Kristin Janz

Tag: short fiction

  • Welcome to the Mythic Orbits blog tour!

    Today I have a guest post from Travis Perry, the editor and publisher of the Mythic Orbits anthology series (Volume 2 of which includes my story “The Workshop at the End of the World” and my husband Donald S. Crankshaw’s “Her Majesty’s Guardian”). This is part of the Mythic Orbits blog tour.

    The full schedule for the blog tour appears at the bottom of the post, so if you’re interested in reviews, interviews with Travis and some of the authors, and some additional reflections from Travis on the kinds of stories that appear, be sure to check out some of the other stops on the tour!

    Mysterion (the online magazine Donald and I publish) will be running an interview with Travis on October 15th as part of our regular interview feature.

    About Mythic Orbits

    You might be wondering what in the world “Mythic Orbits” refers to. I’m not sure if it will help reassure you to tell you the name Mythic Orbits was simply intended to suggest both science fiction and fantasy and to identify these books in a distinctive way, along with any that follow after in the series.

    Just as these anthologies represent a wide variety of genres, there is no common theme to these tales, though the subject of empathy or lack thereof does come up in them repeatedly. This is most definitely not an anthology about orbits which are somehow mythical.

    These anthologies are a showcase for the best stories submitted in the general field of speculative fiction by Christian authors. They represent a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal.

    The main goal of these anthologies was to demonstrate that Christian authors can write speculative fiction well. Stories with a wide range of appeal are included here, mostly serious, some with humor, some with “happy endings” and others clearly not so happy. All of them worth reading.

    Some of these stories feature Christian characters in speculative fiction worlds, some make use of Christian themes either subtly or overtly, while some have no discernible connection to Christianity at all. Christian authors are featured in this collection rather than specifically Christian-themed stories.

    So, is it widely known all over the world that Christians write speculative fiction?

    Well, clearly Christians who themselves are speculative fiction writers know what they write. But does everybody else?

    Especially when we’re talking about theologically conservative Christians, Evangelicals of some sort, professed Bible-believing Christians, do people know about their works? Is it legitimate for people to wonder if writers with personal convictions along these lines produce speculative fiction, that is, science fiction and fantasy and related genres like LitRPG, paranormal, and horror?

    These books provide an answer: Not only do Christian writers produce speculative fiction stories, they write some great ones.

    Enjoy these examples!

    Travis Perry (Editor and Publisher) Travissbigidea.blogspot.com http://bearpublications.com/

    Mythic Orbits 2016

    Description:

    Fourteen of the best speculative fiction stories by Christian authors, spinning science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal genres into worlds of intrigue and delight. Featuring “Graxin” by Kerry Nietz, author of Amish Vampires in Space and A Star Curiously Singing, Mythic Orbits 2016 has something for every speculative fiction fan.

    Mythic Orbits Vol. 2

    Description:

    In a series praised by Tosca Lee, Kathy Tyers, and Kerry Nietz, this anthology of eleven speculative fiction stories by Christian authors shines in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and LitRPG genres. Featuring Kat Heckenbach’s “Mark the Days,” this collection has something for every speculative fiction fan.

    Featured Authors & Links:

    Mark Venturini (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Venturini/e/B00G14LU1W

    Jill Domschot (Mythic Orbits 2016) http://jilldomschot.com/

    Richard New ( Mythic Orbits 2016) http://www.richardnewauthor.com/

    Kirk Outerbridge (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.amazon.com/Kirk-Outerbridge/e/B002RXBRUK

    Cindy Emmet Smith (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.amazon.com/Cindy-Emmet-Smith/e/B00GFY8IF4

    Lisa Gefrides (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.lisagodfrees.com/

    L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright (Mythic Orbits 2016) http://www.ljagilamplighter.com/

    Joshua M. Young (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.amazon.com/Joshua-M.-Young/e/B00OM8RLJE

    Matthew Sketchley (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15611197.Matthew_Sketchley

    R. V. Saunders ( Mythic Orbits 2016) http://bearpublications.com/our-authors/ Sherry Rossman (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://sherryrossman.com/

    Kerry Nietz (Mythic Orbits 2016) https://www.nietz.com/ Linda Burklin (Mythic Orbits 2016 & Vol. 2) https://steadfastscribe.wordpress.com/

