Tag: fantasy

“Lace, Comb, Apple” – Spanish Translation and Interview

January 24, 2024

My short story “Lace, Comb, Apple”, originally published in The Dark, has been translated into Spanish by Voces de lo insólito. Huge thanks to Aitana Vega Casiano and Carla B. Estruch for the translation!

Alongside the translation, I also had the opportunity to conduct an interview. The Spanish version of the interview is available on the Voces de lo insólito Patreon. I have included the English version below:

 

What was the inspiration for Lace, Comb, Apple?

It was August 16, 2020. For a dream-like six months, I lived in a small town in rural Ontario. Back in Toronto—my once and future home—the Toronto Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers was hosting our annual one-shot anthology challenge: a day when writers are asked to complete a short story within 24 hours, to be compiled in a themed anthology.

The theme that year was Outsiders. My temporary absence from Toronto—my own status as an outsider, if you will—posed no challenge at all. The global pandemic had swept many in-person activities onto the shores of the internet. For the first time, our one-shot anthology had gone fully virtual.

And the theme? When I heard the word Outsiders, my thoughts immediately strayed to the mirror in Snow White. The world behind a mirror is, in some ways, another universe. Who was this mirror? Who were they to judge, regarding the fairest woman of the land? And if they were capable of passing judgement, surely they had other thoughts, emotions, desires. So how did they feel about being only a mirror, of having only a singular portal into the queen’s world?

In the end, I never published “Lace, Comb, Apple” in the Outsiders anthology. I wrote a second story that day (still within the 24-hour limit), called “The Last Leviathan,” which was included in Outsiders. For “Lace, Comb, Apple,” I decided to take a little more time with it, to polish it into its final form, which is the one that was published in The Dark.

 

Fairytales are originally dark, despite Disney’s efforts to convince us of the opposite. Are there any other classic stories that you would like to give a new twist?

I would like to give Sleeping Beauty another go. I tried to write a retelling a few years ago, but it grew into a novel-length monster sitting at the crossroads of three different genres—not at all the short story I set out to write. Perhaps I’ll try again from a different angle. Or perhaps I will finish the triple-genre novel.

Another thing I want to work on would be retellings of eastern legends, mythology, and folk tales—something outside of the classic western fairy tales (as much as I enjoy them!).

 

Nowadays, retellings are everywhere. Why do you feel classic fairy tales attract contemporary writers so much?

I think it’s the combination of the familiar with the strange. The shape of the original fairy tale is familiar to us, while the retelling adds in something different: a fresh perspective, a deeper or different exploration of a character, or even just bringing out little-known parts of the original fairy tale (e.g. some of the darker and more gruesome parts that are sanitized in adaptations).

 

Are you working on something right now? Are there any new stories coming out soon?

I am working on two fantasy novels: one is court drama meets revenge tale, and another is a coming-of-age story set in the same universe as two of my short stories (“The Lady of Butterflies” and “Dress of Ash”).

I still write short stories in between working on the novels. I don’t have any current announcements, but I hope to have something soon!

 

What have you been reading, watching, listening to recently? Something interesting to recommend to our readers?

I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately; they keep me company on my commute to work.

In terms of a recommendation: for anyone who enjoyed “Lace, Comb, Apple” and would like to read another Snow White retelling, I recommend Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust. It is an engaging novel filled with both heartwarming moments and painful ones, centred around the strong bond between two women—and how that bond is challenged amidst tragedy.

Year in Review & Award Eligibility 2018

February 5, 2019
Nothing like good ol’ paper.
Alternate heading: I have 2 seconds before The Razor’s Edge falls over. 0.5 seconds before F&SF follows suit.

2018 was a dreamily wonderful year for me in terms of publication. So dreamy, in fact, that I’m apparently still asleep. Hence why I’m writing this now when everyone else has made their award eligibility posts a month ago.

But nominations are still open for the major SF/F awards. So I’ve listed my 2018 publications below, aided by attempts at pithy, funny summaries. Attempts, I say, because this might get long and not so pithy. If brevity is the soul of wit, then I have none of it. Sorry, Shakes.

