2024 Recap
This month’s newsletter’s all about what happened in 2024. Perfect time to catch up on what you might’ve missed!
What a year it’s been. I have so much to talk about, but first, a reminder that when you see people post about all the things they achieved over the past year, it’s okay if all you did was get through it. These are my highlights. I don’t really share my struggles. The same is true for most people on the Internet, so take it all with a grain of salt.
Now, without further ado…
NOMINATIONS
Obviously, the biggest thing that happened this year is I got my very first major award nominations, all of them for “Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont.”
Nebula
Aurora
World Fantasy
This made me the first Chilean writer ever to be nominated for the Nebula Award. I may also be the first for the other two, but I’m not sure of the stats there.
Additionally, my story, “Things Most Meaningful,” made the BSFA Longlist. And Immigrant Sci-Fi Short Stories, an anthology that includes my story, “El Bordado,” was longlisted for the BFS Awards.
PUBLICATIONS
My work was published 15 times this year. 6 of those were original fiction publications. 7 were reprints (2 of these in “Best of the Year” anthologies). 2 were original non-fiction pieces.
“The Procedure” (Abyss & Apex)
“Face the Music” (Factor Four)
“The Body Remembers” (Translated to Farsi in MetaphorSpace)
“Bright Horizons” (Learning to Be Human Short Stories anthology)
“How to Impress a Top Food Critic and Put Your Restaurant on the Galactic Map” (Dragon Gems Spring 2024 anthology)
“Decorative” (Reprinted in Radon Journal)
“Free” (Reprinted in Tall Tale TV)
“Chief Scavenger’s Log in the Climate Apocalypse” (Interstellar Flight)
“Side Effects May Vary” (Unicorn Mech Suit Short Story Contest)
“The Life You’ve Given Me, Rusty” (Lightspeed)
“Decorative” (Translated to Farsi in MetaphorSpace)
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” (Reprinted in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024)
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” (Reprinted in Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 2)
“My Top 7 Tips for Maintaining Productivity When You Don’t Write Every Day” (Write magazine)
“A Long Time Ago…with P.A. Cornell” (A Long Time Ago… series) - This one is OUT TODAY so keep an eye out for the link I’ll share on social media when it goes live. It’ll also be linked on my non-fiction page here.
Catch up on everything I’ve published HERE and HERE.
And find all my free-to-read fiction HERE.
This year the two stories I’m most hoping people will read for awards consideration are “Bright Horizons” and “The Life, You’ve Given Me, Rusty.” Both are on the Nebula Recommended Reading List, and you can find them on the list here and here, respectively. Upvotes are very much appreciated, as are social media shares so more people get a chance to read them. Thanks in advance.
“The Life You’ve Given Me, Rusty” also recently got shoutouts in Catherine Tavares’, Jennifer Worrell’s, and K.C. Mead-Brewer’s newsletters. There’s no direct link to Jennifer’s post, but you can click on the other two to read and subscribe if you like.
WRITING
In 2024 I wrote 16 new pieces of fiction, one of which was my novelette Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl. I also wrote 2 poems.
Aside from that I completely revised and retitled my story, “Side Effects May Vary.”
Additionally, I currently have another 9 stories on the go that still need a little work.
Of the stories written this year, 2 have sold, one to a book publisher, the other one to a dream market.
“Through the Machine” – Lightspeed (forthcoming)
Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl – Stars and Sabers Publishing (coming 2026)
And while the original version of “Side Effects May Vary” was written before this year, I changed it enough that the current version was basically written this year. It also “sold” technically (see Contests).
I worked a bit on novel-length fiction as well, multiple projects, but these are currently still works in progress. I hope to focus more on these in the coming year. As well, I have a non-fiction project on the go that I can’t yet talk about.
ACCEPTANCES
This year I had 18 acceptances. 8 of them are original pieces of fiction, 8 are reprints (3 translated), and 2 are non-fiction.
“The Life You’ve Given Me, Rusty” – Lightspeed
“The Body Remembers” (Farsi translation / solicited) – MetaphorSpace
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” – Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 2 (anchor author)
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” – Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024
“Decorative” – Radon Journal
“Chief Scavenger’s Log in the Climate Apocalypse” – Interstellar Flight
“Through the Machine” – Lightspeed (forthcoming)
“Decorative” (Farsi translation / solicited) – MetaphorSpace
“After the Suns Go Down” – The Growers anthology (forthcoming)
“Free” – Tall Tale TV
“Worlds Apart” – Lightspeed (forthcoming)
Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl – Stars and Sabers Publishing (Forthcoming)
“Side Effects May Vary” – Unicorn Mech Suit Short Story Contest
“My Top 7 Tips for Maintaining Productivity When You Don’t Write Every Day” (solicited) – Write magazine.
“A Long Time Ago…with P.A. Cornell” (solicited) – A Long Time Ago… series.
And my latest acceptances from just this past month:
“Hard Times at the Four Pines Motel” – Short Édition (forthcoming).
“A World Unto Myself” (Spanish translation / solicited) - La Tuerca Andante (forthcoming).
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” (solicited) - TBA (forthcoming).
That last one I’m not yet free to discuss, but it’s a special one for reasons I’ll explain when I’m able to go public with the news.
*I also got an acceptance for my story “An Angel on the Train” but it seems that this anthology is no longer being published so that story’s back on the market. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens sometimes in this business.
CONTESTS
This year I participated in just 1 Codex flash fiction contest, skipping Weekend Warrior 2024 to focus on other projects.
