Real life has kept me busy, so I've fallen a bit behind on announcements in the writerly world.  A few exciting happenings took place recently or are taking place soon.

First of all, the biggie: I received an Honorable Mention by the Roswell Award for my short story, "Asylum."  I am beyond thrilled to be one of the eight stories chosen.  The awards ceremony was held this previous weekend - unfortunately, with the new baby and two old babies (my kids, LOL), I wasn't able to attend.  Hopefully next year!  And congrats to all my fellow Honorable Mentions and Finalists for the award.

There's an interview that came out yesterday at HorrorAddicts.net, in which I talk a little about my recently published story in Once Upon a Scream and my experiences with writing.  It explains why I love horror so much, and what I'll be working on next.

Next week, my review of Catherine Onyemelukwe's memoir, Nigeria Revisited: My Life and Loves Abroad, is expected to be published in Bewildering Stories.  The magazine will also publish an interview with me in July.

And that's all, folks!  Hope you have a good night.

I recently spoke with my friend and colleague, B.T. Lowry, about the message behind the fiction we write.  The full interview was published today on StoryPaths.  I'm curious what other readers and writers think - what is your stance on message fiction?  What about morally questionable main characters?  Please feel free to leave your thoughts below.

When I started writing for publication again after a ten-year hiatus, the first story I wrote was a retold fairy tale - it was a novel, in fact, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast where the roles were gender-inverted.  Since then, I have written over fifteen stories and poems that incorporate fairy tale elements (about half of which are published).  Some of them are influenced by Western fairy tales, some by my Japanese background or other cultures, but the one thing they all have in common is to take something familiar and try to see it in a new light.  And, often, that light is dark.

A short while ago, I heard about the open call for submissions by HorrorAddicts.net for a new anthology of dark fairy tales, Once Upon a Scream, and I creatively salivated.  Or salivated creatively.  One or the other - basically, I jumped for joy.  Figuratively, that is.

Although I do enjoy the more obscure fairy tales, what I wanted to do was take something well-known by its Disney, sanitized version and find a way to really twist it.  The one thing I felt about the Disney version of fairy tales is that they all center around an innocent - someone pure, someone who has a heart of gold.

But what if the main character DIDN'T have a heart of gold?  Where would the story lead then?

That's when "The Godmother's Bargain" was created.  When I mixed this:

with this:

​

​There are a lot of fabulous, dark stories in this collection, so I hope you pick up a copy and enjoy it.  Happy reading!

I love fairy tales.  If you've read any of my writing, you probably already know that, haha.  I especially love to turn them on their heads and make the hero the villain or have the princess save the prince.  The most fun about them is taking a well-loved idea and taking it in an unexpected direction.

My new flash story, "Supply and Demand" isn't exactly a fairy tale, even though it has a fairy in it.  But it does take some well-known characters and... er... transform them.  I think perhaps the current election was on my mind, and perhaps politicians in general, who can often be caught with their hands in the till.  So what about corruption in the supernatural world?

I almost always have fun writing stories - even when I'm sweating a deadline - but this is one that I wrote first and had sitting on my shelf for a while before submitting it anywhere.  This one was just for me, because I enjoyed the idea so much.  I'm glad the editors at Bewildering Stories liked it, too, and I hope you enjoy reading it.