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Hello, friends.

Even though he is an indoor cat, Loki is an excellent indicator of the temperature outside. The colder it gets, the more he wants to snuggle. This is lovely for relaxing, but a bit difficult when I'm attempting some serious novel revisions.

Hello friends!

Where I live, the leaves are turning glorious shades of yellow and red and orange; farmers markets are bursting with sturdy fall produce; and when the wind kicks up, it carries the scent of the winter to come. It's baking season, it's sweater season, it's soup-and-stew season. And, of course, it's Spooky Season.

(Above: A girl is wears a pumpkin costume consisting of a cylinder of posterboard with holes cut out for her arms and a jack o'lantern face drawn on the front, and a construction paper stemmed hat on top. Beneath the costume she wears fashionable plaid pants and a thick orange sweatshirt. She holds hands with a boy dressed in a baseball outfit, who gallantly doffs his cap at the camera.)

Hello friends!

As I write this, the ground is still damp with several days' worth of much-needed rain, the sun is shining, and the air is cool and fresh. I feel as though I ought to be weeding, or pulling up spent plants, or doing any number of things in the garden that has, once again, completely gotten away from me. But it's been an extremely busy couple of months, and I'm giving myself permission to rest a bit.

At the beginning of September, I attended my very first WorldCon, in Chicago! This involved getting on an airplane for the first time since November 2019, something I can't say I enjoyed, but it was worth it. WorldCon was incredible: overwhelming in the best possible way. I taught a movement workshop for writers--essentially chair yoga--and I talked about Cats in SFF alongside fellow panelist Peter S. Beagle(!!!) I practiced T'ai Chi with guest of honor Steven Barnes. I sang karaoke for the first time in my life (Def Leppard's "Photograph" and no I don't regret it.) I attended the Hugo Awards ceremony, for which I wore an octopus dress and octopus earrings; a friend coiled my hair in braids and wove in silver ribbons, and I have never felt fancier. The entire event reminded me how many extremely talented people are working in science fiction, fantasy, and horror right now. I'm honored to know some of them, and I remain starstruck by all of them.

While I was in Chicago, two of my stories were published! The first, "Between the Lines," came out in Factor Four Magazine. It's a flash piece about depression that offers no solutions--only, perhaps, a glimmer of light leading out of the darkness.

Hello everyone, and thank you for subscribing to my newsletter! I'm excited to share my stories with you all, and I'm so honored that you're willing to come along for the ride.

So far this year I've published three original stories: "Ninety-Five Percent of the Ocean" in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, "The Topography of Memory" in Fusion Fragment (which is free to read online!), and "Opal, Everywhere" in Not One of Us. In addition, my story "The Cat Lady and the Petitioner," which originally appeared in Translunar Travelers Lounge, was reprinted in podcast form in the inaugural issue of CatsCast! Give it a listen; the narrator does an absolutely delightful job with all of the cat voices and it's also free to listen to!

Be on the lookout for my stories in upcoming issues of The Future Fire and Kaleidotrope, as well as in Julia Rios's new project Worlds of Possibility. Just last week I received another exciting short story acceptance...but sadly I'm not allowed to share it publicly yet. Such is the way with publishing! Hopefully soon.

I'm writing this on an auspicious day: