Pages

Friday, December 1, 2023

Blue Incarnations cover reveal and pre-order

 On January 29, 2024, I will be self publishing my queer reincarnation thriller Blue Incarnations!

I've been working on this book for the better part of 10 years on and off. Writing and rewriting and eventually figuring out what story I wanted to tell.

I tried to go to traditional publishing route with it a couple years and several rewrites ago, but it wasn't ready. I thought about trying again, but querying novels isn't something I enjoy and I wanted to get more experience with the ins and outs of actually designing and publishing a book rather than just writing one.

Anyway. I'm really proud of this book and I can't wait for people to read it. You can pre-order the e-book now, and the paperback version will be available on January 29.




Thursday, November 16, 2023

Mighty: An Anthology Of Disabled Superheroes

 I want to do a proper post talking about this more in depth and highlighting all of our amazing authors, but for now I just want to get the links out there and officially announce:

Mighty: An Anthology Of Disabled Superheroes is now available everywhere you buy books!

This anthology was edited by myself and Emily Gillespie, and we are so proud of our authors and we really hope you will check it out

https://linktr.ee/renaissancepublicist

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Untamed

 What do you get when you combine Shakespeare and a terrible B movie? The taming of the killer shrews, of course!

Untamed, available in Greater Than His Nature, is my take on a retelling of Taming Of The Shrew, set on an island where scientists have been experimenting on a young woman who turns into a killer shrew when she can't control her emotions.

It's also an allegory for autistic people who are forced to go through harmful "treatment" like advanced behavioral analysis because neurotypical people think we need to be fixed.

In that regard, and because it's based on Taming Of The Shrew, please be aware there is gaslighting and mentally abusive and manipulative situations in my story. They are not glorified or romanticized in any way, at least that was not my intention.

There's also quite a bit of violence. If it were a visual medium, like a movie, it would be very gory. My main character turns into a shrew who attacks and eats people. Of course there's going to be a lot of blood involved in that. However, I believe I handled it tastefully (no pun intended) and did not describe the violence or blood shed in much detail at all.

Also, fun fact: I was struggling with the character of Peter for a while. I knew what he needed to do for the plot, but I couldn't figure out his personality. He was a very boring character to write.

So I decided to write him as if I was writing a character for Karl Urban to play in a movie. Sort of a very toned down version of Billy Butcher from The Boys, complete with Hawaiian shirts (which I even managed to use as symbolism, which made me very pleased).

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Blood And Iron

 I am so pleased to finally be able to announce my short story "Blood And Iron" is available in Rosalind's Siblings, a celebration of scientists of marginalized genders. This anthology was scheduled for several years ago but the plan fell through and it finally found a new home with Atthis Arts!

My story is about an autistic forensic pathologist who deals with magical creatures. They've been showing up in our world for some reason, but never survive long. Her latest case—a fairy who might have been murdered—could be the key to solving the entire interdimensional mystery.

This character is a lot like me, and probably the most explicitly autistic character I have ever written. It isn't just a diagnosis she has or something she deals with, it is an integral part of who she is and how she interacts with the world.

My original description for her was "Temperance Brennan from Bones if she was a Disney princess."

The death of magical creatures is central to the story, but there is no death on the page and any mentions of bodies and autopsy of them is dealt with in a non-graphic way.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Wardrobe Of The Worlds

In fashion, one day you're in, and the next day you’re out of this world…

My story "Wardrobe Of The Worlds" is now available in Soul Jar, an anthology of disabled authors.

Imagine intergalactic Project Runway with an autistic model and a Bruce Willis inspired Army general designer, and you've got the idea. Oh, and if they don't make the best dress possible, well… the Earth might be destroyed.

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Part Of Her World

 This story didn't get announced when it first came out, so I am announcing it now!"Part Of Her World" is available to read for free online at Breath And Shadow!

This story, loosely based on The Little Mermaid, deals with a disabled woman who lives in a gravity free environment that helps her move more easily, trying to hide the fact that she is disabled while helping a pretty astronaut.

There is a lot of internalized ableism to this character. She doesn't mind being disabled, but she has it in her head that no one will treat her with respect, or want to date her, if they know she can't walk.

That's something a lot of us have to deal with. When I first started writing and submitting stories, I never mentioned my disability. I didn't want it to change the way people thought of me.

I always mention it now, because it's important to be honest about yourself and to have good disability representation in the media. But there is still always that little doubt, is this going to change anything?

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Welcome Mat, Five Stars

 I am very proud to announce that my new story "Welcome Mat, Five Stars" is now available in the anthology The Monsters Next Door!

