K.A. Wiggins's Blog, page 2

Summer Update 2024

Let���s dive right in with new arrivals:

JULY: Canadian ghost town/ecopunk horror ���The Tangle (Did Not Kill Kitsault)��� in STRANGE HORIZONS July 1 edition & SF fungal humour ���The Pink Slime���s Appointment With Destiny��� in PULPHOUSE FICTION MAGAZINE Issue 31

AUGUST: Slipstream/Neurodivergent flash ���Mud Maidens Rise��� in LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE Issue 171 (incl. ���audiobook��� version!) and a reprint of Canadian eco-anxiety body horror rom-com ���Children of Earth��� in PULPHOUSE FICTION MAGAZINE Issue 32

Another Commonwealth Short Story Prize longlister���Vancouver opioid poisoning crisis ghost story ���The Patron Saint of Flatliners���, now available at MYSTERION���plus yet another reprint in the pipeline. Look for some very cool Halloween horror antho crowdfunding news soon to get in on cool special edition stuff!

Books still behind schedule, but working on it. Latest development: adding songwriting to the mix, because when you���re underwater, why not swim down instead of up??? Hoping/planning to prioritize SONGSTRESS WIP for the remaining weeks of summer before fall crashes down upon me and swallows all my writing time.

Teaching & events continue to be a busy and growing part of the puzzle:

The spring term (novel-writing intensive, elementary/junior cohort) was fantastic as you can see from their covers below! This fall, I���ll be doing two identical ���art of the short story��� intensives/anthology making workshops for teens on Thursdays and Friday afternoons (remote/Zoom extracurriculars���contact Creative Writing for Children Society for more info/to register.) And if there���s interest from adults or institutions, get in touch���might be able to get something for you in the calendar in later fall or next spring.

Had an awesome high school author visit in the Tricities area! Chatted with a brilliant creative writing club and talked up short fiction and writing as a career with a (hilarious! angsty! surprisingly insightful!) interactive ���whiteboard��� storytelling/improv creative writing exercise for gen-pop Grade 9 & 12 English classes.

Got to do a (remote) book club visit/writing consult for adult readers as well, which was super fun and something I keep meaning to set up a booking form for, but alas, it remains on my very long to-do list. Reach out about pricing and schedule if this is something your club wants!

Excellent (whirlwind!) spring conference season at the BC Library Association Conference and Surrey Teachers��� Association Convention, and I still need to follow up with connections from those events. Intentionally left a little room this fall to allow for new opportunities that tend to crop up, but already I am looking forward to speaking at both the (public) librarians��� youth services and school library conferences this fall. ALL the library love, all the time~ (Also on the horizon, some hush-hush arts council workshop fun in the tri-cities area. Schools, institutions, arts councils, etc., feel free to reach out!)

It���s time for IndieAugust promos! Pricing might take a few days to populate to Amazon, but active on Kobo, Apple Books, Google Books, etc. now to first week of Sept:

(FREE) : When the dreamwealking threadwitch the shadow prince of Refuge���s dissolute underground has been obsessed with since boyhood vanishes, he risks all the power he���s begged, borrowed, and stolen to get her back.

(FREE) LETTER FROM THE END OF THE WORLD: When a young mother���s mission to stop the end of the world is hijacked by tragedy, she signs on for an eternity of sacrifice in defiance of the monstrous intelligence possessing her dying city.

(FREE) THE UNSOUGHT LIGHT: Duty and desire collide in a war that threatens to bring down an unwilling bride-to-be���s family, clan, and village in ancient (gothic-fantasy) Japan.

($0.99) BLIND THE EYES: When a young rebel offers a haunted outcast the chance to escape her rule-bound existence, he proves an even more deadly distraction than the monsters overrunning her drowned city.

And, in the amazing annual Narratess Super Sale (Aug. 24-26) here, (FREE to $0.99) SPECTRES OF THE OLD WORLD: MUD MONSTERS & REVELATIONS: A young dreamwalker and his comrades battle monsters, a toxic legacy, and a tainted future to bring back a long-lost friend (���or maybe more?) taken by the hungry shadows. Micro-trilogy of novelettes in Kindle Unlimited. Book 1 is free and Books 2-3 $0.99 Aug. 23-27, but pricing and sales may depend on your region and time zone.)

