Holly Walrath's Blog, page 28

New Subscriber Post at Curious Fictions: Website Preview

Subscribe for $2 a month at Curious Fictions to read this post!
I have a new post at Curious Fictions for my subscribers: "Subscribers Preview: The Joy of Baking Audio & EBooks." 

This next week I'll be announcing the contents of this post to the world at large. Stay tuned for some exciting news! 

Follow Me On Instagram

Whew, this month is full of updates! 

I've started a new Instagram account. I decided that I wanted to start posting more poetry online and this is a way for me to do that. I'll be posting excerpts of my poetry as I'm working on it. 

Basically, I've had a personal Instagram for years but never really did much with it but post cat pictures. :) Now I have a poetry-only dedicated account for you to follow.

I hope to see you there! 

New Subscriber Post: Art is Love

I've got a new post up at Curious Fictions! Subscribe for $1/month!
​I've got a new post up at Curious Fictions for subscribers. This one's about how we can learn to love ourselves as artists. How do we negotiate the market and the successes of others? Once you start publishing your work, where do you go from there?

Now Posting At Curious Fictions

I'm now posting subscriber-only content and reprints of my pro-market stories at Curious Fictions. 

Similar to Patreon, Curious Fictions is an invite-only platform where professional authors can sign up and create profile pages, publish their newsletters and story reprints, and start accepting payments from their followers. 

If you like what I'm doing and want to support me, this is your chance. Subscribe below for just $1 a month and receive exclusive content: reprinted stories and special blog posts.  Subscribe Today!

New Subscriber Post: Writing Boldly into the Next Beyond

Subscribe for $1/month and read this post at Curious Fictions!      All that is gold does not glitter,
     Not all those who wander are lost;
     The old that is strong does not wither,
     Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
               --J.R.R. Tolkien

I've got a new subscriber-only post at Curious Fictions about Tolkien, managing your career as a writer, and basically launching my new and exciting stuff for 2018! Read it here. 

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Interview on the SFPA Blog

I was interviewed by the SFPA - Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association about my writing background, my favorite trends in poetry today, being a Texas writer, and my love of dragons. 

Read it here!

SEND ME YOUR TIMEY-WIMEY POEMS

​I'm really thrilled to announce that I'm guest editing the next issue of the Science Fiction Poetry Association's online journal, Eye to the Telescope! This is a fantastic online journal for poets who write speculative, cross-genre, and straight up scifi/fantasy genres!  This issue of the Eye to the Telescope explores the theme of “Time.” The editor seeks poems about time travel, time machines, time lords, history-hopping, alternate timelines, clocks, white rabbits, the quotidian, and odes to years past and future. Send poems that cover a single life in a few lines, broad interpretations of the theme such as characters who have little time or eternity to live, or quantum theory and continuums. Any genre or form, writers of all backgrounds encouraged to submit. Eye to the Telescope is a paying market!  

Read the Full Submission Guidelines
I look forward to reading your work :) Please note, it's likely that shorter poems will fare better in the submissions due to the limitations of budget. 
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I'll Be At Illogicon! Come Say Hi!

I'll be attending Illogicon January 12-14th in Raleigh this year. I'd love to meet you if you'll be there!

What I Published in 2017 (Awards Eligibility)

As the end of the year draws to a close, I'd like to share with you the works I published in 2017 that I'm proud of. 2017 was a great year for me and I'm so grateful to the editors who have taken my work under their wings. I wrote a lot more experimental poetry this year, which people seem to enjoy, and I published my first full-length story, which was pretty exciting to me. 