Some of the awards I’m eligible for include:

  • The Hugo Awards: Nominations are open until March 16 at 11:59 Pacific Daylight Time. Nominating can be done by current Worldcon members, members of last year’s Worldcon, or members of next year’s Worldcon.
  • The Nebula Awards: Nominations are open until February 15 for Active and Associate members of SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America).
  • The Aurora Awards: For the best Canadian SF/F of the year. Nominations are open from March 1 to May 21. Members of the
    Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association are allowed to nominate and vote.
  • I’m also in my first year of eligibility for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. It is not technically a Hugo, but it follows the same nomination and voting process. Nominations are open until March 15 at 11:59 Pacific Daylight Time.

And here are the individual stories I’ve published this year, and what they are eligible for. Stories marked with a * are available to read for free.

Eligible for Best Short Story (Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards):

*“The Mooncakes of My Childhood” (330 words) in PodCastle. A short piece on the rock-hard, northern version of mooncakes, and how they could be weaponized.

“A Place Without Seasons” (1,370 words) in Factor Four Magazine. Sentient snowbunnies can stick around after winter rather than going the way of Frosty the Snowman… if you stick them in the freezer, of course.

*“Subtle Ways Each Time” (2,100 words) in Escape Pod. A man loses a woman, and decides time travel is the solution. He might be wrong.

“Final Flight of the PhoenixWing” (3,760 words) in The Razor’s Edge. Gundam, but with time dilation and an old lady protagonist.

*“Glass Heart Giant” (3,850 words) in Sanctuary. What if you were trapped inside someone’s literal heart? Written in a day.

Eligible for Best Novelette (Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards):

*“The Palace of the Silver Dragon” (7,820 words) in Strange Horizons. No one who hears the Silver Dragon’s song and jumps into the sea ever returns alive. Aliah knows this, as she takes the leap.

*“The Girl with the Frozen Heart” (8,300 words) in Awakenings from Book Smugglers Publishing. The story of a dying girl, a god who tries to save her, and a boy who falls in love with her.

“The Lady of Butterflies” (8,970 words) in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A foreign girl with no memories appears in the Kejalin court, and the First Sword of the Empire is forced to be her caretaker.

All the above stories are also eligible for the Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction.

I’ve also published two poems, which are eligible for the Rhysling Award (nominations by members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association) and the Aurora Award for Best Poem or Song.

*“The Cosmos Chronicler” in Polar Borealis #6. Astronomy-inspired freeverse.

*“Death’s Knotted Circle” in Polar Borealis #8. Iambic pentametre published in 2018. About as gloomy as the title suggests.

Concluding Thoughts: I’m quite proud of the amount of stories I’ve published this year. Less proud of my inability to blog consistently, and to write my detailed thoughts about every story (as I’ve promised).

I’m still in the wide-eyed honeymoon phase of publishing, so I read reviews. They have been quite positive and even heartwarming (I am writing that down here, so that one day, buried beneath scathing reviews, I can look back and laugh at myself. That’s when I’ll know I’ll have become a “real writer”). “The Lady of Butterflies” and “The Palace of the Silver Dragon,” in particular, have garnered a number of positive reviews (which I, of course, retweeted gleefully). Those two happen to be my personal favourites as well. “The Lady of Butterflies” is more classic secondary-world fantasy, and I planned it out scene by scene, while “The Palace of the Silver Dragon” is darker and I myself took half the story to figure out the main character’s actual deal.

For anyone who read anything I published this year, I would love to hear your thoughts below, positive or negative.

Current Projects: I have two stories and a poem forthcoming in 2019. One will be in Clarkesworld, and the other two I cannot announce yet.

I am also slogging through the third act of a fantasy time travel novel set in the same world as “The Lady of Butterflies.” I’ve finally restarted development on a visual novel I wrote three years ago; I thought I was done the writing part, but apparently three-year-old prose is kinda yucky, who would’ve thought? I am still working on short stories, though more in terms of editing existing ones rather than writing new ones. For now, at least.

This was supposed to be an awards eligibility post. It seems to have veered off-track. Attempt #8923476 at being pithy. Result: not achieved.

“The Lady of Butterflies” in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

November 1, 2018

My contributor’s copy of F&SF. Underneath: letters holding… you guessed it, my old paper rejection letters before electronic submissions were a thing.

Today marks the release of the November/December 2018 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. This is not particularly special, as F&SF has been going strong since 1949. But it is special to me, as my story “The Lady of Butterflies” is featured in this issue. Reviews are coming in, including this one from Tangent which gave “The Lady of Butterflies” a recommended rating.

(They say not to read reviews, but I’m still in the honeymoon period where any review delights me, good or bad.)