It's a humorous but tragic story of a couple who unknowingly move into a community of vampires.

The story is told through online product reviews left by the main character, Lucy Morris (named after my two favorite Dracula characters who deserved better).

I think that format gave me a unique opportunity to build suspense because I have so much control over what information the readers have. There's no dialogue, there's no descriptions of the neighborhood, the story is pieced together just with the details Lucy inadvertently gives in her reviews.

I had a lot of fun writing it, because I didn't know where it was going at first. I only knew there was a welcome mat at the beginning and a mirror at the end, and I had to work out how to get from one to the other, and then go back and fill in the foreshadowing to make it make sense.

I hope you enjoy it.

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

And Let It Go

 My story "And Let It Go" is now available in Yay! They're Here!

It's the story of the woman who accidentally started the end of the world when aliens landed on her birthday.

The title is a reference to 99 Red Balloons, which also inspired most of the plot (and the name of the alien species).

I also took inspiration from The Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." I grew up watching marathons of that show every major holiday on the Sci-Fi Channel, and that was always one of my favorite episodes.

For maximum enjoyment, I recommend imagining the main character as Kat Dennings's MCU character Darcy Lewis. 100% I wrote it with her in mind. Actually, writing it as if she was going to play my character is what took this story from just a vague idea to a finished piece.

Monday, July 31, 2023

Transfer, Emphasis On Trans

I am very proud to say my story "Transfer, Emphasis On Trans" is now available in Mirrors Reflecting Shadows, proceeds benefiting The Trevor Project.

It's set in a futuristic world where Freaky Friday style body swaps are commonly offered services.

When a trans man swaps bodies so he can properly experience society as a man before transitioning, he expects it to last 24 hours. Little does Alexander know, the person he swapped with was in trouble and got himself—and Alexander's original body—killed.

Now he's stuck in the perfect body—and in the middle of an investigation.

When I wrote this story, I didn’t realize I was trans. I just thought everyone had a little bit of gender dysphoria from time to time.

That was in 2017.

Since then, this story has collected almost 20 rejections and almost as many different titles and editing passes. And every time I edited it, it felt a little more familiar, a little more personal.

And that's because I'm non-binary.

While this story overall is one of hope and gender affirmation, please be aware the main character's family is not affirming of his gender or name with the exception of his sister.

Thursday, July 6, 2023

The Horsepower Whisperer

 I am very proud to announce I have another story published in the amazing Brave New Girls series of anthologies. This one is "The Horsepower Whisper," available in Brave New Girls: Tales Of Girls Who Engineer And Explore!

My story is a steampunk tale about a family struggling to keep their farm profitable while recovering from the death of the mother.

The main character, Katie, is trying to follow in her mother's dancing footsteps, but instead of practicing her routine, she's trying to help her father and younger sister with the farm. She decides what they really need is a horse, so she buys a broken down mechanical one and tries to fix him up in secret.

There's one scene in this story that I struggled with writing, because in my mind, it needed to be a music montage set to the Hall and Oates song "You Make My Dreams Come True" and I just couldn't figure out how to write that for the longest time.

I hope you enjoy my story, although please be aware it does deal with grief of losing a mother to cancer.

Monday, May 15, 2023

The Cracking Of The Cosmic Egg

Jane went to space… and she came back very different…

"The Cracking Of The Cosmic Egg," available in Illustrated Worlds, is a cosmic horror story with a metaphorical transgender twist.

I won't say much so as not to spoil it, but I will say my inspiration was my favorite song "Drops of Jupiter," but I turned it into a horror story.

Content warnings for body horror, cosmic horror, metaphorical gender dysphoria, the bloody aftermath of violence (violence not described in any real detail.)

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Six Poem Publications!

 I am the featured poet in the newest issue of Illumen!

I have six poems published in the issue:

Footprints

Dinosaurs Would Be Trans Allies

Fine Print

Your Light Was On

Unboxing

An Open Letter To The Legislators Forcing Me To Become A Kaiju


Monday, May 1, 2023

Body by Franz Kafka

 My story "Body by Franz Kafka" is now available for free in the latest issue of Mirror Dance!

It's a body horror story about gender dysphoria and transphobia in society, told through a Twilight Zone lens.

Trans people aren't any more dangerous than anyone else, yet there is so much fear surrounding us, so many people trying to legislate us out of existence and stir up hysteria. They want people to believe we are going to turn your kids trans, or that it is something that happens overnight and needs to be fixed because it isn't really us.

