Sunday Shorts—An Offertory to Our Drowned Gods by Teresa Naval

The first of the flash fiction pieces in People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction, this piece by Teresa Naval did a brilliant little job of characterization and world-building all in one, which is pretty damn sharp for a flash fic. Told partly in flash-back, and partly in the present, this is a world flooded and …

Sunday Shorts—The Lamb Chops, by Stephen Cox

I think I've mentioned a few times now as a whole Queers Destroy Science Fiction (the audiobook) was fantastic—but also often a massive downer.  It took me longer than most anthologies to listen to because of that point. It wasn't a quality thing, just that I was listening to it in the middle of winter, …

Sunday Shorts—The Patchwork Girl by Evelyn Deshane

This story, from We Shall Be Monsters, is so intrinsically queer and—something I freaking adore—queerly empowering that I basically fell in love from pretty much the get-go. From the nonbinary lead POV, to the slow revelations of the narrative, this is a contemporary fantasy with the perfect amount of magic and fantasy to counter the …

Sunday Shorts—Birthday Girl by Rachel Swirsky

As someone who writes contemporary spec-fic, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it took me almost until the end of this short story from Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction to spot the science fiction. The story here is a woman visiting her niece on her niece's birthday, bringing a present, and being very nervous as …

When They Don’t Get It

This week, I was super lucky and was asked to step in at the last minute to talk to a local writing group about queerness, as a replacement. Now, before anything else, I want to say it was a really good overall experience, it went about as well as I ever expect it to, and …

Friday Flash Fics — Greater Good (Part Eight)

Today's Friday Flash Fics, continues to play catch-up, but at this point I'm going to stop apologizing because it's silly. I seem to be capable of every-other-week right now, and that's okay. So that's likely what it'll be for a while. (Also, fun-fact for this entry: yep, it could have been Mel Gibson). “Greater Good” tells …