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Recently, I've been perusing a website called Merry Sisters of Fate. It's basically an archive of short stories written by young adult authors Brenna Yovanoff, Tessa Gratton, and Maggie Stiefvater written weekly since 2008. (Sadly, it's discontinued now.) While I've read and enjoyed Brenna Yovanoff's Paper Valentine and Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races and The Raven Boys, I haven't gotten a chance to read any of Tessa Gratton's books yet - though I want to!

Obviously, the story being featured today was read off of Merry Sisters of Fate, but oddly enough, it's a guest story contributed by Lauren DeStefano. (I've been eyeing her book Perfect Ruin for a while now, and this story just makes me want to read something book-length of hers even more.)

Also, Lauren DeStefano's tweets basically make my life.
Anyway.

The story being highlighted this Friday is titled "The Sometimes Mermaid". It's a magical, oh-so-slightly chilling piece that I love, especially for its atmosphere and perfect ending. The first paragraph is really the best lead-in, so here's that excerpt:
Atticus lived a hundred years, married twice, and loved only one girl. She became more a legend than a girl as the years went on. Her straw-blonde hair took on, in transit from one telling to the next, the pale white of a spirit. Her denim cutoffs and wicked grin became a billowing Victorian petticoat, her soggy daisy crown a shimmering tiara.
"The Sometimes Mermaid" is available to read here.

Here's to hoping you love it as much as I did, and that you all have a great Friday!


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I'm delighted to announce that another one of my works has found a home in a publication! Today it's Canvas Literary Journal, a magazine written by teenagers that is based in Rochester, New York. 

Canvas is a magazine produced by teenagers from the Writers and Books program. My work is set to appear in the Spring 2014 issue, which will be their first ever venture into print. I'm so excited that my writing is going into print for the second time!

For writers and artists ages 13-18 - I would advise you to submit!

The story I sent in is called "Breadcrumb Nightlife", and to be short and sweet, it's about a ghost girl and a lost boy and a glittering corner of a too-big city. I hope that some of you get to read it, because it'll be available online once the issue is released.

Happy reading and writing to you all!
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Hello! Looks like I can actually have a Fiction Friday up on time-ish this week, with two stories for your reading enjoyment.


"Snakebit" by Amanda Downum is a haunting, gritty speculative short story, on the long side for quick fiction but very worthwhile all the same. This selection is another one from Strange Horizons - I find that I really dig what they publish. "Snakebit" specifically has a deeply rooted sense of wistfulness and place. Its atmosphere and descriptions are superb, and the hints are gorgeous, just subtle enough to not be confusing but not horribly obvious. Here's a small excerpt, which shows you what I mean:
The rain had stopped, but clouds slid low across the sky, snagging against the distant silhouettes of grain elevators. Sodium lamps glazed wet asphalt with marigold light. Lanie drew a deep breath, tasting rain on concrete and bitter exhaust. By the time they reached her truck she'd gathered enough courage to ask her question.
You can read "Snakebit" here.


Next up is Mari Ness's "Undone", from Apex Magazine. This is another professional speculative fiction market that I'm looking forward to exploring more of, and "Undone" was a great introduction. I'll give you a hint: it's a fairy tale adaptation, but that element of it crept up on me so quietly that I didn't realize it until the piece had ended. Again, the prose is delectable, but it isn't overbearing. An excerpt, ladies and gentlemen, because you really do want to read this piece:
In the summer, they attach feathers to his other arm, and dress the rest of him in delicate white silk dripping with pearls, to draw the eye away, they explain. His arms remain heavy by his side, even as the feathers shift beneath the summer winds.
"Undone" is available online here.

Hopefully this is a nice addition to your Friday!


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I have two bits of very exciting news.

Remember when I was freaking out about my regional gold key in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards?

Some background taken from the website:
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has an impressive legacy dating back to 1923. Over the years, the Awards have grown to become the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S., and the nation’s largest source of scholarships for creative young artists and writers. A noteworthy roster of past winners includes Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, John Updike, and many more.
Yeah, okay, pretty darn big, right?

I was pretty happy with my gold key at the regional level. I got a pretty pin in the mail and a nice letter and good feelings - what's not to love? I was hoping for an additional award, but I was also preparing myself to be disappointed. After all, apparently less than 1% of all submissions receive higher honors.