So I wrote a story about pod people and gender and messed up butterflies.

When I was three or four, my dad found a monarch butterfly chrysalis on the garbage can outside our trailer and brought it in. The butterfly hatched when I was looking down at a coloring book, and I'm still a little bit upset about that 30 years later.

I named him Cooey, after a character on Eureka's Castle. Somewhere in my boxes of photo albums in the basement, I have pictures of him crawling on me and "playing" with my Littlest Pet Shop toys.

I still think about him surprisingly often, even though he only lived with us for maybe a day or two in the chrysalis and an hour or so as an adult butterfly. He was my first real introduction to how beautiful and weird nature can be.

Friday, April 28, 2023

Heartbeat

 How far would you go to save the world?

Would you kill the universe?

In my story "Heartbeat," available now in The Cosmic And The Void, a brother and sister discover that the universe is a living thing, and the Earth exists inside its heart. And the next heartbeat is going to kill everyone.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

People Like Us

 I am proud to announce that my short story "People Like Us" is now available in We Deserve To Exist!

Based on the Kelly Clarkson song of the same name, People Like Us is set in a world without color, where mysterious entities have been seeking out and eliminating anyone who doesn't conform to their idea of what humanity should be.

This includes queer people and magic users, and my main character—a non-binary magic user—is doing their best to help people while also staying under the radar.

They are a psychopomp, a concept common in ancient mythology. Someone who can travel to the land of the dead, who often accompanies freshly deceased souls to make sure they arrive in the underworld.

My character does this for trans people. You see, gender dysphoria in this world makes you very visible to the bad people. It makes you colorful.

So they help people die, just temporarily, although there is often, unfortunately, the temptation to stay that way. And then they help the souls come back, into a new body that fits better.

But what happens when they meet the brightest, most rainbow colored non-binary child… who doesn't want a new body?

Content warnings for transphobia, gender dysphoria, death and resurrection, dead bodies not described in any detail, temporary suicide (if that is a thing?), suicidal ideation, and persecution of marginalized people.

But even with all of that darkness as its foundation, this is one of my most helpful and beautiful stories in my opinion.

Also, there is a very good dog in it.

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Muse

 Hello! Somehow this story never got announced! 😱

My story Muse is now available in Phantasmical Contraptions & More Errors!

It's a story about addiction and creativity in a cyberpunk world where inspiration comes in pill form. It's also a story about love, trusting yourself, and how you might just have everything you need right in front of you and not even know it.

Saturday, March 4, 2023

The Flatwoods Monster and The Little Green Men

 Hello! I am happy to announce my story "The Flatwoods Monster And The Little Green Men" is now available in Things Improbable, an anthology of stories about cryptids—those folkloric creatures like Bigfoot and Nessie that don't officially exist.

My story is about The Flatwoods Monster, a mysterious, possibly alien creature seen in West Virginia in 1952.

It's also about being transgender, and how much you are willing to sacrifice to become the person—or, in this case, the cryptid—you always wanted to be. 

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Free Reprint Story: No Collision

Originally published in Shout by Not A Pipe Press, now out of print, here is "No Collision."

(And here is my original blog post about it, if you want more information.)


No Collision

By Jennifer Lee Rossman


Jamie sidled up to the bar. It was her first time sidling and she wasn't sure she did it right, but it seemed like an important part of being a cool space captain, the ability to sidle, so she tried her best. Next time, she'd watch some YouTube videos to prepare.

"What'll you have?" the bartender asked, wiping a glass with a rag, because that’s the way they did it in the old days and only losers used robots according to the 31st amendment.

She glanced at the menu projected overhead. "What's an orange Russian?"

"White Russian with orange liqueur."

Jamie wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, it's terrible. Actually pretty damaging to your body, too."

"Then why do you sell it?"

"Someone hacked our ordering system and had it shipped here. A few people decided to

be fanatically obsessed with it." He gave a helpless shrug. "You don't drink much, do you?"

"No," she said sheepishly. She'd never had any particular reason to, but to say she was anxious would be like calling the Mona Lisa a nice doodle. Alcohol probably wasn't the answer, but she came from a long line of functional alcoholics who liked beer, and they never seemed stressed, so she figured maybe there was something to it.

"Let me start you off with something easier," the bartender said. "How's an Irish Cofevfe sound?"

"Ridiculous, but I'll try it." Jamie glanced around, wondering if she looked as out of place as she felt. Everyone else seemed so macho, confident. The kind of cisgender white guys they put on the recruitment posters, all perfect hair and the kind of youth pastor smile that tries to convey trust while really silently praying that you don't check their browser history. Real 'Merican heroes.