Everything you need to know about the issue, including how to buy it, can be found on F&SF‘s Editor’s Note. If you live in the US, you can find the issue in most Barnes & Noble stores. If you’re based outside the US, you can buy the issue from F&SF‘s website, or get a digital copy via Amazon or Weightless Books.

I’ve already waxed lyrical about what this means to me over on another post. In short, it’s my dream market. Back in high school, I mailed paper subs to F&SF, stuffing pricey International Reply Coupons into the envelopes.

About the most interesting part of the submission process was the long (but understandable) wait, during which I penned a bemused poem about response times. (Is there a more writerly way to vent frustration?) After 200+ days, I saw the acceptance while committing a minor student felony: checking my email during class.

The Story’s Inspiration: Malls, Butterflies, and Reusable Empires

It’s early January 2017. I walk through the poshest mall in Toronto; I have a seasonal job there, though the commute takes me an hour and a half. I write on the subway rides, and that winter I finish “The Palace of the Silver Dragon,” a story I’ll eventually sell to Strange Horizons.

In that mall corridor an image comes to me: a woman, her body disintegrating into butterflies. She mouths six words: “You think you can save me?”

Those words never make it into the story, but that’s not the point.

A few weeks later, I watch a video about how caterpillars become butterflies. I’ll leave the description to Morieth, the titular “Lady of Butterflies”:

“It’s not a simple matter of growing wings. A curious man once poked open a chrysalis, and out spilled green and white liquid. The caterpillar’s tissues had melted, disintegrated—but from that broth eventually emerges a butterfly.”

The plot begins to form. As it does, I realize the conflicts, atmosphere, and imagery of the story fit quite well with a pre-existing land I’ve built: the Empire of Keja, home to a powerful warrior class called the Swordbearers. I initially crafted this world for an incredibly complicated visual novel that is nowhere near completion, but realized it serves as the perfect setting for “The Lady of Butterflies.”

An image, a piece of science, a pre-built world. I guess this is what many writers would call combining different ideas. This is unusual for me, as most of my ideas come to me whole, plot-first, often with built-in ending.

What did you think about the issue, and the story? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter!

Storming the EA podcasts!

June 1, 2018

You’ve heard of the EA podcasts–

Wait, you haven’t? Escape Artists (EA) is a publishing company that operates four fiction podcasts. They have a sizable audience, are an SFWA-qualified venue, and provide a great way to experience fiction amidst busy modern life (I tend to listen to them on the subway; if you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me give shout-outs to particular episodes I’ve enjoyed). Their podcasts are:

Alright, so you’re wondering why I’m posting about this now. Well, because…

I have not one, but two stories coming out with the EA podcasts!

  • “Subtle Ways Each Time” will be appearing in Escape Pod.
  • “The Mooncakes of My Childhood” will be appearing in PodCastle.

Escape Pod and PodCastle have top-notch narration, so I’m excited for the audio versions of these stories. The EA podcasts publish both originals and reprints; in this case, neither of these stories have been published before. When released, they will be available for free on their respective podcast websites, to both read and listen to (EA is donation-supported).

It is an honour for my stories to be selected. Hopefully I will be able to storm a couple more EA podcasts in the future, if they don’t slam their shutters on me quick enough.

“The Cosmos Chronicler” out now in Polar Borealis

April 7, 2018

Polar Borealis #6 available now! (Art by Jean-Pierre Normand)

My SFF poem “The Cosmos Chronicler” is out now in Polar Borealis #6 (April/May 2018 issue). This is, to sound all pretentious, my first piece of published creative writing. (Seriously, never even published in a school journal before.) Issue #6 is available as a free PDF download. And you can find all Polar Borealis issues here.

When I wrote it during undergrad, “The Cosmos Chronicler” started as a rhyming poem. My alma mater offered two astronomy classes for math-challenged art students: one about the sun and solar system, the other about galaxies and the universe. Being a big dreamer, a fantasy writer, and–most importantly–a full-time student who must consider how courses fit into her schedule, I chose the latter.

I discovered my poem actually aligned nicely with some images and concepts from astronomy. And to squeeze them in, I would not be able to keep the rhyme scheme. So I rewrote the poem as freeverse. I didn’t submit it anywhere though–back then I only submitted short stories. Though I’ve been writing poetry since forever, I only recently started submitting it. Thankfully, this poem found a home.

