“Rabbit Test” nominated for a Nebula!

Screencap from Sam's TV during Nebula finalist announcement livestream showing "Rabbit Test" as a finalist for short story
Screencap of text:
Nebula Award for Short Story

"Destiny Delayed", Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Asimov's 5–6/22)

"Give Me English", Ai Jiang (F&SF 5–6/22)

"Rabbit Test", Samantha Mills (Uncanny 11–12/22)

"Douen", Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 3/22)

"Dick Pig", Ian Muneshwar (Nightmare 1/22)

"D.I.Y", John Wiswell (Tor.com 8/24/22)

When it rains, it pours! Seriously this year has been a rollercoaster already and it’s barely March. 😀

Rabbit Test” is officially a finalist for the 58th Annual Nebula Awards in the short story category! Voting on the ballot will open to SFWA members soon. The winners will be announced on May 14th at the Nebula Conference, taking place this year in Anaheim, CA.

Anaheim is a short drive from San Diego, so I am super stoked to be able to attend in person! It is a great ballot this year, full of people whose work I admire (and am, let’s be real, a little intimidated by). You can find the full list here: https://nebulas.sfwa.org/58th-nebula-awards-finalists.

On a personal note: wow. The response to this story, from day one of publication, has absolutely blown me away. I knew it was meaningful to me, but while drafting it I wasn’t sure it would even find a home. The structure was half research essay, the message unabashedly direct, etc etc, and I nearly brain weaseled myself into not submitting it. It was thrilling just to have it picked up by the Thomases, who have championed it from the moment I sheepishly emailed them to say I don’t know if this is your type of thing, but…. So, regardless of what happens next I will always be grateful for that.


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“Rabbit Test” on the 2022 Locus Recommended Reading List!

Ah, logged on to more very cool news today: “Rabbit Test” is also on the 2022 Locus Recommended Reading List!! I am so stoked.

The full list is here, and includes so many awesome works your TBR will be filled to bursting. If you haven’t voted in them before, the Locus Awards are free and open to anyone! You can vote from works on the recommended reading list, or you can write in your own if you don’t see some of your favorites there. Voting is open till April 15, linkity link here.

“Rabbit Test” on the BSFA Longlist!

I was very excited this week to learn that “Rabbit Test” (Uncanny Magazine Issue 49, November/December 2022) is on this year’s longlist for The British Science Fiction Association awards! It is a super awesome list including Marie Vibbert, R.S.A. Garcia, Aimee Ogden, S.B. Divya, Jordan Kurella, John Wiswell, Vanessa Fogg, and a whole bunch of other people I admire. I’m stoked.

The full list, including information for BSFA members to vote down to the short list, is here: https://www.bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-longlist

😀

Kiki’s on the Locus list! :D

In very exciting news:

Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil,” originally in Translunar Travelers Lounge, has been included on the 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List! I am in amazing company with a whole lot of my favorite stories of the year. 😀

Anyone is welcome to vote in the Locus Awards, and the poll is now live. Subscription to the magazine is not required, though subscribers’ votes count double. The poll even has a write-in option if you don’t see your favorites on the list. And if nothing else, it’s a great list of recommendations if you are looking for new novels, stories, anthologies, and short fiction to read!

2020 Eligibility Post!

Oh sweet mercy, it’s that time of year again!

This was, um, not the greatest year for me producing new work, but thanks to a little buildup from the before times, it was a really satisfying one for publication!

I have three short stories I’d like to highlight for consideration. They have three drastically different vibes–something for every mood! ;D

Without further ado…


If you’re looking for cathartic rage and fierce triumph:

The Limits of Magic
–In which you have run away from an oppressive regime, only to realize that saving yourself isn’t enough–you have to fight for those who cannot save themselves.

Originally published in Apparition Literary Magazine, Issue 11: Redemption, July 15, 2020 [available online]


If you’re looking for rip-roaring rock and the power of giving a shit:

Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil
In which Kiki Hernández, rock legend of the Southwest, finally bites off more than she can chew. Come for the devil-fighting guitar, stay for the chonky hellhound.

Originally published in Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 2, February 15, 2020 [available online]

And reprinted in text and audio in PodCastle, Episode #639, August 11, 2020 [available online]


And if you’re looking for something weirder and gentler and deeply heartfelt:

Anchorage
In which a very messy space family visits a floating library and the anchoress walled up within it (with bonus! narrator who doesn’t understand how metaphors work).

Originally published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 36, September/October 2020 [available online]


I will now commence a much-needed reading retreat, because I already have SO MANY great recs piling up for my forthcoming 2020 awards recommendation post, and there are still SO MANY MORE amazing-looking reads piling up between my bookshelves, browser tabs, and twitter bookmarks, so farewell, I am now sinking beneath the waves of awesome, tell my family I love themmmmmm–

2019 eligibility post!

