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  • The Arctic Circle Residency!

    The Arctic Circle Residency!

    I just realized I got so excited about starting all the things for the Arctic Circle Residency, I hadn’t posted to my regular site about it yet, whoops!

    I was accepted to a very competitive residency for April of 2027 where I will be spending 2 weeks on a sailing ship on the Arctic sea with 30 scientists and artist as we experiment and creator our way around the polar ice cap. It is a dream come true, one I’ve had since I can remember, and it’s also a very expensive dream, though it costs lest than doing this as a tourist, thankfully.

    My goal with this residency is to produce a book of photography, watercolor, and words from the trip, highlighting the feral beauty of the harsh landscape. I also plan to embrace the full nosiness of my true nature and interview everyone whether scientist, artist, crew, or guide. I want to know everything about what it’s like to spend so much time in such an isolated place, I want to know what the scientists are investigating, and I want to dive into the way each creative experiences the world. This will provide story kernels for a long time, and I can’t wait.

    If you want to follow along my residency journey, I’ve actually started a separate blog to keep things easy for folks to follow at www.creatingelsewhere.com. I’m hoping to turn this into a space not only to talk about creating while traveling, but also to document how I approached applying for residencies and grants so folks get an open door look at that process.

    I’m also fundraising like crazy as it costs about $12,000 for this residency including travel and gear at a minimum, so there’s a GoFundMe and I’m looking for corporate sponsors who would like to provide gear or fiscal support in return for acknowledgement and publicity. I’m also booking teaching gigs like crazy, working events both as a tarot teller at Hallowe’en-aissance on Halloween (yay spooky season!) and in my capacity as the new Poet Laureate for ShoreLake Arts doing Instant Poetry (just add ideas!) for their Winter Market on November 21st.

    It’s times like this I bemoan the loss of old-school patrons of the arts. I’d happily spend hours doing portraiture of rich d*cks if it got me the money to work on my writing and go on research trips like this regularly. I’ve spent hours combing the internet for foundations and grants and have a handful I can apply for, but there isn’t a ton out there for independent artists that isn’t geographically bound, but at least I’ve found a few to go after. Just means if I ever get rich, I know what I want to do: revive (healthy) patronage. Just like I’m on a mission to revive the 1920’s concept of the salon where fun people get together to talk about cool topics.

    Anyway, if you’ve been wondering where I disappeared to, the answer is: working on WorldCon programming for LAcon for this past summer and then diving into fundraising for this trip. Next year is shaping up to be awesome.

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  • Public Appearances and Publications

    Oh my gosh, so much has happened recently and I’ve been really bad at letting y’all know. Or updating my recommendations pages. Did you know I read 500+ romantasy books last year to prep for teaching the genre? Yeah, the combo of repeated injuries, illness, unemployment, and extraordinary rendition grade sleep deprivation leaves you a lot of time to read. Working on writing some now, too!

    Anyway, onto the fun news…

    I got to speak on the main stage at Benaroya Hall in Seattle!

    Ever since I was a little girl watching the symphony perform in that hall, I’d always secretly hoped I might be able to perform on it myself one day. Well, that day was the 50th Ignite Seattle talks! Watch the video to hear some fun stories about Elsie Olmstead, the woman on whom I accidentally became the local expert. If you want to hear more about the Olmsteads…

    Coming up on April 23-24, 2026!

    I have teamed up with Invisible Histories to talk about the Olmstead’s rumrunning operation with a short play during their Harbor Island living history tours. I maaaay have voluntold several of my family and friends into helping out with this event and it’s going to be a blast. Stop on by, the tour is going to be amazingly fun! Get tickets here.

    My first SFWA blog post!

    It’s been a year of firsts, and that includes having my first blog post picked up by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association blog. It’s about how to give feedback on poetry, which is having a huge surge in speculative genres right now. If you’ve ever wondered, hey, how does one go about giving feedback to poets on their work, this short post should give you a place to start!

    Tips on Feedback for Poetry at the SFWA Blog

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  • Featured on NPR

    Since I became the local expert in Elsie Olmstead, I’ve had a few folks reach out to chat, but this might be the most fun one yet. KUOW reporter Kate Walters contacted me as she was working on a small feature about Elsie for the 90th anniversary of the fall of Prohibition and we had a lovely long conversation. You can listen to the story here on the KUOW site, or on their app!

    Elsie posing in front of a 1926 microphone, holding a book of fairy tales. Her hair is in tight waves against her head and she is wearing a drop-waist 1920 flapper dress.

    It definitely inspired me to keep working on the projects involving her stories, including a play she features in, a historical fiction novel, and an essay about the facts we can solidly identify about the rumors surrounding her. I hope to have some updates about those soon!

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  • Sci-fi Noir Story Published!

    And another story published this week! Check out “The Walrus Whistles at Midnight,” in Tumbled Tales, a new anthology from Wandering Waves Press. It’s a noir mystery set in a ocean station future, and yes, it does feature something about walruses…check it out!

  • Cyberpunk Sherlock Story Published

    Good news, everyone! I have a new story out today!

