Love in the Time of Galleys

Please enjoy this very kind newsletter update, Falling In Love with a Book, from my literary agent, Jenna Satterthwaite. I certainly did! Jenna recounts finding my book, now known as Jenny Will Eat You Now, in her slush pile during Christmas. Once I signed with her, she sold it about two weeks after it went out on submission. She also helped me get a film coagent.

Jenna's a powerhouse agent. I'm so happy she found me. 

Want to read the book yourself? For those who are signed up for NetGalley, good news! You can grab an early copy here. 

Wolf House and A Fine Time for Romance (Fiction)

My new short story, House of Wolves, is up in the new issue of Kaleidotrope! Please enjoy it, the other stories of the Summer 2021 edition, and this devastating art by Cindy Fan.

In other news, I spoke with book critic Peter Berard at Melendy Avenue Review about a passion of mine that woke up a couple years ago: reading romance fiction. The discussion includes a brief overview of pioneering force in historical romance Georgette Heyer, romance fans as early adapters of ereader technology, the importance of escapism, and, of course, the difference between "closed door" and "open door" romance! (Hint: it's sex.)

It was fun to do. Getting to talk to people about my specific interests is always a delight. Because I largely move in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genre circles, this was a really unique opportunity. Thanks to Peter for asking thoughtful questions and his willingness to engage over different literature!

Merry Grinchmas!

I was recently featured on a podcast by Julia Rios, who has edited my work in such places as Strange Horizons and Fireside Magazine, and Geoffrey Pelton. This is Why We're Like This is a childhood nostalgia comedy podcast where guests revisit media from their youth. As someone who invested a lot of time in watching television as a kid and loves talking about media these days, I was deeply pleased to be a part of two episodes of this podcast!

On A Rugrats Chanukah, talking about growing up Jewish in the American Midwest and the awfulness of Angelica Pickles!

Yesterday, they released the episode for How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966). What was supposed to be a short episode grew into a buck wild conversation that touches on everything from WWII propaganda racism to the Onceler fandom. Content warning for, well, everything!

Enjoy! I certainly did!

Requiem for Spooky Season: A Mega Round-Up of Fiction, Theater, YouTube, Game Writing, and Things I've Been Doing

October is in the rearview mirror, now, but for me, spooky season is forever.

On November 24th, Wicked Women: An Anthology of New England Horror Writers dropped. It was edited by Trisha J. Wooldridge and Scott T. Goudsward with a cover by Lynne Hansen. The writers in it, among many, include Jane Yolen, Hillary Monahan, and myself. I'm ecstatic to be in such company.

I wrote the short story that was accepted to the collection, "Eyes Like Silver Dollars," some years ago. It was wonderful to edit it under the guidance of Trisha Wooldridge. I spoke about it at length with her as well as fellow writers Lola J. Clemente and Christine Lajewski, and the cover artist, Lynne Hansen, for the Wicked Women panel we recorded for Salem Horror Fest 2020.

You can find the specific "Wicked Women" panel here and other programming here! 

Please take a look. It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of this online convention, especially during the isolation of the pandemic.

If that's not enough for you, I did a reading for the fest, as well! 

It's actually from the beginning of "Bobbie and Her Father," my other short story published this year.

This story has garnered some delightful praise, which you bet I'm linking here for my own edification:

The father in the thought-provoking “Bobbie and Her Father” by Gillian Daniels is a modern Victor Frankenstein, and Bobbie is his creation. [...] [O]ne is left pondering many of the themes of Mary Wollstonecraft’s original: the consequences of one’s actions, the ramifications of playing god and/or trying to conquer mortality, and the fact that monsters are not born monsters.

- Paula Guran, Locus Magazine

The story is by turns heartbreaking and frightening, and while it is not without its death and gore, at its heart, it is a story of monstrous loneliness rather than monstrous rage.

- A.C. Wise, Shiny Shorts: Monster Summer 

The horror here builds nicely.

- Sam Tomaino, SFRevu

Oh my gosh. THIS STORY. It is a wrenching, horror-ifically funny, and devastating take on Frankenstein, all set in modern-day suburbia, and featuring the regular kinds of people that probably maybe live on any given street. Daniels's story twists and turns through unsettling scifi, to horror and dark comedy, into something that is almost (but only almost) heartwarming.

- Maria Haskins, My Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Short Fiction Roundup - August 2020 

 

Thank you. I'm so moved. I was so nervous when The Dark Magazine agreed to publish this story, but I should have realized the audience for it was there and waiting.

Speaking of readings, the YouTube channel TheDevilsInterval did a reading of my short story, "Older Sister." It was originally published in The Dawnline RPG with Voidspiral Entertainment in 2018. 

The narration is amazing. You should totally check out his channel and the other stories he's read and produced.

Last but far from least, I wrote a piece of theater/teleplay which premiered in October. It's called, "Let Slip the Dogs of RAWR XD" for our Catalyze Open House. It was a crash course in learning how to edit video, too, which was enormous fun.

Sienna is Kitty Drexel, an actress and my editor over at The New England Theatre Geek. Shawn is played by the excellent Joshua Berkowitz-Geller and Baby, the dog, is the esteemed Jenny Gutbezahl.