    Kat Heckenbach (Mythic Orbits 2016 & Mythic Orbits 2) http://www.katheckenbach.com/

    Steve Rzasa (Mythic Orbits 2) https://www.steverzasa.com/

    Donald S. Crankshaw (Mythic Orbits 2) www.donaldscrankshaw.com

    CW Briar (Mythic Orbits 2) http://www.cwbriar.com/

    Cindy Koepp (Mythic Orbits 2) https://ckoepp.com/

    C. O. Bonham (Mythic Orbits 2) http://www.cobonham.com

    Kristin Janz (Mythic Orbits 2) https://kristinjanz.com

    William Bontrager (Mythic Orbits 2) https://soundcloud.com/william-bontrager

    A. K. Meek (Mythic Orbits 2) http://www.akmeek.com/

    Keturah Lamb (Mythic Orbits 2) http://keturahskorner.blogspot.com

    Blog Tour Schedule

    Oct. 7th–C.O. Bonham (kick-off) www.cobonham.com

    Oct. 8th–Kristin Janz (spotlight) https://kristinjanz.com

    –Travis Perry (Empathy or lack thereof in Mythic Orbits) Travissbigidea.blogspot.com

    Oct. 9th–Josh Smith at The New Authors’ Fellowship (review) newauthors.wordpress.com

    Oct. 10th–L. Jagi Lamplighter (guest post by Cindy Koepp) http://www.superversivesf.com/

    –Julia Menard (interviews/spotlight) https://writersblockandapotoftea.wordpress.com/

    Oct. 11th–Sherry Rossman (guest post by C.O. Bonham) https://sherryrossman.com/

    –Laura A. Grace (interview with C.O. Bonham) https://unicornquester.com/

    Oct. 12th–Kristen Stieffel at The New Authors’ Fellowship (guest post by Cindy Koepp on Gamer Lit) newauthors.wordpress.com

    Oct. 13th–Linda Burklin (review) https://steadfastscribe.wordpress.com/

    Oct. 14th–Laura Storm Hancock (spotlight) https://storystorming.wordpress.com/

    Oct. 15th–Mysterion (interview with Travis Perry) http://www.mysteriononline.com

    –Hillary Koenig (interview with Keturah Lamb) http://www.godlygirlsforgod.com/interviews.html

    Oct. 16th–Josh Smith at The New Authors’ Fellowship (interview with Travis Perry) newauthors.wordpress.com

    Oct. 17th–Keturah Lamb (review) http://keturahskorner.blogspot.com/?m=1

    –H.L. Burke (spotlight) hlburkeblog.com

    Oct. 18th–Travis Perry (guest post by C.O. Bonham) Travissbigidea.blogspot.com

    Oct. 19th–Donald S. Crankshaw (review) www.donaldscrankshaw.com

    Oct. 20th–Joshua Young (Mythic Orbits 2 review) http://www.superversivesf.com/

     

  • “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.

  • “Woman Moving to the Country” now available for Kindles and Kindle apps

    I just published my literary fiction story “Woman Moving to the Country” on the Kindle platform.  This story originally came out about a year ago in Prairie Fire, a Canadian literary journal.  But Prairie Fire can be difficult to get your hands on outside of Canada, and since several issues of the journal have now come and gone, I figured it might be worthwhile to re-release the story.  If you have a Kindle or a device with the Kindle app, you can buy the story here for only 99 cents.  (You don’t need to buy a Kindle to read Kindle books; you can get a free Kindle app for pretty much any computer, tablet or smart phone here.)

    It doesn’t have a cover yet, because I figure that only people who know me personally are likely to buy it right now, and they probably won’t be swayed one way or the other by whether I invest a few hours teaching myself how to use Microsoft Publisher so I can cobble together a pretty cover image.  But I’ll try to add one eventually.  You know, for when I’m famous.

    This story contains no fantasy or science fiction content whatsoever.  Just so you aren’t disappointed when you get to the end and realize that there was not a single elf (not one!) appearing anywhere within the story.  (I am aware that for some, this is a plus, not a minus.  Haters!)

