Hello friends! I have some incredibly exciting news:

After a 2+ year querying journey, I am now represented by Nina Richner of Howard Morhaim Literary Agency!

This means I will be working with Nina to revise and send out my first novel. Those of you in the industry know that this does not mean that the book will be published; a distressingly high number of novels “die on sub”, meaning that no publishing company picks them up. Even so, this is a huge milestone for me. I’m incredibly excited to work with Nina, who is so enthusiastic about my novel, and who has lots of great ideas about how we might position it in the marketplace. Even better, they want to represent me for my career, not just this one book; I’ve already told them about the book I’m currently writing, and they’re eager to work with me on that one as well.

It’s all very exciting, and more than a little bit scary. My comfort zone is with short fiction; novels are a completely different skill-set, and I’m not at all familiar with the publishing side of long-form work. But I’m eager to forge ahead and learn lots of new things—and maybe, someday, to be able to bring a novel to readers.

I am not, however, abandoning short fiction! I still adore writing short stories, and I don’t see myself ever giving that up. And, in short story news, ECO24: The Year’s Best Ecofiction, which contains my story “The Colonists,” will be released in five days, meaning there’s still time to get 30% off when you preorder! The book received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly that specifically called out my story as one of the standouts!

I’m ending this email with some music recommendations. The following songs are terrific musically, and they’re like little speculative short stories!

Afterlife by Alex G: Kind of a ghost story, kind of a tale of transformation. You might know Alex G as the person who wrote the soundtrack for the amazing movie I Saw The TV Glow; this song is from his recent album Headlights, which I’ve been listening to on repeat.

Furr by Blitzen Trapper: A wolfy coming-of-age tale. My story “The Last Time Gladys Howled At the Moon” is a gender-swapped inversion of this song, and was directly inspired by it.

Zak and Sara by Ben Folds: A girl who sees the future; a boy who plays the guitar; a tiny little love story set in 1984.

Rocket’s Tail by Kate Bush: Look, do I have to say anything other than “Kate Bush”? Just listen to it; give into the obsession.