Finally, the fantastic folks at Kidlit4Ceasefire are running another signed books & ARCs auction that is a little bit behind in updating donated books (a signed hardcover of Blind the Eyes will eventually be added), but there are are already some fantastic books to check out and also a Patreon and/or vetted links to donate to directly if you prefer. Check it out here!

(Non)Fiction

This is and is not a news update.

I had a story coming out ten days ago.

Then I didn���t.

Some time, maybe I���ll write about contracts and negotiations and voices and motivations and the constant battle between Art and Commerce we all live under.

Today, I���m just happy not to have new fiction to promote.

Because, as I keep forgetting, as I keep being horrifically, mundanely, repeatedly, mind-numbingly reminded, while there is a place for poetry and allusions and escapism and Art that offers all the space in the world for free interpretation and engagement, there is also a desperate need for clarity. Honesty. Facts.

And since I write fiction that tries very hard not to tip into the extremities of didacticism, that explores ideas and invites readers to ask questions and think for themselves, rather than (I hope) presenting thin allegories and heavy-handed conclusions, I want to get a statement on record.

Most of my ���nonfiction��� writing ends up effectively subscription-gated (i.e., via newsletter) or on social media. In many cases, I���m more engaged with raising up voices more directly involved and educated on any given issue than commenting myself. (Again, fiction writer���I process my ideas sideways, inside-out, and open-ended through fun-house mirrors!)

But I���ve also been having very alarming conversations lately. Conversations where I assumed shared understandings about the world and was sadly mistaken.

So let���s get some things straight:

All people are created equal. All human lives have value and should be protected from violence and provided���at a bare minimum���with the necessities of life in a healthy society. As humans, we should all be in favour of human rights (and animal rights are worth a look, too���)

All people means all people. Even if your people historically didn���t like their people or their people hurt your people in the past. Even if you could make more money hating and/or exploiting them, or it will cost you something to defend their rights. Even if they personally annoy you. Even if you feel uncomfortable. Yes, even then. None of us are owed a frictionless existence, especially at the cost of another���s safety, wellness, or survival.

I���d rather not make a list here of every equity-deserving people group, but growing evidence suggests I���d better start with at least a short-list. Black Lives Matter. Palestinian lives do too. Ditto Indigenous & Asian folks. Trans and queer rights are human rights. Again, this isn���t about your or my personal tastes, preferences, beliefs or desires. Human rights for all humans are an inherent good. All humans drawing really clear lines about war crimes, genocide, etc., also good! Let���s all get on that page and stay on that page���

This is where it seems to get harder for many: Colonialism? Imperialism? Not good, actually. See also: authoritarianism, totalitarianism, facism, police states, extractive capitalism . . . I know this gets a lot of folks��� backs up. I know folks get scared/offended/enraged at the thought of all that they���ve sacrificed to the machine being for nothing, humiliated at swallowing all those lies they���ve been propagansized with their whole lives, despairing at the thought that no matter what else they sacrifice, they might never pull themselves up by their bootstraps into wealth and comfort and stability. Believe me, I know.

But we���re not ���temporarily embarassed (b)millionaires��� (John Steinbeck), and the sooner we accept this, the sooner we can start building societies that work on behalf of the rest of us.

Worldwide human-caused environmental damage is a rapidly-worsening crisis with multiple systemic inputs, but we can make individual and systemic changes to moderate the suffering and, eventually, start to heal. We can make intentional choices with our food systems, our land use, our work and leisure, our technology, our energy. We can give land back to those we���ve stolen it from, we can choose to value sustainability and community instead of individualistic ���ambition��� that seeks to swallow the earth.

We can tell a different story and bring it to life. We can be better.

I don���t know if we will, but we can.

Yes, this is about Palestine (Free Palestine!) But it���s also about Canada (Land Back!) and about all peoples and places that are suffering and have suffered and are about to suffer. This month���in the last week alone���floods and extreme heat waves have killed hundreds if not thousands, on separate continents. And when it���s not nature-by-way-of-us, it���s directly us���funding munitions to enact genocide against tens and hundreds of thousands, or literally feeding children to the gods of industry from the cobalt mines of Congo to the processing plants of Chick-fil-A.

