Author: StevenDBrewer

Author of speculative fiction and poetry in English and Esperanto. Teacher of scientific writing. Lover of natural history. (he/his)

J. Scott Coatsworth asked folks at QueerSciFi how many stories they’d written versus how many published. I did a quick assessment to figure it out.

My first three speculative fiction stories were in Esperanto and were all published. Milos kaj Donos was a kind of parable, Kion Dio Farus was an odd story about a bisexual protagonist, and Krepusko sub Fago tells the story of an ace teenager who helps her community through poetry. This last received an honorable mention in the international Beletra Konkurso.

I also have written three haibun in Esperanto that were published and one took second prize in the Beletra Konkurso. And I self-published four chapbooks of Esperanto haiku (Poŝtmarkoj el Esperantujo, Premitaj Floroj, senokulvitre, and Ideoj Ĝermas.)

In English, I’ve written about 41 stories. Of these 12 have been published, and another 18 are “in press” in one form or another. Most of them are as series.

The first story I wrote, much revised, was eventually published as The Third Time’s the Charm and became the foundation of the series Revin’s Heart. There are six more novelettes in the series and three side-stories that will be collected together in January 2024. Plus I’ve written a follow on novella Devishire! and am currently working on Campshire!

The Better Angels, written for the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy, has led to another series of short fiction which currently numbers seven additional stories (two of which are flash fiction). Four of these have been published: the initial story with the three appearing only briefly associated with holiday events. Current plans are to release some individually and publish them all (and others I will write) in a collection later this year.

And I have three pieces of short fiction published in anthologies this year: Something Else To Do in Modern Magic, The Right Motivation in Corporate Catharsis: The Work-from-Home Edition, and Imaginary Friends in The Future’s So Bright.

Next month, I’m planning to release a series I had written earlier, It’s Complicated, via Amazon Vella over 10 weeks beginning April 7, 2023. It’s what might be considered a “light novel” in Japan and was highly influenced by my passion for Japanese manga and literature. You might think of it as grappling with the question of what happened to all of the yōkai in the West:

She was dressed the same as the night before, with an old-fashioned ruffled blouse & skirt, a red cape, white stockings, & patent-leather shoes with gold buckles. Her hood was up today, wet with rain, covering her pretty curls.

“He said he had fun with Mary. Are you Mary?” I asked.

She cocked her head over on one side, then smiled. “You not ‘member. You call me Mary.”

“W-What are you?” I asked.

She raised her hands up next to her face & spread out her fingers.

“I scary monster,” she said.

from “To What Do I Owe” in “It’s Complicated”

There are ten chapters, currently. The first three are free and then people will have to pay to read more. Depending on the response, I might draft some more during the summer. There is a lot more story I could tell.

In terms of thus-far unpublished works, there is a Truck Stop novella about neoboxers, An Exchange of Services. I have a novel, A Familiar Problem (with a side-story A Different Midsummer Night’s Dream). And then a number of pieces of short fiction: Just a Little Breathing Room, A Bitter Lesson, The Silver Tongue, and Not Just Black and White.

Finally, I’m currently planning to write a sequel to A Familiar Problem, A Familiar Problem II: The Wooing of Aimee and an entirely new novel The Ground Never Lies.

It looks to be a busy summer.

On March 24, 2023, Then They Fight You is being released by Water Dragon Publishing. This is Part Six of Revin’s Heart. This installment is quite different from the others. Revin has been appointed — very nearly impressed — as the King’s Special Envoy to negotiate an end to the war between the islands. It’s a huge change from anything he’s done before. Although he struggles and has many travails, he rises to the challenge to best of his ability.

Almost exactly one year earlier, on March 25, 2022, the second part of Revin’s Heart was released. I had started writing it basically as soon as the first one was published. What a difference a year makes. Even while I was finalizing the manuscript For the Favor of Lady I had finished drafting They They Fight You. I knew what the title was going to be even before I started writing. I had begun with the manuscript for The End of His Rope and done this on the title page of the very first version: The End of His Ropen They Fight You.

I can’t say I knew exactly where the story would go as I wrote it. My process for writing has changed a lot from the first couple of stories, that I largely “pantsed,” to the later versions, where I began to rigorously outline before writing. It’s been an adventure.

There’s only one more novelette in Revin’s Heart that will come out in June: Rewriting the Rules. It promises more excitement, intrigue, and perhaps just a bit of romance. But even after it concludes, Revin’s adventures will continue!

In January, 2024, Revin’s Heart will be published in a collected “fix-up” edition that will include all of the novelettes (with some revisions and enhancements), plus three “side stories.” These are stories about characters from Revin’s Heart that take place when Revin isn’t there. The first “Where There’s a Will” describes the events that bring Will and Grip together. This is alluded to in For the Favor of a Lady:

“Just how long have you and Will been together,” Revin asked.

