Kristin Janz

Category: Short fiction

  • “The Price of Healing” in Kzine

    My neolithic elf story “The Price of Healing” has just come out in Issue 17 of Kzine.  This one is set in the same world as “City of the Dying Sun”, “The Shoemaker’s Daughter”, “The Year of the Bear”, “Brother’s Keeper”, and “Twenty-Seven Images of Retribution”; but it takes place thousands of years before any of the others, in a milieu inspired by late prehistoric Egypt.  With elves!  (I don’t call them elves, because I’ve learned that it’s easier to get short stories published if you avoid using the e-word or mentioning their pointy ears.)

    Yes, I’m working on a novel set in this world.  No, it isn’t done yet.

    Kzine is a genre fiction magazine for the Kindle, although a paperback version is also available.  They publish science fiction, fantasy, horror, and crime fiction, so it’s great for people who prefer reading magazines where each story is different.  Some publications are aiming for a particular sub-genre or aesthetic, and while that can be really interesting if it happens to be a sub-genre you especially love, the downside is that all the stories can start to seem the same after a while (like reading a short fiction collection by one author with a distinctive style).  Kzine is trying to mix things up a bit and publish a lot of very different stories together all in one issue.  So if that sounds like something you’d enjoy, check them out!  The e-book is free if you’re a Kindle Unlimited member, $2.49 otherwise ($4.50 for the paperback).

  • “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?

     

  • Mysterion now available for purchase

    Well, posts here have been scarce this year.  Apparently editing and publishing an anthology is a lot of work.  Who knew?

    Mysterion cover flat

    I’m very excited to announce, however, that the anthology Donald and I have spent much of the last year working on is now available from Amazon and other fine retailers (specifically, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo).  (Amazon has both the paperback and eBook; the others only have the eBook right now, although Barnes & Noble should eventually have the paperback as well.)

    Our hope is that the book will be of interest not only to Christians, but to anyone with an interest in fiction exploring spiritual and religious themes.  It isn’t “Christian fiction” in the traditional sense.  We didn’t insist on “clean” content or that the stories had to uphold Christian beliefs and values.  We did want fiction that felt authentic to our own experience of the faith, but we didn’t feel that every story had to portray Christianity in an unambiguously positive way.

    If you do read the anthology, please consider reviewing it at Amazon and/or other retailers (or Goodreads, or your own blog, or…).  Even critical reviews (thoughtful ones, at least) can help other readers decide whether they would like the book.

    We’re thrilled to finally get this out into the world for readers to engage with!

     

  • Table of Contents Announcement

    Donald S. Crankshaw and I are pleased to announce the Table of Contents for our forthcoming anthology Mysterion: Rediscovering the Mysteries of the Christian Faith. Authors include Nebula nominees Beth Cato and Kenneth Schneyer, plus 18 others, newcomers and veterans alike.

    “The Monastic” by Daniel Southwell
    “When I Was Dead” by Stephen Case
    “Forlorn” by Bret Carter
    “Too Poor to Sin” by H. L. Fullerton
    “Golgotha” by David Tallerman
    “A Lack of Charity” by James Beamon
    “Of Thine Impenetrable Spirit” by Robert B. Finegold, MD
    “A Good Hoard” by Pauline J. Alama
    “Yuri Gagarin Sees God” by J. S. Bangs
    “Confinement” by Kenneth Schneyer
    “The Angel Hunters” by Christian Leithart
    “Cutio” by F. R. Michaels
    “St. Roomba’s Gospel” by Rachael K. Jones
    “Yuki and the Seven Oni” by S. Q. Eries
    “A Recipe for Rain and Rainbows” by Beth Cato
    “This Far Gethsemane” by G. Scott Huggins
    “Ascension” by Laurel Amberdine
    “Cracked Reflections” by Joanna Michal Hoyt
    “The Physics of Faith” by Mike Barretta
    “Horologium” by Sarah Ellen Rogers

    We received over 450 submissions, out of which we accepted only 20, turning away many stories that we both would have loved to include.

    The anthology should be out sometime this summer; in the meantime, you can pre-order through our Patreon site, and/or subscribe to the Mysterion newsletter for more frequent updates.

  • 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!