  • Audio version of “Sons of God, Daughters of Men” now available

    If you like listening to stories instead of (or in addition to) reading them, an audio version of my story “Sons of God, Daughters of Men” is now available at Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Magazine (scroll down a little and look on the right-hand side, under “Audio Short Stories”).  The text version is also still available here.

    I did the narration myself, using my desktop computer with a USB plug-in mic.  It was an interesting experience.  When I listened to the first take, I noticed that I could hear a distracting popping sound whenever I pronounced the letter “p” (and sometimes the letter “b” and a few others).  This is a known phenomenon, caused by puffs of air emitted with aspirated letters hitting the microphone (if you want to do an internet search and learn more, be sure to search for “popping p’s”, not “p-popping”, or you’ll learn about … other things).  I was able to eliminate the problem in the final take by holding a jury-rigged microphone filter–made out of an old knee-high nylon stocking stretched over a wire coathanger–between my mouth and the mic. But then it was a bit difficult to also hold the reading copy of the story I’d printed out in the other hand at an angle such that I could see it past the pantyhose-covered coathanger. Eventually, I settled on reading from my laptop while recording on the desktop, my eyes darting from text to mic to recording outputs. A little awkward, but functional.

    Makeshift microphone filter

    I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with my reading performance, but I’m not a voice actor and I’d never done this before. I think I overcompensate at the beginning for my fear that I might read too quickly, and my pauses between sentences are overly long. It does improve as I get more into the story. If I were doing this again, I might re-record the opening, and splice it into the current draft. But I was also learning how to use the recording software and wasn’t sure I’d figure out how to do that. (Turns out I had to, as I dropped something at one point, and had to cut out the clatter and subsequent gap in narration while I recollected myself.)

    I gave this warning when I originally posted about the story being out in the magazine in the spring, but just to reiterate, it’s the least kid-friendly story I’ve ever written (sex with demons!), so probably not appropriate for story time with the young ones.

  • Donald’s story out in Daily Science Fiction

    It’s been over a month since I last posted. Shame on me! However, having not yet discovered the magic formula where I avoid distractions all day and get as much writing done as I think I should, I figured I would at least use the time spent sitting at my computer for actual fiction writing, rather than blogging about fiction writing (or about all the cooking I’m doing instead of fiction writing).

    I would be remiss in my wifely duties, though, if I failed to mention that my husband Donald’s short story “Her Majesty’s Guardian” is now out in Daily Science Fiction, an excellent online magazine.  If you’re already a subscriber, you would have received this in your email inbox a week ago, but now it’s live on the website for everyone to enjoy.  It’s a great story, and very short, so I hope you’ll all have a chance to read it.

    Here’s a picture of Donald for you to enjoy, from our Italian honeymoon back in May.  This was taken in an ancient tavern in Ostia Antica, the old port of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber River.

    Donald posing as an ancient Roman bartender

    Speaking of ancient Rome, Donald and I are thrilled to be “embark[ing] on a culinary exploration of ancient Pompeii” tonight, with help from the Museum of Science.  Donald is excited that all the courses include some sort of meat.  I’m hoping that the wine pairings won’t be served traditional style (i.e., diluted 3:1 with water).

  • The Empty Family, by Colm Toibin

    I just finished reading The Empty Family, the new short story collection by Irish literary author Colm Toibin (apologies for the lack of accents; I’m not a sophisticated enough blogger to know if WordPress has a way of including accents in foreign words).  I try to not read just high fantasy, even though that’s what I like best, because I think that reading more broadly makes me a better writer (at least, I hope that it will).  Of course, this means that I don’t actually get around to reading most of the big high fantasy titles that come out each year.  But I think the trade-off is worth it.  I think when I just read the same sorts of stories all the time, I develop a terribly narrow view of what constitutes good fiction, and I like trying to learn what appeals to other readers in a book that I might not be quite as excited about as, say, the latest installment in A Song of Ice and Fire.

    What I found most compelling about the stories in Toibin’s collection was his wonderful skill of characterization.  The individuals who populate these stories are all complex and vividly portrayed, sometimes less aware than the reader of what’s going on around them, sometimes self-deceptive, but always fascinating.  My favorite story was “The New Spain”, about a young woman returning home a few years after Franco’s death, after living in London for several years.  The family summer home on Menorca has changed in the years she’s been away, leading to conflicts with her parents and sister; but perhaps she also bears some of the blame for the changes that she loathes.  It’s a beautiful, slow-moving examination of coming home after enough years have passed to change both the traveler and the homeland.