“It will be two years next week. On Thursday.” Grip said.

“You know it to the day. That’s very sweet,” Revin said.

Grip looked down, blushing. But he looked happy. “They’ve been the best two years of my life.”

“How did you meet?” Revin asked.

“Oh, that’s a long story for another time,” Grip replied.

The second, “Curtains Rise“, describes how Will and the Baron initially met, as was mentioned in Storm Clouds Gather:

Then Will saw the Baron and stopped dead in his tracks.

“Well met, William,” the Baron said. 

“It’s Curtains!” Will said. 

“What?” Grip said, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“Curtains! That’s what they called him back when…” Will said, then broke off when he caught the Baron’s expression. “I’ll… I’ll tell you sometime later.”

The final side-story, Riva’s Escape, begins with Revin before his transition: before he left home and began his adventures. It was, in many ways, the hardest story to write. But very satisfying to bring to light.

After Revin’s Heart, Revin has continued to have adventures as well. One novella, Devishire!, has already been written. And Campshire! is well underway.

It’s been a treat to share Revin with the world. It’s been a pleasure to work with Water Dragon Publishing that has been a supportive partner through the entire process. I look forward to conveying Revin’s ongoing adventures for as long as they’ll let me.

Today, I became a full member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Almost a year ago, I joined as an Associate Member, but with the publications I did last year with Water Dragon Publishing, I now qualify for FULL membership.

I’ve appreciated the value of an organization like SFWA that allows freelancers to band together to push for fair treatment from the big corporations. When I first started writing, it looked almost unattainable because, under the existing rules, only a few venues for publication “counted” in terms of establishing a track record as a published author. But, about a year ago, they changed the rules which has enabled a big new influx of small-press and self-published authors. I think it will end up making the organization stronger.

For the first year, I was just an “associate member.” Basically, you get most of the benefits but can’t participate in governance. But now, as a full member, I get to vote for board members and officers. And I could serve. That isn’t likely to happen any time soon because I have too much else on my plate. But, at some point, I might decide to do that.

In any event, I’m extremely pleased to be a full member as its been an ambition of mine since even before I began getting my work published. Thank you Water Dragon Publishing and go me!

Front Cover of Then They Fight You

When even the King’s mandate isn’t enough to bring the warring parties to the table, how far will Revin go to pursue peace?

Charged with the King’s mandate to negotiate for peace, Revin is thrust suddenly into a world of diplomacy and intrigue. Confronted with dangers on every side, he must keep his wits about him and be prepared to use all of the resources at his disposal to navigate the complex personal and political minefields that surround him.

Then They Fight You is Part 6 of Revin’s Heart.

Alisa V. Brewer, generously wearing the “fascinator” I got her at WorldCon.

Thirty-nine years ago, I met someone who would change my life forever. I was visiting a former roommate who’d forgotten he promised to take his girlfriend to a rodeo. When she called angrily to remind him, he looked at me and said, “Hey, Steve. Wanna go to a rodeo?” And I was like, “Aight.” And his girlfriend, horrified that her boyfriend’s loser friend Steve would be going too, invited her friend Alisa. And when Alisa yelled, “Look! That calf has mange!” I knew that she was the one for me. 

I read something once that said that, to make a long-term relationship work, you must accept that your partner will do things that are “predictably stupid and unforgivable.” And you need to forgive them anyway, because that’s who they are and they’re never going to change. You have to accept that they will always do that thing, no matter how many times you’ve told them not to. And no matter how many times they’ve promised not to. They’re gonna do that thing regardless. 

Note: I really should be saying “I” here. No matter how many times I’ve promised to not do that thing, I do it anyway. Because I’m a horrible person. But somehow she’s managed to forgive me and we’re still together.

There’s an article today in the New York Times speculating about what famous women might have accomplished if they had a wife. It’s been well known that success of male academics is often strongly influenced by having a wife who takes care of all of the flotsam and jetsam of day-to-day life so they can focus on their “life of the mind.” So it has been with me.

After a few interesting years of both working the jobs our bachelors degrees brought us in the late 1980s, Alisa put me through graduate school; she worked at a series of both temporary and what she calls “pink collar” jobs which provided enough money to support us living frugally in student housing with the meager supplement of what I made as a graduate student. (Pro-tip: always refer to yourself as a “doctoral student” to University staff — they treat you way, way better.)

She found the classified ad in Science for the job I ultimately got. When I started, she was able to quit working to stay home with our children (though not without sacrifices). I had been the primary caregiver of our first child while I was finishing my dissertation (which was challenging), but when I started working I was able to focus on my career because she gave up hers and allowed us to make that pivot. 