If you've read my work or nominated it in the past, I am truly truly thankful. I couldn't get by without the support of my amazing writer friends and the writing community as a whole. 
Poetry
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The following are poems eligible for the SFPA Rhysling Award: 
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Short Poems:
"Confessions of a Supermassive Black Hole" (Short Poem, Dwarf Stars Eligible) in Grievous Angel, October 12, 2017 "We Have Always Lived" (Short poem) in Nonbinary Review, Issue#15 (November)*"Anvil Crawler" (Short poem) in ARTHouston Magazine, Issue#5, Sept. 2017 "The Hearts of Robots" (Short poem) in Dreams & Nightmares Magazine, Sept 2017, Issue #107*"​Lace at the Throat" (Short poem, Dwarf Star Eligible) in 2017 SFPA Poetry Contest."How I Lost My Chastity" (Short poem) in Liminality Magazine, Issue #13, Autumn 2017"Dear Shotgun City" (Short poem) in Eye to the Telescope, Issue 25: July 2017, Theme: Garbage​"My City of Ruin" (Short poem) in Mithila Review, Issue 8, April, 2017"Lunar Girl Drinks Poetry from the Stars" (Short poem) in Mithila Review, Issue 8, April, 2017"Grayslick" (Short poem) in By & By Poetry, Issue 7"Spring Will Come Again" (Short poem) in Abyss & Apex, Issue 62: 2nd Quarter 2017)"Pine Song, Robin Song, Star Song" (Short poem) in Liminality, Issue #11: Spring 2017"Madness" (Short poem) in Crab Fat Magazine, March 2017"Ship of Jinn" (Short poem) in Kaleidotrope, Winter 2017
Long Poems:"Bird House" (Long poem) in ​Strange Horizons, August 7, 2017"Reflection" (Long poem) in Mithila Review, Issue 8, April, 2017
*Poems noted with an asterisk are not available online. If you'd like a copy, email me. Fiction
​While I didn't publish anything that was specifically eligible for a fiction award, I still want to share my story, The Joy of Baking, which appeared in Luna Station Quarterly  (Issue 030, July 2017).

It’s amazing how much easier it is to bake a cake when you’ve got an eternity to get it right. The secret to effective baking is patience, followed by the ability to fold the batter with a metal spoon instead of rushing in with a wooden spoon like a hammer. The folding in must be gentle so as not to break the hard-earned bubbles of air. Lastly, a baker must have the willingness to guard the oven, your feet cold on the tile, letting the warm scents of butter and vanilla envelop you and seep into the whole house, holding your breath while the batter rises, goldens, and browns slightly at the edges... read more

For a full list of publications go here. 

NaNoWriMo Day 30: Winning At Writing

Well, I've done it folks. I won NaNoWriMo! This morning I copy + pasted all ten of my short stories (including a flash fiction I threw in for fun) into the NaNo website and verified my 50,941 words written in November. 

NaNoWriMo is not for everyone. It's exhausting. I can feel the tired in my bones y'all. I have read barely anything this month because I've spent all my mornings writing. I wrote during World Fantasy Con, which was an adventure, I wrote while sad and unmotivated, I wrote with exhilaration today as I pushed myself past the finish line. 

I don't know if I will do NaNoWriMo again next year, but I have gotten a lot out of doing short stories instead of novels. There's something really fun in knowing that you only have to live with that story in your head for three days and then you get to let it go, even if it's unfinished or imperfect. 

Here's a last excerpt from my dino story, just for you: 

I hike myself up onto Darla’s back and kick her into a run. My eyes are burning with dust, my heart is a stone jostling in my chest. Faster, faster. We break the second field, planted with new corn. There’s the gate. In the distance I can see the uncultivated lands of what was once the border. Dissected plains, dark, loamy soil. I swear, urging Darla on. I try not to hear the sounds behind me, creaking wood, the roars and battle screams of dinosaurs on a rampage. I keep on, keep pushing Darla on. My flock needs me. I’ll have to find a way for us to survive until the dinosaurs are past. We’ll need food, grass is a rare commodity. We’ll rebuild. That’s what we do, humans. We survive. We’ll come back and put up more walls, I’ll breed stronger dinos. 
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And then I’ll go after Ambrose and put a bullet in his head myself.