    I also really liked “The Colour of Shadows”, about a man caring for the dying aunt who raised him after he was abandoned by his mother, and “The Street”, about two Pakistani immigrant men in Barcelona and the relationship that develops between them.  I have a sense that the stories I liked best were the ones that, to me, seemed to have the most momentum, or plot, where I was intrigued because it felt that things were happening and I wanted to know what would happen next.  I think this is a genre reader/writer thing, and it seems to me that in literary fiction, it’s perfectly acceptable to write a story that is a close examination of a key moment in a character’s life, but in which (to a prejudiced genre reader) not a lot seems to happen.

    It’s good to see what authors will do when they’re not working under the constraints that I’m used to.  I found the characterizations in Toibin’s collection much deeper and richer and also more subtle than I usually find in fantasy or science fiction short stories.  But I still liked best the stories where he brought this skill of characterization to a situation with more obvious conflict and momentum.

  • Mystic Signals Magazine

    Continuing in the vein of finally getting around to reading magazines that have my stories in them, I recently finished Issue 10 of Mystic Signals.  At least I finished this one before the new issue was out!  Mystic Signals is a print compilation of all the stories that have appeared in the two most recent issues of online magazines Sorcerous Signals and The Lorelei Signal.  It’s available from Amazon, but you can also read it for free at the link above.

    Each issue of Mystic Signals, a quarterly publication, features two “print-exclusive” stories in addition to the online content of the parent magazines, and my story “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” was one of these.  My favorite story in the issue I read was the other print-only story:  “The Exchange Box”, by Terry W. Ervin.  Sallie is a single mother on welfare who’s offered a chance at some quick, legal money.  All she has to do is place her hand into a mysterious box.  But each encounter with the box comes at a cost, and it’s not clear to Sallie whether the force connected to the box is generous or malevolent.  I liked how the box’s true nature remained ambiguous until the very end of the story; I didn’t know which way it was going to turn out.  And I also liked the compassionate but also realistic portrayal of how difficult it is even for intelligent, well-intentioned people to pull themselves out of poverty, even with a stroke of unnaturally good fortune.

    I also liked Lauren LeBano’s “The Strawberry Banshee”, about an unpopular teenage girl and the dangerous creature she harbors; and “On the Reproductive Habits of Elves”, by Edward W. Robertson, an entertaining examination of why long-lived elves seem to have so few children, and whether everything about elven culture is all that it appears to be.

    Issue 10 of Mystic Signals is still available, if you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet!

  • Strange, Weird, & Wonderful Magazine

    I finally finished reading the Spring 2011 issue of Strange, Weird, & Wonderful Magazine (in which my story “Sons of God, Daughters of Men” appears).  Of course, now the summer issue is out.*  Oh well.  What with getting laid off from my job and concentrating on writing-related pursuits full-time, I should be able to keep up better with all the fiction I want to read, in a more timely fashion.  (Donald says that there’s no way I’ll find time to do all the things I have planned for after I get laid off.)

    My favorite story in the issue was Tom Greene’s “Turnover”.  Vivica has just started a new job as assistant to Mr. Perkins, an eccentric man who controls the office supply inventory at his workplace.  The story really shines in its characterization of Vivica, a woman for whom the ideal job is “entering inventories and distributions of supplies into long columns on preprinted forms, putting forms into color-coded envelopes that the boy from the mail room picked up, reconciling records of supplies in different departments.”  Also in its portrayal of the sinister Mr. Perkins, who hates to see any employee request anything more valuable than a stick of staples.  And what exactly does Mr. Perkins keep in the locked supply closet that Vivica has been forbidden to open?  Of course, it’s no surprise that Vivica does find an urgent reason to look in the mysterious supply closet, and that there’s more to Mr. Perkins than she originally thought; but the story adds enough interesting twists to this familiar trope that I found it a very compelling read.

    * Even though the summer issue is out now, the spring issue is still available at the link above.