I'm telling you right now - I have a national gold medal for my short story "Service or Steel", in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category. Also, I have a national silver medal for On the Midnight Streets!

National. Gold. And silver.

*waitwhatslowdown*

The National Awards Ceremony is at Carnegie Hall on June 6, and my family's saying that we'll probably be able to go. This is very cool. I've never been to New York.

Also I am freaking out. I will be freaking out for a very long time. *exercises restraint in the freaking out* *fails*

(PS: If you go to my features page, it's been updated with these very shiny awards!)


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Hello, everyone - I realize it's Sunday (or perhaps even Monday for some of you?), but I'm here with a belated excuse for a Fiction Friday.


Strange Horizons is a prominent professional literary magazine in the SF/F community. It publishes some all-around great work, and while I was digging around in its archives, I found a shivery, delightful piece called "Longfin's Daughters", written by O. J. Cade.

The thing that usually gets me about short fiction is the prose - lately I've been finding that if a story's writing style is lackluster, I'll lose interest. But combined with an eerie setup, the toothsome array of words was too wonderful to ignore. If anything about eels, sisterhood, slippery narration, or a flow like a fairy tale sounds up your alley, "Longfin's Daughters" will appeal to you. And even it if doesn't, I'd suggest that you give it a try.

Here's an excerpt:
(Her memory was a sheet of blank paper, thin and crisp like apple skin and translucent enough to see shadows of writing beneath—equations and diagrams that wriggled and squirmed out of their neat lines and tidy arcs into chaos.)
"Longfin's Daughters" is available to read here.

Enjoy, and feel free to leave feedback in the comments!


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Well, I've missed so many Fiction Fridays that I might as well bundle up a whole slew of selections for you all in one post. My apologies - but please do enjoy the writings I've found today, in a variety of different genres!

First off is a bit of a throwback - a dark psychological story called "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in 1892. We read it in school for our gothic literature unit, and unlike most of the other gothic short stories given to us, this one manages to be disturbing without supernatural elements. (Though Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" was brilliant.) The narrator's slow descent into insanity is chilling (made more so by the fact that she thinks she is completely stable) and a valuable lesson in narration/character development in a short story. There certainly isn't much plot, but the progression of the narrator's phases renders it almost unnecessary. Here's an excerpt from a description of the wallpaper itself:
It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide -- plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is available to read here.

Over at WhiskeyPaper, a new favorite literary magazine of mine, I enjoyed this set of three stories by Katie Cortese, consisting of "Camping Christopher Creek", "A Geologic Survey of Love", and "Mead or, Mulberry Wine?". Cortese has a keenly observant writing style that is believable at the same time, which I admired. She makes the most mundane places and people whisper with a crystalline beauty. My favorite sentence of all from these three is probably this one from "A Geologic Survey of Love":
He is a music major satisfying his science credit and cannot fathom what I love about the turgid origins of volcanoes and salt-glittering caves, the calamitous shifting of tectonic plates moving secretly, eternally, beneath our feet.
Lackington's is a speculative prose magazine that I recently have been browsing through. One story, "Mon pays c'est l'hiver" by Amal El-Mohtar, really stuck out to me.

The gorgeous accompanying illustration for the piece, done by Paula Arwen Friedlander.
The writing style is graceful and bone-deep, perfect for cold nights and warm afternoons. When I first read the piece I could practically taste the yearning in every sentence. I was speechless. It's a genuine, breathtaking treasure of a piece, as you can see from the excerpt below:
Home is the sharp sheet of a frozen sun against the eyes, the taste of cold air crackling into the throat, the solid stud of ice beneath boots, a musical weight in measured steps scraping the ground beneath them; home is the white whirl of a granulated sky spiralling against lips and cheeks, falling in small kisses against a wrist unguarded.
Wow.

I really hope these three pieces light up your Friday and inspire you to scour the world for more great stories! Happy reading!

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I have some more publication news to announce! My short story "You Will Know" is set to appear in the next issue of the sci-fi zine Stories from Space Camp. The issue's theme is "Bodies", and it's a UK-based print publication.

The story was a rather old one, and it centers around Remy Wilson, a survivor of a bomb that has destroyed her town. There's a slightly creepy twist ending thing at the end involving the body enhancements of a cyborg which you may want to watch out for if you purchase the zine.

I love getting stories published and hope that those of you who get to read this one enjoy it!