I will defend my right to write strange, complicated, questioning little stories and your right to escape into labyrinthine adventures and intricate fantasies and tortured romances and turn off your brain or draw the absolute wildest conclusions while doing so if that���s what you choose. You don���t have to learn anything from my (or any other) fiction, despite what your teachers may have told you. You might learn things. I and other authors might even have had things in mind that we hoped you���d pick up on. But there is no test. You���re not being graded, except in the larger sense that we all are, as humans, as beings that share this planet and (hopefully) will go on sharing it for generations to come without wiping ourselves and each other out.

So consider this my plug for balancing fiction and fantasy and all the escapism your heart could desire with a bit of nonfiction every so often. There���s more to learn than they taught you in grade school social studies or high school history class. Or science, for that matter. And there���s a whole lot of money and power being poured into hiding the unvarnished facts that didn���t fit between the pages of your textbooks from you. So please do a little reading, or listening, or watching, Preferably all three.

Here are just a few places to start:

The Tyee Hakai Magazine The Narwhal BBC Future Atlas Obscura Cory Doctorow���s Pluralistic.net Climate Mapping for Resilience & Adaptation���Interactive Map Our Home On Native Land���Interactive Map Teach Palestine Resources

Content Flags, Representation & Recommendations in Threads of Dreams

This is a resource that I���ve been meaning to collate from various scattered posts, newsletters, storefront subsections, etc. and expand for some time now.

Threads of Dreams included my first book, my first series, my first foray back into publishing as an adult, and while there is much I am proud of in it and every part of it was written with intention, there are nonetheless some choices that I would make differently today���choices, in fact, that I pivoted on while still working on the series.

The series, for those who have read it, is set roughly 100 years in the future of Vancouver (and later books travel throughout British Columbia), with a strong speculative influence that nonetheless draws on the landscapes and heritage of the Pacific Northwest. Characters were intentionally drawn from the existing diversity of the current Metro Vancouver population, extrapolated to account for the speculative events and timeline of the series, and some characters, setting/worldbuilding, and plot points also draw on various (local & regional) Indigenous practices, both historical and ongoing.

Little to none of this is made explicit within the text of the books, partly because the story is about societal disconnection from roots and identity in complex ways that took me a series(+) to unpack and is much more fantastical than grounded in its presentation (if you don���t know the area, you might not recognize many/any of the contemporary allusions), partly because many of the connections are embedded enough in daily life and culture here that I didn���t realize where they originally came from until later, but also because my own learning as I wrote/published the series had me rethinking the direction it should take and what was appropriate to even speak into.

In the interests of doing better about attribution and pointing toward fiction that authentically reflects Indigenous lived experiences and perspectives, I���d like to collect a lasting resource here for continued learning and speculative fiction. Those follow below, under the appropriate headings. (Note: I may expand this resource page to cover other people groups referenced within the series at a later date and as I become aware of relevant resources���)

I���ve also been wanting to create an accessible/centralized Content Advisory/Trigger Warning-type resource. Content may be flagged in other locations (inside books, on storefront listings, etc.), but my intent is for this to be the most comprehensive resource.

Content is tagged by book (1, 2, 3 for main trilogy, acronyms for series-related short fiction):

Threads of Dreams Content Advisory Illicit/intoxicating substance use incl. by minors (1, 2, Under) Fantasy violence (monster x human, incl. gore) (all) Fantasy & horror creatures �����ghosts, various monsters, zombies/ghouls (all) Gaslighting/emotional abuse (1-3, Under, BWNN, SOtOW) Selfharm/suicidal ideation (1-3) Dissociation/depressive episodes (1-3) Workplace abuse (1, LFtEOtW, Under) Physical abuse (limited/brief) (1) Implied/offpage sexual abuse (limited/brief) (BWNN, Under) Needles/involuntary anaesthesia (1) Torture (1) Implied child abuse (1, 3, BWNN, SOtOW) Child death (offpage/brief) (1, 3, LFtEOtW, SOtOW) Human sacrifice (1, 3)

This series is rated for older teens and up. It does not include on-page sex or ���spice��� but does include dancing/clubbing & representations of both healthy and toxic relationships. I sometimes refer to the series as having ���more blood than kissing������they���re fighting for survival and have limited time to angst over each other. ���� It does include quite a lot of violence, generally within upper-YA dark fantasy norms.

