While 2024 is gone but not forgotten, I thought it would be cool to talk about what I’ll be up to in 2025—that I know of, because of course, new things are likely to pop up as we go. Or suddenly open beneath us like a pit trap, as the case may be.

This Wednesday, January 22nd, at 9pm ET, I’m going to read my stories “Lies Seek Shadows” from 99 Fleeting Fantasies and “Courier’s Honor” from Traveling Light: Tales of the Magical Gates by Worldbuilding for Masochists live on my Twitch stream. If you’ve already read them, come hear my take on how it all sounds; if not, come enjoy some cool fantasy fiction that’s new to you! You don’t need an account to listen, only if you want to chat.

On February 7th at noon ET, I’ll be reading a short excerpt from Where Peace Is Lost at the Strong Women, Strange Worlds First Friday QuickRead. 6 authors, 8 minutes each, this is a free “book tasting” reading from science fiction, fantasy and horror stories, also featuring Fiona Moore, Ioanna Papadopoulou, Jennifer L. Hart, Shveta Thakrar, and Anne E.G. Nydam. Register and come on by to find a cool new thing to pick up!

My next book, Witch You Would (formerly known as Mage You Look), is all done and edited and currently scheduled to come out on September 2nd. The cover is amazing! I can’t wait to show it to you! Is there a pre-order link, you may ask? Sort of… It’s available all over the place if you look for it, but this is supposed to be my first novel under a pseudonym (Lia Amador), and everywhere I see it, it still has my real name attached… So I have no idea what’s going on. But I’m going to find out and get back to you.

The Beating Hearts & Battle Axes anthology of sword & sorcery romance funded last year, which means later this year, my novelette “The Cold Curse of Drathe” is going to be published. Despite the title, it’s a hot, sexy trek through a hot, sweaty jungle, with monster fighting and ancient ruins and eldritch magic being eldritch. Did I mention the sex? That, too. No firm dates yet, no buy links for those who didn’t already order it from Backerkit, but I’ll also share that info as soon as it’s available.

I’m still streaming video games every Monday through Wednesday on Twitch, and usually hanging out in the stream on Thursdays and Saturdays when my husband is gaming or making music, respectively. We’re slowly working through all the Dragon Age games together since he’s never played them before, beyond a brief foray into Origins many years ago. I’m not sure how long it will take us to get to Veilguard, but we’re having a good time regardless! Also, you can spend channel points to make me say things using my best Leliana impression.

And I think I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: if you have any questions for me, any topics you’d like me to pontificate about here on the ol’ bloggerino, please feel free to let me know! You can ask in the comments to this post, or contact me privately here or on BlueSky, my most frequently used form of social media these days.

That’s it for now! This is where I should probably offer platitudes and positivity for a better new year, and sure, let’s be kind to ourselves as best we can. But also: rest, resist, rebel, repeat. It’s a dark timeline, but we can each try to hold a candle, and maybe use it to light one for someone else.

As noted in my previous post, life was A Lot last year. In putting this list together, to my shame and frustration, I had to do forensic work to even figure out what, if anything, I had to write about. Part of this is due to lag between writing a thing and it actually being published; part of it is that stress has turned my brain into a basketball hoop, where memories go in and then immediately fall right back out and bounce off into a bush somewhere.

That said, I did indeed make things that people can read, and here they are!

Novella/Serial/IP Story

Bloomburrow is a Magic: the Gathering serial that qualifies as a novella if it’s taken as a single story. It was released in July, and gave a lot of furries and Redwall/Mouse Guard fans a new world to explore and new characters to love. Both of the main characters, Helga and Mabel, let me show parts of myself in fiction, namely my (undiagnosed) AuDHD and experiences as a mom and wife. Being able to introduce readers to a whole new plane was both intimidating and awesome, and I was delighted that so many people loved reading the story as much as I loved writing it.

Novelette

My story “Courier’s Honor” appeared in the anthology Traveling Light: Tales of the Magical Gates by Worldbuilding for Masochists. Equal parts The Warriors and Mirror’s Edge but fantasy flavored, it’s the story of a courier trying to deliver a package in a city made of walled gears that turn periodically, opening and closing doorways between them. She’s pursued by members of rival gangs trying to steal the package, and she has to fight and run her way to her own gang’s home base. Action! Adventure! Sass! Check it out.

Short Story

“A Magical Correspondence, to the Tune of Heartstrings” appeared in Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Seven in March 2025. This story let me process some of my feelings about hobbies and overwork and the ways that even well-meaning family and friends can stress us out, especially when we’re trying new things. It’s also a sweet love story with magic and musical instruments and dancing and little a smooching, as a treat.

