Kristin Janz

Category: My published fiction

  • “Children of Cronus” out in Silent Screams

    I have another new story out, my third this year. “Children of Cronus” has appeared in Silent Screams: An Anthology of Socially Conscious Dark Fiction, edited by Josh Strnad. The Kindle version is available now, with the paperback edition to follow in a few weeks.

    From the book description:

    Silent Screams is an anthology of dark speculative fiction focused on drawing awareness to the plight of those who are unable to speak for themselves. Simultaneously humane and horrific, each included tale presents a vision of the macabre animated by a beating heart of compassion.

    It is primarily a horror anthology (although my story is a science fiction tale about human cloning and transplanted brains), so keep that in mind when deciding if this is a book for you. Horror fans should find plenty to appreciate here.

  • “As Travelers in Sky Boats” now out at Escape Pod

    My story “As Travelers in Sky Boats” is now up at science fiction podcast Escape Pod.  You can listen to it, narrated by Ibba Armancas, or read it at the website.  Or both!

    It’s about clueless cultural anthropologists (in space!), and an island culture not especially enamored with what Star Trek fans might refer to as the Prime Directive.

    A sample:

    My sister blames the Travelers.  Before they came, she says, we were content within the small world we knew.  No one wondered what lay beyond the flat blue horizon where ocean met sky, or who journeyed between the stars.  Children never complained that there was an easier way to mend fishing nets, that they did not like the taste of seaweed.  Men did not abandon responsibilities to pursue the impossible fantasy of becoming Travelers themselves.

    One rainy night, when both she and the water leaking through our roof were keeping me awake, I told her that she sounded like a Traveler when she spoke that way.  Who was she–or they–to tell me how I should live, what I could know or not know?

     

  • New story out in SQ Mag

    My story “Thou Hast by Moonlight at Her Window Sung” is in the latest edition of SQ Mag, from Australia.  They publish in a webzine format, with all the stories available to read for free online.  So check it out, and check out the other stories in the magazine!  I haven’t read them yet (it just came out today), but there’s a story by Mike Resnick, so it’s not all newbie authors (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).

    Editor Sophie Yorkston wrote the perfect blurb for the story, so I’m just going to quote it here instead of trying to come up with my own:

    Trapped in another world, lured there with lies, the servants of the castle toil in the kitchen at dishes both tantalising and glorious. If not for the beauty of this world, perhaps they could leave…

    I originally wrote this story at the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2008, where it was critiqued by none other than Connie Willis (and my 16 wonderful classmates).  (If you don’t know who Connie Willis is, you should remedy that–start with To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book.)  I’m thrilled that it’s finally found a home, although not before tying with my 2014 story “It Is Beautiful Here” for most-rejected-but-still-eventually-published, at 31 rejections.  (Writing isn’t a game for the thin-skinned!)

  • New story out in Daily Science Fiction

    My new story “The Workshop at the End of the World” is now out at Daily Science Fiction (click to read).  It’s so short that I don’t want to give away too much by trying to explain it, but here’s how it starts:

    The workshop’s bright interior felt like a sauna after the numbing midwinter cold outdoors.  The old man immediately took off his fur-lined hat and gloves and started unfastening the buttons of his greatcoat.  His workers glanced up from benches and forge upon his entrance, but they took too much pride in their work to set it aside and rush to greet him.

    I think it will become quickly apparent (if it hasn’t already) why the story was published in late December.

    If you like super-short science fiction and fantasy stories, you might want to subscribe to Daily Science Fiction.  It’s free, and they’ll email you a new story each day (Monday through Thursday, at any rate).  Just look for the Subscribe heading on the sidebar to the right of my story, in the link above.

  • New story out in NewMyths.com

    My latest story just came out in Issue 30 of NewMyths.com.  “Twenty-Seven Images of Retribution” concerns a young man determined to avenge his father’s death, while struggling to come to terms with how his father failed him, his mother, and their people.

  • New story out in Crowded

    Sometimes it can seem as if I hardly ever get a story published.  So it’s exciting to announce, only a month after my last new story came out, that “It Is Beautiful Here” is now up at Crowded Magazine.

    Crowded has an interesting concept, which you can read about if you click around their site a bit.  The stories they publish are selected by their readers and prospective authors; they’ve “crowd-sourced” story selection, so to speak (hence the name of their magazine).  If you’re interested in publishing a story with them, you post it to the submission pool, and anyone who’s either a subscriber or who has submitted a story of their own has the opportunity to read it, give it a rating of 1 to 4 stars, and provide “constructive criticism”.  Stories are submitted anonymously, so no one reading your story knows who wrote it while they’re deciding what rating to give (and only the aforementioned subscribers and authors are able to see the submission pool).

    The story concerns a young man who wakes one morning from unsettling dreams to find that he has started turning into a tree (with apologies to Franz Kafka).

    I hope you enjoy it!

  • New story out in Fantasy Short Stories

    My story “Brother’s Keeper” just came out in the latest issue of Fantasy Short Stories.  This is a sequel to my earlier story “The Year of the Bear”, published in Allegory way back in 2010.  I’ll leave it to you to decide whether the four-year gap is due to the vagaries of publishing, or to how slowly I write.

    “Brother’s Keeper” has a “traditional” fantasy setting.  With elves.  And a strong-willed 14-year old female protagonist.  Depending on your own reading preferences, you can take this as either endorsement or warning.

    Here’s the tagline:

    Aleine can’t stand her annoying younger brother Imry, who never gets in trouble for anything and was born with the ability to do magic, an ability Aleine desperately wishes she had.  But now Imry is in danger, and Aleine the only one with any chance of rescuing him in time.

    I hope it won’t be another four years before you see the third installment!

  • New story out in Kaleidotrope

    My story “City of the Dying Sun” is now out in the current issue of Kaleidotrope.  Click on the link to read it!  It’s set in the same world as the novel I’ve been working on forever, but takes place many years earlier.  There’s an elf in it, but I avoided using the e-word or mentioning his pointy ears.

    “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” and “The Year of the Bear” are also set in this secondary world, but are closer in time to the events of the novel.

  • Part Nine of “The Guild of Swordsmen”

    The ninth and final installment of my novella “The Guild of Swordsmen” is now up at Silver Blade.  This is the first time I’ve had a story serialized, so it’s been fun seeing each successive part come out (even though I knew what was going to happen).

    For anyone who’s been waiting to read it until the entire story was available, here are the links to each “chapter”:

    Part 1
    Part 2
    Part 3
    Part 4
    Part 5
    Part 6
    Part 7
    Part 8
    Part 9

  • Part Eight of “The Guild of Swordsmen”

    In which Lida bends the rules, somewhat.

    Only one more installment to go!