So much awesome… 2015 was a great year for fiction, especially novels. This is by no means an exhaustive list of stuff I loved; I’m focusing here on works that seem a bit overlooked and deserving of more buzz than they’ve gotten.  So without further ado, here are a few recommendations for awards consideration:

Short Stories

“Android Whores Can’t Cry” by Natalia Theodoridou

“Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” by Caroline M. Yoachim

“Language of Knives” by Haralambi Markov

Novelettes

“Fabulous Beasts” by Priya Sharma

“Grandmother-Nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds” by Rose Lemberg

Novels

Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Planetfall by Emma Newman

The Just City by Jo Walton

YA (Norton Award)

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott

 

No novellas to recommend at the moment because I am SO BEHIND on reading them. And to make matters worse, I’m already super-stoked to read these upcoming novels in 2016:

Steal the Sky by Megan O’Keefe (out now!)

Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (out now!)

Central Station by Lavie Tidhar (May)

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi (May)

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (June)

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal (July)

So I’m late to the game with my 2015 wrap-up slash awards eligibility post. But here it is! I had four short stories appear in print last year:

“Indelible” (Feb issue of Clarkesworld) — Loss, identity, shape-shifting aliens. What more could you ask for?

“Very Long Conversations” (June issue of Analog) — Language, family, more aliens. On the Tangent Recommended Reading List.

“Holding the Ghosts” (March issue of Asimov’s) — Downloadable memories and emergent personalities.

“A Thousand Stones for Hesek” (spring issue of Space and Time) — Ocean-based societies and the end of the world.

 

I also wrote and sold a novelette called “Nothing but the Sky” which I’m excited to announce will appear in Beneath Ceaseless Skies later this year. And probably the biggest career news, of course, was that I signed with a wonderful agent, Jennifer Azantian, for to sell all the books. (Yes, ALL of them. Muahahahahah! And then, perhaps, world domination?)

Anyway, I’m still working through my own awards-related reading, but I’ll have some recommendations posted soon. 2015 was an amazing year for speculative fiction, especially novels! Keep up the good work, folks.

Everybody loves Christie Yant’s Career Bingo card (available here), and I wanted to compile something similar for the actual process of writing short stories. Hence, the Style and Structure Bingo card for writers:

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This is intended as a tool to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and experiment with your stories. I’ve included some easy boxes, because everyone likes to feel accomplished, and frankly writing at all is a worthy accomplishment. (Yes, I am the sort of person who, after completing a task, will add it to my to-do list for the sheer joy of then immediately crossing it out.) The more challenging boxes are the result of a brainstorming session over at Codex Writers’ Group. Thanks for all the help, guys!

 

So what the heck do these boxes mean?

Since some of them may not be self-explanatory, here’s a bit of elaboration along with some linked examples of published short stories that illustrate these styles and structures. More examples are always welcome, so send them my way if you have suggestions. You’re also free to use your own definitions, of course — the only person you’re competing with is yourself, so use this tool however you like!

 

explanations and examples under the cut

Welcome to my shiny new website! I’m speculative fiction writer Gwendolyn Clare.

I coded the old site from scratch because I wanted an excuse to learn HTML, and while I’m still fond of the old site, the time has come to join the 21st century. I’ll be updating the content as well, but the essentials will stay the same.

To check out my stories, go to Writing. Many of them are available for free online. If you prefer audio versions, scroll down for podcast links.

If you’re an aspiring writer, I’ve collected some helpful online resources under Links. These are good places to start learning about the craft and business of writing fantasy and science fiction.