Still working through the backlog of stories that were published but never properly announced. Today's offering: Chen D'Angelo and the Chinese-Italian Dragon!
It's the future, and everyone and everything that mattered on earth is on a generation ship headed toward a new planet. There are forests, and sometimes plants and animals from different areas of the world get along and create new ecosystems, but sometimes they don't. The city is the same way. Everyone mixes and mingles, but there are still places like Little Italy and Chinatown. And where Little Italy and Chinatown meet, there is a Chinese-Italian pizzeria.
The pizzeria is going to be sold if they can't raise enough money, but the owners' daughter has other ideas. She just needs to find the one thing people forgot back on earth: belief. And maybe a dragon.
This story and many others is available in Dragon Bike. https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/10155
Monday, March 23, 2020
Thursday, March 12, 2020
The Doll In The Ripped Universe
Some of my characters are more like me than others. The ones that are the most like me tends to be the autistic ones. I don't know if there's more freedom to describe things the way I think, or if the struggles of autistic characters match the resonant frequency of my heart, or what. They just tend to be my favorite.
The Doll In The Ripped Universe is one of those stories.
The main character is not actually much like me. Autistic and likes dinosaurs. But the story itself is not my story and I'm being purposely vague because I don't want to spoil the ending but for some reason I just very much connected with the main character. Our thought processes run on the same wavelength, and that made writing this incredibly easy for once.
Well, one very small part of the story is mine. The specific, neurotic way I experienced fear and anxiety over the smallest and most insignificant things in my childhood.
The Doll In The Ripped Universe is a story about autism and gender and finding yourself. It is also about what happens when you pick at a hole in the universe.
It is available now in Spoon Knife 4
https://www.amazon.com/Spoon-Knife-Neurodivergent-Spacetime-Anthology-ebook/dp/B08263JH7M
The Doll In The Ripped Universe is one of those stories.
The main character is not actually much like me. Autistic and likes dinosaurs. But the story itself is not my story and I'm being purposely vague because I don't want to spoil the ending but for some reason I just very much connected with the main character. Our thought processes run on the same wavelength, and that made writing this incredibly easy for once.
Well, one very small part of the story is mine. The specific, neurotic way I experienced fear and anxiety over the smallest and most insignificant things in my childhood.
The Doll In The Ripped Universe is a story about autism and gender and finding yourself. It is also about what happens when you pick at a hole in the universe.
It is available now in Spoon Knife 4
https://www.amazon.com/Spoon-Knife-Neurodivergent-Spacetime-Anthology-ebook/dp/B08263JH7M
Monday, March 9, 2020
Space Opera Libretti author interview: Dawn Vogel
Good evening, passengers of the good spaceship Space Opera Libretti! This is the part where I usually make an airplane joke, but surely I won't do that this time. Except I will, so don't call me Shirley. (and that, my dears, is what we call a joke for old people!)
We invite one of our authors up to the cockpit every Monday to discuss their story available now in Space Opera Libretti.
Today's guest is Dawn Vogel!
We invite one of our authors up to the cockpit every Monday to discuss their story available now in Space Opera Libretti.
Today's guest is Dawn Vogel!
In 10 words or less, how would you describe your story?
Intergalactic pop group saves the day!
What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.
Not quite a year ago now, my husband finally got me to watch some Korean pop videos. He had been interested in K-pop for a while, but he had to find just the right groups in order to get me hooked. K-pop videos are visual spectacles, and some of them are even more spectacular (and weird) than others. Specifically, one of the groups he really likes, Brown-Eyed Girls, has a song called "Brave New World," and the video for that was the first inspiration for "Earworm." I reluctantly moved my band out of a space-travelling car and into an actual spaceship, but I envision the opening sequence of the story as beginning similarly to how the video for "Brave New World" starts. One of my favorite groups, Twice, has a song called "BDZ" (it's short for bulldozer), which also has a sort of odd video, and that inspired the later scenes of the story.
If your story had a theme song, what would it be?
The obvious choices would be "Brave New World" and "BDZ," but I imagine Hafsa's sound as a bit more like "The Diva Dance" from The Fifth Element.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I'm an author and editor of short and long speculative fiction (and, recently, poetry). I have a background in history and work with historians and archaeologists as an editor and office manager. My husband and I live in Seattle, where we are owned by five very demanding cats. I also game, craft (mostly crochet and cross-stitch), and attend a lot of local conventions. I have a ridiculously large collection of Funko Pops that prevent me from using a real desk, and I love watching bad historical TV shows.
Do you have anything you want to promote? Other stories or books, your Etsy shop, a cool video you found online of dancing llamas that you think the world needs to see?
The third book in my steampunk trilogy, Brass and Glass 3: The Boiling Sea, came out in October of this year, and can be found on Amazon and through other online booksellers. I've sold a relatively large number of stories and poems in 2019, with some coming out later this year and some coming out next year. I blog weekdays at http://historythatneverwas.com
Every story in the paperback edition of Space Opera Libretti is accompanied by a title page. Earworm's features a mysterious soundwave beaming out into space.
Dawn Vogel’s academic background is in history, so it’s not surprising that much of her fiction is set in earlier times. By day, she edits reports for historians and archaeologists. In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, co-edits Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time for writing. Her steampunk series, Brass and Glass, is published by DefCon One Publishing. She is a member of Broad Universe, Codex Writers, and SFWA. She lives in Seattle with her
awesome husband (and fellow author), Jeremy Zimmerman, and their herd of cats. Visit her at or on Twitter @historyneverwas.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
The House Of Lonely Vines
Good morning! Or. Afternoon. Whatever.
