Blog Archives

Killer Spacesuits & Other Publishing News from 2020

12/30/2020

It was a good year for getting published. I'm starting to crack some better-known magazine nuts. The best known of them is probably Bards & Sages Quarterly, which published my killer spacesuit micro-story "Fifty Percent of Smartsuits Fit You Perfectly" in their October 2020 issue.

Fairly new, but highly praised Speculative North published my little three-verse lament on light pollution called "Star Trip(tych)" in their second issue, in August. The issue was reviewed in Amazing Stories, by CSFFA hall-of-famer R Graeme Cameron. You can find the review here. He even had a word or two to say about my poem. **blush** I'm glad he got the point of it.

Hirareth Publishing printed two of my poems, "Age of Oceans" and "Marital Bliss: Robot Reboot" in the Summer 2020 issue of Illumen magazine; and another poem, "Fairy Wine," a creepy sonnet, in their June 2020 magazine The Fifth Di...Their editor, Tyree Campbell, was the first to ever accept one of my poems for print publication back in 2011.

Lastly, my short 300-word micro-story A Little Sunshine and a Breath of Fresh Air was published in Queer Sci-Fi's annual micro fiction contest anthology Innovation in August 2020.

After a few years of fits and starts, mostly fits, I'm starting to get published at a better rate, and getting noticed by more notable magazines and publishers. I hope this is a good sign of things to come in 2021 and beyond.

And I received an acceptance for this anthology, where 3 of my poems will appear. "Red," "under the robotic umbrella in the rain," and "Musical Thought Drones Are Here to Assassinate You Again Today" will be published in Lyric, a poetry anthology by Djinn Press, a Pakistani publisher.

I've much to be hopeful for in the coming year.

0 Comments

Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading in 2021

12/29/2020

0 Comments

Here is a shortlist of the nine books I plan on cracking open next year. The first one I am already reading; the rest are books I hope to be able to set my eyeballs on sometime next year. I hope to read more than nine books in the coming year, these are just the books that I am most eager to make my acquaintance with. Also, the gallery view on my blog page only shows nine images with any kind of clarity. My nine in 2021:

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. Currently on the 4th chapter. Takes a bit of getting used to due to everyone being referred to "she" and "her" in an obviously female-oriented universe and the differing perspectives of an Artificial Intelligence that spreads itself across thousands of bodies, including a ship, but I am liking it so far. I like the idea of female pronouns being the dominant usage. This is a first of a series of Ancillary books for Leckie.
Fugitive Telemetry, by Martha Wells. Book 6 of Murderbot Diaries. I will drop anything I'm reading the moment this is downloaded to my Kindle and read it religiously. Murderbot rocks! I love this non-sexual, human-hating, human-saving, socially awkward cyborg.
Planetfall, by Emma Newman. Emma is a writer friend of mine in social media from back in our Friday Flash days and it's high time I started her series and I regret I haven't started it sooner. I know it is going to be kick ass. I've read some reviews and it sounds spectacular, along with the rest of her series, which are actively on my to-buy and to-read list.
Left-Handed Guitar Beginners Jumpstart, by Andy Schneider. I got an acoustic guitar for Christmas. I don't know jack about playing a guitar though i was brought up in a musical home with many guitar players. About damn time I learned it.
Ringworld, by Larry Niven. One of the first science fiction books I read as a kid and I'm looking forward to the revisit. It's been so long since I read it the first time, it will be a like a completely new read, until I start digging into it, then I may be all like "Oh, I remember that!"
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I remember reading the reviews of this and thinking it sounded very interesting. It's an epistolary novel (told through correspondence/letters, I assume, as epistolary novels generally are...Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is an example). It's a very short novel, and I love very short novels.
Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers. The third installation in her Wayfarer series. I'd be surprised if any of the characters from the first two books appear in this. So far, each of the Wayfarer books is a different section of the Galactic Commons and about different characters. I still like her writing and the worlds she creates are fascinating. The last book, A Closed and Common Orbit, had a species 3-4 genders, and one of them was a secondary character in the book. Very interesting stuff.
Latchkey, by Nicole Kornher-Stace. Book 2 of the Archivist Wasp saga. I was very impressed with Archivist Wasp when I read it a few years ago. Most ingenious use of ghosts as characters that I've seen.
Wicked Plants, by Amy Stewart. I admit this book is for research. I am planning a fantasy novel called The Herbalist's Companion and this book will help me some of the darker elements of it. It's a book about accidents and murders attributed to plants and weeds. Should be interesting. I also have a book on magical herbalism I've been digging into for basic herbalism research for the book.

I have other books I'm planning fro 2021, some cool science fiction and fantasy and other books for informative research for the novels I'm planning. But for now, these are my starters.

I hope 2021 will be a great year for you, reader, and that your reads give you joy.

