“Eternity is in love with the productions of time.” — William Blake

I’ve said this in past years, but I never feel especially productive until I look back at what I’ve accomplished over the past year. Day to day, adding a few hundred words on the page may not seem like much, but over time it accumulates. This year, in 2019, I published or sold the following works:

Fiction (published)

• “The Walk to Distant Suns” (with Mercurio D. Rivera) – Analog, March 2019
• “Truth is Like the Sun” – Lightspeed, May 2019
• “The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard).” El último novelista (o un lagarto muerto en el patio). – Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial. Spanish language (reprint), June 2019
• “The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard).” 2019 Nebula Awards Showcase. Ed. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, (reprint) October 2019
• “Your Future is Pending” – Clarkesworld, November 2019

Fiction (sold & forthcoming)

• “The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard).” – Future Affairs Administration, Chinese language. (reprint) 
• “The History Within Us.” – Science Fiction World, Chinese language. (reprint)
• “Very Surely Do I Not Dream.” – Psi-Wars: Classified Cases of Psychic Combat and Horror, Ed. Josh Viola, Hex Publishers (original)
• “The Marsh of Camarina.” – Lightspeed (reprint)
• “Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air” – Lightspeed (original)

Non-Fiction

• “Overcoming Self-Doubt as a Writer” – The Writer’s Book of Doubt, Ed. Aidan Doyle, June 2019
• “Syd Mead: Visual Futurist” – Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction & Fantasy, Ed. Desirina Boskovich, September 2019 

In addition to the above, I also finished a YA science-fiction novel (currently in revision at the request of an agent) and started a new YA(ish) novella that I’m really enjoying. I was also a guest on the Geeks Guide to the Galaxy podcast five times, and I’ll be on again in early January to discuss the new Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

I also mentored a couple of folks through the SFWA mentorship program, which has been very rewarding.

And while the above list may seem like a lot, I don’t feel as if I’m a particularly productive person, especially compared to some of my more prolific writer friends. My point is, if you do a little bit every day, it adds up. Keep writing!

Another story sale I’ve been sitting on is “Very Surely Do I Not Dream,” which will appear in Psi-Wars: Classified Cases of Psychic Combat and Horror (tentative title), edited by Josh Viola and published by Hex Publishers. This is a dark tale about mind hacking, cyberwarfare, and digital arms races. No pub date yet, but I think sometime in 2020.

My story “The Marsh of Camarina” will appear in a future issue of Lightspeed Magazine. “The Marsh of Camarina” concerns a young woman graduating at near the top of her class in computer science, only to find that AI and automation have replaced most programming jobs. With a huge debt and no prospects, her career advisor suggests Askuwhetau, an experimental farming commune in northern Canada. The story was originally published in the anthology Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders.

Clarkesworld Magazine #158

My story “Your Future is Pending” is now up at Clarkesworld Magazine, in their issue #158. Here’s the intro:

The dog was in the alley again, sniffing around the empty trash bins for scraps she wasn’t going to find. Martha would be late for work if she fed her again, but she couldn’t bear to let the animal suffer. The mutt huddled behind the bar-coded trash bins as Martha put out a dish of microwave rice and a bowl of water. She’d have to remember to pick up some real dog food on the way home.

“Come on, girl,” Martha said, wiping her brow. It was already ninety-eight degrees and getting hotter. “This is for you.”

The mutt, a scrawny little thing, hesitated. God only knew what troubles she had been through.

Something skittered behind her—a rat—and they both jumped. And when she turned back around, the dog was gone.

“You’d better come eat this,” she said to the empty alley, “before the rats do.”

You can read the whole thing here, or you can listen to a podcast narrated by the fabulous Kate Baker here.

My decision is none of your business

I’m very happy to announce that my story “Your Future is Pending” will be appearing in a future issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. This will be my fifth story in Neil Clarke’s superb magazine.

“Your Future is Pending” is about AI and automation and our over-reliance on algorithms to make decisions for us. More and more in our lives, often without realizing it, algorithms are making decisions for us in place of humans. And while this of course can have many beneficial effects, there’s also a dark side to letting systems make “opaque” decisions, that is, decisions in which it is impossible for people to determine exactly how the AI came to its conclusion, only that it did. Imagine being denied a loan, necessary surgery, a great job — all because an AI determined in a way its human operators will never understand that you are unfit or unqualified. And lest you think I speak of some far future dystopia, remember this is already happening. 

“Your Future is Pending” will be appearing in Clarkesworld soon.

Aeon Flux, fluxing!

In the most recent Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, I join Andrea Kail, Thomas Gerencer, and host David Barr Kirtley to discuss the mid-90s sci-fi anime series Aeon Flux.

Forget the crappy live-action film, the animated series took risks and tackled deep science fictional concepts that were way ahead of its time. From creeping fascism, to thought control, to genetic experimentation, Aeon Flux has it all. If you’ve never seen the series, I highly recommend it. 

You can listen to the podcast here.