But she was one of them; she belonged. She had the iron-on patch on her jacket to prove it. And yeah, maybe they'd misspelled "space," and maybe the rocket looked kind of like Mr. Toad, but they didn't let just anyone graduate Space Force University.

"You on the ship going out tomorrow?" the bartender asked when he returned with her drink. 

She held the glass carefully in two hands and took a sip. Blech. "I'm captaining the ship."

He let out a low whistle of admiration. "You don't say. I always wanted to be a captain, but you know how it goes. Bone spurs."  The poor man.

A terrible sound streaked through the air, causing everyone to clamp their hands over their ears and wince. Almost everyone, anyway. One Deaf person in the corner just raised their eyebrows and watched the commotion as the Commander’s emergency alert system was used for the fourth time that day.

(The first had been to complain about a very happy young girl trying to warn him about an incoming asteroid, the second was the daily update about which racist nicknames he was using for his enemies, and the third was an accident due to the Commander’s enormous hands being unable to press all of the tiny buttons on his phone.)

This time, however, the Commander appeared on screen — on all the screens, from phones to televisions to the menu above the bar — his face contorted like he had just sucked on a lemon. Or, perhaps more accurately, a peach with a mint in it. The man absolutely despised in-peach mints.

“My fellow ‘Mericans,“ he said, sounding extremely presidential. The most presidential. “Some people in the super false, not at all true media claim that one of our spaceships collided with a Russian ship today. This is not the case. No. Did not happen. There was no collision with the Russians.”

The screens thankfully cut away from the Commander’s face to show a PowerPoint presentation about where the collision did not occur. The pictures were askew and had artifacts that gave it the impression of having been photocopied several times, but Jamie recognized that bit of space near Pluto. That was where her mission was going to send her tomorrow.


***


There had absolutely been a collision.

It was undeniable, really. Even Jamie, who had never seen a collision between two spaceships, could plainly see that the ‘Merican ship had collided with another ship. She did not know enough about flags — at least not the ones that did not represent gay pride — to know whether or not that was a Russian ship, but that was most definitely a backwards R painted on its hull, and she did not think it stood for Toys “R” Us. (Or perhaps that should be Toys “R” USSR?)

“That’s a collision, right?“ Jamie asked.

Eris, her second in command who also happened to be the Deaf person from the bar, shook their head. “Can’t be,“ they signed. “There was no collision. Just ask…“ Here, they made a sign that Jamie did not understand. Her ASL skills were a bit rusty; it looked like Eris was signing “racist sunset rectum” but that couldn’t possibly be right so Jamie decided that must be the sign for “most respected Commander.”

The final member of their skeleton crew, navigator Diego, leaned against the window of the Starship Bigly and laughed. “Funny how they send a queer, a disabled, and a Mexican to do this job.“

“Two queers,“ Eris corrected.

“Right. Either we do it because we can’t get jobs back on Earth, or we don’t do it and no one believes us because we are two queers, a disabled, and a Mexican.”

“No,“ Jamie corrected. “The funny thing is that we just happened to have a mission here before the collision didn’t even happen, putting us in the perfect position to clean up this wreck we aren’t looking at.”

“Serendipity,” Eris signed sarcastically.


***


Nothing in the mission statement said that the crew was to clean up the wreck, as that would be documented proof that there was a wreck to clean up. But their ship, supposedly a research vessel despite the administration‘s utter disdain for science, was equipped with all the necessary equipment for cleaning up a wreck such as the one the crew was not currently looking at, making it clear what they had to do.

With every load of salvage they sent back to the Bigly in that solid gold transport pod that they would send to the Amazon for incineration, Jamie hated herself more and more. Almost as much as the Red Hat Society hated her.

(But then, the Red Hat Society hated anyone who dared to suggest that deviations from the ideal allocishet abled white Christian man from an upper-class family could ever represent the real ‘Merica. Sometimes she wondered how a club for a little old ladies who liked to play bingo while wearing red hats had become a hate group, but she would never know because someone, a long time ago, removed all of the statues and thus erased entire chunks of history from the record.)

“We could take pictures,“ Jamie said. “We could bring back evidence instead of covering it up. Why are we just … letting him tell us what to do?”

“Because nobody will believe us,“ Diego said from the other ship, his voice muffled and echoing in his helmet. “Nobody believed when he appointed his nephew to head the anti-nepotism committee, and we saw it happen on live TV.”

