Free STEAM lessons

With so many families suddenly homeschooling, I made three free astronomy mini-lessons. They’re for kids 8-12, & they explore the number of stars in the sky and the vastness of the universe. If you live in the city & your kids can barely see the Milky Way at night, these lessons are for you.

Each lesson has a short reading and a STEAM activity. Total time about 30-60 mins per lesson, depending on the kid.

Please share, remix, reuse & enjoy. (CC-BY-4.0)

Stars, Skyglow, and You

This image of the Milky Way is by Bruno Gilli/ESO, http://www.eso.org/public/images/milkyway/

FREE EBOOK – The Auditor and the Exorcist

I’m releasing my novelette The Auditor and the Exorcist as a free ebook, CC-licensed, for the enjoyment of anyone who needs entertainment while self-isolating or social distancing… bc who doesn’t? Please enjoy, share, and leave comments.

Free ebook download: Download EPUB

Read online as HTML instead: Read

Kat Day article on novellas & novelettes

Super pleased to be included in an article by the incomparable Kat Day (@chronicleflask) for Writers’ Forum Magazine, in which Kat discusses writers’ experiences with novellas and novelettes. Kat interviewed me over email about “The Auditor and the Exorcist,” an 11K-word story published under CC license in Working Futures, which I’ve also posted to read free online here.

Image credit: Kat Day (@chronicleflask). Thanks Kat!

Things Living In My Jars

My author bio says, “I live in Ontario, Canada, with a small family and a revolving menagerie of Things In Jars.”

But what things are living in my jars? This is important information! The public needs to know!

So I added a widget to my website. On the right-hand side, you can now see my current inventory of Things Living In Jars.
Continue reading “Things Living In My Jars”

2019 award eligibility post

The end of the year is a time to look back, to reflect on the new stories I’ve had published this year… and to note which of them are eligible for genre awards, in case anyone’s tempted to nominate one.

Here’s my list of award-eligible fiction for 2019. I note also that it’s my second year of eligibility for the Astounding award.

SFF Short Stories
🚀 “The Zest for Life,” – published in Future Science Fiction Digest, Issue 2, March 2019.
The plastic-pollution problem is solved by our appetites.
Kori and Nori Go Out For T. A. C. O.s – published in Young Explorers’ Adventure Guide Volume 6, December 2019.
Two adventurous child-droids go on a mission. Outrageous puns, post-apocalyptic adventure, and maybe even a TACO at the end.
SFF Novelette
🚀 “The Auditor and the Exorcist” – published in Working Futures, October 2019.
A story about the future of work in a near-future world with AI-mediated social credit.
Literary Flash Fiction
🚀 Salt, Spices, Fat, Honey – published in Flash Fiction Online, January 2019.
A brief meditation on hunger, need, and co-dependency.

New story: Kori and Nori Go Out For T. A. C. O.s

I have a story in the Young Explorers’ Adventure Guide, Volume 6, which is now available on Amazon. YEAG is a fantastic anthology series packed with fun SF for middle-grade explorers of the universe. Plus, I’m sharing a TOC with Nancy Kress! Woot!

My story, “Kori and Nori Go Out For T. A. C. O.s”, features two adventurous child-droids on a mission. I promise outrageous puns, post-apocalyptic adventure, and maybe even a TACO at the end.

If you have any elementary-aged science-fiction readers in your life, the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide is stuffed with new worlds and new adventures written for kids. Or, as the Kickstarter put it, “24 more amazing science fiction stories for girls, boys and robots of all ages.”

New story out today! “The Auditor and the Exorcist”

The people behind the American tech industry blog TechDirt have put together an anthology of stories about the future of work called (appropriately) Working Futures, and I’m excited to have a story in it. Continue reading “New story out today! “The Auditor and the Exorcist””