I wrote this with Catalyze Playwriting Group, which we premiered in the Catalyze Open House which I helped design, another learning experience that was fascinating and rewarding. 

I absolutely recommend clicking through to find the many Easter eggs my fellow playwrights and I hid throughout. One is a Twine game I made in the basement!

This is all to say, I've been busy and doing my best to take care. 

I hope you're taking care, too.

Readercon 2016

The Readercon program schedule is up! And I'm doing five panels and a reading! Because I believe in signing up for all the things.

Come up and see me this coming weekend!

Thursday, July 7th

9:00 PM 5 The Life and Times of Mary Sue. Gillian Daniels, Gemma Files, Ben Francisco, Barbara Krasnoff (moderator), Natalie Luhrs. New Republic senior editor Jeet Heer wrote, in a short Twitter essay about Mary Sues, "The popularity of the term 'Mary Sue' really says everything you need to know about sexism in fandom/nerdom." Instead of unpacking the concept of Mary Sue, we'd like to zero in on the troubled history of this term, why it's troubled, and how better to talk about "self-insertion" in fiction without the sexism.

Friday, July 8th

12:00 PM C The Works of Catherynne M. Valente. Jonathan Crowe, Gillian Daniels, Liz Gorinsky (leader), Kathleen Howard. Catherynne Valente has been a professional fortune teller, telemarketer, private tutor, librarian, waitress, bartender, actress, and statistician, but she is best known as a novelist and poet, having published over two dozen novels and poetry collections. She has been nominated for or won every major award in science fiction and fantasy: the Hugo (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014), the Nebula (2013, 2014), Locus (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), and the World Fantasy Award (2007, 2009, 2011, 2014). In the Night Garden (2006) won the James Tiptree Jr. Award; The Orphan's Tales (2006-2007) won the Mythopoeic Award; "The Seven Devils of Central California" won the Rhysling Award (2008); Palimpsest won the Lambda Award (2010). In 2010, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making became the first self-published work to win a major literary award, winning the Andre Norton Award. The sequel, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, was listed by Time Magazine and NPR as one of the ten best books of 2012. The New York Times has called her "an incandescent young star." Join our panelists in a discussion of her work.

6:00 PM 5 Author Trademark or Personal Cliché?. F. Brett Cox, Gillian Daniels, Karen Heuler (leader), Alex Jablokow, Bud Sparhawk. Most writers occasionally suspect that they are writing the same type of story over and over again. Some writers set out to do so. Is this a good thing or bad? Our panelists will examine which writers persistently revisit the same images, themes, characters, or situations, and discuss when and for whom this revisiting works and when and for whom it does not. The panelists will discuss how they handle this situation, when they realize the story they're writing seems too familiar. Should the story be discarded because it's already been written, or should a writer continue and try to discover the source of the weird power it holds for them? Panelists will discuss which writers they admire, and what distinctive features make them exceptional and unique. Panelists will also come up with a few strategies to help audience members (and perhaps each other) see their work in a new light, using everything from literary influences to music and movies to dreams and the unconscious.

7:00 PM 6 Sensuality and Exploitation. Gillian Daniels (moderator), Ben Francisco, Elaine Isaak, Nick Kaufmann, Vinnie Tesla. Sex in fiction, as in real life, is often fraught with questions. Our panelists will discuss sex in science fiction and fantasy and what they consider representative or exploitative. Where and when do you draw the line? Is someone's trashy beach read someone else's master's thesis in 20th- and 21st century courtship?

Saturday, July 9th

1:00 PM 5 If Thor Can Hang Out with Iron Man, Why Can't Harry Dresden Use a Computer? . Gillian Daniels, Elaine Isaak, Andrea Phillips, Alex Shvartsman, E.J. Stevens. In a series of tweets in 2015, Jared Axelrod pondered "the inherent weirdness of a superhero universe... where magic and science hold hands, where monsters stride over cities." This is only weird from the perspective of fantasy stories that set up magic and technology as incompatible, an opposition that parallels Western cultural splits between religion and science and between nature and industry. Harry Dresden's inability to touch a computer without damaging it is a direct descendant of the Ents destroying the "pits and forges" of Isengard, and a far cry from Thor, Iron Man, and the Scarlet Witch keeping company. What are the story benefits of setting up magic/nature/religion and technology/industry/science as either conflicting or complementary? What cultural anxieties are addressed by each choice? How are these elements handled in stories from various cultures and eras?

Sunday, July 10th

1:00 PM A Reading: Gillian Daniels reads a short story

Federation of !@#$% Writers!

Warren Lapine, editor for Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, kicked some bucks my way over on Patreon! Thanks, Warren!

***

Since last year, I've been competing under a secret persona with The Federation of Belligerent Writers!

We’re a bracketed style, masked writing tournament. It was an initially luchador wrestling-inspired contest that began as a mid-week open mic challenge at Ralph’s Rock Diner in Worcester. 

Writers, using a persona, have three to five minutes to write or create an improv routine with that character. Audience members are invited to throw things at participants, drink, and dance. 

It's a damn good time.

I wrote more about it here  at length on The New England Theatre Geek to promote Sindependence Day, Saturday, July 16th, at 9pm, Davis Square Theatre in Somerville.

If you're in Boston or the Somerville area, come and party with us!