First of all, Black lives matter, and so do trans lives, and so do Black trans lives.

Second of all, why yes nothing indeed has happened on this website since October 2019. I simply didn’t get any acceptances to announce.

Then, on June 7 2020, I did get an acceptance! OMG! From Esskaye Books’ SCARE ME anthology! I haven’t had a lot of my horror sell in recent years, so that was very cool and I’m very happy about that! So I signed the contract and got PAID the NEXT DAY, WHICH IS AMAZING, IF THAT WASN’T OBVIOUS FROM MY SHOUTING!

While still reeling from those sweet Great Britain Pounds in my paypal, I then found out that one of my short stories has been longlisted for a Sunburst award! Sure! (For those unclear on what that means, being longlisted is the participant trophy. There’s still the shortlist, which is like the longlist but shorter, and then comes the award. I think? Maybe there’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd places? I don’t know, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in school, which is the last time awards have come up in my life.)

And NOW, at long last, and I should have mentioned this earlier probably, but Grace&Victory Publications is set to come out with our new anthology, A Quiet Afternoon, on July 1! I should have mentioned this earlier because when I say ‘our’ new anthology, I kind of mean it? In a way? Grace&Victory is a micropress run by Grace Seybold and Victoria Feistner (and yes, we’re all friends) and for AQA I got to be the slush reader. (Again, for those who don’t know, a slush reader is the one who reads all the stories and figures out what might be a good fit and what gets booted out. When you’re addressing your submissions to Dear Editor, you’re probably getting a slush reader and not an editor on the first go. Circumstances vary! Don’t worry about it.) And then, as tasks got divvied up between Grace and Victoria (and Liane Tsui, another friend and editor for AQA), occasionally little jobs came up – writing an exciting marketing blurb, or figuring out the order the stories should go in (the Table of Contents, or ToC), or writing the foreword. So I got to step into the role of copyeditor, which was kind of fun! I hadn’t written stories for a couple months, so being able to write SOMEthing was nice (especially something that was sure to get an acceptance!… still needed editing, though. Which is just how it goes).

So! One new contract signed with Esskaye Books! A longlist for an award! And an anthology I helped with is coming out soon! After only eight months, I’m back in the publishing game!

…

I do not know if I’m going for an optimistic or pessimistic tone! Feel free to choose the one you need at the moment!