Just Published: Shifting Fortunes!
Now some exciting news on the writing front: my fifth short story Shifting Fortunes was published in Issues in Earth Science (IES)! For those unfamiliar with IES, it’s a website that provides resources pertaining to Earth and Space Sciences for writers and teachers.
IES has a feature called “Eww, There’s some Geology in my Fiction!” It consists of short stories for middle and high school students that illustrate Earth Science concepts, and Shifting Fortunes was chosen for their fifth issue. Like all the stories in that series, Shifting Fortunes has an illustration and a science lesson to go with it, and it’s all free!
Aki and Kageyama Inn from Shifting Fortunes. Illustration by Erin Colson
Shifting Fortunes differed from my previous projects in many respects. For one, this was my first time writing fiction specifically intended to educate. For another, it was my first middle grade work. I don’t usually write for that audience, but the concepts of Shifting Fortunes most naturally fell into that age group. This was also the first story where my engineering background came in handy. An added bonus was that a writer in my current critique group is a hydrogeologist at the sister agency of the place I once worked at. So in addition to the group’s feedback on plot and language, I had Yemia to vet out the technical aspects of the story.
Shifting Fortunes wound up taking more time and effort than I anticipated to get just right, but I am quite satisfied with the results. I hope you will be also!
