Fiction blog

Story sale to An Alphabet of Embers

Published on by Sara Norja

I’m delighted to announce that my story ‘The City Beneath the Sea’ will be appearing in the anthology An Alphabet of Embers, edited by Rose Lemberg and published by Stone Bird Press.

I am so happy to be involved with something this awesome. An Alphabet of Embers sounds like it’s going to be utterly beautiful:

“An Alphabet of Embers would live in that space between poetry and prose, between darkness and sound, between roads and breaths, its pages taut with starlight; between its covers, words would talk to each other, and have an occasional cup of tea.”
– Rose Lemberg (from the Kickstarter page)

Goblin Fruit: Summer Is Dead

Published on by Sara Norja

Huzzah! New Goblin Fruit!

The newest issue, “Summer Is Dead”, is now available for your reading pleasure.

In it – amongst the other poems which I can’t wait to read (including work by Shweta Narayan, Mari Ness and C.S.E. Cooney!) – is my poem ‘Sorrow-stone’.

This poem has a clear source of inspiration, for once. Sometime in 2013, I was listening to the song Manan unia by the Finnish folk music band Suo. (I’ve translated/language checked the lyrics for their past few albums, for the CD covers.) I was also experiencing strong feelings of frustration on behalf of loved ones who were in pain, and me not being able to help. So, the poem came out.

If you’re interested, here are the lyrics for the song (trad., transl. by me):

*

Through the earth, through Manala,
through all six star-pricked layers of Heaven.

I dream the dreams of Mana:
earth-dreams, tree-dreams.
I am on a dangerous journey, an unknown road,
making my way to the hill of pain.

Pain-mittens on my hands,
pain-shoes on my feet.
I walk on needle-points,
on the blades of swords.

There is a rock on top of the hill of pain,
a hole in the middle of the rock
that collects all our pain.
The rock won’t weep for its pains, its pains.

[Mana, Manala – Kingdom of Death]

*

Nanowrimo, Day 9

Published on by Sara Norja

Word count: 14,709/50,000
Beverages enjoyed: Delicious Tanzanian black tea, from a proper teacup with a saucer and everything.
Feeling: Drained. SO DRAINED. But also rather deliriously happy.

During the past week, I’ve been struggling with word count and having energy to write. I’ve just been so busy with work that I haven’t had energy/time to write till around midnight, and I haven’t had too many moments where the words would have flowed easily. But today! I had to write a scene where I killed off a character I like, and even though it was horrible and emotional, I just spent the past couple of hours writing like mad. It feels amazing to have written in such a delirium, for the first time this Nano. I hope this will give me the impetus for more writing moments like that!

It’s been ages since I killed off a character in a story. Didn’t remember it could be this intense.

Stone Telling 11 is live!

Published on by Sara Norja

Stone Telling 11 is up – and it looks utterly awesome. I am so excited to get to read the other poems in the issue!

And I’m very pleased that my poem ‘Kuura (extract from a Finnish-English dictionary)’ is in such good company and in such a wonderful magazine. I’ve been following ST for quite a while now, and dared barely dream that my own poetry might be in it some day. But I dared to send out the poem, and the lovely editors Shweta and Rose wanted it. Happiness! And they’ve chosen a beautiful picture to go with the poem, too.

‘Kuura’ is the first of a series of poems that seek to “explain” certain hard-to-translate Finnish words and moods through poetry. I haven’t been working on them for a while, but should totally continue with it.

Short story publication: Chrysopoeia

Published on by Sara Norja

Be still, my heart!

Quantum Fairy Tales has published my short story ‘Chrysopoeia’! This is officially my first story publication of more than 600 words, so I’m super excited.

Read it here. A wee snippet from the middle:

When his alarm clock rang, Simon snapped awake with the word chrysopoeia running through his mind like a fleeing stag. Chrysopoeia: the transmutation of base elements into gold, his lifelong goal. In order to achieve chrysopoeia, he had to create a true philosopher’s stone, not just the unerringly delicious drink that he mixed several times a night.

It’s about an alchemist bartender. I originally wrote it in a more fairytale-like style ages ago, and because I started it before I knew anything about alchemy, the alchemical theory in it was utterly nonexistent. I rewrote it at the start of this summer, which included adding some “genuine” touches concerning alchemical theory and history, from the readings I’d been doing for my PhD application. I’m really proud of the story in its current published incarnation. (Code for: when I found out it got published just now, I jumped up and down yelling happy obscenities and poured myself another glass of wine.)

I hope you enjoy ‘Chrysopoeia’! Check out the rest of the Fall issue, too. It looks great.

Nanowrimo 2014 is go!

Published on by Sara Norja

November is here, and Nanowrimo with it! Huzzah!

