Holly Walrath's Blog, page 29

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. 

NaNoWriMo Day 29

It's the next-to-last day of NaNoWriMo and this is the first year I've come this close to finishing on time. I'm looking forward to celebrating tomorrow after I pass the finish line. 

Today I wrote 2,579 words on my last story, DINO APOCALYPSE. (That just sounds cool doesn't it.) It's pretty fun trying out different ideas in this way. I'm forcing myself to finish each draft, even if I'm not necessarily happy with the outcome. But since I move on to the next story so quickly, it's a great feeling because I don't have to look back yet. 

Ready for Revision December yet?

Here's an excerpt from today's writing: 
Ambrose snakes a freckled arm around my shoulders and I let him, just for the warmth of him, and also because it’s been a long time since I felt someone warm against me. We stand like that for a moment, watching the darkness and the stars coming out one by one. Are there more dinosaurs up there in the stars, waiting to come back to earth? I’d rather not think about it right now. I just want to think about Ambrose’s warm skin, his lips grazing my neck, the heavy feeling of sleep coming on my body. 

NaNoWriMo Interview at The Daily Author Podcast

I interrupt your regularly scheduled NaNoWriMo updates to bring you this interview I did with The Daily Author podcast over at Wooden Pants Network. I had a good time chatting about writing outside the box during NaNoWriMo and my writing process. 

We know NaNoWriMo as a month for novel writers, but I'm here to say that you can break the rules and write anything in November, as long as you're meeting word count goals.

NaNoWriMo Day 28

It's day 28 of NaNoWriMo! My word count for today was 2104. I'm trying to boost my word count in these last few days so I can make my goal. I'm about 5k away, but I think that's doable!

I've been enjoying NaNoWriMo a lot more this year since I've been writing short stories. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever have the gumption to finish a complete novel. Working at a fast pace like this has it's limits but in the end it's been terribly enjoyable.

Here's an excerpt of Story #10: 
​​I’m not concerned with all that though. The past is in the past. Right now I’m concerned with a hot cup of chicory and washing the green blood of a just-hatched Riojasaurus off my hands. I leave the baby to her mother and walk back up to the house. The girl, Carmen, is sitting in the little storefront I concocted by building out the porch, thrumming her fingers. 
“Girl, stop that thrumming,” I snap. I can’t stand idle hands, not in this time we’re living in. Going to the little sink and little camp stove, I bring a pot to boil and drop two chicory roots in. They look a bit like the wilted teeth of a dino. I’ve got lizard on the brain.

NaNoWriMo Day 21

Day 21 of NaNoWriMo and I'm on Story #7 with 1624 words today. I need to play catchup this week but I keep hitting a wall. However, I will persevere!

NaNoWriMo Day 20

Day 20 of NaNoWriMo and I've broken 30k! Woohoo! I'm on Story #7 now, which is about personality transplants. It's a nice change to work on a solidly SF story for a while after my rather difficult historical fiction short story. 

1925 words today!

An excerpt: 

He blinks, looks down at the wood. “I don’t know,” he murmurs, and brushes the soft strands away from the knife edge. “If you hadn’t come in I don’t know if I’d even have known what I was doing. I came in here because I needed to get out of the house—to smell the air. And the wood was just sitting there and I got the idea then that there was something in the wood—an animal. So I decided to cut it out.” He smooths the knife over the wood and I can see the beginnings of a snout there. 

NaNoWriMo Day 19

Day 19 of NaNoWriMo and I've written 1189 words on Story #6. I'm technically supposed to be working on Story #7 but I am behind because this is another historical story with a lot of research to be done. Spent most of the day studying the letters and journals of Virginia Woolf in an attempt to get caught up. 

Here's an excerpt: 

Inside that strange reflection there was something else with her—the ghost of herself. Ghost Virginia moved behind her, smiling with a comfortable ease. Ghost Virginia is beastlike, furry-faced, with great wings. The real girl went from room to room, finding Ghost Virginia in the windows, in the glass, in the pools of water from a fresh rain in the morning. Ghost Virginia would not have let herself be caught in bed in the morning. Ghost Virginia would not have let herself be lifted onto the slab outside the dining room door. Ghost Virginia would have slapped away his wriggling fingers, like snakes under her ghostly shroud, she would have bit off their heads. 

Reviews For The Joy of Baking

I'm a bit behind on this, but I wanted to shout out to two reviewers who reviewed my story "The Joy of Baking," which appeared in Luna Station Quarterly. It's so lovely to read responses to my work! 

The first is from Sara L. Uckelman at SFF Reviews:  Whether purgatory is a waiting place before the ultimate destination, or simply a waiting place before moving on to the next life, a place one will come back to again and again, there is something comforting in thinking that perhaps it is a place where the waiting souls are fed and loved and comforted, where they may rest as long as they need, and where the caretakers have all the time in the world to perfect their baking skills...

Read the whole review This story also received a review from Lady Business:  A jaundiced alcoholic begins the healing process. Cake is the universal healer; both a physical comfort and a metaphor for the careful act of rebuilding a soul. It's a real feel good story, and a light, lovely joy to read...

Read the whole review