Daniel Ausema's Blog, page 2

Reprint in Cosmic Muse anthology!

 

My story "The Triptych of the Final String" was published last year in New Myths. It's a flash story about stories and what we can learn from each other's stories.

For those who've read (and decide now to read...) The Arcist Chronicles books, the story has a loose connection with those novels.

And now New Myths has chosen the story to be included in this best-of anthology, Cosmic Muse, with this absolutely stunning cover art. There are lots of excellent stories in here to discover, so order yourself a copy and see what strange worlds you might discover!

"The Alien Words, Formed and Empty" in Star*Line

My poem "The Alien Words, Formed and Empty" is in the latest issue of Star*Line. It's a poem about aliens, architecture, and communication.

Star*Line is the official magazine for the SFPA. This joins a handful of others I've had in various issues. I'm always happy to have something in one of them. Check out the fall issue (or subscribe!) at the magazine's website.

 

The Market of Magical Goods collection in print!

 And in the next catching-up-on-things post, I've collected all the Market of Magical Goods drabbles that I used to put up on Curious Fictions, added another dozen that hadn't been published before, and made them into a chapbook. It's something small, but I'm really proud of these micro-fictions--I think you'll enjoy them!

What is the Market? It's an open air marketplace where you can buy magical rings and swords and flying carpets, potions and curses and a vast array of fakes. Beware!

Each story is exactly 100 words, offering a teasing glimpse into the true powers at work in the market.

If you want a taste of what these stories are like, I've posted one on Ko-fi, "The Seller of Rain in the Magical Market." They're brief and whimsical little stories that are easy to quickly read whenever you have a minute to spare.

Check out the collection!

Another poem sold to Star*Line

 As I said in my last post, I have a variety of things that happened as or just before I was away on a family vacation. Just a quick one today, but one I'm very pleased with, is that Star*Line has accepted another of my poems. "The Alien Words, Formed and Empty" should be in one of the next two issues of Star*Line.

Keep your eyes peeled! (And watch for other news here on the blog as well.)

"What Passes for Eyes in Dreams and Death" in Fantasy

 

I've been traveling (and even when not traveling, pulled in a thousand directions at once), so I have several different new publications/announcements/news-type things to post about that each deserve their own post. So first, in June my story "What Passes for Eyes in Dreams and Death" was published in Fantasy Magazine.

If you subscribed, you were able to read it right away. (Hey, why not subscribe, while we're at it? Amazon is changing the way they allow [read: don't allow] subscriptions, which could have some really bad effects on a lot of SF/fantasy magazines, so the more subscribers they have, the better!)

Right at the end of the month, the story became available to read for everyone. Or even listen to the podcast to have Stefan Rudnicki read it to you!

And when you're done with that, there's also an author spotlight that you won't want to miss!

Tangent Online's review says that it "...is beautifully written but, at least for this reviewer, doesn’t really tell a story. It would have worked better as a poem..." I consider that an endorsement.

More news, etc. to come!

"Hands That Cannot Grasp" in Kaleidotrope!

A bit late to this (and there's more news coming very soon to add to it...). But I'm thrilled that my poem "Hands That Cannot Grasp" appeared in the latest issue of Kaleidotrope. It is a poem of transformation:

Why did we do it? Why this

transformation into flora, this losing

of what we once thought human?

Call it a mix of can and curiosity,

an alchemy of what-if, a wish

to step outside and see beyond.

Kaleidotrope always has a good selection of worthy stories and poems, so be sure to read the whole issue (it appears there's no direct link yet to the current issue, until a new issue comes out and it gets added to the archives--but it's easy to find from the link to my poem above and this link should become the correct link once it's archived). 

"Excavating Lost Languages" in Frozen Wavelets #8! (and more...)

My flash story "Excavating Lost Languages" came out in that latest issue of Frozen Wavelets! It's short and full of linguistic whimsy and imaginary writing systems, lost to time.

Also, as a follow-up to my most recent post, my story from the Enigmatic Species anthology was chosen as a free-to-read feature to promote the book. So, if you haven't bought the anthology yet, you can get a teaser with "Life Cycle of a Shadow." (Then follow through and buy the antho!)

"The Life Cycle of a Shadow" in The Compendium of Enigmatic Species!

 A new flash story came out recently in this anthology, The Compendium of Enigmatic Species!

My story is a pseudo-journalistic piece about the lesser and greater shadows and the threat one specific shadow poses to the world. Check it out!

Accepted, full member of SFWA!

I’m now a full member of SFWA! I was expecting the approval to take longer–I didn’t get the forms submitted until Jan 1 and got the acceptance late Jan 4.

When I started trying to get short stories accepted, all the writers I interacted with marked their success by SFWA-qualifying status (whether they ended up joining or not). The per-word rate had (relatively?) recently gone up to 5 cents/word, and for several years I had as one of my yearly goals to get one SFWA-qualifying sale. Then I did, and my goal became to get two more so I could join. I had several at pro-paying markets–Penumbra was trying to jump through the hoops to get qualified, and that would have vaulted me easily into acceptance–but there were other criteria for a market to be approved, and none of them met those criteria at the time.