    “L0CK&K3Y” is a cyberpunk reimagining of a Sherlock Holmes story, set in the ambiguous future. Some days I think it’s really far away still, and others it seems all too close. Lock is up against one of their least favorite criminals–blackmailers–and Watts is ever by their side, assisting and learning as always.

    It releases today in the newest edition of Hyphen Punk and you can get it wherever you get your ebooks, including Amazon.

  • A Story for SETI

    As some of you already know, I’ve been working on a story for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) that is being used as a fundraiser for the organization. It’s a 30 day storytelling journey, where you receive an update about what you, a crew member on a journey to explore an exoplanet, have been up to. There’s the possibility of being randomly assigned the Captain, a scientist on the ship, a scientist on the away mission to the planet’s surface, or a marine sent as backup with the away mission. Fair warning, your character can, and just might, die on this mission. There are a limited number of tickets, so if you want one, get it now! Only $19 and it goes to fund more amazing research. 

  • I’m in a new collection!

    I’m in a new collection!

    Hey all! One of my absolute favorite stories got picked up for a YA Collection called Paradoxical Pets, which features stories about weird and unusual pets, with a definite sci-fi or fantasy setting. My story is Redgie’s origin story, a super smart octopus sidekick in a longer work I’ve been puttering around for a long time. Right now, they’re doing a pre-order of the collection through Kickstarter, and you should totally order your copy now! Don’t worry, the collection gets published whether they reach their goal or not, this just helps defray the cost of the brilliant illustrator they got who put together wonderful images of our pets. I can’t wait to see mine!

    And look at this cover! How can you say no to that…

    http://kck.st/3ehlLeP
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  • NaNoWriMo is coming up fast!

    NaNoWriMo is coming up fast!

    Want to try National Novel Writing Month for the first time? Dooooo it! I’m here for you! What is NaNoWriMo you ask? It’s a chance for writers around the globe to try and write 50,000 words in one month. And if you didn’t know it, Seattle’s NaNoWriMo mascot is the Rubber Duck! I may have way too many ducks, and not enough all at the same time, so you’ll find me at write-ins around the city giving out ducks and competing in word sprints for new ones!

    yellow duckies in line on a concrete floor
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    In an effort to help folks get set for the big months, here is a page I wrote ages ago with some pointers for world-building, plotting, and character creation. And if you want to connect with folks, here are some events I’m teaching/facilitating leading up to and during the big month!

    • I’m teaching a workshop called “A Scream is worth a 1,000 Words” with the Continuing Ed department at Shoreline Community College in person on the 29th. While it bills itself as horror, it is really focusing a lot on metaphors and usage of emotion and message in your stories, so it’s pretty useful across the board.
    • The Shoreline CC Library and I are doing a free “PrepTober” session in person on 10/28 from 5-6 to talk about how to NaNoWriMo!
    • Through November, we’ll be doing free in-person Write In Wednesdays at the library where you can come work on your NaNo story! (there will be rubber ducks)
    • I’ll also be hosting virtual write-ins through the Neverending Bookshop on Saturdays and Thursdays. You can follow them on facebook for the links!

    As always, I’ll be keeping you updated on my progress. I’ve got two big projects in the works for this month, one in cooperation with SETI (yes, alien searching SETI) and a sci-fi novel based around a delightful ship’s mechanic and a ring of unusual properties. (No. Not that kind of ring.)

    Happy writing!

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  • July Reading Update

    So! Fun news first: for the first time in a year and a half, I have a day job again. Yay! Trust me, the nonprofit world is BRUTAL right now for trying to get a gig in Seattle specifically. Don’t bother. There were 600 applicants for every 1 position in some cases. So. I went back to the corporate world (boo!) but for a truly cutting edge sci-fi company (yay!) doing people-y things (I understand the first few sentences of the theory before my brain goes to mush.)

    With that said, my writing may slow down a bit, I won’t be quite as available to teach or coach, but I think this is the right move for me in this time. It’s a great team, at a really darn cool place, and we’ll see how long I can ride that wave. I HAVE sold 6 new stories, have a bunch that are in second round reading right now, and at last count…2 plays, 8 novels, and 5 novellas in the works, so don’t count me out just yet!

    But now you want to know what I’ve been reading over the long silence since my last post. Well:

    I recently read all of Charlie Jane Anders’ work, even the ARC of the sequel of her YA, and let me tell you…I’m working on a whole post just about her. For now, the rest of what I’ve been reading and enjoying is below. As always, any books I read and can’t stand go quietly into the night…

    Nonfiction

    Spec Fic

  • New Story Published: Marinel

    I know I owe you some book recommendations (and I have a LOT pending right now) but it still needs to wait as I have been dealing with house-hunting, starting a new job, my husband starting a new job, closing on a house, fixing said house so it’s not a fire trap, packing to move into said house, and keeping up with edits from the SIX, that’s right, six stories that have been purchased recently.

    The first one out is “Marinel” with Starry-Eyed Press’ new anthology Cosmic Convocation.

    To put a cherry on top, I’m first up in the collection! I’ve also got an interview on their blog talking about my writing process and a little bit about the story if you are so inclined to read.

    I’ll keep you posted about the other stories and when they go up. And as soon as we’ve moved, I’ll get this next round of book suggestions posted!