It’s that time of year again! Panic rain falls gently from the calendar sky, and up springs a crop of nervous-but-eager eligibility posts.

Astounding Award Eligibility:

That’s right! I’m still a sweet, sweet baby in the grand scheme of things. This is my second and final year of eligibility for the Astounding (née Campbell) Award! If you’ve enjoyed my weird overbuilt worlds so far, I’d appreciate the consideration.

As of this typing, the Writertopia list hasn’t been updated for 2020, but you can keep an eye on it as the season progresses–and also this fabulous Hugo Awards (2020) Google Spreadsheet, which includes recs for the other categories as well!

Short Stories:

I had four short stories out this year! If you are interested in reading only one, I’d especially appreciate a look at “Four of Seven.” It was my nearest-and-dearest for the year.

Four of Seven
In which a pair of sisters attempt to reach a hospital after curfew, in a mining colony company town in spaaace (with bonus college woe and messy family solidarity).
Escape Pod, Episode #687, July 4, 2019 [available online]

Laugh Lines
In which a far future vat baby has some strong words to say about her mother.
Daily Science Fiction, June 10, 2019 [available online]

One Part Per Billion
In which humanity is invited to make first contact, but alas, we are put in charge of selecting our own representatives for the journey.
Diabolical Plots, Issue #50, April 15, 2019 [available online]

Adrianna in Pomegranate
In which a reclusive calligramancer grows obsessed with casting a very particular spell, and his ex-wife is determined to stop him.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #271, February 14, 2019 [available online]

strange waters longlisted for bsfa awards!

Exactly what it says on the tin! “Strange Waters” has been nominated for one of the British Science Fiction Association’s annual fiction awards. You can find the full list here. This month, members of the organization will vote to narrow the long list down to a final ballot, so for the short fiction category 44 stories will be reduced to 5 or 6.

Frankly, I’m so dazzled at being long listed for anything, I’m not even considering the possibility of making a ballot. XD But man, you never know, right??

It’s award season all over the place, and I’m a clueless baby so I only just realized I’m also eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for best new SFF writer in the field. Thank goodness there are two years of eligibility, because my pro sales in 2018 kind of took me by surprise and I didn’t plan ahead AT ALL regarding self-promotion and the like.

Have I mentioned how scary promo is? Because my quasi-Italian fear of malocchio is kicking in hard. I shared one happy post on Twitter about making the BSFA list and promptly received two short story rejections and lost a morning’s worth of writing by shutting Word down incorrectly. And then instead of telling me I’m being superstitious, my mom said it was my fault for not making the sign of the horns and assuring the universe I was celebrating, not bragging.

*siiiiigh*

This is a weird career I’m trying to jumpstart, you guys.

 

[P.S. j/k j/k I love you mom]

2018 reading recs and eligibility post!

Award season is upon us!

Eligible Short Story:

Strange Waters,” published in Strange Horizons April 2, 2018. A time-traveling fisherwoman is lost and trying to get home to her children.

It’s made some best-month-list and best-of-year lists! (SFF Reviews, Quick Sips 1and 2, Barnes & Noble). And it’s been longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association’s short fiction award. Exciting!!

Campbell Award Eligibility:

I have officially entered my first year of eligibility for the John W. Campbell Award! What!! I know!!

Now, on to my favorite reads for the year!

Recommendations:

Novels:

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland [YA, where that factors in]

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi [YA, where that factors in]

 

Novellas:

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

 

Novelettes:

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births by José Pablo Iriarte in Lightspeed

Murders Fell From Our Wombs by Tlotlo Tsamaase in Apex Magazine

 

Short Stories:

“Bride Before You” by Stephanie Malia Morris in Nightmare Magazine

“Mother Tongues” by S. Qiouyi Lu in Asimov’s and Escape Pod

“And Yet” by A.T. Greenblatt in Uncanny Magazine

“Your Slaughterhouse, Your Killing Floor” by Sunny Moraine in Uncanny Magazine

“She Who Hungers, She Who Waits” by Cassandra Khaw in Beneath Ceaseless Skies

“The House of Illusionists” by Vanessa Fogg in Liminal Stories

“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by Phenderson Djèlí Clark in Fireside

“Don’t Pack Hope” by Emma Osborne in Nightmare Magazine

“It’s Easy to Shoot a Dog” by Maria Haskins in Beneath Ceaseless Skies

“Flow” by Marissa Lingen in Fireside

“Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse” by Cherie Priest in Apex Magazine

“The Chariots, the Horsemen” by Stephanie Malia Morris in Apex Magazine

“Asphalt, River, Mother, Child” by Isabel Yap in Strange Horizons