If you believe something is missing from the content advisory above, you can flag it here. (With thanks���it���s actually fairly hard for authors to know what might be triggering or worthy of a content advisory, and we can easily err on the side of over- or under-flagging. Reader tastes and expectations also vary widely���)

### Local (to Vancouver & BC) Indigenous Learning Resources For Further Reading

x��m����k����y����m (Musqeaum) Nation Official Website Additional Musqueam Site Sk��wx��wu��7mesh U��xwumixw (Squamish Nation) Official Website Sk��wx��wu��7mesh L��il��wat7��l (Squamish-Lilwat) Cultural Centre Site Sen�������w Development Site ����y��alm��x��/Iy����lmexw/Jericho Lands Development Site s��lilw��ta�� (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) Official Website Legends of Vancouver by Pauline Johnson Website First Peoples��� Cultural Council Dynamic Map (BC/AB)

Have a suggestion for a resource that might be relevant to readers of this series/who want to learn more about local/regional First Nations culture, history, leadership & practices? Let me know about it here!

### Indigenous Speculative Fiction

Eden Robinson���s titles, especially the Trickster Trilogy. A member of the Haisla and Hieltsuk First Nations, she lives in northern British Columbia. Cherie Dimaline���s titles, especially The Marrow Thieves. A registered and claimed member of the Historic Georgian Bay M��tis Community with section 35 Indigenous rights, of the Metis Nation of Ontario. David Alexander Robinson���s titles, especially The Reckoner Series. A member of Norway House Cree Nation, he lives in Winnipeg. Darcie Little Badger���s titles, especially Elatsoe. Lipan Apache. Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology)

Have I missed a great speculative fiction book by an Indigenous author? Let me know about it here and I���ll add it to my TBR!

BCTLA Fall Conference

BC Teacher-Librarians��� Association Fall Conference

Date: Friday, October 25, 2024

Time: TBC

Location: Victoria, BC

Type: Panel & Presentation

���AMA Author (& Illustrator) Edition: Brush up on all things publishing!���

Panel description: These BC kidlit authors & illustrators are here to answer your burning questions about all things publishing, literacy connection/education & storytelling. From how books get made to the current state of the industry, a day-in-the-life of creatives to behind-the-scenes on the other side of the page, creative writing education and public speaking to translating an idea into pictures or pages, no subject is off limits in this free-for-all Ask-Me-Anything panel.

Connecting with BC Children���s Authors & Illustrators

Presentation description: The BC children���s publishing community is growing increasingly diverse, relevant, and socially conscious. We���re excited to highlight established and emerging voices and titles to help get local stories in the hands of local kids. We���ll start with an overview of the power of local storyteller engagement for young readers and highlight free tools and resources offered by CWILL BC. Then a lightning-speed showcase will feature collections of 2023-2024 releases by topic, genre, and age/grade-level with a sprinkling of live mini book-talks and brief recordings highlighting diverse creators and place-based, sustainability, and social justice-oriented titles.

Panellists and presentation pop-up book talk guests, authors/illustrators on site available for signings to be announced. Be sure to get your name in for the book prize draws!

Learn more & register via BCTLA.

Surrey Teachers Association Convention

Surrey Teachers��� Association Convention (Elementary)

Date: Friday, May 3, 2024

Time: 10:15-11:45 am & 12:45-2:15 pm + exhibitor���s hall

Location: Sullivan Heights Secondary, 6248 144 St. Surrey, BC

Type: Panel & Presentation

���AMA Author (& Illustrator) Edition: Brush up on all things publishing!��� (10:15-11:45 am)

Panel description: These BC kidlit authors & illustrators are here to answer your burning questions about all things publishing, literacy connection/education & storytelling. From how books get made to the current state of the industry, a day-in-the-life of creatives to behind-the-scenes on the other side of the page, creative writing education and public speaking to translating an idea into pictures or pages, no subject is off limits in this free-for-all Ask-Me-Anything panel.

