shanmonster: (Zombie ShanMonster)
It's official! I'm one of the winners of the best new weird horror of 2024. My story "The Snow Hath No Queen" will be published along with a bunch of other weirdos in Brave New Weird: Volume 3. You can order now for a June 24, 2025 release.

While applying for another residency (this one in a Scottish castle), I started tallying up my publications for this year and realized my work will be in seven different anthologies this year. Holy shit. How did that happen?
shanmonster: (Dance Monkey Dance!)
Now that it's up on their page, I can officially announce it now. My poem "Angakkuq" is a finalist for the Aurora Awards. This is my first time as a finalist there. I've been sitting on this knowledge for over a week. I'm so excited I could barf.

In other news, my interview with Moonlit Getaway went live today, too.

I'm still in Banff, still writing daily. I don't know that I'll finish the first draft of my novella while I'm here, but it is possible. I'm making headway.
shanmonster: (Tiger claw)
So here I am at the first Banff Horror Writing Residency. It's absolutely gorgeous here and reminds me of when I lived in Valemount, BC as a kid. The big difference is that I lived in a travel trailer then, in campgrounds or squatting in someone's woodlot. Now I'm staying in a nice hotel room and hanging out with incredible writers from all over Turtle Island. My mentor is Jessica Johns.

My first day was a whirlwind. While I was getting a tour of the library, a fellow writer by the name of Rebecca asked me if I was the Shantell with a shortlisted story in Brave New Weird.

"Uh, I don't think so?" I remembered submitting something to Brave New Weird about a year ago, but it was rejected.

But then I looked it up, and yes, my story The Snow Hath No Queen is indeed on the Brave New Weird shortlist.

Cool!

Later on that day, I received another email notifying me that I'd been shortlisted for another prize. I'm not allowed to say which one (for now), but I'll announce it as soon as I can.

I had a difficult time sleeping that night.

Yesterday, my poem Pyrocene went live on Emerge Literary Journal. This is my fourth publication for the year.

So far at my residency, I've worked on my novella "The Development." I hope to finish the first draft here. I'm so close.

But I'm also working on other projects, so who knows? I put together a weird western called "He'll Be Coming Around the Mountain When He Comes." It comes from my novel "The Everwhen."

There are a lot of folks here writing about cannibals, and they inspired me to write another short story about man-eaters. I started work on that this afternoon. It features a group of wine moms. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

In other news, I was recently part of a women of horror panel. Here's The Villain Edition, Feminine Rage and Beyond, and Real-Life Horrors and Beyond.

And today, my poem "Stillborn" was accepted by Nightmare Magazine for publication.
shanmonster: (Default)
My personal essay The Ghosts of Forests Past has been reprinted in ALOCASIA.

My poem Nuliajuk and the Birds has been published by Strange Horizons.

My flash fiction "The Qalupalik" will soon be viewable at Flash Fiction Online. You can purchase a copy of the magazine here.

My short story "All That Came From Our Lips Were Lilies" has been accepted by Hedone Books and will be published in the Silk and Foxglove - A BIPOC Erotic Eco-Horror Anthology edited by Z. K. Abraham. I'm unsure of the publication date.
shanmonster: (Default)
I realized I didn't have a URL list of where to read or purchase magazines/anthologies where I've been published. There. Fixed.

shanmonster: (Default)
I'm gonna share a bunch of my writing resources with you. These are things I check frequently, and have helped me with my publications.

The Submission Grinder: I find this one a little tricky to use, but it's very helpful for looking up magazines by pay rate, genre, etc.

Submittable: Invaluable resource. I track my submissions here. Membership is free, and you can find all sorts of calls for submissions, contests, fellowships, and more. The downside is there is no way to search for paying magazines only, and there are no ways to filter out magazines you don't want to see.

Chill Subs: A lot of people swear by this resource, and the folks running it seem like good people doing this as a passion project. They also have a mailing list which includes special calls for submissions as well as writing workshops.

Authortunities: You can sign up for the mailing list to get a curated list of magazines/anthologies seeking submissions. The free version is all you need. The paid version shows a bit more stuff from the next month, but that will show up in the next free email. Friendly community, too.

Moksha: A list of magazines and anthologies seeking submissions. Primarily speculative fiction/poetry. I've had several pieces published through this.

