Over at Locus, Paula Guran reviews recent horror fiction and has this to say about my recent story, “Will You Meet Me There, Out Beyond the Bend?” in Nightmare:

“There are a number of the dead in Kressel’s tale. They are a melancholy bunch, always waiting for life to find them again. It has been said that horror is about the unknowable and that death is the greatest unknown of all. Kressel paints a good picture of death that anyone is sure to fear.”

You can read the full review here.

I am beyond thrilled that “The Last Novelist” has been nominated for a Nebula Award! I can’t believe it! I’m super grateful to Ellen Datlow, for choosing and editing the story, to Tor.com, for publishing it, and for everyone who voted for and shared their love for the story on social media. “The Last Novelist” is about pursuing one’s art even when it seems no one is paying attention. It is about carving out an artistic niche even when there are too many other worrisome things going on in the world that want to take precedence. Though I wrote “The Last Novelist” over a year ago, and it takes place in the far future, I believe it couldn’t be more apt to today’s political climate.

I am also honored to be nominated alongside such amazing talents! I have read many, but not all, of the nominated works, so I can’t wait to dig in to all the great stuff!

This is my third Nebula Award nomination (I haven’t won a Nebula so far), and I have to say getting nominated is still one of the Most Exciting Things™ to ever happen to an author. So, thanks a bunch! You guys really are amazing.

I’m delighted to announce that my short story “Love Engine Optimization” (originally in Lightspeed Magazine). will appear in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2018 Edition. This is my second ever Year’s Best inclusion (the first is for “The Last Novelist” which also came out in 2017). I get to share this amazing table of contents with Rich Larson, Charlie Jane Anders, Suzanne Palmer, Samuel R. Delany, Michael Swanwick, Maureen McHugh, Tobias Buckell, Kameron Hurley, Sofia Samatar, Yoon Ha Lee, Linda Nagata, Sarah Pinsker, and so many others.

I’m glad this story got noticed, and not just because it’s been included in a year’s best. The story concerns the overwhelming amount of data collected on individuals, often without our awareness. It seemed to me that people were (and still are) too comfortable giving up their personal data for a bit of convenience. And it seemed to me that often people had (and still have) no idea what was/is being collected on them and how it might be used. “Love Engine Optimization” is my attempt to show what one pernicious actor might do with access to such data. If one person can do this much harm, imagine what powerful nation states might do with all this information. The more technology becomes integrated into our lives, the greater the potential that technology might be used against us in malicious ways. 

I work in IT. I see technology daily bringing immense benefit to the world. But it can also cause great harm if we don’t consider how it might be abused.

If you’d like to hear me discuss more about “Love Engine Optimization,” you may want to check out the Alan & Jeremy vs. SF podcast episode where I was invited on to speak about the story. 

I’m psyched to announce that my story “Love Engine Optimization” made the Locus Recommended Reading List! The list is collected via a consensus by Locus editors, reviewers, and other professionals.

So that other career milestone I hinted at in some of my previous posts? I’m beyond thrilled to announce that my story “The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard)” has been picked up for The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, edited by Neil Clarke. The story originally appeared on Tor.com and was edited by Ellen Datlow. 

This is my first Best Of anthology, and I couldn’t be happier to be part of this. Here’s the full table of contents:

• “A Series of Steaks” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, January 2017)
• “Holdfast” by Alastair Reynolds (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• “Every Hour of Light and Dark” by Nancy Kress (Omni, Winter 2017)
• “The Last Novelist, or a Dead Lizard in the Yard” by Matthew Kressel (Tor.com, March 2017)
• “Shikasta” by Vandana Singh (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities, edited by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich)
• “Wind Will Rove” by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2017)
• “Focus” by Gord Sellar (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May/June 2017)
• “The Martian Obelisk” by Linda Nagata (Tor.com, July 2017)
• “Shadows of Eternity” by Gregory Benford (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• “The Worldless” by Indrapramit Das (Lightspeed, March 2017)
• “Regarding the Robot Raccoons Attached to the Hull of My Ship” by Rachael K. Jones and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali (Diabolical Plots, June 2017)
• “Belly Up” by Maggie Clark (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2017)
• “Uncanny Valley” by Greg Egan (Tor.com, August 2017)
• “We Who Live in the Heart ” by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld, May 2017)
• “A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World” by A.C. Wise (Sunvault, edited by Phoebe Wagner and Bronte Christopher Wieland)
• “Meridian” by Karin Lowachee (Where the Stars Rise, edited by Lucas K. Law and Derwin Mak)
• “The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse” by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• “Extracurricular Activities” by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 2017)
• “In Everlasting Wisdom” by Aliette de Bodard (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• “The Last Boat-Builder in Ballyvoloon” by Finbarr O’Reilly (Clarkesworld, October 2017)
• “The Speed of Belief” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February 2017)
• “Death on Mars” by Madeline Ashby (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities, edited by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich)
• “An Evening with Severyn Grimes” by Rich Larson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August 2017)
• “ZeroS” by Peter Watts (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• “The Secret Life of Bots” by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)
• “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell (Cosmic Powers, edited by John Joseph Adams)

Cover art by Chris McGrath.