This year, I was going to have an Outline. A proper outline, with the main plotlines all neat and organised, and the major incidents all plotted out. Aww, self, so optimistic.

Well, suffice it to say that as a) I am more of a pantser than a plotter at the best of times, and b) my October was so full of academic busytimes (fun busytimes! good busytimes! but omg so busy!) – I didn’t have much time or energy to plan in great detail. Yes, I’ve had a lot of stuff about this forest world and had general ideas percolating for a while now. I’ve got some history thought out, and sort of a general plot idea, and some characters. But no detailed outline.

Now it’s Nano time, and I’ve decided, OK, screw it, I’m going the tried and true “just start writing and figure out the plot as you go” route. It’s going well so far! I had a horrible time trying to get started today, but once I got some crap written, I suddenly came up with an idea as to how FMC#1 gets to start on her journey. And now I’ve got Chapter 2 sort of planned, too. Also, I have an idea for an ending! So I think it’ll be all right. I’m hoping to have lots of fun, anyway.

Oh yeah, even though I failed at plot-prepping, I did make a map a while back, though! Check it out (still attached to my drawing board with beautiful masking tape)!

nano map 2014

Mmm, watercolours. I should actually shove the image into Gimp and see about actually indicating places on the map… I don’t want to spoil the pretty picture in real life. 🙂

In conclusion:
Word count: 1681
Beverages enjoyed: A glass of red wine
Feeling: Better than I was when I started today! Oh Nanowrimo, I’d missed you so.

Now for some more novelling. I want to get Chapter 1 done today.

Strange Horizons Fund Drive 2014

Published on by Sara Norja

Long time no blog! I’ve had an amazing although exhausting time of it lately, what with a trip to the UK to look at medieval manuscripts, plus two conference things. I was totally exhausted when I came home today, but then I ended up submitting several stories and poems anyway… Relaxation, so hard sometimes.

Anyway! To the point of this post! Which is to say that the Strange Horizons fund drive for 2014 is ongoing. SH is an amazing non-profit speculative magazine – and as can be seen from my rec posts, I often like the stuff they publish. Some of my SH faves from 2014 include:

It’s been a pleasure to have a poem published in SH (and another forthcoming), too, in the company of so many great writers. SH has been great to work with, and of course it’s pretty nice to be paid pro rates. 🙂

Please consider donating to help keep SH alive and publishing awesome, diverse stories and poems (reviews and columns too)!

Sunday recs: Two stories from DSF

Published on by Sara Norja

My PhD studies have kept me busy, but I’ve still made time for reading and writing fiction, too. For what is life without writing and reading? No, seriously, I don’t quite understand people who don’t read for fun. It’s just SO AWESOME.

Anyway, here’s two short stories that I’ve enjoyed during the past week, both from Daily Science Fiction:

Thrash by Deborah Walker. I really liked the twist in this flash story. The ending left me hankering for the story to continue, though. Intriguing world.

When it Ends, He Catches Her by Eugie Foster. A haunting, beautiful story with delicious descriptions of dance. (I just found out that Eugie Foster recently passed away. I figure reading her stories is a good way of keeping her memory alive. So do go and read.)

Sunday recs: Fairytale, memory loss, alien chess

Published on by Sara Norja

Three awesome stories for you this Sunday.

How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain With the Crooked One by C.S.E. Cooney (in Giganotosaurus). Gaaaah, this story made me have all the feelings. It’s long, but it’s SO worth it – what a treat to sink into a world like this. (Incidentally, it’s a sequel of sorts to The Last Sophia, which I believe I’ve recced here previously.) A gorgeous, detailed fairytale retelling with cool worldbuilding, a great first-person narrator, and gorgeous language. And rhymes! Basically: everything about this story is amazing.

Icarus Falls by Alex Shvartsman (in Daily Science Fiction). An aging protagonist suffering from memory loss – this story of space travel and a mother-daughter relationship is sad but in a very beautiful way.

Zugzwang by Curtis C. Chen (also in DSF). A middle-aged woman is challenged to a game of alien chess to save the crew of a spaceship. This story could’ve been bleak, but instead it made me happy and hopeful.

Sunday recs: Strange stuff

Published on by Sara Norja

Three strange stories for you this Sunday.

Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land by Ruthanna Emrys (at Tor.com). A haunting, weird story about a magic land that exists in the interstices of life, and the people who live in it. Gorgeous illustrations too.

Speaking to Skull Kings by Emily B. Cataneo (at Betwixt Magazine). The world of this story is bleak and bizarre but fascinating, with strange skull kings rattling in a forest.

Observations About Eggs from the Man Sitting Next to Me on a Flight from Chicago, Illinois to Cedar Rapids, Iowa by Carmen Maria Machado (at Lightspeed). Eggs and parallel universes. Weird but intriguing.