Getting Festive with Fiction

It’s December! The last month of the year! The holiday season! Where did the time go? A lot has happened over this past year, and a lot is still to come, but you know what’s been constant: stories. So join me in getting festive with some fiction in these final days of 2024.

2024 SFF Awards Eligibility (Again)

As the new year approaches, ballots are going to start opening up for SFFH awards for stories published in 2024. Permit me to quickly toss my hat in the ring (again) for my eligible works this year and humbly ask for your consideration as you look to your own ballots and general shoutouts:

You can find this same list with links to read/access my stories on my website at the button below:

SFFH Award News

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is the host of the Nebula Awards and they have recently announced that in the coming year there will be a new category for the Nebulas to award best speculative poetry. This is a fantastic change to the program. Speculative poetry has had a firm and well-loved place in the genre and it deserves just as much recognition as prose. I cannot wait to see this new medium raised up and read more widely because of this change.

If you are interested in reading more speculative poetry, you need look no further than your favorite speculative short fiction magazines. Many of them publish poems alongside stories in their issues. I recommend starting with Small Wonders magazine.

Bingo!

How’s your Award Season Bingo card looking? Got a bingo? Blackout? On to your second, third, fourth card? I, personally, am going for a blackout card by the end of the year. Here’s a peek at my card at the time I am writing this:

It’s not too late to get in the game! Snag your own bingo card at the links below and start spreading the love for your favorite stories (and now poems!) you’ve read this year.

Poems and Stories and Novels—Oh my!

Wondering where to get started reading all the awesome stories that came out in 2024? (I mean, you can always start with my stuff since you’re already here.) Well, good news: A.C. Wise has put together her community list of authors’ award eligibility posts. Follow the link below to check out what everyone’s done in 2024:

I’ve also been busy trying to snag me a blackout card for bingo, promoting the stories I’ve loved across social media, forums, and word of mouth with friends and family. Here’s a list of what I’ve recommended so far in case you’ve missed any of them:

• “The Life You’ve Given Me, Rusty” by P.A. Cornell | Lightspeed October 2024

• The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark | Tordotcom August 2024

• “Sever and Bind” by Amanda Helms | Beneath Ceaseless Skies May 2024

• “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou | Uncanny May/June 2024

• “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim | Lightspeed May 2024

• “We Will Bring Siege to the Bastion of Sin That Cries Out in Your Prayer” by Hammond Diehl | Lightspeed November 2024

• “How Sara Found the Possum That Held Time in Its Pouch Under Her Porch, Then Lost It” by S.L. Harris | Small Wonders April 2024

• The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong | Ace (Penguin Random House) November 2024

• “Patience is the Virtue” by Aimee Ogden | Weird Horror #8 Spring 2024

• “Ecdysis” by Samir Sirk Morató | PodCastle September 2024

• “Angi” by Nibedita Sen | Sunday Morning Transport January 2024

• The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills | Tachyon Publications April 2024

End of the Year Submission Stats

So, what does a year in the life of a short story writer look like in numbers? Well, let’s take a look. At the time of writing this newsletter, here are my submission stats:

Year: 2024
New Stories Written: 9
Total Submissions: 116
_{Acceptances: 2
Rejections (Form): 84
Rejections (Personal): 14
Withdrawn/No Response: 3
Pending: 13}
Publications: 8
Money Earned: $234.88

Glamorous, I know. Actually, I am very proud of my work this year. For the past 4 years I’ve seen steady progress across all measurements in my writing, and this year set a record for number of stories written and published. I’m hoping to continue this trend in 2025 and start adding longer form works to my resume (and maybe, yeah, make some more money).

Happy Holidays, everyone. May the season be filled with blessings and beauty and oh so many books. See you in 2025.

Keep on writing on.

—Catherine