A cursory look through the Polar Borealis website will tell you that editor R. Graeme Cameron is very passionate about promoting new Canadian authors of science fiction and fantasy. If you like the magazine, the issue, or the stories or poems in the other issues, you can donate to Polar Borealis to contribute to future issues. Graeme explains it much better there than I can possibly do here.

Finally, before I end this too-long-for-a-short-poem blog post: I want to give a shout-out to Lena Ng, my friend, writing group buddy, and sparring-partner-in-vicious-critique. She has a story in the same issue, and I highly recommend it. It’s called “Kittens Crawling.” Sounds adorable, doesn’t it…?

 

I sold a story to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

March 29, 2018

I sold a story to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I celebrated by taking a picture of some issues on a mooncake box.

I wanted to write a proper blog post about this. A post stitched up in gold silk. A post arranged carefully as ikebana. But screw it, I need to stop fiddling with the announcement and just go ahead with celebrations. Because:

I sold a story to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

I repeat: I sold a story to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

I sold a story to The Magazine—okay, I’ll stop now. Because even amateur writers know lists should come in three’s, and cutting off before the end isn’t such a bad idea. You’re supposed to leave ’em wanting more, right?

Back on track, back on track… I hardly need to say that The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is special. It is the grande dame of the SF/F field. It has been—and continues to be—one of the most influential magazines around. It was the original publisher for stories like Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon” and Stephen King’s The Gunslinger (extra special to me because The Dark Tower is one of my favourites series). And it is one of the few magazines that continues to publish in print, which means something to members of the Dead Tree Worshipper Society like myself.

I’ve dreamed of being published in it ever since I figured out I wrote fantasy. (That did take an embarrassingly long time—I was about to start high school. “Fantasy” wasn’t a genre my household–it was just part of the culture and stories). I made my first submission to Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2009, back when I was a teenager and submissions were snail mail. I wrangled with International Reply Coupons. I received rejections letters from John Joseph Adams (of Lightspeed fame—he was assistant editor of F&SF at the time); I still keep those letters. None of my stories made it up to Gordon Van Gelder, which—considering the state of my writing back then—was probably a blessing for both his sanity and mine.

I made four submissions in 2009 and 2010. Life blew up in my face soon after, and I did not make another submission until 2016. By then F&SF had a new editor in C.C. Finlay and an online submissions system. In total, I made eight submissions to F&SF before receiving an acceptance for my ninth one. I know I am not exceptional in this regard. Many authors—more experienced, prolific authors—have received many more rejections than I have.

But for any writers reading this right now: Please do not give up after three or four submissions. Please remember that, for all the big names and iconic stories F&SF has published, there is still room in its pages for new writers. At the time I submitted my story, I had no credentials whatsoever.

For any readers out there: I hope you will subscribe to F&SF (and here’s the digital option for those not part of the Dead Tree Worshipper Society). Not just because my story will be appearing there, and I darn well want you to read it! But because it is an important magazine, and within its pages you will find a great stories from both big names and new writers.

Oh, and my story? It is a fantasy novelette called “The Lady of Butterflies.” It’s set in a fantasy world that I’m currently writing a novel within—but that, as they say, is a tale for another day…

“The Girl with the Frozen Heart” coming soon from The Book Smugglers

March 20, 2018

Book Smugglers Publishing: Awakenings

My short story* “The Girl with the Frozen Heart” will be released by Book Smugglers Publishing in summer 2018. It will available on The Book Smugglers website and as an ebook.

Book Smugglers Publishing is the publishing venture of The Book Smugglers, a book review site run by two awesome people, Ana Grilo and Thea James. They have published writers such as Octavia Cade, Tonya Liburd, and José Iriarte. My story “The Girl with the Frozen Heart” will be one of six stories in their 2018 season, “Awakenings.”

(Dramatic voice) So, after slogging away in the rejection pile for ten years with nary a token-paying publication to my name,** I have finally sold a short story. And it’s to The Book Smugglers, who have a sizable audience and several years of impressive line-ups. And did I mention their awesome cover art?

Give the story a read when it comes out! I hope you will enjoy it.

 

*Long enough to be called a “novelette” in F/SF circles but for simplicity’s sake I will refer to stories below novella length as a short story.

**Admittedly, I didn’t submit to a lot of token-paying markets. Not because I thought myself above them—oh no—but because I’d get displeased with a story and retire it before I get that far down the list.

“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!