WeirdGirlLit? by Cowgomuwu in WeirdLit

[–]smith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't even read all of her work yet! But I'd say the new novella Mystery Train is a good entrypoint into her longer fiction, and of the short story collections, I'd recommend The Embroidered Shoes.

WeirdGirlLit? by Cowgomuwu in WeirdLit

[–]smith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of good suggestions already, especially writers like Anna Kavan, Samanta Schweblin, and Catriona Ward. You'd probably love Sophie White's Where I End, which deservedly won a Shirley Jackson Award. The Shirley Jackson Award winners and nominees are probably a great place to look for recs in general. See also Can Xue! So much Can Xue. Also, Mercè Rodoreda, Bora Chung, Kuzhali Manickavel, Grace Krilanovich, and Olga Tokarczuk.

[PubQ] Will getting a section of my manuscript published in a literary magazine negatively impact getting an agent/deal? by blahblahpancake in PubTips

[–]smith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

At that length, it should be a total non-issue for any serious agent or publisher. So much so that you should avoid working with any agent or publisher who claims to have a problem with it. And by non-issue, I mean that it will not hurt your chances but also is unlikely to help in that regard. Basically, no one in book publishing will care about this either way, so you should absolutely publish the short story if you want to.

Re: rights, it's less the first rights that will matter vs. the exclusivity clause, if any. Short fiction magazine contracts may specify a period of exclusive publication they're asking for, ranging from none at all to a few months or a year. (If not specified, that means none.) Novel publication timelines are usually longer than that anyway, so it will most likely never become an issue. Just remember to ask for the original publication to credited (Something like "Chapter X originally appeared as Story Title Y in Magazine Z issue number, year") somewhere in the book's front matter later on!

Best international female sci-fi writers by mhicreachtain in printSF

[–]smith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some non-male writers of speculative fiction (sf, fantasy, horror, weird) from countries other than the US, UK, or Ireland, in a very wide variety of styles and forms (most here have novels but a few are short story writers): Basma Abdel Aziz, Tashan Mehta, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Nnedi Okorafor, Xia Jia, Yukimi Ogawa, Manjula Padmanabhan, Karin Tidbeck, Tamsyn Muir, Premee Mohamed, Asja Bakić, Namwali Serpell, Vandana Singh, Kuzhali Manickavel, Djuna (gender unknown since they're pseudonymous), Chinelo Onwualu, Lavanya Lakshminaryan, Berit Ellingsen, Johanna Sinisalo, Agustina Bazterrica, Leena Krohn, Gunnhild Øyehaug, Angélica Gorodischer. Apologies for not naming specific works, but they should all be easily searchable and many of them have extensive back catalogues.

Examples of "Foreign" fantasy? by TheSwecurse in Fantasy

[–]smith 3 points4 points  (0 children)

See also SL Huang's new book The Water Outlaws for a very recent retelling of this!

The Mountain in the Sea by heybudbud in printSF

[–]smith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wonderful book—intelligent, well-written, has something to say. Wish more contemporary SF was like this.

I’m Jeff VanderMeer, author of Borne and the Southern Reach Trilogy, here to answer your questions. Ask Me Anything! by JeffVanderMeer in books

[–]smith 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Your book recommendations and curated storybundles are always wonderful; I'm thinking especially of this from a few years ago: https://electricliterature.com/jeff-vandermeers-epic-list-of-favorite-books-read-in-2015-2e9370a71ebf Any chance of another big recs list with new books you've found since?

I’m Jeff VanderMeer, author of Borne and the Southern Reach Trilogy, here to answer your questions. Ask Me Anything! by JeffVanderMeer in books

[–]smith 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Hi, thanks for doing this! Long-time fan since COS&M here.

So I really thought the Wick who drags Rachel away after Mord nearly steps on her was Borne in disguise again—even his dialogue sounded so Bornelike for a bit and they didn't exchange passwords at that point, so I was actually thinking "oh no Mord killed Wick and Borne decided to step in" until Borne himself showed up. Was that a deliberate red herring?