I just checked the Galaxy’s Edge website, and apparently my story is already up! “Miss Darcy’s First Intergalactic Ballet Class” is now available for your reading pleasure over at Galaxy’s Edge.

“Miss Darcy” feels extra awesome because I don’t find too many reasons to include ballet in my writing, and this was the perfect opportunity. Some of the examples really happened in my teaching, just with (mostly) human children. It’s free to read for the next 60 days, along with the rest of the issue. There are some great stories by my fellow TOC mates, so check those out as well.

ArmadilloCon is coming up in about three weeks, so my schedule should be up soon. I think I’m going to be reading “Miss Darcy” at my reading, but I’ll decide for sure when it gets closer and I see how much time I’ll have.

I’m thrilled that “Miss Darcy’s First Intergalactic Ballet Class” has already found another home – before it was even published in Galaxy’s Edge! *muppet flail*

It will be appearing in the exciting reprint anthology Funny Science Fiction, edited by Alex Shvartsman.

The TOC already has some great names and stories appearing on it, including (so far) Mike Resnick, Shaenon Garrity, Lavie Tidhar, Oliver Buckram, Desmond Warzel, Tina Connolly, Anatoly Belilovsky, Ken Liu, and Lisa Tang Liu. Warzel’s “Wikihistory” still stands out as one of the funniest science fiction stories I’ve read, so I’m very pleased Alex liked my own story enough to include it in this collection.

Also, Alex is still looking for a few more funny stories for the anthology, so contact him if you know of one you want to include. He wants recent stories, though, from the last 5-10 years, I believe.

In other news, Camp Nano starts in 35 minutes. I set a high bar for myself this time, so the pressure will be on to hit to the word count. I’m not sure why accountability and guilt works as a writing motivator for me, but it was extremely helpful for keeping me from slacking off last November. (Though I’m positive that it wouldn’t have worked if I didn’t already have an outline to follow.) So it can’t be all that bad.

Best motivational speech ever? Possibly.

I don’t know why I get so stressed about this, but the idea of blogging (which I actually enjoy) when I could be writing on my WIP stresses me out to no end. And the longer I take to write, the sadder I am that I haven’t updated. I don’t want to update just to talk about my upcoming stories, I want to explore other topics! Like all the lovely baking experiments I’m always conducting, and how anyone finds time to work, write, raise a daughter, eat healthy, keep a rigorous workout regimen, and still engage in reading all the neat things that are coming out.  And then lovely publications like the Cats in Space anthology from Paper Golem come up and I find its been months since I updated anything. Of course I’m doing stuff on the writing front. It may never be as much as I’d like to do, but I’m managing as well as a working mother with a husband in school can be expected to.

So. Quick rundown:

CATS IN SPACE! I was so excited to be a part of this anthology. Back in August 2012 I had written a lovely little flash titled ‘Star Born, Star Bound’ about the REAL reason feral cats act the way they do, and not too long later, I had the chance to submit it to the Cats in Space anthology that Elektra Hammond was editing. This story once again proves that my stories that sell the easiest are the ones that were pure joy to write in the first place.

Next is ‘Miss Darcy’s First Intergalactic Ballet Class,’ coming in July/August’s issue of Galaxy’s Edge. (I’ll post a link when it becomes available) This story came about after a conversation with Bud Sparhawk at the Tor party during LoneStarCon 3 in 2013. We were talking about how I need to write what I know, and what I know is the crazy stuff that kids do during a ballet class. Alien children can’t be that far off.

The best part about these publications coming out so closely is that a certain cat appears in both stories. I’m excited to write more adventures about poor Felix in the future. His story cries out to be told.

I also returned last week from yet another MegZelCon, the best little con you’ve never heard of. Megan Grey and I had a fabulous time brainstorming and plotting my next project, currently titled Rising Storms. This epic fantasy takes place in a world where the primary transportation is birds, and the rumor is that all great (and not so great) weather can be attributed to storm bottlers. I’m really excited about this novel, and I’ve enjoyed the excitement of world building a secondary world for essentially the first time. Yeah, I’ve done world building for short stories here and there, but really world building from the ground up for an entire novel/series is a first.

So yes, MegZelCon was a success. We wrote, spent time with ‘special guests’ Nancy Fulda, Janci Patterson, and Gama Martinez, played some great games of Munchkin and Labyrinth, watched Netflix’s Daredevil (which has been pretty impressive so far), and in general got re-energized on our current projects. The Hospitality Suite (me) probably baked too many delicious cookies, but MegZelCon comes but once a year, right? Not anymore. We’re now meeting 2 to 3 times a year for these little writing retreats, so now I need to step up my ‘working out away from home’ game.

So that’s the big stuff. I’m still fighting the good fight, sending out my short stories and writing new epistolary flash fiction (more on that in another post). I’ll also start editing my middle grade fantasy novel ‘Rockbottom’ soon. I’m taking all the feedback from my writing group and am figuring out which changes to make, so I’ll be juggling that as well. It’s not like I don’t have stuff to be working on!

In the meantime, sleep is calling my name. Tomorrow is a full day of teaching and child-rearing and writing.