Three new stories and a panel at SFPL 5/27
I have THREE new stories out somehow, and an upcoming panel at the San Francisco Public Library.
So that novella I said I was working in the last newsletter?I’m rewriting the whole thing from scratch. Again. I know how psychotic this sounds, but see, I realized I could do some things differently on this edit, like have it start a little earlier, give more context in the action, consolidate a couple of events — and then I realized I could completely change the whole rest of the story to be like ten times more fun for myself and now I’m halfway in and there’s no going back. CHANGE ONLY GOES ON WAY it turns out, which is also the WHOLE THEME OF THE WHOLE STORY. 🤯
In the meantime, I have THREE new stories out somehow, and an upcoming panel at the San Francisco Public Library.
“Centipede Station” free to read until May 6!
My longer story in the Bright Green Futures solarpunk anthology is free to download for a few more days. Here’s a teaser:
“So we sit around our fire in that same silence, staring into the rapid oxidation of alien wood, waiting for the coals to die. The giant centipedes are chittering between the horse-sized mushrooms that surround us. I can hear their chitin crunching through the detritus…” (7000 words) Download links are with the accompanying interview for the Bright Green Futures podcast. (Transcript is there, too!)
“The Park of the Beast” in Bright Green Futures
My other piece in the anthology is much shorter, more of a prose poem, and only available with the full book, which can be purchased from one of the links on the Bright Green Futures page — or (preferably) ordered from your local independent bookstore.
“Three or four times a week, I walk by the chain link cage on Mission Street—the other part of Mission Street—in front of the gray, spiked wall of the PG&E substation, often on my way to Street Taco on 9th. I always wonder what it holds behind its diamond wires, sections bolted to the sidewalk at haphazard angles to each other, trapping in five Brisbane box trees...” (1200 words)
“Haunting Beauty” published in Uncharted Magazine
“Someone left cat food in the extremely haunted basement trash room of my building and it made me so hungry I forgot how creeped out I was being down there for a second. So I hit up a photographer I modeled for a couple times to see if he had work for me, and he did. I’m meeting him at the American Hotel, on the bleeding edge of the Tenderloin, about eight blocks from my apartment, with mascara on…” (3400 words) Read the rest at Uncharted.
Panel 5/27 at the San Francisco Public Library
On May 27th, I’m joining Mark Wallace and Doug Henderson from the Writers Grotto for a panel at the San Francisco Public Library, called “Stories at Play.”
From the event page:
Notions of literature don't generally include tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, but if there's one thing such games are good at, it's prompting creativity and generating stories. In this freewheeling discussion, three Grotto writers — who also happen to be tabletop roleplaying game players and designers — talk about the collaborative storytelling that happens in games, and how games can be used as writing prompts, as a generative practice, and even as tools of empowerment. And who knows, we may even roll some dice.
Gaming has been as much a part of my life as reading since the third grade, and tabletop RPGs in particular have been kind of a lifeline for me as long as I’ve been in this current serious phase of my writing. I have quite a bit to say on the topic, and would love to see you at the panel if you’re in the area! It’s on Tuesday, 5/27, from 6pm to 7:30 at the Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, 1st Floor. No registration needed, but there’s more details on the SFPL website.
Keep it real —
T. K.