“The Cosmos Chronicler” forthcoming in Polar Borealis

March 16, 2018
Polar Borealis Magazine

My poem “The Cosmos Chronicler” will appear in Polar Borealis #6. The issue is scheduled for a spring 2018 release, and will be available as a free PDF download. Appearing in the same issue will be my friend Lena Ng, which makes this extra special.

Another thing that makes it special: Assuming (hoping, praying) all goes according to schedule, this will be my first published piece of either story or poetry.

The full impact hasn’t quite hit me. Maybe it will when it’s out. The past several months have been wonderful… and very, very strange. I went from ten years of rejections to several acceptances within a few months (idea for a future blog post: that rejection mountain). Not that I’m complaining—I know full well how incredible this is. It just feels surreal, more “is this really happening?” and less “this-is-happening-and-I’m-going-to-run-around-screaming!”

It may be a little odd, that my first publication will be a poem. But it’s fitting. Generally, I think of myself as a storyteller more than a poet. Telling stories is something I’ve done for as long as I can remember. Poetry I started doing in a more normal way, the way most kids start: with school assignments. (Some I went completely overboard for. Such as writing seven-page epics before I got out of elementary school. How and why did I do that? I can barely write an epic now.)

However, if you were to ask me which I started writing first, poetry or prose… I wouldn’t be able to tell you. Until I was ten I didn’t write my stories down. I’m not sure which came first: my poem about Christmas fairies or my Anne of Green Gables rip-off first chapter (Hey, I was ten!). So in a way poetry influenced me to write things rather than just imagine them.

Now I shall climb out of the nostalgia tunnel. More announcements soon, for short stories!

Greetings to the galaxy

February 20, 2018

Welcome to my site! I am Y. M. Pang. You can also call me Michelle. I am a consummate storyteller who has never quite figured out how to tell her own story, so perhaps that will convince me to keep this introductory post short. Short-ish. Or not.

I am a writer and poet based in Canada. I primarily write fantasy, though I wander into science fiction territory on a semi-regular basis. I am currently revising one novel, finishing up another, and editing about a dozen short stories. My influences could be described as a mélange of doorstopper fantasy novels, Chinese TV from my childhood, middle grade novels from my youth, and Japanese animation.

Growing up, I was not surrounded by a family of storytellers. So I had to tell the stories myself, starting with my first audience member: my poor grandfather, who had to listen to my ramblings of a heroic bear and his intrepid band of adventurers. In elementary school I wrote my first poems as well as some ragged novel chapters.

Over the past ten years, I have: participated in NaNoWriMo three times, submitted a ridiculous number of stories and poems to various magazines (the first submission when I was fifteen and using snail mail), completed a messy novel that will never see the light of day, bumped in and out of various writing groups…

Proving that persistence–or bullheadedness–does pay off, I currently have several short stories and a poem forthcoming. I hope to make those announcements soon!