2018 was a landmark year for me! I started a full-time job as a manga editor, a dream job that has been rewarding and enlightening (thanks to all my colleagues who have helped me out, especially early on as I was learning the ropes). But I also spent a lot of time reading and writing.
Bring on the numbers and lists!
Short story submissions made this year: 60
Form rejections: 35
Personal rejections: 10
Story submissions still pending: 5
Acceptances: 5!
They are:
‘Murder, Martyr, Maybe’ at Factor Four
http://factorfourmag.com/murder-martyr-maybe-by-shannon-fay/ (behind a paywall)
‘House Hunting’, a reprint that will be in Haunted House Short Stories from Flame Tree Press in January
https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-House-Stories-Gothic-Fantasy/dp/1787552667/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545503931&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=flame+tree+press+Haunted
‘M-STEM,’ a reprint sold to Clarion West for promo use for the program. You can read it online here:
http://freesciencefiction.com/tale/m-stem/
‘A Scrimshaw of Smeerps,’ a holiday piece of flash fiction sold to Toasted Cake podcast. Listen to it here:
http://toastedcake.com/2018/12/toasted-cake-204-a-scrimshaw-of-smeerps-by-shannon-fay.html
And a fifth story which I have to keep quiet about for now until the contract is signed.
Number of new stories written *and* submitted this year: 3
That’s a rather low number for me. I have written more than that, but nothing I felt was good enough to send out. I also didn’t spend as much time this year on short stories as I spent most of the year working on my novel (I have already been invited to send the manuscript to an agent, which is amazingly exciting and also terrifying).
Here’s a list of books I read in 2018:
No is Not Enough by Naomi Klein
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Shining by Stephen King
Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeom Oluo
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
Neverworld Wakes by Marissha Pessl
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life of Alice b. Sheldon by Julie Phillips
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
Annex by Rich Larson
Death in Italy by John Follain
The Descent of Monsters by Jy Yang
The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
I’m Still Here: black Dignity in a World Made for whiteness by Austin Channin Brown
Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Keirnan
Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Phew!
Also, here’s a list of films I watched that were directed by women:
Ravenous (Antonia Bird)
Open House* (Matt Angel, Suzanne Coote)
Clueless (Amy Heckerling)
Raw (Julie Docournau)
A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay)
Into the Forrest (Patricia Rozema)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan)
The Hitch-hiker (Ida Lupino)
Blockers (Kay Cannon)
I Feel Pretty* (Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein)
Science Fair* (Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller)
Stories we Tell (Sarah Polley)
Of the books and movies above, my favourites would have to be Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and the film Stories We Tell. I’m in the middle of reading ‘When Long ‘Til Black Future Month?’, N.K. Jemisin’s short story collection, and it is amazing.
I’m pretty happy with all I accomplished in 2018, and that I exist at a time when so many amazing artists are creating new and wonderful futures and stories.