Flash Fiction

“Lies Seek Shadows” can be read in 99 Fleeting Fantasies, an anthology of fantasy flash fiction. In this story, a particular kind of seer is asked to answer a thorny question, and the customer is definitely not always right. I wrote this one a long time ago, inspired by some events that were current at the time, and it was nice that it found a home in this great book.

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That’s it! Unless I memory holed something, which is entirely possible.

And of course, if you happen to be reading this for award eligibility reasons, may I humbly ask that you consider Escape Pod for best semiprozine or best podcast or whatever similar category it might fit, and Mur Lafferty and myself as best editors of the short form variety. We work pretty dang hard to bring you some truly awesome fiction on a weekly basis, along with our amazing teams of editors and producers, and so do all the folks in our sibling podcasts at Escape Artists.

What about 2025, you may ask? We shall see what unfolds…

I am so excited to finally share my story for the Bloomburrow set for Magic: the Gathering!

When I was first approached to work on this, everything about it appealed to me. So cute! So wholesome! Adventure and community and nature and talking animals? Sign me up! But I was also intimidated, because I’d never read a single Redwall book, and I knew at a glance that it would be a huge touchstone for a lot of people, even if it wasn’t the only one. I armed myself with Mrs. Frisby and Tolkien and Diana Wynne Jones and Frog and Toad and other pastoral vibes, and went to work.

Thanks to the outline and guidance of the story leads, what I got to write was one of my favorite stories ever. Helga, a neurodivergent frog artist with a gift for prognostication, struggles to find her place in the world. Mabel, married mouse mother of three, leads her team of neighbors on a long and dangerous journey with her family’s magical heirloom sword for protection. There’s fighting and spells, fun and drama, giant beasts representing forces of nature, and through it all, there’s hope and light and friendship and love. There’s small people without big powers being brave and helping each other as best they can, even when it’s hard.

And, of course, lots of descriptions of food!

I did so much research on the actual animals I was writing for this, from basic stats like their typical sizes and colorations, to their body language cues and what sounds they make, to, as noted, what they eat. It was super fun coming up with particular gestures and quirks of movement and voices for each character, as well as the overall speech patterns and narrative style. Ensemble casts are always a challenge, because you want everyone to shine, and I’m really happy with all the special moments I was able to give the individual characters.

I also dug into the various plants perhaps more than any sane person should. What would be flowering at a given time? What sorts of things grow in particular climates? How big would a certain flower be in comparison to a mouse or rabbit or frog? What part of the plant is edible or would make a good tisane? I went down so many rabbit holes for this, pun extremely intended.

Perhaps what I most loved was being able to write two things that are personal to me: neurodivergence and family. I channeled a lot of my own experiences and those of my friends into Helga when it came to struggling with attention issues and hyperfocus and underachieving. I, too, zone out at inconvenient times, or disappear into my work and forget to do important stuff, especially eating. I am so clumsy; my super power is getting things caught on other things, even when it seems physically impossible to do so. If I look at a cable, it tangles up and is guaranteed to trip me at some point. And I have imposter syndrome and rejection sensitivity that gang up on me at the worst times and make me want to walk into a lake and burrow into the mud and never talk to anyone again. But I persevere, and so does Helga!

I’m also a mom and a wife, and while I’m not nearly as cool as Mabel, I love my husband and kids and wanted to avoid the kinds of sitcom stereotypes we often see for family relationships. Many of us have issues with partners and parents, but in this specific story, I aimed for aspirational and happy and healthy to fit the overall tone. I showed the kinds of love and deep affection and tender moments that I wish we could have more of, in fiction and the real world. When my husband read it, he kept recognizing bits of our lives that I peppered in, and being able to do that was such a source of joy for me.

I’m hoping to do a full behind the scenes write-up of stuff at some point, the way Seanan McGuire does for her stories, but for now I’ll gladly answer anyone’s questions to the best of my ability, either here or on socials.

And for the record, if I was in Bloomburrow, I would probably be a birdfolk. Caw!

I tend to view awards season as a thing that happens to other people. Sort of like when it’s raining, and you’re all cozy inside your house with nowhere to go, and you think, “Wow, look at that, it’s really coming down, must suck for anyone who has to go out today.” And you sip your tea and do whatever you were doing. I make my eligibility post, and that’s about it for me.

But! I have the honor and privilege of co-editing a truly excellent magazine and podcast, and we are once again a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. If I continue my metaphor, this means I’m now outside in the rain, but of course being an award finalist is awesome and not uncomfortably moist.

If you’re a voting member of WorldCon, I’d be honored if you’d consider giving us your vote for the category. Our voter packet isn’t up yet, but you can check out all our original fiction from 2023 here. We’re really proud of our reprints as well, but that’s a good place to start.

Huge thanks to all the writers who trusted their stories to us, and to the narrators who brought them to life. Our magazine literally would not exist without you!

