Nudity is Only Skin-Deep

Red All Over

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:24:43 GMT

On Saturday, Strong Women Strange Worlds is hosting a day of writerly festivities. I'll be running a MadLibs session with one of my stories at 10:00 EST. It's free and fun. Come and play!

Saturday is also the launch date of the story “The Guidance of Pigeons.” I co-wrote that with Terri Bruce, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Jessica Turnbull, and Anne Keck. It was my first time creating a story with so many other authors, and I think it's also my first foray into space sci-fi. It will also be launched at the Strong Women Strange Worlds holiday extravaganza.

But wait. There's more!

My gore-tastic story "The Butcher of Mazdin" has been published in the first issue of Slugger. Set in a Conan-style sword-and-sorcery world, it features a disabled and impoverished protagonist who's determined to make a difference.

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A Belated Birthday Gift

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:01:44 GMT

For most of June, I received rejections from publishers pretty much daily. But yesterday, the day after my birthday, I received two acceptances in a row: one for a short story called "Ghost Honey," and the other for a poem called "Removed." I'll share the details of the publications once I get publication dates and contracts sorted out. It was a nice birthday surprise.

Pre-orders are now open for the Harvest Moon anthology published by Moonlit Getaway. My story "Sirens Don't Swim Underwater" is featured within. I think the release date is September 23, 2025.

Way back in March, I did a reading with Strong Women Strange Worlds. The video is now live. I'm the first reader with my story "The Last Trench," a tale about a haunted tree.

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Lose Some, Win Some

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:52:54 GMT

The reading at the Waterloo Bookfest was not my best. It was a cool and blustery day, and I read The Qalupalik from a printout on a single piece of paper. Normally, this would not have been a problem, but I was getting a lot of feedback from the microphone and had to grab the mic in one hand and hold the flapping piece of paper in the other while I moved further away from the stage monitor to get clear, unscreechy sound. Because I couldn't hold the paper in both hands, I got lost a few times during my reading. To top it off, there was a group of 12-year-old boys behind me being little shits. I was a little 12-year-old shit, once, too. It's a rite of passage, I think. They were roughhousing and once I finished my reading, one of them came up to the mic and made a big show of thanking everyone for clapping for him. All the while, he kept shooting looks at his friends to make sure they knew how cool he was. Oh, cringey tweens. You're only cool to one another. Hahah!

I have another reading coming up. I'm a featured performer at the Huron Multicultural Festival in Goderich, Ontario on June 28. I'll be taking the stage at 12:15 and this time, I will be prepared for cringey 12-year-olds, screechy feedback, and noisome gusts of wind. Prepare yourself for some spooky tales!

In other news, I've received dozens and dozens of rejections. For all the publications I get, folks are mostly unaware of how many things do NOT get published. I haven't done a specific count for a year, but I did count in May. I sent out 61 submissions. I had I had 23 rejections. I had three acceptances. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of years to hear back from any particular magazine/anthology. Sometimes they never respond at all. And sometimes, things will be accepted, and then they never get around to sending a contract or responding to any further communications. Publishing can be a very frustrating endeavour.

All that being said, I've had three rejections since last night, and a couple of publications so far this month.

Flash Flood published my tiny tale of terror Overdrawn.

Terrain.org has published my short story If You Listen, a cautionary tale from the POV of Sedna, mother of the sea.

As I mentioned before, my poem "Angakkuq," as published by On Spec Magazine, is a finalist for the Aurora Awards. Voting is now open to members of the CSFFA (Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. You do not need to be an author to be a member. Membership is only ten bucks, and for that low price, you get a voters' package which includes all of the finalists for the year. This includes full-length novels, short stories, poetry, illustrations, and more. You don't have to vote for me (although I won't complain if you do), but I'd love to have you read my poem as well as check out the amazing work by Canadian writers and illustrators. The money supports speculative fiction in Canada.

Tenebrous Press has shared a mini interview with me. My story "The Snow Hath No Queen" is a winner of their Brave New Weird award, and will be published later this month in their anthology. It looks fantastic! You can order it here.

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Writing, Of Course

Sat, 31 May 2025 16:42:42 GMT

I really should've posted about this sooner here, but today I will be reading at Waterloo BookFest. It's cold and yucky, and I'll be reading about a cold and yucky monster: The Qalupalik. My reading is the first one on the roster at 3:30, but there will be all sorts of local authors hanging out with their wares from 2-6:30 at Waterloo Square. Come see us! I'll probably be hanging out at the Indigenous Poets Society table for a bit, early on.