Connecting with BC Children���s Authors & Illustrators (12:45-2:15 pm)

Presentation description: The BC children���s publishing community is growing increasingly diverse, relevant, and socially conscious. We���re excited to highlight established and emerging voices and titles to help get local stories in the hands of local kids. We���ll start with an overview of the power of local storyteller engagement for young readers and highlight free tools and resources offered by CWILL BC. Then a lightning-speed showcase will feature collections of 2023-2024 releases by topic, genre, and age/grade-level with a sprinkling of live mini book-talks and brief recordings highlighting diverse creators and place-based, sustainability, and social justice-oriented titles.

Panellists and presentation pop-up book talk guests, authors/illustrators on site available for signings to be announced. Be sure to get your name in for the book prize draws!

View the slides here.

BC Library Association Conference

BC Library Association Conference

Date: Wednesday & Thursday, Apr. 24-25, 2024

Time: 2:45-3:30 pm, Thursday, Apr. 25 (panel)

Location: Exhibitor���s Hall & Salon E (panel), Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront, 1133 W Hastings St, Vancouver

Type: Panel: ���AMA Author (& Illustrator) Edition: Brush up on all things publishing!���

Panel description: ���Three multi-awarded authors (& illustrator!) join forces to answer your burning questions about all things publishing, literacy connection/education & storytelling! Our panel collectively has over three decades of experience in writing, illustrating and publishing (traditional & indie/self-publishing), and also speak out of their experience leading literacy, creative writing, and publishing nonprofits. From how books get made to the current state of the industry, a day-in-the-life of creatives to behind-the-scenes on the other side of the page, creative writing education and public speaking to translating an idea into pictures, pages or screen, no subject is off limits in this free-for-all Ask-Me-Anything panel.���

I���ll be joined by Lee Edward F��di and Emily Seo for the panel, with Nikki Bergstresser, Jane Whittingham, and Kari Rust joining us for for author signings in the exhibitor���s hall. Be sure to get your name in for the book prize draws!

View the (booth/background theme presentation) slides here!

Surrey Teachers Association Convention

Surrey Teachers��� Association Convention (Elementary)

Date: Friday, May 3, 2024

Time: 10:15-11:45 am & 12:45-2:15 pm + exhibitor���s hall

Location: Sullivan Heights Secondary, 6248 144 St. Surrey, BC

Type: Panel & Presentation

���AMA Author (& Illustrator) Edition: Brush up on all things publishing!��� (10:15-11:45 am)

Panel description: These BC kidlit authors & illustrators are here to answer your burning questions about all things publishing, literacy connection/education & storytelling. From how books get made to the current state of the industry, a day-in-the-life of creatives to behind-the-scenes on the other side of the page, creative writing education and public speaking to translating an idea into pictures or pages, no subject is off limits in this free-for-all Ask-Me-Anything panel.

Connecting with BC Children���s Authors & Illustrators (12:45-2:15 pm)

Presentation description: The BC children���s publishing community is growing increasingly diverse, relevant, and socially conscious. We���re excited to highlight established and emerging voices and titles to help get local stories in the hands of local kids. We���ll start with an overview of the power of local storyteller engagement for young readers and highlight free tools and resources offered by CWILL BC. Then a lightning-speed showcase will feature collections of 2023-2024 releases by topic, genre, and age/grade-level with a sprinkling of live mini book-talks and brief recordings highlighting diverse creators and place-based, sustainability, and social justice-oriented titles.

Panellists and presentation pop-up book talk guests, authors/illustrators on site available for signings to be announced. Be sure to get your name in for the book prize draws!

Learn more & register here.