My story, The House Of Lonely Vines, is available in Cryptgnats, a horror anthology about graveyards and mausoleums and other places for the dead.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1948899051/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
I have not read the rest of the anthology yet so I can't give specific content warnings, but here are the warnings for my story:
Fire, death, bad things happening to children.
My story is a flash fiction piece about a lonely little girl and a lonelier little house that grew itself from the ashes of tragedy.
It's based on a real house my mom and I used to drive past on the way to our friends'. As far as I know, there's no tragedy involved with the house, but it was built so fast. Every time we went past, it seemed to have grown without us ever seeing people working on it. One day an empty lot, the next day a house. Then, suddenly a family living in it.
My story, The House Of Lonely Vines, is available in Cryptgnats, a horror anthology about graveyards and mausoleums and other places for the dead.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1948899051/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
I have not read the rest of the anthology yet so I can't give specific content warnings, but here are the warnings for my story:
Fire, death, bad things happening to children.
My story is a flash fiction piece about a lonely little girl and a lonelier little house that grew itself from the ashes of tragedy.
It's based on a real house my mom and I used to drive past on the way to our friends'. As far as I know, there's no tragedy involved with the house, but it was built so fast. Every time we went past, it seemed to have grown without us ever seeing people working on it. One day an empty lot, the next day a house. Then, suddenly a family living in it.
Monday, March 2, 2020
Space Opera Libretti author interview: Jennifer Lee Rossman
Good evening, passengers of the good spaceship Space Opera Libretti! We hope you are enjoying your flight. Brian will be around with snacks shortly. Meanwhile, it's Monday, and Mondays are when we invite one of our authors up to the cockpit every Monday to discuss their story available now in Space Opera Libretti.
Today's guest is Jennifer Lee Rossman!
Wait. That can't be right. I can't interview myself.
Brian. Brian, where are you going. No, the snacks can wait. Brian! Come back and interview me!
Um.
Okey-dokey. I guess I'm interviewing myself this week. My story, Jukebox Ga Ga, involves two siblings on an intergalactic road trip that gets interrupted by invisible bears made of black holes.
In 10 words or less, how would you describe your story?Today's guest is Jennifer Lee Rossman!
Wait. That can't be right. I can't interview myself.
Brian. Brian, where are you going. No, the snacks can wait. Brian! Come back and interview me!
Um.
Okey-dokey. I guess I'm interviewing myself this week. My story, Jukebox Ga Ga, involves two siblings on an intergalactic road trip that gets interrupted by invisible bears made of black holes.
Bohemian Rhapsody sing-along saves the day.
What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.
What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.
When I was younger, my dad went to Egypt with my uncle and came back with a wild story. Briefly…
Tour guide: we can't go any further down this river
Dad: OK but what if we did
[police boat shows up. There are guns. Tour guide and uncle think they are going to die]
Dad, who knows very little Arabic: i'll handle this
[10 minutes later, dad is in the police boat, smoking cigarettes and wearing the captain's hat]
There were pictures to prove this, but no one could tell me what happened in those 10 minutes. I finally got the full story this year, but it always stuck in my head because of the dynamic between my father and his brother. What was my introverted uncle thanking while my used car salesman dad was confidently charming the egyptian police?
And what if it was in space?
If your story had a theme song, what would it be?
Tour guide: we can't go any further down this river
Dad: OK but what if we did
[police boat shows up. There are guns. Tour guide and uncle think they are going to die]
Dad, who knows very little Arabic: i'll handle this
[10 minutes later, dad is in the police boat, smoking cigarettes and wearing the captain's hat]
There were pictures to prove this, but no one could tell me what happened in those 10 minutes. I finally got the full story this year, but it always stuck in my head because of the dynamic between my father and his brother. What was my introverted uncle thanking while my used car salesman dad was confidently charming the egyptian police?
And what if it was in space?
If your story had a theme song, what would it be?
Bohemian Rhapsody. Although I reference quite a few Queen songs in the story.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
What if Dr. Temperance Brennan from Bones was a Disney princess?
I'm autistic, i'm disabled, i'm queer, and I like dinosaurs, dammit.
I'm autistic, i'm disabled, i'm queer, and I like dinosaurs, dammit.
What was the last book you read? Did you like it?
Solarpunk Winters. I'm actually in the middle of it right now, but I am greatly enjoying it. Not every story is catching my attention, but that's the beauty of anthologies.
(my story Oil And Ivory, basically the movie Ferngully but with narwhals, is in it. And yes, I am shamelessly promoting my own work in this interview. I'm allowed. My blog.)
(my story Oil And Ivory, basically the movie Ferngully but with narwhals, is in it. And yes, I am shamelessly promoting my own work in this interview. I'm allowed. My blog.)
Do you have anything you want to promote? Other stories or books, your Etsy shop, a cool video you found online of dancing llamas that you think the world needs to see?
I have a story coming out in Community Of Magic Pens. It's a choose your own adventure short story about the magic of friendship.
And also it's about a pretty girl with sharp teeth. (look. Dark Rey in The Rise Of Skywalker made me realize I have a thing for girls with sharp teeth. Don't judge me)
And also it's about a pretty girl with sharp teeth. (look. Dark Rey in The Rise Of Skywalker made me realize I have a thing for girls with sharp teeth. Don't judge me)
The book is available for pre-order now and can I just say… the editor is an amazing person who has put her heart and soul and wallet into making this book as good as it can be. I've read some of the stories and they are just. Fantastic.
Anything else you want to say?
I am so honored to have worked on this book, and thankful to Brian and our authors.
Every story in the paperback version of Space Opera Libretti is accompanied by a title page. Mine features a jukebox in space… and is that an invisible bear?
Jennifer Lee Rossman lives in a group home for disabled people in Binghamton, New York, and enjoys annoying certain staff members by singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody. She recently colored her hair blue because, you know. She's queer.