I was interviewed along with Sasha Brown by Masters Review about writers not writing. Here's what we had to say.

I've been keeping track of all my submissions, acceptances, and rejections this month as part of an exercise with the folks at Rachel Thompson's Writerly Love group. One point for each submission, two points for each rejection, and with every acceptance, you get reset to zero. I had to reset twice this month because of acceptances, but ended the month with 46 points. Not too shabby. I'm a busy beaver. One of those rejections was extra nice, from a magazine which has published me before. They remembered me, told me they loved the voice of my story, but that they'd like to see the language become more urgent by the ending. It's nice to get helpful feedback. I'll have to think on that and see how I can revise it.

I start two writing courses this week. I think there's still opportunity to join, if you're interested:

Summer Scares 6-Week Horror Writing School. This is run by Alex Davis Events out of the UK. He puts together great courses and festivals, bringing in professional horror writers from North America and the UK.
Intro to the Personal Essay. A bit pricey, but fortunately I scored a scholarship which helps defray some of the cost. I've never taken a course on this topic, and am looking forward to learning new approaches to something I've been doing for a long time.

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Beating Words into Plowshares

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 15:46:15 GMT

I don't make very much as a writer. I'm incredibly lucky that I don't have to rely on these paltry earnings to stay alive. Much of my payment comes to me through PayPal. PayPal is not a bank. Money sitting in there can vanish for arbitrary reasons. And since I don't have my PayPal account attached to a bank account, that means I have to use it right away.

I've been sending that money off to folks in dire situations. My writing literally helps feed starving people. It's wholly unfair that the greatest harms are caused by the richest people in the world. It's wholly unfair that the poorest of us are left taking care of one another.

My poem "The Selkie" just sold. It will be published in Gwyllion Magazine this spring. The tiny bit of money made from it may have helped keep a starving family in Gaza alive for another day.

In less distressing news, my reading on Friday went over very well. Fifty people showed up and heard my story "The Last Trench." It went over very well. The next day, its publisher, Horns and Rattle Press, told me that they've nominated it as one of the best speculative eco-fiction stories of the year.

A recording of my reading will be going up on the Strong Women Strange World's YouTube channel in a week or so.

I have another reading coming up. I've graduated from GrubStreet's Novel Immersive for LGBTQ+ Writers, and we will be reading from our works on Tuesday, March 18 at 6:00 pm Eastern time. Won't you come check us out? I'm reading a chapter from The Everwhen: a scene featuring Enki, a mergoat fertility god who creates rivers via ejaculation. It's a funny scene, and topical. You can register here.

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Freeding

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 20:22:25 GMT

Hey all! I'll be reading my story "The Last Trench" this Friday at noon EST. It's a ghost story about a haunted tree. Tickets are free, and it would be great if you could attend to support me and the other readers. It's Women in Horror Month. Come give us love! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/first-friday-third-thursday-quickread-registration-1215152366439?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios

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What's Black and White and Read all Over?

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 16:13:46 GMT

I'm so boring these days. All I do is write. Thanks to long COVID (I finally caught COVID at the dentist office last October), I don't have the energy to do much more. Good thing I have an active imagination!

That being said, I had a public reading a couple of weekends ago for the Cabbagetown Festival in Toronto, and this weekend, I have a reading at the Multicultural Festival of Elmira (I'll be on around noon) and at the book launch for Mihko-Kiskisiwin--Blood Memory book launch at Idea Exchange in Cambridge (from 2-4). I'll be wearing a mask at the indoor reading because I do NOT want COVID again.

An excerpt from my award-winning story "The Tupilaq" has been published by Kinsman Quarterly.

Another award-winning story, "The Snow Hath No Queen," has been accepted for publication by MetaStellar and should be going live next week. I'll share the link once it's up.

My story "The Lupercal" was a runner-up in Louisiana State University Alexandria's flash fiction contest, and my story "The Yolk of the Moon" came in second place. The latter story will be published sometime soon. I'll share the link when it's available.

I was also longlisted for the diverse voices/diverse worlds grant sponsored by the Speculative Literature Foundation, but I didn't make it to the short list. Womp womp. This is my second time getting longlisted by them, so I must be doing something mostly right.

To top it all off, I applied for residencies in Alaska, Costa Rica, and Switzerland for next year. If I get them all, I'm in big trouble.