BC Library Association Conference

BC Library Association Conference

Date: Wednesday & Thursday, Apr. 24-25, 2024

Time: 2:45-3:30 pm, Thursday, Apr. 25 (panel)

Location: Exhibitor���s Hall & Salon E (panel), Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront, 1133 W Hastings St, Vancouver

Type: Panel: ���AMA Author (& Illustrator) Edition: Brush up on all things publishing!���

Panel description: ���Three multi-awarded authors (& illustrator!) join forces to answer your burning questions about all things publishing, literacy connection/education & storytelling! Our panel collectively has over three decades of experience in writing, illustrating and publishing (traditional & indie/self-publishing), and also speak out of their experience leading literacy, creative writing, and publishing nonprofits. From how books get made to the current state of the industry, a day-in-the-life of creatives to behind-the-scenes on the other side of the page, creative writing education and public speaking to translating an idea into pictures, pages or screen, no subject is off limits in this free-for-all Ask-Me-Anything panel.���

I���ll be joined by Lee Edward F��di and Emily Seo for the panel, with Nikki Bergstresser, Jane Whittingham, and Kari Rust joining us for for author signings in the exhibitor���s hall. Be sure to get your name in for the book prize draws!

Learn more & register here.

Spring Update 2024

Whole pile of news to get through (overdue, yet again! ^_^;) so let���s dive right in:

Short fiction is booming! I���ve got a first sale & reprint licensed to Pulphouse for their summer edition(s?), a flash to Lightspeed for later this year, and recent releases from Mysterion and The NoSleep Podcast. Plus a couple more honorable mentions from Writers of the Future Awards to round things out.

Long fiction is . . . stalled. Mainly because I have about 400% more demands on my time than waking hours (sigh.)

Teaching & events are also booming���had a great time talking all things short fiction for StoryStudio���s teen writers recently and I���m just headed back for the second half of this term���s creative writing workshop intensives, and will be presenting at the BC Library Association Conference and Surrey Teachers��� Association Convention in roughly a month, but had to turn down an invite to the Fraser Valley Young Authors��� Conference due to a scheduling conflict.

It���s that time again���IndieApril promos abound! Pricing (including free) confirmed on Kobo, Apple Books, & Google Books as of today. If you prefer a different storefront, do check back later in the week/month���it can take some time to price match across different storefronts:

��� (FREE) : When the dreamwealking threadwitch the shadow prince of Refuge���s dissolute underground has been obsessed with since boyhood vanishes, he risks all the power he���s begged, borrowed, and stolen to get her back.

��� (FREE) LETTER FROM THE END OF THE WORLD: When a young mother���s mission to stop the end of the world is hijacked by tragedy, she signs on for an eternity of sacrifice in defiance of the monstrous intelligence possessing her dying city.

��� (FREE) THE UNSOUGHT LIGHT: Duty and desire collide in a war that threatens to bring down an unwilling bride-to-be���s family, clan, and village in ancient (gothic-fantasy) Japan.

��� ($0.99) BLIND THE EYES: When a young rebel offers a haunted outcast the chance to escape her rule-bound existence, he proves an even more deadly distraction than the monsters overrunning her drowned city.

��� ($0.99) MUD MONSTERS & REVELATIONS: A young dreamwalker and his comrades battle monsters, a toxic legacy, and a tainted future to bring back a long-lost friend (���or maybe more?) taken by the hungry shadows.

The awesome Kidlit4Ceasefire auction in support of Gaza, Sudan, Congo & The Little Miss Flint water filter fundraiser is already nearly halfway to its goal! I���ve donated a complete (paperback) set of the Threads of Dreams trilogy, a signed first edition of the Blind the Eyes hardcover, and an exclusive ���ask me anything��� (AMA) call���and there are over 350 (amazing!) auction items from other artists for readers, writers & art lovers to bid on here!

The AMA could be great for anyone with questions related to:

Short fiction writing/revising/tracking/submissions/publishing (I���m multi-awarded, multi-published in pro-rate outlets & have given workshops on the topic!)

Any publishing-related questions, really, especially related to the kidlit world (I lead a 160+ member professional society of children���s authors & illustrators and speak widely at conferences, festivals & institutions on the topic!)

Creative writing/editing/plotting/structure (I���ve been teaching intensive workshops for years now, multi-published, multi-awarded, just might be able to offer the tips you need���I���m nonjudgmental and focused on centering your goals)

Happy to chat with readers/teachers/librarians/etc. too if the winning bid comes from a non-writer who wants to use it for something like a book club or classroom visit!