The one I did participate in was Flash, Savior of the Universe 2024 – I wrote 3 stories, one for each round of the contest, and came in 2nd place in my division, landing in the top 3 for the first time since I started participating in Codex contests.
I also submitted my story, “Side Effects May Vary,” to the Unicorn Mech Suit Short Story Contest. They received close to 300 entries, so I was very excited that my story was selected as the winner!
INTERVIEWS
I was interviewed 10 times over the course of this year.
Author Q&A Part 1 for Learning to Be Human anthology
Author Q&A Part 2 for Learning to Be Human anthology
Shining Moon Speculative Fiction Podcast, episode 32
Shining Moon Speculative Fiction Podcast, episode 33
Alibris “Author Corner”
R. Jean Mathieu’s “Philosophy in a Teacup”
Radon Journal Author Spotlight
Jendia Gammon’s “Creative Rituals”
Joint interview with Pedro Iniguez for Star and Sabers Publishing
HWA “Latinx Heritage in Horror” series
Catch up on all my interviews HERE.
A FEW OTHER THINGS
Each year comes with goals and bingo squares you want to achieve, and sometimes things you hadn’t even thought about happen that you realize you should’ve had a bingo square for. Anyway, here are some of the other things that happened this year, some of which surprised me, and some that fulfilled long-time dreams.
I had a story included in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024. Yes, I’ve previously had stories in both volumes of Year’s Best Canadian F&SF, but Best American is the one I remember seeing on shelves before I was published, so this was a dream fulfilled. Best Canadian is still a thrill, it’s just a newer series, so it wasn’t the one I dreamed of when I was a baby writer, although I’m very proud of this one too.
Further icing on the cake is that my story was not only selected (along with 79 others) by John Joseph Adams, an editor I’d long wanted to work with, it also passed the final selection of 20 stories by guest editor Hugh Howey, one of my favorite authors.
Did I mention I’d long wanted to work with John Joseph Adams? Well, imagine then how thrilled I was when I finally cracked his magazine, Lightspeed, this year. Now imagine how even more delighted I was when throughout the year he ended up buying two more of my stories for Lightspeed! I still can’t quite believe it. Bingo square for sure.
I also had some of my work solicited for various things this year, which is always nice.
I was even invited to teach a virtual class. This one I ended up having to decline due to not having the time for it, but it’s always nice to be asked.
I attended 3 conventions this year. The Nebula and World Fantasy conventions for the first time, and Flights of Foundry for a return engagement. I was a panelist on 3 panels for FoF, but I wasn’t on panels for the other two.
While at World Fantasy I did participate in the group autographing session though, my first of that scale, and it was good fun. I’ll likely do it again if I get a chance.
I passed 50 fiction sales, which was a goal I had for this year.
I retired my novella Lost Cargo. This may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but you have no idea how much I had to fight with distributors to get it taken down once my rights were returned to me. Sigh. But I’m glad that’s done now.
I also passed 100 subscribers for this newsletter. So thank you if you’re among them. I really appreciate the support. If you’re not yet subscribed…
For those who follow me on Instagram for my Lego builds, I have a couple of new ones. The brand new, special edition, “Books Are My Passion” set and the Lego Creator 3-in-1 Space set.
Also on Instagram as the year winds down, I plan to do what I did last year and make a post about my favorite reads and movies of 2024, so keep an eye out for that. Speaking of movies, if you’re a fellow cinephile and have an account on Letterboxd, you can find me here.
And there are several other really cool things that happened that I can’t talk about because they involve other people, so it’s not my place to share news they haven’t consented to. But I assure you, I’ve had many reasons to smile this year.
PAYING IT FORWARD
When good stuff happens, it’s important to pay it forward. Not because it’s expected, but because when you’re able to help others, you should definitely do that. Sure, we all have lots of stuff on our plates, and we can’t do everything for everyone, but when possible, I try to help out other writers, as many have helped me. We all succeed together. This is a group effort, which is why the acknowledgements in books tend to be long and why awards need to set limits on speeches, or we’d go on thanking everyone we’ve ever known forever.
As always, I’ve continued to trade off critiques with fellow writers, and several of them have helped me with some of the stories I’ve written this year, for which I’m super grateful. I hope my feedback has helped make their stories better too.
There’s also just being there for others in this community, and there’s been a lot this year that has left some in need of support. I’ve tried to do that as much as possible.
I’ve also read and blurbed three books this year, that I’ll hope you’ll read and review:
A.T. Sayre’s collection Signals in the Static
Steve Zisson’s novella Sellout! (forthcoming)
Gerri Lean’s collection The Woman I Used to Be
This month I’ll also start reading a fourth book for blurbing purposes, Stars and Sabers’ first multi-genre anthology which will be out next year and is titled, Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers.
And finally, while it’s part of my job to promote my own work, it’s also nice to share the work of others now and then. I’ve already told you about the various new websites for finding fiction you may have missed, Cool Story, InkFoundry, and the List of List Stories. I’ve also enjoyed some great fiction this year, some of which I’ve shared on social media. I don’t have the space to share every story I’ve liked, but here are a few of my faves that you may have missed:
“We Shall Not Be Bitter at the End of the World” by David Anaxagoras
“We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim
Going into the next year, is there something you’d like to see me include in my monthly newsletter that I’m not already doing? What would you like to see me talk about? Let me know in the comments.
Well that’s it for 2024. I’ll return to my usual newsletter format, including The Story Behind the Story: “Side Effects May Vary” in January. See you in 2025!
P.A. Cornell
Congratulations on all your successes this year! Amazing for me to see my humble newsletter amongst them! Always nice to see some Lego appreciation too - I just cracked open my SW advent calendar!