New Story Collections: Heroes, Apocalypse, Loyalty and Betrayal
Embarrassment is a poor motivation for writing, so I won’t be ashamed about how little readers have seen of me over the past few years. I haven’t been wasting my time – I’ve edited dozens of amazing novels, helped to plan two Waukesha County Sustainability Fairs, and found out this online dating thing might be all it’s cracked up to be (even if it means off-line interactions require an hour-long drive. I’m taking audiobook recommendations, by the way!). All...
Read MoreHeroic Fantasy Author Q&A
Flame Tree Publishing’s gorgeous hardcover Heroic Fantasy anthology will be released July 31st. As the date approaches, contributors are sharing the inspirations behind our stories at the Flame Tree blog. From writing challenges to a love of H.P. Lovecraft and Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog to pure stubbornness because someone said you should never do something, it’s a interesting peak under the hood. Previews of the book are available in Flame Tree’s store. Heroic...
Read MoreA Checklist to Start Publishing Short Fiction
This post originally went live on Fictionvale in 2014 and was reprinted in Short Story Writer Magazine. Unfortunately, Fictionvale has since closed and the article is no longer available online. I’m taking the opportunity to repost it while I’m moving to my new apartment and have less time available to blog. While it’s focused on writing short fiction, the advice may also be helpful to novelists, article writers, artists, and anyone curious about how publishing works on the...
Read More“Of the Generation” in Heroic Fantasy Anthology from Flame Tree Publishing
Flame Tree Publishing has posted the Tables of Contents for its new Gothic Fantasy anthologies: Time Travel and Heroic Fantasy. It’s pretty unreal to be on the same list as the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The full ToC for Heroic Fantasy is: A Matter of Interpretation by M. Elizabeth Ticknor Burned Away by Kate O’Connor Dragon and Wolf by Zach Chapman Erzabet and the Gladiators by Susan Murrie Macdonald Five Fruits I Ate in Sandar Land by Michael Haynes Laya by Voss...
Read MoreLiving with Imposter Syndrome
This post originally went live on Fictionvale in 2014. Unfortunately, Fictionvale has since closed and the article is no longer available online. I’m taking the opportunity to repost it while I’m moving to my new apartment and have less available to blog. If you’re currently battling a bout of imposter syndrome, I hope it proves timely. This is a piece to read not when you’re fleeing constructive criticism, but when no feedback, not even positive feedback, feels...
Read More“John Kosichev” in Storyteller magazine
As I said in my last post, it turns out that when you send stories regularly in answer to calls for submissions, you sometimes get stories accepted! I’m very excited to break my long publishing silence with a release in a new magazine, Storyteller, with a story that’s been a particular favorite of mine (even when it took a few drafts), “John Kosichev.” This issue of Storyteller includes some gripping and rather timely stories tackling issues of virtual reality,...
Read MoreAqua Vitae
Jenes Inarya wants to live to experience everything, and it just might be possible. Her quest for immortality leads her through myth and legend to the farthest reaches of the galaxy (well, so the Jericho magazine article said, although it’s prone to exaggeration). And it’s only the beginning. The rest of a very long life is about to start–but Jenes doesn’t yet know how to live it. “Aqua Vitae is only 70-pages long, but manages to pack a lot…part...
Read More12 Words to (Almost Always) Cut
Strong stories are not necessarily short. They don’t need to be Hemingway-esque masterpieces of bare prose (even Hemingway didn’t always write that way). And it would be hypocritical to argue for only short sentences or short paragraphs when I have to make a conscious effort to write either. But in a strong story, every word counts. And no word is misplaced or ill-chosen. The vocabulary is vivid and usually varied, plus precise (though alliteration is optional). Words do not...
Read MoreThe Big List of Writing Writing Resources, Part One
You can write your story with nothing but a reasonably flat surface and something that leaves a mark, but it’s a lot easier when you have the right tools. Happily, there are a lot of useful resources out there. Here are some of my favorites. I encountered a few while writing The Starter Guide for Professional Writers (about which I have exciting news: revisions and expansions are underway for a second edition! The past two years have seen some interesting changes in the publishing...
Read MoreLiving With Imposter Syndrome–Guest Post Live on Fictionvale!
The first mercy of impostor syndrome, in my experience at least, is that it isn’t constant. Instead it attacks at intervals, at moments of either my deepest despair or highest success. Of course success attracts this psychological beastie’s attention: in the grips of impostor syndrome, my jerky brain is happy to dismiss any achievement as a fluke or a fraud. I’ve either tricked people into thinking I can write, or they’ve reviewed my manuscript favorably from pity for someone so pathetically...
Read MoreAbout Therese
Therese Arkenberg's first short story was accepted for publication on January 2, 2008, and her second acceptance came a few hours later. Since then they haven't always been in such a rush, yet her work appears in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Sword & Sorceress XXIV. Aqua Vitae, her science fiction novella, was released by WolfSinger Publications in December 2011.
She works as a freelance editor and writer in Wisconsin, where she returned after a brief but unforgettable time in Washington, D.C. When she isn't reading, writing, or editing (it's true!) she serves on the board of the Plowshare Center of Waukesha, which works for social, economic, and environmental justice.