Pop the Champagne! It’s 2024!
What are you planning to do with the next 366 days? (Yeah, it’s a leap year)
GOALS FOR THE YEAR
I like to start each year not with a resolution that will be broken by mid-January, but with actual concrete, realistic goals that I aim to work toward. Someone on Twitter pointed out that when setting writing goals, you should focus on those that are within your control. There’s no point in saying, for instance, “This year I will get an agent,” because that depends on a lot of factors that are not within your control. But you can say, “This year I will start sending my novel out on submission to agents.” So I mostly tried to keep it to that, and anything else is just a bonus.
With that in mind, my goals for this year are simple. I’m not going to share them all here, because I have a lot, but here’s a small selection to give you an idea:
Find a replacement for Substack that is less problematic so I can keep sending out this newsletter without all the ethical issues.
Reduce my usual book reading goals to make room for more short fiction reading. (I didn’t read as much short fiction as I would’ve liked last year, so this year I want to focus a bit more of my attention on that).
Pay-it-forward by reading and blurbing a collection, and critiquing a novel, that I’ve been approached by a couple of other authors for.
Work on quality over quantity when it comes to the many story ideas I aim to tackle in 2024.
Possibly attend World Fantasy Convention in October since this year it’s conveniently close to where I live.
There are a few other goals that are in my “maybe” pile for now, that I may or may not end up doing, and I’ll decide on that when the time comes and update you accordingly. There are also potential goals that will come into play if a few other things fall into place first, so time will tell where those are concerned. But I think it’s going to be a good year, and I look forward to seeing what it brings.
SOME RECENT NEWS
First, a little update on my novella Lost Cargo. As I mentioned in previous newsletters, I’d entered it into the first annual Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS). The 100 entries had to be whittled down to 20 semi-finalists and competition was stiff, but the final decision for the first round came down on December 15, 2023. And Lost Cargo…
…did not make the cut, sadly. Ah well. We had a good run, and I wish the best to everyone still in the running. If you’re interested in following along with the rest of the competition, you’ll find updates here.
That all said, my book was well-received, and I got some really great reviews from a couple of the judges. You can read those here:
But all is not sad news for Lost Cargo. While it didn’t win SFINCS, it was listed as one of the best novellas of 2022 in Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 1. I was completely—and very pleasantly—surprised to discover this while reading my copy of the anthology (which also includes my story, “Into the Frozen Wilds.”)
I also got a very cool shoutout for my story, “Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont,” (Fantasy Magazine), in Meghan Smith’s film industry newsletter, Fiction to Features. Ms. Smith publishes a monthly newsletter aimed at bringing stories to the attention of people in the film industry who may be interested in purchasing the film rights and turning these stories into movies or TV shows.
Here’s what Ms. Smith had to say about “Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont,” and why she thinks it could translate well to the big (or small) screen. (I should note I omitted a minor spoiler, just in case.)
“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont,” was also listed in John Wiswell’s Big Recommended Short Story Reading List for 2023, which you can find here. And was chosen as a favorite story of the year in Tar Vol’s 2023 Recommended Reading List, which is here. If that’s not enough, it also got a shoutout in Narrated podcast’s Short Fiction Spotlight, which you’ll find here.
If you’re reading for award consideration, “Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” is eligible for all SFF awards under the short story category, including the Nebula and Aurora Awards.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
My story, “The Procedure,” about a life-extending treatment, is out today in Abyss & Apex. You can find that here.
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 1, featuring the best SFF of 2022, written by Canadian authors, was officially published on December 5, 2023. You can find it in print and digital here. As mentioned above, this anthology includes my dark Christmas story, “Into the Frozen Wilds,” and lists my novella, Lost Cargo, among the best of 2022.
After a very long wait to publication, having sold this story back in 2020, The Binge-Watching Cure III was finally published on December 16, 2023. This is a science fiction anthology that includes a shortened version of one of my oldest stories, “One Last Payday,” marking its third time in print since 2017. I’ve since updated this story and hope to see it out in the world again in a much-improved form and at its original novelette length.
The Worlds of Possibility Anthology was also published and sent out to backers and contributors but due to some distribution issues is not yet available to the public. I’ll update you on this when there’s a purchase link. I can tell you the anthology is gorgeous. It’s filled to the brim with great, uplifting writing and full color art. You’ll definitely want to get your hands on this one when it’s available.
RECENT FICTION SALES
Early in December, I signed the contract with Dragon Gems who will be publishing a reprint of my SF/Humor story, “How to Impress a Top Food Critic and Put Your Restaurant on the Galactic Map,” in their anthology series. This story was originally published simultaneously on The Drabblecast as well as in their magazine, The Tentaculum, so some of you may be familiar with it. It’s always nice when a story can get new eyes on it though, so I’m excited to see this out in the world in a new form once more. You can expect the Dragon Gems anthology to be published some time in the Spring.
Later in the month I received an acceptance from Factor Four for my story, “Face the Music,” which is about superheroes with some unusual powers and the consequences they face for having them. This one is in this Factor Four’s January issue which you should be able to find here.
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS
MORE I’VE BEEN UP TO
I can now finally tell you that I was recently invited to jury the Published Fiction category of the 2023 Short Works Prize. As the 2022 recipient of the Freda Waldon Award for this category with my story, “Splits,” it was an honor to read the many fine entries to this contest and select the winner and two honorable mentions.
