects in future days, I hope, even as my coyote familiar, Doubt, pads softly in my shadow).
Fiction
Matriarch BAFFLING MAGAZINE — Issue 17, October 2024 (dark fantasy, 500 words). This story is set in the same world as Daughter of the Great Whales (published in Haven Spec’s Issue 6). A tale of those who bore, reborn.
Beyond the islands we protected, the sea was emptier than it should be, the waters left to blacken and waste.
Cover Art by Vincent Cecil
Moth Girl HEXAGON SF MAGAZINE — This Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Volume 1, July 2024 (dark sci-fi, 600 words). Originally published in UTOPIA SCIENCE FICTION. A story that explores the possible fears and hopes after making first contact.
Her kind came to us from behind the moon, weary-footed and haunted, and they tried to blend into the shadows, far from whatever nightmare they’d fled.
Cover Design and Layout by JW Stebner
Grown From an Alder Wolf’s Skull LUNA STATION QUARTERLY — Issue 058, June 2024 (fantasy, 3100 words). A story about sisterhood, magic, green thumbs, and a wolf’s skull capable of hunting love as if it were prey.
Men were especially wary of her kind, for magic was a gift cultivated by womenfolk alone.
Cover Art by Bauxxi
Mooncalf SHACKLEBOUND BOOKS — Wyrms 2: An Anthology of Dragon Drabbles, April 2024 (fantasy, 100 words). Originally published in ZOOSCAPE ZINE — Issue 15, August 2022. A story of a dragon and her egg.
I fear you’ll be born a fool, like me. A mooncalf hatchling, or a shining new dawn?
Crown Harvest SHACKLEBOUND BOOKS — Drabbledark III: An Anthology of Dark Drabbles, April 2024 (ddark fantasy, 100 words). A little tale about ribbons and silver shears and sacrifice.
A girl offers little use to her father, but this — at least this fleeting beauty — she can provide.
Wings of Light PERENNIAL PRESS — Arthropoda, February 2024 (fantasy, 4000 words). Originally published in HEXAGON SF MAGAZINE — Issue 4, March 2021.
It was dark, humid, the scents of earth a familiar shackle. Ochre crept through a drainage tunnel. Her squad followed behind her, the Nyla emblem visible on each of their left shoulder guards.
Cover Design by Stephanie Lane Gage
Poetry
This Forest That Never Dies CROW & CROSS KEYS — September 2024 (23 lines). It’s about bookshelves and the secrets they collect (one book at a time) about their keepers.
Her shelf whispers her truest name.
Sharp-Eared Potion EYE TO THE TELESCOPE — Issue 53: Strange Mixology, July 2024 (37 lines). While brainstorming for this call, I asked myself: If I had a potion gifted to me, what would I most wish for? This poem is about imposter syndrome and finding confidence.
“Some potions must be / filled rather than emptied / to cure what ails.”
The Rain Fell Between Us SMALL WONDERS — Issue 10, April 2024 (39 lines). About a rain lord summoned by a prayer skein.
when I look at him / I remember a summer harvest / parched by an ungiving sky
