Category: Publications

Read the “The Getaway” Online

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Weird Horror has posted my short story “The Getaway” (Issue #6) to read online.

silhouette of woman with shovel in doorway

“The person stood in the front yard, hunched over, their shoulder blades poked through their long scraggly hair. Strange that I missed it before, but they were oddly colorless—the whole image oddly colorless, like it was taken at twilight or before sunrise. I zoomed in and the image jumped to the porch swing, the black windows behind it, the big round clock beside the door. I dragged my finger on the screen, almost expecting the lawn to be empty—the figure just a glitch or my imagination.

But there they were.”

Read the story at Weird Horror.

“The Getaway” in Weird Horror #6

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I calculated our reunion was

In March 2022, Weird Horror published its sixth issue, which includes my story “The Getaway.” It’s inspired by one of my favorite MR James stories, “The Mezzotint,” and captures some of the particular horror of the last couple years. Here’s a snippet:

Print and digital copies are available via the Weird Horror website.

“I calculated our reunion was low-risk—we had quarantined and tested, and if we did get sick, we probably wouldn’t die. Still, I was nervous, double-checking the address, reviewing the different routes, reloading the GPS results. The app showed a grayish, fuzzy photo of the house—taken, I figured, from one of those cars with a camera on top. Compared to the listing photo, the house appeared malnourished, infirm.

That’s when I saw the figure.”

Saturnalia is coming to the UK!

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I’m very excited that Verve Books is bringing Saturnalia to UK and commonwealth readers. A paperback original, e-book, and audio edition will arrive in fall 2023. Here’s some more from The Bookseller announcement:

The book was recently selected as One to Watch in 2023 by the Evening Standard, and Best Fantasy novel of 2022 by Vulture in the US.

Editor Jenna Gordon said: “The Verve team are so excited to be bringing Saturnalia to UK readers. It’s an unsettling and urgent novel that draws on timely anxieties about the future and speaks to a moment when we’re seeing people, particularly younger generations, turning to magic, fantasy and the supernatural as a means of escaping an increasingly unstable reality.”

Feldman comments: “This book is set in my hometown, but it’s about an urgent global question: how can we create a future during what feels like a slow apocalypse? I’m thrilled that Verve is bringing the Saturnalia carnival to UK readers.”

Read more here, and stay tuned for a cover reveal.

Eligibility Post for 2022

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Dear friends voting on awards this year: I’m pleased to share my eligible work for 2022.

Short Fiction:

“The Boyfriend Trap” (4,800 words)
“Who do you want to be close to when you’re feeling afraid?”
Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2022
–> SFWA and HWA members: email me for a PDF reading copy.

“The Annual Conference of the Ladies in White” (997 words)
“Their faces are ghastly and pretty. Their flesh hangs like fine lace. I grab my keys and run.”
Flash Fiction Online, April 2022

“The Sorcerer’s Test” (3,400 words)
“She took what came to her. What would a girl like her dream about, anyway?”
The Sunday Morning Transport, October 2022

Novel:

Saturnalia
“It’s the not the life I planned for, telling fortunes during the end of days, but clients are plentiful.”
Unnamed Press, October 11, 2022

New Reading List: “Blood on the Glass Ceiling”

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Saturnalia is about many things, but one of its core questions is about how women navigate their ambition in a world that doesn’t want them to achieve.  For Lit Hub, I considered my own relationship with ambition,  and seven more novels about women’s dark struggles with ambition, identity, and success.

As a writer and reader, I find joy in destruction as well as triumph. If you’re a woman, you can’t win without breaking the rules.

Read more on Lit Hub.

New Blog: “Five Scary Novels That Use Setting to Embody Horror”

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Just in time for Halloween season, I’m pleased to share this list of five scary novels that make the most of their settings. They exemplify how integral place is to great fiction; immerse readers in complex communities; and are creepy in classic and surprising ways. This list includes new titles and new classics, with authors and stories that span the Americas and Europe.

Read the whole list on Tor.com.

New Essay Series: “Writing SATURNALIA”

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Today, Uncharted Magazine, one of my favorite genre publishes, released the first in my craft capsule essay series, “Writing Saturnalia.” I learned so much about plot, pace, and world-building by writing this book, and as a teacher, I’ve spent the last seven years thinking deeply about how we shape narrative. I’m excited to share this project, my first formal reflections on craft.

The first entry, “A Story Launch Thrives on an Easy Target,” explores how to use focused beginnings and clear stakes without diminishing ambitious story inquiries.

Saturnalia is about a lot of things: climate anxiety, social class, friendship and secrets, gender and power, the American city—as well as alchemy, secret societies, monsters, and pagan carnivals. All of the issues that matter to me, to us, and all of the trappings that make for a fun and atmospheric tale. My main character, Nina, grapples with society in decline, trauma, and the eternal puzzle of who she can trust.

But when the story begins, her problems and goals are simple.

Read more at Uncharted Magazine.

New Story: Beneath Human Skin

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I’m pleased to share a new story, “Beneath Human Skin,” which appears in Khôra Issue 18 (October 2022). This is a rare story that doesn’t incorporate the supernatural, but I also think it’s one of my scarier pieces–here just in time for Halloween season. Here’s a little excerpt:

The cemetery gates were in sight when she heard another voice.

“Got bored?”

It was a man, sitting on the lip of one of the tombs. He had curly hair and a curly beard, both the color of lead — a shade that could have been gray or black. He was short, wiry, with shoulders that bulged in his t-shirt and veins that bulged on his forearms. She couldn’t guess his age; as he smiled, deep grooves descended from his eyes, but he was also ferociously tanned. 

“Something like that,” Alicia said.

He stepped forward, held his palm open. She took a step forward, too.

It was a stick of gum.

“I don’t take candy from strangers.”

“Ha,” he said, and winked at her. He stuck the gum in his mouth and the wrapper in the pocket of his painter’s pants. “You’re a tourist.”

Read the rest at Khôra online.