  • Prairie Fire review

    My story “Woman Moving to the Country” was published in Prairie Fire magazine at the beginning of this year, and I promised in my blog post announcing the publication that I would write about the other stories in the issue once I received my contributor’s copy. Well, um, they weren’t that slow in sending it. I just haven’t been able to make time before now. The first few months of this year were rather busy, for some reason.

    Prairie Fire is a quarterly Canadian print literary magazine, publishing both short fiction and poetry (the issue I was in featured 6 stories, an essay, and 21 poems). I feel I should offer the disclaimer that I tend to write and read mostly genre, not literary, fiction; which means that I might be looking for different things in a story than the typical target reader of a literary journal such as Prairie Fire. So don’t assume I know what I’m talking about here!

    For me, the most memorable stories were Colin Snowsell’s “The Driver” and Kirsten Madsen’s “The Cold Snap”. Snowsell’s story makes effective use of an unreliable narrator, and a twist ending that the reader sees coming soon enough to appreciate the poignancy of the situation, but not so soon that the twist feels too obvious. “The Cold Snap” is primarily about the narrator’s affair with an older married man (37 years old! Ancient!), but also about her relationships with the other people in her life. I appreciated how we see her assessment of other people change and deepen as she comes to know them better, particularly her younger coworker at the coffee shop, and her lover’s wife. I wasn’t convinced that the titular cold snap was an essential aspect of the story, though. Madsen’s descriptions of the frigid northern Canadian winter were richly descriptive, but I ended up feeling that the same story could just as well have been set in any small, remote town.

    Interestingly, all the stories in the issue were written in first person. I don’t know if this is more typical of literary fiction, or just coincidence; in the fantasy and science fiction world, we certainly don’t avoid first person, but I’d say the majority of stories are told in third person, and in fact, some prominent f/sf editors actively dislike first person. Maybe the intimate nature of first person works better for the more internal sorts of stories that literary fiction tends to feature? (Or maybe I should read a few more literary magazines before venturing such a judgment.)

    It’s even harder for me to judge poetry than literary fiction, since I read even less of it. And since I tend to be more interested in plot and character development than in imagery or beautiful language, I’m really out of my depth with poetry. Having said this, among the poems in the issue I particularly liked “Harry Mayzell’s Suit” by Harold Rhenisch (because it tells a story), Ellen Shearer’s “Hydrangea (after Plath)” (I found the imagery striking, and I liked the bitter edge), and R. Johnson’s “cat walk” (possibly because of its scorn for those who don’t love cats, and because it’s also the story of a relationship, in all its brevity).

    Anne Simpson was the featured writer for this issue, with 4 poems and an essay. I loved the gorgeous use of nature imagery in her poems, and found her essay on “Poetry and Community” challenging and thought-provoking in its exploration (among other things) of how writers, whose work is so often inward-focused, also need to look outside themselves into the lives and experiences of others.

    The next issue of Prairie Fire is out now, featuring, among others, poet Neile Graham, whom I know from the Clarion West Workshop. It would have been lovely to have been in the same issue as Neile, but alas, it was not to be! If you didn’t have a chance to read the issue with my story, and would still like to, back issues are orderable here. The one you’re looking for is Volume 31, Issue 4, featuring Anne Simpson.

  • New story available in Mystic Signals

    My story “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” is now out in Mystic Signals. You can download a PDF version for free right here.

    If you like paper, a hard copy of the magazine is also available for $12. Once you get to the link, scroll down a little, and you’ll see it on the lower right.

    “The Shoemaker’s Daughter” is another traditional fantasy, set in the world in which I’m writing that long fantasy series I’ve been working on forever. The story contains a brief shout-out to elves (so to speak), but no actual elves appear onstage.

    The genesis of the story is perhaps a little odd, in that it was inspired by an NPR interview with a well-known former child celebrity whose career had been closely managed by his overbearing father. For some reason that stuck with me, and as it was tossing around in my head, I also started thinking about the part in Les Miserables where Jean Valjean rescues Cossette from the Thenardier family, who are supposed to be looking after her, but instead are working her to death as a servant. In that case, it turns out to be a good thing for Cossette that the mysterious stranger takes her away; but the Thenardiers don’t have any way of knowing that. What if the stranger’s motives were (possibly) less benevolent?

    Enjoy!