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.