Sarena Ulibarri's Blog, page 2

Chrysalis in Sunlight published at GigaNotoSaurus

"Chrysalis in Sunlight" is about two survivors of an alien invasion—one a veteran and one a civilian—who have to road trip from Denver to San Diego for treatment for a condition caused by exposure to alien microbes. I called this my "solarpunk Don Quixote" story while I was writing early drafts, though I don't know if it's actually the best example of solarpunk, and the homage to The War of the Worlds is probably more obvious than the Don Quixote connection. The story is ambiguously hopeful,...

Interview with Marian Womack, author of LOST OBJECTS

Marian Womack was one of the amazing authors I had the privilege of spending six weeks with at the Clarion Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Workshop in 2014. I first met her about a month before Clarion started, while my husband and I were visiting Spain. It was great to get off the regular tourist routes in Madrid, and also to get to know one of my classmates a bit better before the craziness of Clarion began. During the workshop, I was always impressed with her lush prose and gothic-infl...

Interview with Claudie Arseneault, Author of Baker Thief

Claudie Arseneault was actually the first person to introduce me to the term solarpunk (a genre I've been rambling non-stop about ever since), through the call for submissions to her solarpunk dragons anthology Wings of Renewal. I've been following her career ever since, and it turns out she's just an all-around good person and awesome writer whom I'm glad to have encountered.

Today, I've invited Claudie onto my blog to talk about her new fantasy novel Baker Thief.

Here's what the book is about...

Story Behind the Story: Under a Rock

Like a lot of writers, I have many random notes for story ideas, most of which go nowhere or sit in a notebook for years before they actually become a story. "Under a Rock" started as one of those: I had the idea of an inexplicable gigantic tooth showing up in someone's backyard, and them charging admission to see it, a la "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings." I plucked the idea out of my notebook after seeing an anthology call that had something to do with sharks and dinosaurs; I decided th...

Interview with Joanne Merriam, editor of Broad Knowledge

Joanne Merriam is the publisher of Upper Rubber Boot Books, a fantastic independent publisher who has brought you amazing books such as Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation and Choose Wisely: 35 Women Up to No Good . Now Joanne is running a Kickstarter to get two new anthologies off the ground. Broad Knowledge features a story by my good friend and Clarion classmate Vida Cruz, as well as stories by Wendy Nikel and Aimee Ogden, two authors I've been lucky enough to work with thro...

Interview with Jennifer Lee Rossman, author of Anachronism

Full disclosure: Jennifer Lee Rossman is one of the authors I work with through World Weaver Press. We've been lucky enough to snag short stories from her for Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers and Mrs. Claus: Not the Fairy Tale They Say , and she'll have a science fiction novel that is fun and heartbreaking in all the right ways coming out with us in early 2019.

Then again, she's got stories all over the place these days, so other publishers are clearly catching onto her talent! I invited he...

The Ice Tree Published in Apparition Lit

My fantasy story "The Ice Tree" is in the second issue of Apparition Literary Magazine! A hero-in-her-own-mind amateur sorceress sends a village into chaos while trying to prove herself, and vows to undo an ancient curse to make up for the mess she's made. Things do not go well.

I initially wrote this story more than ten years ago, and very little of the original survived when I re-wrote it in 2014 at the Clarion Workshop. It again became a different monster based on workshop feedback, and it...

Cocktails at the Mad Scientist's House Published in Mad Scientist Journal

My story, "Cocktails at the Mad Scientist's House" is in the Spring 2018 issue of Mad Scientist Journal , out now! Makes sense that this is where this story would end up, doesn't it? I didn't initially write the story with Mad Scientist Journal in mind, but it turned out to be a perfect fit.

My story is classified as an "essay," but it's still definitely fiction (I should hope that would be fairly obvious). One of the quirky, fun things about Mad Scientist Journal is that they publish these fir...

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers Cover Reveal

I edited a solarpunk anthology! It's now a real live thing. You can pre-order it now, and it will be loosed upon the world on June 5, 2018. Over the three-month submission window last year, I received 62 submissions from authors all over the world. I put 25 of those stories on the shortlist and read them again, then sent 20 of them to one of the other World Weaver Press staff for a second opinion. I ended up with a table of contents of 17 stories that I am thoroughly psyched about, and a bunc...

Even More Solarpunk Markets to Send Your Stories To

New solarpunk story markets are popping up all the time. See my first two lists of places to send your solarpunk stories here and here—some of those deadlines have expired, but others are still coming up, or are ongoing. 

Below are ten more magazines and contests that are interested in publishing solarpunk stories. They're organized with the earliest deadlines listed first. Know of a solarpunk fiction market I missed? Please leave a comment!  Fiyah Magazine, Themed Issue
Submission Window: Ja...