Despite it being a turbulent year politically, I was still able to accomplish quite a bit, writing-wise. I published five stories last year, four original, in Tor.com, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Mad Hatters and March Hares, and Hex Publishers. I’ve had two stories translated, one into French and one into Polish. I sold four stories, one of which I co-wrote with Mercurio D. Rivera and will be appearing in a future issue of Analog. And one of my stories has been selected for a special anthology that I’m super excited to announce, but can’t just quite yet.

I did quite a lot, non-fiction wise too. I appeared on a panel with astronaut Mike Massimino at the BRITE conference at Columbia University to speak about A.I., robotics, and how science fiction anticipates the future of human-machine interaction. And I wrote a bunch of articles, did a bunch of interviews, and participated in podcasts about Blade Runner 2049, including an appearance on Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, whose lede page introducing the podcast was shared almost 50,000 times.

Before I sat down to write this post I thought to myself, Boy, you didn’t really accomplish much last year. I guess that’s because when you are down in the trenches, so to speak, working on this and that, sales and successes seem irrelevant to just finishing the work. It’s only when you pause and look back that you can see how far you’ve actually gone. One thing I’ve learned in my long and winding career as a writer is that you just need to keep your head down and write. Everything else eventually works itself out.

Anyway, 2017 was a pretty good year, writing and life-wise, for me, and I’m hoping this year will be even better. I have a young-adult novel I’m nearly done with, and a few short stories in the pipe I hope to have out in the wild soon. Here’s wishing you and yours much success and happiness in 2018.

2017 Publications 

• “The Great Game at the End of the World.” Hex Publications. Ed. Josh Viola. February 1, 2017. Reprint.
• “The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard).” Tor.com. Ed. Ellen Datlow. March 15, 2017
• “Love Engine Optimization.” Lightspeed Magazine 85. Ed. John Joseph Adams. June 27, 2017. 
• “Will You Meet Me There, Out Beyond the Bend?” Nightmare Magazine 63. Ed. John Joseph Adams. December 1, 2017.
• “In Memory of a Summer’s Day.” Mad Hatters and March Hares. Ed. Ellen Datlow. December 12, 2017.

2017 Translations

• “The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard).” Bifrost. French language. Translated by Pierre-Paul Durastanti. October 26, 2017. Reprint. 
• “The Sounds of Old Earth.” Smokopolitan nr 10. Polish language. Translated by Magdalena Grajcar. December 23, 2017. Reprint.

2017 Sales

• “The Marsh of Camarina.” Shades Within Us. Eds. Susan Forest, Lucas K. Law. Laksa Media. Forthcoming.
• “The Words That Maketh Murder.” Tales to Terrify. Ed. Scott Silk. Forthcoming.
• “The Bricks of Gelecek.” Far Fetched Fables. Ed. Gary Dowell. Forthcoming. Reprint.
• “The Walk to Distant Suns.” Analog. Co-written with Mercurio D. Rivers.  Forthcoming. Reprint. 

2017 Accolades

• A career milestone, to be announced!

2017 Non-fiction

• Author Spotlight, Nightmare Magazine, December 20, 2017
• Episode 4: Love Engine Optimization with Brad Warner, Alan & Jeremy Vs. SF, December 5, 2017
• Hour of the Wolf Blade Runner Discussion, with host Jim Freund, WBAI 99.5 FM, November 2, 2017
• Blade Runner 2049: A Conversation, Movie Review, with Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Hex Publishers, October 30, 2017
• Are Audiences Too Lazy to Appreciate Blade Runner 2049?, Wired.com presents Geeks Guide to the Galaxy, October 14, 2017
• What It Means to Be Human: Five Works of Fiction That Explore Blade Runner’s Core Themes, Tor.com, October 9, 2017
• Why Blade Runner is More Relevant Than Ever, Tor.com, September 20, 2017
• Sci-Fi Writer Matt Kressel Talks About the Singularity, Data Privacy, and Short Stories, Outer Places, February 21, 2017