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I'm so, so thrilled to announce that I've received my first blog award, the Liebster Award, from MorningTime4 over at The Ups and Downs of My Not-So-Average Life - thank you so much, Morning!

(Actually, I've taken a very long time to do this - hence the "much-belated" in the post title.)

The rules:
  • Each nominee must link back to the person that nominated them!
  • Answer the ten questions given to you by the nominator!
  • Nominate 10 other bloggers who have less than 200 followers!
  • Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer!
  • Let the nominees know you have nominated them by going to their website and notifying them!
Now, on to the questions - have fun getting to know a little more about me ~

1. Thing you are currently fangirling/obsessing about?

 A: ALL THE THINGS. Actually, I have equal obsessions with certain books and certain TV shows. I'm an avid watcher of Sherlock and Downton Abbey (and most recently, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries). I love Jane Austen. I read The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater a little while ago and I'm still reeling from how beautiful that was.

2. Your quirkiest habit?

 A: Talking to myself. All the time. I have a really hard time getting to sleep even on the best of nights, so I've developed a habit of talking to myself when I'm awake to soothe my nerves. Also, when I was around seven, I used to have these horribly vivid nightmares - which resulted in negotiations with the nightmares. (Strange as it is, that's not an exaggeration. I used to have bad dreams about a villain in a book I was reading but eventually made friends with him by just talking. Note to self: it seems I have more social skills when talking to imaginary evil people than I do in real life.)

3. Your dream travel destination?

 A: Right now it's actually London. Literary landmarks, Big Ben, classy accents... what's not to love?

4. Guilty pleasure?

 A: Hmm... well-done romance in books? That just makes me feel all fuzzy - it also makes my feels hurt. (Or perhaps surfing Tumblr at night when I can't sleep would be more accurate. That's usually what happens when talking to myself gets boring - I follow lots of poetry blogs and fandom blogs and I have way more fun on that website than I probably should.)

 5. Who was the last person you waved hello?

 A: I think that would be my younger brother.

6. Favorite YouTuber?

 A: I don't actually watch YouTube videos much, so I really can't say :(

7. Your favorite fruit?

 A: I love raspberries so much it's kind of unhealthy. Also apples. And strawberries. (I like a lot of fruits.)

8. Have you ever watched the movie version of a book before you actually read it?

 A: I watched the movie version of Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow in it and I haven't actually finished the book yet. *I got all the spoilers!* But in general, I try to read the book first, especially now that YA movie adaptations are becoming a huge trend.

9. Your favorite store?

 A: The bookshop near my house, hands down. Every time I go, I might intend to spend ten minutes there - but of course, I end up staying for at least an hour. Always.

10. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson (if you have read the books? If you haven't, then just say which one you would rather read based on the series titles...)?

 A: I'm actually going to have to say Percy Jackson on this one. (Unpopular opinion, I know.) I read the Harry Potter series when I was around seven or eight, so I've 'grown out of it' since then, and even though I'm not a huge fan of the Heroes of Olympus series that comes after Percy Jackson, I liked the original books. It's interesting that I'm asked to compare these two series because I've always felt a parallel between Harry-Ron-Hermione and Percy-Grover-Annabeth, but when it comes down to it, the latter trio is much more endearing to me. That said, neither of these series are my favorite thing in the world, really - I'd much rather read the Infernal Devices or the Fire and Thorns trilogy or the Grisha trilogy (...and so it goes).

Questions for the Nominees:
  1. Who are some of your favorite people you've met on the Internet?
  2. Favorite book character?
  3. What's the best thing you've ever created?
  4. Cold weather or warm weather?
  5. Favorite fairy tale/myth?
  6. What do you do when you can't sleep?
  7. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
  8. What five words best describe you?
  9. What was your last dream like?
  10. What's the best advice you've gotten?
And here are my nominees! (Some of these blogs don't display a follower count, but I'm trusting that you guys have less than 200 :3)

Samantha @ Her Inklings
Kimberly @ I Wear Milk Crowns
E. R. @ Mabel's City
 Reagan @ Old School Ink
Jessie @ Chirographic
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Since I missed Music Monday last week, I'll do two things this week! AND they're both instrumental for the crowd that doesn't much like to listen to lyrics, haha ~



First on this Monday is "The Scorpio Races", composed by Maggie Stiefvater (also the author of the novel of the same name). Not only it is absolutely-flipping-perfect for the book - which I love love love - but it's a rollicking instrumental piece with wonderful Irish/Celtic influences. I feel like it could make really great writing music for my author friends out there, so give it a try!