Thanks also to my co-editor slash co-conspirator, Mur Lafferty; to our assistant editors Benjamin C. Kinney, Premee Mohamed and Kevin Wabaunsee; our hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart; our producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht; our social media manager Phoebe Barton; and the rest of the Escape Pod crew, for all their hard work. We did it! Jumping high fives all around.

And of course, I’m filled with gratitude toward everyone who voted for us in the first place, to get us where we are now. As I always say in my sign off, thanks for joining us, and may your escape pod be fully stocked with stories.

It’s finally here! 99 Fleeting Fantasies, a flash fiction anthology full of fantastic stories, edited by Jennifer Brozek, will be available in ebook and paperback on February 15th.

You can read my story, “Lies Seek Shadows” in the anthology, along with other works by folks like Cat Rambo, Charles Stross, Crystal Frasier, Jody Lynn Nye, Jonathan Maberry, Premee Mohamed, Seanan McGuire, Wole Talabi, and many more!

A future Kickstarter will include hardback and (faux)leatherbound editions as well, if those tickle your fancy.

Preorder your copy now, and it will be yours imminently!

A side effect of award nomination time is various people and groups assembling suggestion lists for the many different categories. Not being on a list doesn’t mean you’re Not Worthy, but being on a list is a cool sign that someone likes what you’re doing. This year, I’m honored to be on a few lists in particular.

The first is the 2023 Locus Recommended Reading List. Where Peace Is Lost is included among the science fiction novels. The list feeds into their poll and survey, where you can vote for the winners of the annual Locus Awards. Voting is open to anyone! The poll closes April 15th, and awards are presented in June.

You can also find me twice on the Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together 2024 Hugo Award Recommendation List. Where Peace Is Lost is listed under Best Novel, while “In Time, a Weed May Break Stone” can be found under Best Short Story.

Last, but certainly not least, Where Peace Is Lost is also included in the Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice: the Best Books of 2023 list. I’m honored that not one, but two reviewers loved my book enough to mention it among their favorites of the year. Team Paladin!

And, as Columbo would say, just one more thing… Uncanny is currently running their 2023 reader favorites poll. You can vote for your top three favorite stories published in the magazine last year; maybe “In Time, a Weed May Break Stone” might be one of them?

P.S.: Yes, the post title is a Sandman reference!

I’m so pleased to announce my next big project!

Mage You Look is the first book in a new contemporary romantasy series. It’s about a magic shop technician in Miami who has to win a spellcasting competition reality show before she’s unemployed, broke and evicted… except she ends up partnered with an internet celebrity best known for his spectacular spell fails.

The drama! The magical mishaps! The inevitable smooching!

This book has had a long and winding journey. It started out as secondary world fantasy, in a Caribbean-inspired Regency-adjacent setting, and the competition element was apprentices vying for a place in a mage’s renowned workshop. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked.

Okay, no fire nations, but the book languished until I started watching the Great British Bake-Off. I hadn’t realized I needed that puzzle piece to make my story complete, but there it was! And so instead of apprentices trying to become mages, it was amateur casters trying to win lucrative prizes and prestige in a spellcasting competition.

As much as I loved that book, it didn’t win over any editors, alas. But Tessa Woodward, who’s been working as my editor since I debuted, asked me: what if we make this modern instead?

Oh, the possibilities! I jumped right in and reworked the characters, the setting, the plot. Still a woman working in a magic shop who dreams of more, still a magical competition where she might win her way out of customer service drudgery, but now we’re filming reality TV on a sound stage in Miami. We’ve traded carriages for a party bus, and a fancy manor house for a boutique hotel. Totally sweet.

I’ll be sharing more details as we get closer to publication time, so stay tuned. For now, let’s Snoopy dance together in excitement!

Every year, Dream Foundry holds their Emerging Writers Contest for unpublished writers**, and this year, I’m one of the judges!

C.L. Polk will be judging submissions with me, and Julia Rios is coordinating. I’m so hyped to work with both of them, as well as the Dream Foundry staff and volunteers. Some details:

The Dream Foundry Contest for Emerging Writers is an annual no submission fees contest with cash prizes! Every year our contest coordinator selects ten finalists from a pool of submissions from writers around the world. In addition to their cash prizes, winners get featured at Flights of Foundry, an annual convention where professionals from all over the industry come to discuss all things related to the speculative arts.

Full guidelines are on their website. Submissions are open from 1 April, 2024 through 27 May, 2024. Submit one complete and finalized story of up to 10,000 words. First place wins $1,000, second place $500, and third place $200.

I’ve loved the Flights of Foundry convention since it began, and I can’t wait to see which new writers and their awesome stories we’ll be showcasing there this year!

**Technically, per the guidelines, the rules say:

• You have published a total of less than 4,000 words of paid or income-earning speculative fiction in English.
• You have earned a total of less than USD 320 from those words.

So not completely unpublished, just mostly!