By the time I had three pro sales, I realized there was another requirement (whether it was new or something I’d missed)–your word count for those pro sales had to total a minimum of 10,000. One DSF flash story, and fairly short shorts to Strange Horizons and Diabolical Plots did not get me to 10k.

So a couple more DSF stories and another Diabolical Plots story over the next couple of years, and I guessed I must have the 10k minimum met, but then I read the requirements and saw another part (new? something I’d missed?)–there was a minimum payment per story as well, one that would have eliminated some of my DSF stories. If I read it right. I didn’t have it in me to go back and try to figure out whether I still qualified or not. So I just put it out of mind, discovered Codex and got accepted there, anyway, and plugged away.

Then in 2021, a third Diablolical Plots acceptance definitely put me over the top. I decided that once I got the payment for that, I’d apply. Shortly after, an acceptance at the newly-qualifying Zooscape was just an added insurance on top. It came out at the end of 2021, but since I’d already decided to wait for the Diabolical Plots payment to come through, I didn’t do anything right away.

And then…SFWA changed its requirements again. Entirely. This time to a much easier threshold for me. I just had to go through and gather the receipts. Which, you know, took a year to gear myself up to make an effort on (and less than an hour once I decided to actually tackle it).

So I’ve finally achieved the New Year’s goal I put on so many of my (formal/informal) yearly goals. Maybe I can just declare this year’s goals met as well, just as a bonus freebie… 

2022 publications -- Award Eligibility Post

These past months have been chaos. No apologies or explanations, but there have been a number of things published since my last post. They will be included in this award eligibility post:

In 2022 I had 8 short stories published, 3 poems, and 2 novels (though one was first serialized in 2021). I have some other works forthcoming, including some that might be out before the end of the year, but if so, they would be eligible for next year's awards instead.

***

Novels:

Spire City: Occupied

The death of Spire City's greatest inventor couldn't come at a worse time.

The fabled city of beetle-drawn carriages is occupied by a foreign power, and that country is at war with another.

Five people find their lives spiraling together in the aftermath of his death: Temli, an airship captain; XXXXX, an unnamed correspondent from the front lines; Keene, a grizzled beetle hunter; Jensha, a singer chained to one of the city's spires; and Alless, the former apprentice to the late inventor.

The Roots of Betrayal

Terrorists attack the Princes, Outcasts build a new city, and the mage Pavresh discovers that Arcist Magic is more powerful than ever imagined.

Pavresh spent the last 5 years exploring the mountains around the Eghsal Valley, seeking to expand Arcist magic by incorporating the foreign traditions of the mountain tribes. But he discovers these barbarian tribes might be more deeply connected to his own people than the official histories admit.

Now, news from home has him hurrying back to the Valley: A mysterious, violent group called the Sons of Ryo are terrorizing the cities. The ruling Princes are under threat, and his friends are losing the only shelter they have.

What is this mysterious group, and who is pulling their strings? Who is the man claiming to have crossed the inpenetrable mountains from the Forgotten South? Can Pavresh use new more powerful magic to protect his friends’ new home, or will the cost be too great?

***

Short Stories:

"The Cities Rise Up on Legs of Lead" in Daily Science Fiction

The city of Letura stand up, drawing its own buildings up to form a gigantic avatar. Surely so it can fight its neighboring city-avatars, its citizens believe.

"The Goddess of the Braided Light Drive" in New Myths

Tycha tends the knots and braids of light on a spaceship. An emergency forces her to take on a more mythic role to save her ship.

"The Quartermaster Trial" in Mythaxis

A people in a run-down future try to find a new home.

"The Forgotten Treaties of Wildfire and Feathers" in Daily Science Fiction

A mythopoetic take on wildfires, mountains, and the treaties of non-human powers.

"The Stockings of Santa River" in the anthology Alternative Holidays

A quietly horrific tale of two siblings in a post-apocalyptic world, exchanging gifts.

"By the Scars Shall You Know" in Metaphorosis

A non-linear story of a closed society protected by a thick forest of thorns...and of one who tries to break free.

"The Grammar of City Streets" in Diabolical Plots

In a city where street names become sentences, the mapmaker Sayya has the power to help those who are lost.

"The Counter Poison Pigment" in Daily Science Fiction

The apprentice Cinna uses the magic of pigments to fight back against corrupt rulers.

***

Poems:

"Unveiling the Moon" in Eye to the Telescope 44

"The Battle Monument over Tessain II" in Eye to the Telescops 45

"The Boatman Statue" in Star*Line 45.3

***

Kindle Vella:

I've also continued experimenting some with Kindle Vella this year.

Other Sam and the Shadow Squad is an MG story about a group of kids who have to fight to protect our world from shadows...until they get pulled across the boundary into the shadow world itself and learn that everything they thought they knew was wrong. This is complete.

Darkness Comes Without a Song is the first novel I ever wrote. It's the story of Aerrem, the son of a vanished people who commands a powerful magic of music, one he doesn't yet understand. The tangled truths and lies of the past force him and those around him to confront their complexity in the midst of war, in pursuit of peace. This is ongoing and will wrap up in a few months.