Winners for all categories of the Short Works Prize were announced on December 11, 2023. This year’s recipient of the Freda Waldon Award for published short fiction went to Lynne Sargent for her story, “Better to Be Haunted.” Lynne really brought her A-game this year because she also won in the published poetry category for her poem, “The Price of Magic.”
You can read about all the winning entries and honorable mentions, and what each juror had to say about them, here.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY: “THE BODY REMEMBERS”
The origins of “The Body Remembers” go back a few years to 2020, the year we were introduced to covid-19. The whole world was in lockdown mode and news stories talked about the pandemic incessantly. We were bombarded with death and suffering and learned that the effects of covid could last long after the person was no longer infected.
My family took precautions and managed to stay healthy during this time, but that doesn’t mean lockdown wasn’t hard on us. People around the world were suffering from the mental and emotional strain that living through a pandemic was putting us all through. Add to that some recurring joint pain I’ve lived with for decades, and you can see where the dark mood of this story originated.
Because of what was happening, I found myself thinking about pain and suffering. How frustrating and debilitating it can be in the moment, but also how the effects—as with covid—could linger even after you were pronounced “well.” I thought about things like PTSD, phantom pain, and other invisible conditions. I thought about how people experiencing these things are often ignored even by the medical practitioners they turn to for help.
These thoughts led to an idea. Just a rough concept of a futuristic technology that can physically regenerate the body after even a major injury, and what that would mean for the person who suffered this injury. I imagined this would be tech used in the military, and so I had this image of a soldier watching his leg regenerate after losing it in an explosion. That was all I had though, and I tucked that little seed of an idea away until I felt like I could turn it into a story.
A couple of years later, Dark Matter announced that they’d be taking submissions for an anthology called Monstrous Futures. As soon as I learned the theme, the soldier waiting for his leg to regrow came to mind, and I knew the time had come to tell his story. I sat down to write, starting with the line, “It takes a moment before it hits me that the screaming’s coming from my own mouth.”
I knew I wanted to set a dark tone right off the bat and let the reader know what to expect. The opening line made that clear from the onset, so I kept it throughout the editing process and repeated it at the end to again hammer home the horror of this situation and bring everything full circle. Dark Matter editor, Rob Carroll later told me that line was one of the primary things that had sold him on this story.
The submission call opened in June of 2022. I’d written the story for this call, so hadn’t sent it out anywhere else and was therefore thrilled when the acceptance came in August. The anthology would go on to be published in April of 2023.
Not too long after this, PseudoPod announced a call specifically for stories published in horror anthologies in 2023. Knowing that so many good stories don’t get enough readers because they appear in anthologies that aren’t free to read online, they wanted to reprint some of those stories so they could find a wider audience, which is so awesome of them.
I submitted “The Body Remembers” to that call in June of 2023. Mirroring the first time I submitted the story a year earlier, they went on to accept it in August of 2023. It was eventually published in print on their website, and in audio through their podcast, in November 2023.
If you’re reading for awards consideration, please note that as a dark SF story, “The Body Remembers” is eligible for SFF awards like the Nebula, as well as horror awards like the Bram Stoker, and as I’m Canadian, it’s also eligible for the Aurora Award.
Despite the dark subject matter, I had a little fun with this story, beginning with the fact that a few of the soldiers mentioned in it—Noble, Wiebe, Davis—are named after my college roommates. Additionally, the list of ailments Orlovschi mentions having before he got the treatment is taken directly from my own medical history, which is me having a little laugh at myself.
But even though I had some fun with it, I wanted to do this story justice because when you remove the sci-fi aspect, this kind of suffering is all too real for a lot of people. The callousness of Doc Flemming is also an unfortunate reality many people face when trying to get help for the lasting effects of both physical and mental trauma. I tried to convey the hopelessness and helplessness of the soldiers in the trial, particularly through Stan Orlovschi who through a mix of sarcasm and colorful descriptions is meant to convey how desperate he’s become.
The true horror of this story is not so much what Orlovschi’s going through with the endless cycle of injury and regeneration, but rather with how disposable he and his fellow soldiers are to the powers that be. They aren’t even really treated like people anymore, but rather a means to an end. Their needs aren’t even on the radar for those in charge, something that Orlovschi unfortunately learns the hard way.
PseudoPod decided to publish this story on the eve of Veterans/Remembrance Day. The podcast was hosted by Aquila Brennan and narrated by Tad Callin, both of whom have served in the military. When you write a story like this, that features characters in a situation you haven’t personally experienced—in this case military service—you really want to get it right. You hope the research you’ve done is enough and rings true with those who can relate. So, it was especially rewarding to hear that both Aquila and Tad felt the story captured some of the frustrations real, modern day soldiers feel. Aquila even mentions in their post-story comments that they actually forgot at one point that the story was set in the future, because it seemed so in line with what they’d seen during their time in the service. It meant a lot to me that they both shared their thoughts on the story and enjoyed it.
“The Body Remembers” isn’t the kind of story that leaves you with a hopeful ending. It’s a cautionary tale, through and through. Some people see it as an anti-war story, which in some ways it is, but it’s more than that. It also illustrates the link between body and spirit, and the lasting damage that can be done to both. It’s about how even a seemingly beneficial technology can lend itself to something terrible if we stop seeing our fellow human beings as humans at all.
“The Body Remembers” was originally published in 2023 in DARK MATTER PRESENTS: MONSTROUS FUTURES. It was reprinted in the same year in PseudoPod.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming year. I always appreciate the likes, subscribes, and shares, so click those buttons if you feel so inclined.
P.A. Cornell