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The Write Stuff

Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:46 GMT

My personal essay "Saddles in the Kitchen" has been published by Redivider. Here's the opening paragraph:

In the 1970s, my family lived all over New Brunswick before settling down deep in the Appalachian hills of the Acadian forest. Every summer, we journeyed to Newfoundland to visit Dad’s family. I have snippets of memories from my infancy and early childhood. I recall being a baby on a plane with a smoking section, hoisted up to look over the rails of an icebreaker ferry called the William Carson. It sank by the time I turned six. We drove through a place called Blow Me Down where Dad told me the Tabletop Mountains were flat on account of the fierce wind. I camped in a frigid tent on the Avalon Peninsula and peeked through the tent flap to watch a bull moose swim across a moonlit lake ringed by dark conifers. I saw icebergs float like white mountains off the coast of St. John’s. I witnessed herds of Newfoundland ponies running free, the last of a vanishing breed marking the end of an era. I remember being held in my Inuk grandfather’s arms in the passenger seat of a car while he pointed out a waterfall to me. It’s my only memory of him. He died when I was two.

Read the rest here.

I had a public reading at BookFest in Waterloo Square last weekend. I chose to read my as yet unpublished short story "Sirens Don't Swim Underwater."

Kyle was sweet and recorded it for me.

I've begun some work on my next novella. I originally wanted it to be cosmic horror, but the more research I do, the more I think it might be eco-horror, because the ecological disasters of New Brunswick are way scarier than any Cthulhu-like deity. I guess I'll find out what happens. Perhaps it'll be a hybrid.

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Breaking Radio Silence

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 20:10:41 GMT

I recently appeared on Writers Delight, a radio programme showcasing writers local to the Waterloo Region. My bit is on at 21 minutes in, just after the song. I read my dystopian story "The Snow Hath No Queen." You can check it out here.

It was my first time in a radio booth in over twenty years. Hard to believe that I used to practically live at a radio station, ages ago. I miss radio, but I do not miss the politics of working at a radio station. That's what drove me out of the industry.

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Words Worth

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 16:59:37 GMT

I've been busy.

"This is the Time when Spider Woman First Meets Kiviuq" has been purchased by the Delta Literary Arts Society for Killer Verse. If you're in Delta, BC, check it out on Friday the 13th of October. Spooky! This looks like a fun night.

"How the Blubber Boy Came to Be" has been purchased by The Deadlands: Speculative Fiction & Poetry All About Death.

I will be reading "Sibyl Has a Heart of Gold" (and something else) at the Tranzac tomorrow. This is for the book launch of Aaron Schneider's The Supply Chain. The Tranzac is at 292 Brunswick Ave., Toronto. The event will be in the Living Room. Event starts at 7:00, and readings start at 7:30.

Two of my stories, “Tom Thumb of the North'' and “Blubber Boy: A Traditional Inuit Tale Then and Now” are being published in Mihko Kiskisiwin/Blood Memory: An Anthology published by The Indigenous Poets Society. I don't have pre-order information yet.

I've passed the 80,000 word mark on The Everwhen, my novel-in-progress. Big thanks to the Waterloo Arts Fund for their support. I am almost 9,000 words into a novella tentatively called "The Temperance Ridge Runaways" set in the New Brunswick Appalachians in the early 1970s. I hope to make a series of short stories and novellas in this setting.

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I Get Around

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:23:05 GMT

My story Sibyl Has a Heart of Gold has just gone live at The Temz Review.

I will be reading it at the launch for Aaron Schneider’s book The Supply Chain. The event is in the living room of the Tranzac club (292 Brunswick Ave., Toronto, ON M5S 2M7 Canada), September 16, 7-10 pm.

I will also be reading something at Waterloo Bookfest. I'm unsure of when my reading is (somewhere between 1-4), but the event runs on Saturday, September 9th from 1-7 at Waterloo Public Square.

UPDATE: I am sixth on the docket, and will be likely be reading somewhere around 1:30-2:30.

Lastly, I will be a featured performer at the IMPACT International Theatre Festival running from September 26-October 1 in downtown Kitchener. Videos of my storytelling will be playing in the containers of 44 Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener. I will appear alongside Bangishimo and Jordan M. Burns. We have worked together over the past two years to create artistic projects based on the theme of Monsters. I do not yet know the date of the live performances and Q&A.

My reviews of Everything You Dream is Real by Lisa de Nikolits, Moon Boots by Lorenz Peter, and VenCo by Cherie Dimaline are live at CAROUSEL Magazine Blog. I was the Reviewer-In-Residence for August 2023.

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Writing. Life.

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 16:52:17 GMT

Life continues with its peaks and ravines. My grandmother has been put in a longterm care facility. She's somehow still alive despite declining from what was already precarious health. She's been dying since the 1980s, and is no longer physically or mentally capable of caring for herself. She has dementia, and is certain she was put into a home in order for Mom to steal the house and car and such. Poor Mom. That's a lot to deal with. My grandmother has never been kind to my mother. Well, maybe she was nice to her when she was a baby, but probably not for very long. My grandmother has always been mean.