0 Comments

A Year of Living Courageously (and Lots of Reading): My 2020 in Books

12/28/2020

0 Comments

I'll get right to it. I read some pretty good books in 2020. Well, there wasn't much else to do, was there? Though we did manage to visit some lovely state parks and wildlife preserves. But I've been mostly stuck here working from home, and so I read a lot. Got books in the bathroom, in my living room (which is, for now, my break room), and of course, my Kindle is by my bed.
.
Here are my "best of the best" reads for 2020:

Network Effect, by Martha Wells (book 5 in the Murderbot Diaries series). Murderbot is always number 1 in my heart. This one brought back another favorite character, ART (short for Asshole Research Transport). Waiting (Im)patiently for the next book in the series, due out early in 2021, "Fugitive Telemetry."
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I am happy I found this little book of Taoist meditations by my favorite science fiction author. I am not finished reading it, and I plan on continuing to read it from time to time even after I finish it, which is what you ought to do with a good meditation book.
Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Series, by Michael Dante DiMartino. I recently saw the series as soon as it came to Netflix and wanted more. I wanted more confirmation of a gay approval than an American cartoon in 2014 could give me. Korra and Asami walking into the spirit portal hand in hand confirmed they had feels for one another, for me, but it was nice to get their relationship confirmed for real for real. I wanted to experience what Nickelodeon could not give me, except in vague clues (first "I love you" confessions and first kisses)...and this series did not disappoint. No spoilers but haters can go taking a flying run under a pooping platypus bear. It's official. Korrasami is F**king Canon! I am debating reading the last series in LoK in 2021, "The Ruins of the Empire."
Noragami, volumes 10 and 11, by Adachitoka. I can't wait to get to a library again and take this series back up. Seriously, f**k Covid. More adventures with our favorite "Stray God," Yato and his vessel weapon Yukine, and follower (the half-phantom, half-human girl Hiyori). One of my favorite mangas.
Fool's Assassin, Fool's Quest, and Assassin's Fate: the Fitz & the Fool trilogy, by Robin Hobb. Hobb's last trilogy featuring royal bastard Fitz and his Fool, the Beloved. A fitting and appropriate end to all of her Six Duchies novels featuring Fitz and his White Prophet. I cried so hard at the end of the last book. If you haven't read these, start with The Farseer Trilogy.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. Book 1 of the Wayfarer series. Cool characters for weird stuff to happen to, but they get through it. Not unscathed, though. Nice takes on alien/human relations (a lesbian couple of a human and reptilian woman emerges) and different takes on AI/human relationships as well. Great read.
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, by Kelly Robson. One of the weirdest, entertaining books I've ever read. Mutant earthlings from the future time travel to ancient Mesopotamia. What could go wrong? Uh...everything. If I have anything bad to say about this book as that it ended too soon and felt "unfinished." I was left wanting more. But it was a good want.
Fierce Fairytales, by Nikita Gill. Goddess what a wonderful, empowering little collection of modernized feminist poems, micro-fiction, and flash retellings of the old conventional fairy tales.
A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. Book 2 of her Wayfarer Series. But don't expect a madcap adventure with all of the characters of the first book. The second book only follows two of the characters from the opening book, Pepper and Lovie (Lovelace). I like this book but confess I was a little disappointed that the original crew of the Wayfarer was not in this one. I'm set to read the third book in 2021.

I hope you read some great books in 2020 and will keep cracking open the covers.

I wish you fantastic reading in 2021.

Cheers!

0 Comments

For 2021, full of hopes... And going easy on one's self...

12/28/2020

0 Comments

Here we stand...

At the precipice of such a year that many of us (too many of us) are side-stepping and crab-shuffling to the front of the line (while social distancing, of course) to jump madly off the edge hoping to land into a much better year.

I hope we do. I hope we survive the train wreck that was 2020. I hope we are not getting our hopes to wildly "up." Common sense would say that this year could be somewhat worse, since the pandemic shows no weakening. We have vaccines. I hope they are good vaccines and I hope that the majority of people get them. I know some won't. That's an issue of independent idealism (at least in the US) that won't be rectified anytime soon.

I also hope that my friends and family will make it through the beginning of 2021 with hearts emboldened, because surely any good from 2021 will not happen right away and to believe it will is folly. I still hope the needed good things come to everyone as soon as possible. We've all suffered quite enough. I am heartened that we are getting rid of the orange goblin in chief, but I'm not certain a centrist will make it much better. Well, got to be better than it has been. I hope he does well and LISTENS to the people who put him there. I am glad to have lived long enough to have seen a woman rise to second-in-chief. I wish her the best of luck. I hate to admit that she will need it against the rampant sexism in this country, but she will need it.

On a positive note, 2021 is the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac...and oxen are known for powering through. I hope we all get a little "bullish" spirit to help us along the way.

As for goals and resolutions, please be kind to yourselves. Don't put too much of a burden on yourselves while we struggle to get through these trying times. My list is very short this year.

2021 goals:

Survive and live to see another year through.
Love people more.
Continue to "fight for people I do not know."
Finish and publish my e-book of published spec-fic stories & poems.
Finish my novel.
Get healthier (stay with the "no sugar plan").
Read more good books. (New Murderbot book coming so that one will be easy).
Hug my girlfriend and our kitty cats more.
Kiss more too.
Learn guitar and make a stab at learning music.
Finish some stories. Plan more on upcoming books, incl.a sequel to "Dr Fountainbrew."
Survive and live to see another year through by loving and fighting and writing and making joyful music.
Breathe deep...meditate...be a better person than my yesterday's self.

I know that's a lot of goals for my plate. But I promise to take them in stride and at a reasonable pace. I hope all my friends and fam do the same.

2021 is the year of the Metal Ox. The Chinese New Year begins on Friday, February 12, 2021.

0 Comments

M. X. Kelly

Killer Spacesuits & Other Publishing News from 2020

Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading in 2021

A Year of Living Courageously (and Lots of Reading): My 2020 in Books

For 2021, full of hopes... And going easy on one's self...

Archives

Author

Categories