This is the first time I���ve made this kind of access available to the public. Usually you���d need to attend a workshop or industry conference (or be part of CWILL, I try to carve out a little time for them too lol), so it���s a great opportunity to get your burning questions answered and support a fantastic cause at the same time. (& there are a number of other authors, artists & industry professionals offering AMAs if you���re seeking different expertise, too!)

Browse the auction now!

Author's Note on Flatliners

Sometimes there are stories you just aren���t equipped to tell. The one that became ���The Patron Saint of Flatliners��� (published in Mysterion, Patreon exclusive until March 28, 2024) is one of them.

I wrote the earliest version of it the summer after my best friend lost a young member of her extended family to the Vancouver drug toxicity crisis.

It wasn���t really a story at that point���just anger and cursing and chaos on a page. Unpublishable. I never expected to come back to it. But in 2023, I encountered Seanan McGuire���s works and found in her Ghost Roads series a surprising parallel.

Perhaps my strange, admittedly somewhat twisted form of processing/coping mechanism had produced something that would connect with readers after all . . .

But in connecting with readers, in taking something that I wrote for my own reasons and offering it to the world, I find myself concerned that fiction may be mistaken for fact.

So permit me the indulgence of straying into facts for a moment, starting with this:

I never met the girl who died. I know her only through second-hand accounts.

A scattering of stark snapshots of her life are here. Her truth is not.

I can���t tell you what it was like to be her. What her hopes and dreams were, how she thought about the future, God, herself.

I can tell you that, while she experienced hardship and betrayal, while she made choices you may not agree with and that she herself expressed uncertainty and regret over���according to my friend who was working to help her in her final days���I didn���t nearly capture her rage and desperation.

Nor the fervour of her religious practice. In life, she was a devout Catholic.

So, while this story does not, cannot, offer full and meaningful representation to that girl or the (many) other victims of the drug toxicity and opioid crises (please seek out survivors��� first-hand accounts and art for that!), it is perhaps in the area of faith that it falls most short.

In portraying an angry, questioning, alienated protagonist railing against God for her isolation, I fear I have crafted an engaging fictional narrative, but reinforced popular, comfortable myths.

There are convenient untruths that we all cling to at times. ���Bad things don���t happen to good people.��� ���People get what they deserve.��� ���Overdoses happen to those people and we are not those people.���

Popular myths, modern myths, religious myths, even, depending on the context. Nice people, nice families, educated people, professionals, women, students, children, good church-going folks, stable married couples, middle class households . . . immigrants. Believers. Catholics. Pentecostals. Baptists. And so on.

Pick your label. It still won���t protect you and yours.

The truth is that drug use, experimentation, dependency, addiction, poisoning, overdose, all of these can and do occur within the Church, to Christians, to nice people, to our loved ones, to us. They are not, in and of themselves, a mark of ���godlessness.���

This story���both the real life story behind the fiction, and the linked piece���also highlight intersecting marginalizations.

While I think it���s important to take this moment���particularly as this piece was first published by a faith-affiliated market���to challenge Christians and religious communities, along with the ���comfortable majority,��� to recognize their own vulnerability, it���s also desperately important to stop judging and dismissing those who make different choices and/or come from different communities, backgrounds, and experiences.

This is a story about the vulnerability of people of colour, of people from the Global South, of the harms of adoption practices (esp. in white Chrisitan communities), of the abuses of the patriarchy and toxic control within religious communities, of economic vulnerability and the way young people, especially women and girls, are more easily exploited (and trafficked) when they can���t access adequate housing, education, and employment.

I wrote this story to transmute anger and grief and loss into hope (in my own twisted, strange way.)

I couldn���t change the outcome for one girl, but I could give her a sense of purpose and a continuation past ���The End���, at least in fiction.

Since her death, the opioid and toxic supply epidemics have only worsened.

I urge you to take action in whatever capacity you are able. Advocate for safe supply, low barrier housing, and best-available treatments as scientific recommendations evolve. Form, fund, engage in, and champion healthy, strong communities and societies that support human thriving. Get engaged with the political process and hold your representatives to account.

And recognize that this isn���t only a ���them��� problem���we ourselves and our loved ones also may be vulnerable, if not in this moment, then in the future. Love and support starts at home.

With hope amidst the darkness,���Kaie