Actual sunset I got to watch in Del Mar, near the hotel that UCSD put me up in for the Clarion Science of Story Experience masterclass I did on the 21st. Thanks Clarion! It was awesome!
Tomorrow (July 30th) is my fifth and final reading for the month of July, and my third time ever reading at Literary Speakeasy. Martuni’s (4 Valencia St.) is a lovely, vibey, storied San Francisco venue that makes me want to smoke in the rain, flirt with a lounge singer, brush up on my French, maybe join an underground resistance cell. It’ll be a nice little break in the week, so come hang if you’re in the Bay. Doors at 6:30, show at 7.
A photo I took in 2016 of one of the world’s oldest living trees, a bristlecone pine at Great Basin National Park.
Crap, it’s the Fourth of July, do I have to write about that?! Hell no, it’s still a free country…for everyone who hasn’t (checks news) moved a box of zines.…Ok then, let’s skip straight to dinosaurs.
“Jurassic Perk” is published and free to read!
I’m so psyched to finally share this short story with you. It’s about the baristas on the office park side of a dinosaur theme park island, and also how companies treat people when they think they can get away with it. Loosely inspired by a job I had in college downstairs from LucasArts on the ILM campus. It was on submission for TWO YEARS and in the queue at Kaleidotrope after acceptance for another TWO YEARS so I have been waiting about SIXTY-FIVE MILLION YEARS for this moment and it’s finally here! Read “Jurassic Perk” now on Kaleidotrope.
Hi from Chicago! It’s my first time here, and also my first time attending the Nebula conference in person. I’m spending a few extra days with friends, and loving all the little neighborhoods, the lake, the Field Museum, the cardinals, the summer rain, the street bunnies hopping around after dark, and the fireflies (!!!!) that came out just on one block last night at twilight. It’s been a much-needed break from my very busy book launch schedule, before the next wave of events in July.
Arthropleura is not in my second book, and that is admittedly a huge oversight on my part, but I was very excited to find this one at the Field Museum
I’m still processing the fact that The Wildcraft Drones finally exists in the real world as an actual book, and people are reading it. Charlie Jane Anders loved it. It’s all so much. Luckily/overwhelmingly, there’s plenty of distractions, like…
Announcing my second book: The Cursed Blade of Wek
It’s May and that means it’s finally here: The Wildcraft Drones is officially on shelves THIS MONTH. Of course, publication is nonlinear, pre-orders have already started shipping, and I’ll be signing books on the 17th at SF in SF as well as the official launch party on the 21st, and a slew of events after. In fact, I’m going to do my future self a favor and list them all now, so I don’t have to remember to do a newsletter in June. You’re welcome, future self.
May 17 SF in SF 3–5pm at San Francisco Public Library Main Branch 100 Larkin Street, 3rd Floor, Hormel LGBTQIA Center San Francisco
May 21 The Wildcraft Drones launch party 4-7pm at Cafe Suspiro 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco
May 26 The Racket 7pm at The Sycamore 2140 Mission St, San Francisco
This photo of this most excellent rock was taken at a place with lots of skeletons.
“Like a Skeleton in Desert Sand”
My latest short story, “Like a Skeleton in Desert Sand,” is now free to read in Tractor Beam’s fifth issue: Underground. I love the way theirteam puts so much craft into the presentation of each story, hiring talented human artists and designers to build a beautiful experience for each story. If you don’t check out the issue for me, do it for Shingai Kagunda’s story, “Mycelium Memory Makes a Monster.”
I took this photo at Meteor Crater, Arizona in 2024
Sometimes there is so much to get done, and everything is overwhelming, and you just have to keep doing. But also making time to go to the park or whatever and, like, shower. And send out your newsletter because you want people to know about all the stuff even though you’re pretty sure you’re forgetting like ten things and can’t think of anything very clever or profound to frame it with, so it ends up just being a list, basically. We can’t all be Sam J. Miller, okay??
Reading March 10 My next reading is March 10 with Happy Endings at the Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St, San Francisco. I’ll be reading something from my forthcoming collection The Wildcraft Drones. 7:30 to 10.
Roses & Wildflowers: The Solarpunk Issue I was invited to guest edit the new solarpunk issue of Roses & Wildflowers, which is a new small journal doing some very ambitious work to include human-created art and music, as well as mythopoetic fiction, in every issue. Check out the table of contents.
