In every artistic endeavor, there are lulls, and these lulls are especially severe in the world of writing genre fiction. There is so much that can influence whether a writer is seeing her work in print, from market trends to cranky editors to publishers tanking to a simple lack of inspiration. 2012 was one such lull for me, and for a hot minute I sincerely believed that I might never emerge from the Valley of Rejection. Fortunately, 2013 seems to be a better year for projects! Hooray! I give myself some of the credit for that, as I’ve been much more aggressively looking for–and creating–opportunities and that has really paid off. I also give credit to the awesome editors and publishers who have taken a chance on me, a relatively unproven writer and editor, and hope that I lived up to their expectations.

The details:

• My story “Invincible” will be appearing in the 2013 Origins Game Fair Souvenir Anthology, titled Heroes!, edited by Kelly Swails. I’m really, really proud of “Invincible,” I think it’s one of my best stories to date. Someday the novel that features two of the characters will be finished (and hopefully published) so you can read more of their story. There’s a good chance this anthology will only be available at Origins, and never again, so be sure to pick up a copy in early June.
• My story “Wings of Feather, Wings of Brass” will be published in the anthology The Beast Within 4: Gears and Growls, edited by Jennifer Brozek. As you may have guessed from the title, this is a collection of stories about steampunk shapeshifters. My story is about an automaton, which makes this my fourth published story told from the POV of an automaton, which may mean I’ve found my demographic. This anthology should drop in the Fall.
• Nayad Monroe just informed me last week that she wants to include my story “Charms” in her anthology What Fates Impose. I don’t want to give away too many details about the story, because the mystery is part of the fun, but it’s about a rune reader, a very special rune reader with a secret, and you’ll just have to read the story when it comes out to find out what her secret is. There will be a Kickstarter for this anthology in the next few weeks.
• My essay “D&D For Girls” will be appearing in the nonfiction book Chicks Dig Gaming, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Jean Rabe. If you’ve ever wondered how to run a tabletop roleplaying game for your kids, this essay aims to help you do it. This anthology is due out shortly, I believe.
• As the promotion for Sidekicks! winds down, I’ve started work on my next big project: an anthology of multicultural steampunk stories titled Steampunk World. The original plan for this anthology was to have open submissions, but my schedule isn’t going to allow for it, so I’ve spent the last few weeks inviting authors I think are up to the task. We will be funding the book through a Kickstarter campaign in August. I’m super-thrilled to have authors like Nisi Shawl, Maurice Broaddus, Alex Bledsoe, and Leanna Renee Hieber writing for it (and possibly Jay Lake, health willing). Diana Pho is writing the introduction and James Ng is doing the cover art. Keep an eye on this space for further announcements about this project, I’m SO EXCITED about it I can barely keep myself from writing this entire post in all caps. THAT’S PRETTY EXCITED.

Thank you, dear reader, for all your support and help up to this point. This ride has been wild and amazing and I can’t wait to see the places we’ll go next!