If you like: horse racing, sea spray, salt on your tongue, or just good music - please do listen.

Apparently, some people are good at everything. *sigh*


I don't know this violinist or this piece very well, but "Czardas" is an exhilarating musical adventure.

So, instrumentals for this (admittedly somewhat dreary) Monday!


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To make up for missing Fiction Friday last week, I'll do a special double edition for you all! Read on -


 Luna Station Quarterly is just another one of those speculative fiction magazines that is a joy to read. With sixteen issues so far of SF/F that are all absolutely fantastical (see what I did there?), LSQ is superb.

"Entry #92" by Tara Abrahams is one story that stands out to me - it's not speculative in the conventional sense. It's bittersweet, observant, and achingly human, despite its centering around a girl in love with a robot. An excerpt:
Still, he looked beautiful, arms gleaming silver in the fluorescent glow of the cafeteria lights. I thought I saw constellations in the scratches and rust on his metal plating, but I’m not sure. It might’ve been a trick of infinity.
Also, be sure to check out Tara's new serial novel, GLITCH. It just... Tara's style is so, so unique and that really shines through in this story.



And now - though I suppose this is sort of cheating - I'd like to spotlight a piece from the literary magazine that I run, The Teacup Trail. It's a short, sharp flash fiction called "The Dueling Orchestra", and it was written by E.R. Warren, a writer I truly admire. The first sentence for your reading enjoyment:
I am trapped in a timpani.
From what I've read of E.R.'s work, her style ranges from ethereal to snappy, and it can change moods in an instant. (Some people have versatility like that. *sigh*) E.R. is also on Figment, where she regularly updates The Princess and the Fox Demon - a novel loosely based on medieval Japan that I am completely and utterly in love with. (Chirikai and Asuka. DONE.)

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Lullatone is my second Music Monday pick. Although everything I've heard of theirs is instrumental, it's very pleasant, cheerful, sweet music. It's perfect for just what the album is called: everyday adventures.

Actually, Lullatone is a husband-and-wife duo - Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida. These dreamlike, happy tunes will be sure to make your day and paint nicer colors into the background of your mood.

Next is "Soften and Shake", a song by Olivia Broadfield that Lee was kind enough to recommend to me.



Apparently this was part of an episode of The Vampire Diaries, which I don't watch, but no matter. The song is actually perfect for a certain couple in On the Midnight Streets, so discovering it has made me feel very nice.

Been good been bad 
Been hard to break 
With you I feel myself soften and shake 
So please be good to me 
And I'll be good to you

So here are two bits of music for you that I hope you'll like as much as I did!

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Inspired by LiAnn Yim's "Fiction Fridays" over at Little Fictions, I'll be sharing some choice bits of fiction with you all every Friday, to go with my weekly Music Mondays.

One of my favorite literary magazines to just browse through is The Golden Key (which LiAnn actually co-edits) - described as publishing "poetry and fiction that is open to the strange and marvelous possibilities of the world around us. Each issue explores one of the wonderful things – either literal or figurative – one might find upon opening the little iron chest. Each celebrates the curiosity and enchantment of the Grimms’ tale with work that is odd, surprising, and unafraid to venture down the unknown path." It's inspired by the Grimms' story of, well, the golden key, and the work that can be found here in these free-to-read issues is just exquisite.

illustration for "Bones", done by The Golden Key's talented resident artist Libby Burns.
Today's piece that I'd like to spotlight is "Bones" by Sylvia Linsteadt. Here's a small excerpt:
They sink fast into the earth, faster than iron and glass. As the ground presses them to pieces, they first break with jagged edges and sharp ends. To become smooth, this takes centuries, this is always resisted. And then they echo and echo, like the whale vertebra reverberating its once-song.
Linsteadt does a beautiful job of bringing magic to an archaeological dig, and her prose is truly rich in quality. There's history in the curve of her words, breath in her sentences. It's awe-inspiring, really. If you've got a spare five minutes or so, I highly recommend you read it. It's one of my very favorite parts of Issue One, but honestly, I've been through The Golden Key's archives so many times because it's a wondrous literary magazine. Happy reading and happy Friday!


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