I sent her a card when she was first put into a home, but then she was moved to another facility and I don't know if the card will get forwarded. I'm a writer, and what I wrote on the card was short, but it was one of the hardest things I've ever penned. I don't want to cast recriminations on a scared, dying elder, even if she is cruel. How could I point fingers to someone on their deathbed? Even awful people need some kindness.

On the good news side, I recently found out I won a writing scholarship. I just can't announce which one until the other applicants have been contacted. Since I apply for a lot of scholarships, I don't think I'm giving too much away here by saying this little bit. I honestly didn't think I'd get it, but I applied for it anyway just to practice doing applications. I write genre fiction, and these sorts of awards typically go to writers of literary fiction. Apparently, my manuscript won out over an international pool of authors. Let this be a lesson to all y'all and to me, too. Even if we don't think we qualify, give it a shot.

Have I even told you what I'm even working on? Here's a snippet from a practice query letter:

Sales Handle: Enki, the god of water, has it pretty good until he finds out God expects him to bring about the Great Flood and end all life on earth. Good thing he has a workaround.

THE EVERWHEN is a 100,000-word epic Slipstream fantasy with the sacrilicious irreverence of GOOD OMENS and the syncretic world-building of SANDMAN.

When the Garden of Eden is put up on blocks and a newborn earth is placed under the control of men, God calls it a day. While He sleeps, the world follows His orders by going forth and multiplying. This results in a burgeoning population of strange and noisy creatures, including the Nephilim. Racing toward a preordained ecological disaster, Nephilim, angels, mortals, and the planet itself must find a way to outwit God and survive the inevitable Great Flood.

THE EVERWHEN is a timeless cli-fi story with a foundation in Bible stories, mythology, pop culture, occultism, and western science.

I am a multidisciplinary artist, playwright, poet, and swamp hag who was raised in an apocalyptic cult while living on the land and off the grid. I grew up to major in mythology, manage a comic shop, and get really, really good at climbing ropes. When I’m not writing, I’m chilling with my chinchillas or getting filthy in the woods. A recent graduate of the Writers’ Studio at Simon Fraser University and the LET(s) Lead Academy at Yale University, my writing is in AUGUR, FEMINIST STUDIES JOURNAL, PRAIRIE FIRE, and YELLOW MEDICINE REVIEW.

THE EVERWHEN is my debut novel and has series potential.

Of course, I'm not actually 100,000 words in yet. But I am over 40,000 words in, and I'm still going strong. My alpha readers are loving it, and I even have an ending I'm working towards. I'm improvising my way there as a discovery writer/pantser.

Here's the funny thing: my book is basically a literary dick joke. Enki is a fertility god who works his magic with an oversized tallywhacker.

Last week, I also had two poems (which are not literary dick jokes) accepted by Green Linden Press. They will be appearing in Under a Warm Green Linden Issue 14: Indigenous Ecopoetry. I believe it will be launching online on December 21.

Here's my performance of my recently-written personal essay "Monsters". Many thanks to MT Space's Arts Exchange program for the support and videography. Content Warning: contains mention of child abuse and elder abuse.

I am still avoiding my Instagram account because of being falsely accused of being a pretendian. I locked the account down and blocked the person who was harassing me. Maybe I'll reclaim it in the new year. I hate that I have been driven away from my social media by the effects of colonization. I need to have some sort of social media presence as a professional artist and writer, but I don't want to deal with being targeted in yet another witch hunt just yet. This isn't my first witch hunt, but it is my first witch hunt of the millennium.

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It's Been a While

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 02:15:34 GMT

I've been busy. I can't share a lot of what I've been working on because of publication issues, however, I can share this.

Yesterday, I had my second in-person reading since about 2017. It went well.

I'm reading four pieces here:

1. Tom Thumb of the North - an Inuit take on the Tom Thumb fairytale.
2. Angakkuq - the story of a shapeshifting grandmother
3. Exile - a pregnant Nuliajuk/Sedna is exiled by her father to a rocky island
4. This is the Time Just Before Spider Woman Meets Kiviuq - a spider woman has an unannounced visitor

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Some Poems and Stuff

Thu, 13 May 2021 17:33:26 GMT

I did a public reading a while back, and the recording is now available. My bit starts around the 31-minute mark.

Everyone was so good! I'm glad to have been a part of Janet Rogers' big finale.

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