"The Rings of Ferocina" + 2 new solarpunk stories
While I wait for edits on THE WILDCRAFT DRONES (my debut collection coming out next year!), I’m thrilled to announce a new story you can read right now, and two new stories in the solarpunk anthology BRIGHT GREEN FUTURES.
Hey there. So I finally switched this newsletter over to Buttondown, which is sort of like Substack but without the…Substack. Charlie Jane Anders has been using it for awhile for her newsletter and recommending it pretty highly, so I’ve been wanting to give it a try. The biggest change on your end is probably that you can link and share this newsletter now, and maybe the formatting is a little fancier. I’m also feeling more confident about adding images without getting shunted over to spam. We’ll see how it goes! If you have feedback, or just want to say hi, you can still email me at tk@tkrex.wtf.
In other news, while I wait for edits on THE WILDCRAFT DRONES (my debut collection coming out next year!), I’m thrilled to announce a new story you can read right now, and two new stories in the solarpunk anthology BRIGHT GREEN FUTURES.
New story: “The Rings of Ferocina”
“Fifteen years. I count them by converting Standard to Gregorian badly while my feet move forward without me. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve seen another human and here’s one at the Stones on Ferocina underneath the glowing rings and stars, swirling a red gourd-bottle while he stares into the bonfire like a human would, like any human would, with the flames flickering across his brown and bearded face. He looks up and he sees me and that must be the same expression that I had a moment earlier: is that a human? No way…” Read the rest at Factor Four Magazine. (1000 words)
Pre-order BRIGHT GREEN FUTURES: 2024
If you’re looking for optimistic, solutions-focused climate fiction with lots of heart and a healthy dash of weird, I think you’ll really enjoy these solarpunk stories from Renan Bernardo, Sarena Ulibarri, Danielle Arostegui, BrightFlame, Ana Sun, and two by me — edited by Susan Kaye Quinn, who hosts the Bright Green Futures podcast. “Centipede Station” is set in an ancient, mysterious space forest, where two lost travelers are processing grief while trying to survive. The much shorter prose poem, “The Park of the Beast,” takes place much closer to home, in my San Francisco neighborhood. It’s about a beast. :) Pre-orders just opened.
Recommended Read: Sordidez by E. G. Condé
Described as “An Indigenous futurist science fiction novella set in Puerto Rico and the Yucatán,” Sordidez is a journey into a future that left me reeling. There were so many moments where I thought of my own upcoming collection while reading the characters’ conflicts with imperialism and technology-driven ecosystem “restoration.” This book goes way harder than mine, and is far less optimistic about the role of technology in a way that made me question my entire premise. Nonetheless, I think Condé and I are coming at the same issues from different angles, and as our mutual friend LP Kindred reminded me, this struggle needs all the different approaches we have. I don’t think I’ve ever been so accidentally in conversation with a book before — so if you like my stories, you’ll probably like this one, too.
Take care <3
T. K.