The Horror Tree: Not just horror. Covers speculative fiction in general. Has craft essays, calls for submissions, writing prompts, book reviews, and more.

Write, Publish, Shine: Run by the wonderful, super-supportive editor Rachel Thompson, this is a writing community and publishing school. I took her Lit Mag Love course, and it's what really got me organized and turned into a publishing machine.

Submission Roundup: This hasn't been updated since the summer, but I keep checking back because it's a great list of speculative publishers in search of stories.

Community of Literary Magazines and Presses Calls for Submissions: A bit of a pig in a poke, really. I've found a few good things here, but it also includes magazines which charge you money in order for you to submit work, and it doesn't say if this is the case in the listings. A bit of a pain in the arse, in that regard.

Canadian Authors Awards and Competitions: Not just for Canadian authors. Listing is by deadline, and entry fees and prize amounts are shown prominently.

Publishing... and Other Forms of Insanity: Terrific resource with lists of paying markets, free competitions, residencies, and more.

Science Fiction Poetry Association: Lists paying magazines which do not charge you money to submit your speculative poetry.

Literary Outlets for Environmental Writing: Some of the places listed are no longer around, but still is the best (and only) list I've seen for this genre.

Aswiebe's Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Market Listings Online: A spreadsheet of speculative magazines listing word counts, pay rates, etc.

The Short List: Places which publish flash and micro fiction.

Not writing related, per se, but if you're sick of trying to read a story only to find it's behind a paywall, Paywall Reader will help you get around that.

Booked

Dec. 13th, 2024 11:18 am
shanmonster: (Zombie ShanMonster)
My story Wolf Mother has been published by Inner Worlds.

My personal essay The Anxious Writer has been published by Breath & Shadow.

My hilarious smut-fest "Daisy Chain," about a three-way between a Space Marine, an alien, and a vampire who thinks she's a robot, has been published in Nat 1's anthology Against the Wall, Under the Armor. I think that if you've got an Amazon Prime account, you can read the ebook for free.

Because of the Canada Post strike, the publication of my poem "Angakkuq" in On Spec has been pushed back to January. Here's hoping the Canada Post workers get fair treatment for once.

I've been feeling pretty shitty for the past month or so. The low pressure systems have been giving me more than my fair share of pain days, but despite this, I've managed to get more writing done. I finished a new chapter for "The Development" yesterday and suspect now that this will be a novella rather than a novel. I feel like the conclusion is drawing near. I had to stop writing partway through that chapter to indulge myself in a witchy cackle. I'm pleased with how creepy this story is. I hope I can stick the landing.

Flash News

Aug. 16th, 2024 12:05 pm
shanmonster: (On the stairs)
Last night I received an email notifying me that my story "The Lupercal" had been shortlisted for a flash fiction contest sponsored by the Louisiana State University of Alexandria, and my story "The Yolk of the Moon" had won second place. I'd have been happy for even one of these things, but to be the only person with my name on the list twice felt like quite the accolade. When "The Yolk of the Moon" goes to print, I'll share it with you. "The Yolk of the Moon" is about the last days of an old egg-sucking dog. "The Lupercal" is a story about an ancient participant in the Lupercalia.

Just now, I received an email saying The Masters Review love my flash memoir piece "The T-Bone" and will be featuring it in their New Voices Section. It is about the time I was in a bad car accident.

In other news, I just finished the first round of edits for my short story "Daisy Chain," a joyous piece of sci-fi smut that will be published in Against the Wall, Under the Armor, an Erotic / Romance Sci-Fi Fantasy Anthology published by Nat 1 Publishing. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may have read an early incarnation of this story. I wrote it about twenty years ago. Nice to see it getting more recognition now. I'm proud of my smut.
shanmonster: (Tiger claw)
My memoir essay, "Saddles in the Kitchen," has been published in 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.
shanmonster: (Tiger claw)
My poem "How the Blubber Boy Came to Be" has been released online at The Deadlands.

My short story "Wolf Mother" has been published in issue 6.2 of Augur Magazine.

"Words Unspoken," a new short story, has made it to the second round of adjudication for another magazine. I should find out within the week whether or not it's made the cut.

I continue to get rejections, as well. One magazine has rejected two pieces in a row, yet the editor keeps saying they like it, but it's not right for the current magazine--send more! So that's something, I guess.

May 2025

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