publication

New poem: “Witch’s Lens” in Polu Texni

Published on by Sara Norja

My poem “Witch’s Lens” is out in Polu Texni!

Read it here: “My witchery awakens / with the rising season.”

I wrote this poem in April 2014, and edited it around a year later based on feedback from my writing group. (Yes, sometimes my poetry progresses veeery slowly, with edits happening ages after the first draft was written in a frenzy.) Another poem that improved significantly with the help of suggestions from my lovely group. <3

Sadly, unlike in the poem, Finland is still in winter's grip – we've got sun at last (sun! sun! sun!) but it's still close to zero and there's frost at night. I hope true spring comes soon and all things begin to grow. To paraphrase my poem: I want my witchery to awaken, my winter-faded soul to strengthen. I've been winter-tired and mired in a thousand busy things, but perhaps with the turning year I too can turn, awake and begin to live again.

Poem sale to Strange Horizons

Published on by Sara Norja

“Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” she chortled in her joy.

So yeah, I’ve sold a poem to Strange Horizons! Huzzah! “Taboo” will appear this summer. It’s got a fox in it.

I’m intensely happy about this, my first poetry sale of 2016. I love SH so much. This will be my third poem appearing in the magazine (the previous ones being Wolf Daughter and Raw Honey). Funnily enough, although I didn’t initially intend it to, “Taboo” fits in quite well with the Finnish-tinged fantasy/fairytale world of the other two poems.

“Village Woman” in the new Goblin Fruit!

Published on by Sara Norja

Goblin Fruit is back with a new issue after their tithed year.

My poem “Village Woman” opens the Winter 2016 issue.

I’m very happy and proud to be in this wonderful magazine along with so many fantastic poets. Some favourites from the issue include Shawna Lenore Kastin’s The Ice Maiden, Toby MacNutt’s Amber and Ash, and Andrew Crabtree’s Norns’ Feast (Charcuterie and Pairings).

Go forth and feast on poetry!

“Storm-yarn” in issue 9 of inkscrawl!

Published on by Sara Norja

The newest issue of inkscrawl is up – and with it, my poem “Storm-yarn”. I’m really looking forward to reading the other poems in this issue – guest editor Bogi Takács has got together some really exciting poets! And a nice big issue. Yesss.

I wrote “Storm-yarn” in August specifically for the submission call for this issue, but the original inspiration comes from a story I started in 2007 (!). I never did finish the story – it wasn’t really very good – but the notion of knitting up a storm came from there. I wrote a short poem-draft based around the idea in December 2012, but it went no further till Bogi announced the topic for issue 9 (Atypical Weather), and my brain started ferreting around for ideas. “Storm-yarn” bears no similarity to the poem from 2012, but the same idea of yarn and storms is there – and now it’s finally out in a form that I’m very happy with.

Finnish story “Vierain silmin” in Usva!

Published on by Sara Norja

I just noticed that the Finnish ezine Usva has published its folklore issue, which includes my story “Vierain silmin” (‘With Strange Eyes’). You can read the whole issue here – well, if you can read Finnish, that is. (I recommend downloading the PDF – it’s got pretty pictures and the text is formatted more nicely.) I can’t wait to read the rest of the stories, they look great!

“Vierain silmin” is set in the Finnish city of Turku, and is a weird urban fantasy thing about the otherworldly perils that may befall a person wandering into a park at night.

Anyway yaaay! I’m just so pleased to have another story out in Finnish. I feel more confident with my Finnish-language creative writing these days; I still write more in English, but I feel that I can write in Finnish too (even poetry!), which makes all the difference.

Some story notes in Finnish, because well, you have to know Finnish to read this story:

Eli suomeksi (en tiedä olenko ennen kirjoittanut suomeksi tässä blogissa, oudon tuntuista!): kirjoitin novellin alun perin kilpailua varten, jossa etsittiin Turkuun sijoittuvia spefinovelleja. Olin hurjan iloinen, että uskalsin myöhemmin lähettää sen Usvaan. Sain Usvan toimittajalta Anne Leinoselta todella hyviä kommentteja, joiden perusteella muokkasin novellin sen lopulliseen muotoon. Käyn Turussa säännöllisesti jatko-opintojeni takia, mutta kaupunki on kuitenkin aina jollain tapaa vieras, ei koti – eli oli mielenkiintoista kirjoittaa sinne sijoittuva novelli. Siinä näkyy jonkin verran “minun Turkuani”. Tosin itse en ole (vielä?) törmännyt kummallisiin rituaaleihin Kupittaan puistossa. 😉

Poetry sale to Polu Texni

Published on by Sara Norja

I’ve sold a poem to Polu Texni – “Witch’s Lens”, due to appear around the Spring Equinox next year. Yay!

I’ve been lax with posting lately, alas, for the busyness has continued. I haven’t been writing as much after Nanowrimo, which is sad, but I have been tinkering a bit with my poetry collection. I really need to get that revised by the end of the year.

I should also probably make an awards post, but doing that is pretty daunting because my impostor syndrome keeps telling me it’s preposterous for me to do such a thing. Silly brain.

“Memory” in The Flash Fiction Press

Published on by Sara Norja

My piece “Memory” is up in The Flash Fiction Press!

Read it here.

I wrote the first draft of this in summer 2013, based on the prompt “the smell of freshly-cut grass”. I occasionally do freewriting by hand in a notebook based on prompts written on paper slips that I keep in an old Cadbury’s jar. I should try to do it more regularly, because sometimes some cool stuff comes out of these scribbles.

"Memory" - first draft
“Memory” – first draft

Finnish story coming up!

Published on by Sara Norja

My Finnish speculative short story “Uusin silmin” (rough translation: “With New Eyes”) will be published in the Finnish specfic ezine Usva. Part of this weekend will be spent working on the small edits requested. Yaaay! So happy to have another story coming out in my other writing-language.

Incidentally, Usva’s current issue is a special English-language one, Usva International 2015. Check it out for some cool Finnish SFF!

This has been a week of good publication news. 🙂 It’s also been a week of ridic busyness work-wise, but I’ll concentrate on the good stuff for now.

Poetry sale to inkscrawl

Published on by Sara Norja

More publication news, yay! My poem “Storm-yarn” is forthcoming in Issue 9 of the lovely inkscrawl, guest-edited by Bogi Takács.

I’m really happy with this! “Storm-yarn” is a recent poem but based on an old story idea that never went anywhere. Worked out in poem form at least. 🙂