Waylines Magazine Needs Your Help!

As you probably know, I am a first reader for Waylines Magazine. We’ve got a Kickstarter up for our second year, and would be grateful for any help you could give. Waylines is unique among speculative fiction magazines in that it is multi-media focused. Every issue brings you short stories, interviews, short films, and now,

List Your Way to a Better (Writing) You

My least favorite part of the process is…? Copyediting. Spelling has never been my strongpoint. I particularly have problems with homophones and compound words. Trying to catch all those little flubs is no fun at all. But copyediting is important. It’s what elevates a manuscript from armature to pro. It makes the story clean and

Short Story Sale!

I’ve just sold a sci-fi humor detective story to Galaxy’s Edge. My first story with this venue is set to appear in the September issue, so I’m very glad to have another one in the works. Happy dance time. ~Marina

The Quirks of the Slush Pile, P1

Ah, Wednesday. We meet again. As you probably know, I’ve been a first-reader for Waylines Magazine for several months now. Long enough to see some negative patterns in the submissions. Today I’d like to cover one of those negative aspects, and though this might be a discussion that’s a little rough on the ego, I

Good News!

Part two of the WotF workshop overview will be up next week. This week I wanted to crow a little, if you’ll indulge me. First off, I sold a story to Mike Resnick over at Galaxy’s Edge after a minor (but really needed) rewrite.  I’m super excited about this, as it’s my fourth professional-rate sale.

Writers of the Future Workshop Week and Gala, Part 1

Ok, I’m nearly back on schedule. The Writers of the Future workshop week was wonderfully educational.  We had two amazing primary teachers, Dave Wolverton and Tim Powers, and a plethora of secondary speakers who all gave their take on different aspects of writing fiction professionally. When I arrived I was picked up at the airport

Penumbra Lost Issue Out Today

The April issue of Penumbra is out.  It contains my humor-flash piece entitled: Ol’ Soapy’s Revenge.  Here’s a sample: End-of-timers flocked to the streets, sure the anomaly would pass over the Earth and send us all to Hell.  Some said it was an alien creation meant to take us out before we could take them

WotF Vol. 29 Cover

It’s a little after-the-fact, but the cover for Writers of the Future Vol. 29 has been released, and the book itself is available for pre-order! Anybody else hear Elton John in their head singing “Rocket Maaaaan” when they look at the cover?  The illustration is by wonderful Stephen Youll. You can pre-order a mass market paperback from

Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology and Penumbra

Now that I’ve got a completed contract in hand, I feel free to announce that my story, “Ol’ Soapy’s Revenge” will be appearing in the Lost themed issue of Penumbra coming out in April.  It’s a humor piece that I’m quite tickled to have accepted.  Funny is hard, in my opinion, and when I write

Updates on Submitomancy and The Submissions Grinder

These are the two Duotrope alternatives I introduced a few weeks ago.  That post is here if you’d like to familiarize yourself with it. Sadly, we’ve lost Submitomancy before its launch.  Its Indiegogo campaign was unsuccessful, meaning they did not receive the funding they needed to get off the ground. Though Submitomancy frequently posted aesthetically