Eris appeared in the corner of Jamie’s vision, their hand movement as muffled by their gloves as Diego‘s voice by his helmet. “They would put us in cages, like the babies. No one would listen to us, and we would be imprisoned for the rest of our lives.”

“At least the crews of these ships died quick,“ Diego pointed out. “Sucked through the holes in the ship, exposed to the vacuum of space.” And he would know. Diego was from a country that almost exclusively studied holes in ships. A ship hole country, if you will.

Jamie frowned. “I don’t see any evidence of these being manned vessels. There aren’t even kitchens or crew quarters.“

“So, what?“ Eris asked. “Russia sends up an unmanned vessel, which presumably has a guidance system, and our own unmanned ship just accidentally hit that?“ They paused, then added, “Hypothetically, of course. There was no collusion.“

“Where was the Russian ship coming from?“ Jamie asked, sifting through the rubble by hand, not entirely sure what she was looking for.

“Pluto,“ Diego said.

Pluto. The former ‘Merican outpost that was now supposedly overrun with bad hombres? Why would they be in contact with the Russians?

Jamie‘s hand struck a small object. A flash drive.

“Hey you guys? I think I found something.“


***


“It’s a rough translation,“ Diego warned, “and I have not been able to recover the video file they are talking about yet. But this is something big. Huge. More gigantic then the Commander‘s hands.”

“Nothing is bigger than the Commander‘s hands,“ Eris signed. “He says so himself.”

“What’s it say?“ Jamie asked.

Diego hesitated for a moment, reading the transcript again to himself as if to make sure he was understanding his own translation correctly. “It seems… Seems there’s a video. They used to keep it in a dossier made of steel for some reason but now they are going to release it. The Plutonians and the Russians. It’s a video of the Commander.” He paused here. Maybe for dramatic effect, maybe in disbelief. “Now, this is where I wish my Russian were better because I don’t know if they’re talking about a garbanzo bean or a chickpea, but apparently the Commander spent the night in a Russian hotel room and paid to see one of them placed on a mattress.“

Jamie and Eris looked at each other. “Why would he pay to see a garbanzo bean on a mattress?“ Jamie asked.

“It might not be a garbanzo bean,“ Diego pointed out. “It could be a chickpea.“

“Well, why would he pay to see a chickpea on a ma —“

“I don’t know,“ Diego interrupted. “I just know with the people on Pluto think this is important for the ‘Merican people to know about.”

The three of them sat there, on the bridge of the starship that was so beautiful, perhaps the Commander would be dating it if it were a human, and they debated what to do. Would the public believe them? Would they be imprisoned? Perhaps more importantly, could they live with themselves if they did nothing?

There was only one thing they could do.

Eris hacked the emergency alert system, sending out a message to every screen in the country while Diego worked on recovering the video. Jamie tweaked the alert sound slightly; it no longer sounded like a screeching klaxon.

Now it sounded like someone blowing a whistle.

End


Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Summer Of The Blue Tide

 So you know that game Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon? Where you name an actor and try to link them to Kevin Bacon in six movies and TV shows or less based on who they have worked with?

With the publication of Summer Of The Blue Tide, available in Bioluminescent, I officially have a Bacon Number of 3.

In Bioluminescent, I am sharing a table of contents with Neil Gaiman. Yes, that Neil Gaiman. Lucifer, American Gods, Good Omens.

He also wrote Coraline, which starred Dakota Fanning, who was in Trapped with Kevin Bacon.

Anyway. About the story.

Set in a futuristic Martha's Vineyard, three young adults have inherited a problem: the bioluminescent blue waves that fuel the summer tourist economy might be putting the entire ecosystem at risk of collapse. Can they find a solution in which the ocean and the tourism can both thrive?

Or: what if the shark and the economy were victims of each other in Jaws?

Recommended listening for this story:

"Toxic," Britney Spears

"Only Wanna Be With You," Hootie And The Blowfish

"I Hope You Dance," Lee Ann Womack

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Don't Look Down

 This is one of those stories I didn't think was going to be about something important. I just wanted to write a fun story involving some weird folklore things. Instead, it's… much more.

Don't Look Down started with me wanting to write about atmospheric beasts. That led to Star jelly. And then somehow the Talking Heads song And She Was became involved.

It was supposed to be about an autistic girl going on a little adventure in the sky. It became a story about an abused autistic girl living in a group home where she is safe for the first time, and running away into the sky because it doesn't feel real. It feels like she's a cartoon character walking off the edge of a cliff, believing everything is fine, until she looks down and falls.


"Don't Look Down" is available now at Kaleidotrope.