As the kids grew and she had more time, she wanted more than to stay at home and began to pursue an interest in municipal service after various parenting groups had run their course. She got elected to Representative Town Meeting, helped renovate a municipal playground, helped lead the PTO at our son’s elementary school, and served on various committees at the school and town levels, then was elected to the School Committee then the Select Board. She was Select Board Chair for some tumultuous years when the Town Manager unexpectedly passed away. After the form of town government changed, she felt compelled to bring her experience to help shape the transition to a Town Council, and then retired after that three year term — after twenty years of town service. 

I occasionally got to see Alisa in action as a municipal official because the meetings are all televised. Personally, I didn’t pay much attention to town issues because she was already there attending to my concerns (not counting the closure of our elementary school, for which I have mostly forgiven her). But I remember a particular event very early on that stuck in my mind as emblematic of her puissance as a public official: They were considering a budget that was many, many pages long. At the conclusion of the presentation, she asked, “On line 30 of page 1 there is a budget item labeled X. And on page 80 there is another item labeled X, but the amount is different. Can you explain this discrepancy?” Alisa has this unique ability to see BOTH the forest AND each individual tree in it. It’s uncanny.

Since her retirement from public service, she has continued in her long-term part-time job that’s been terrific to allow her to continue to work remotely, as she has increasingly been managing family members’ —  including my mother’s — health. We’ve been so lucky that my mom has lived with us since our oldest was two and, while she is now 90 and in generally good health, she has a stream of medical appointments. There are few 90-year-olds who have any hope of navigating the patient portals, phone trees, and bureaucratic hoop-jumping required to effectively manage their own care. Furthermore, Alisa attends all of the medical meetings and keeps an eye that, when they propose a procedure or a prescription, that it makes sense. And, when the order actually appears, that it matches what they said in person and in the patient portal.

When I was hospitalized, Alisa brought all of this to my care. She was a constant fierce and obsessive advocate for my medical treatment. Several times she prompted me with key information and questions so that issues were addressed properly. She identified several places where wires had gotten crossed or information was mischaracterized in my care. She was constantly checking and reconciling what the staff and doctors were telling me and what was recorded in the patient portal. And asking questions when anything wasn’t clear — or challenging them when they were mistaken. I was overwhelmed being stuck full of needles and constantly pinched and poked and squoze. (Plus I just can’t do that sort of thing to begin with.) One of the hospitalists admitted it was vital to have someone who could keep an eye on everything. And there is no-one better at that sort of thing than Alisa.

I love my wife and I am profoundly grateful that she has chosen to share her life with me. I met her when I was 20 and so, next year, we will have been together for twice as long as we were apart in our lives. And, with her diligent care of me, perhaps we can share another 20 — or more — years together. 

Alisa, I love you.

Although it was bitterly disappointing to not be able to attend Boskone, I was pleased to see that Revin’s Heart sold reasonably well, in spite of my absence. The next installment, Then They Fight You, will come out in March. The final part, Rewriting the Rules, is scheduled to come out in June. The fix-up volume, that will collect all of the parts plus three side-stories is tentatively scheduled for January 2024. And I’ve finished drafting a follow-on novella that will come out after.

After the interest generated by The Better Angels and the Very Scary Halloween, I was invited to submit a couple of new Better Angels stories. They have not yet been scheduled for publication, but look for them in the coming months at The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. In fact, I couldn’t stop with just two new stories and I wrote three. And then, after my hospital stay, I was inspired to write another that is plotted but not yet written. So you’ll be seeing a lot more of the Better Angels very soon.

I will giving a talk at NERDSummit on Saturday March 18, 2023. I was one of the co-founders of the NERDSummit conference (which evolved from Western Mass Drupal Camp, that I also co-founded). I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned about publishing in the last couple of years, in part because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on and organize my experiences.

I have been selected as a participant for Flights of Foundry April 14-16. I don’t think the times are firm yet, but it looks like I’ll have an hour (!) for reading. I remember last year, the readings were great as they allowed significant opportunity for attendees to ask questions and discuss topics with authors. I’m hoping people will come by to chat with me and I’ll have enough interest to read some of my newer unpublished stuff, rather than just my published work to push book sales.

In addition to the reading at Flights of Foundry, I will also be a panelist on “Geology for Worldbuilders” which is a topic near-and-dear to my heart. One of my particular interests is the intersection between geoscience and ecology to have plant communities reflective of the underlying geological conditions. Of course, not every protagonist is a naturalist and can rattle off the plants and minerals by name. But that I know them guides me in terms of the descriptions I can write in terms of the look and feel of the landscapes. And I appreciate the increased verisimilitude, even if no-one else does. My next novel, tentatively entitled “The Ground Never Lies” is about a geomancer, and my knowledge of geoscience has been critical in setting up the story and many of the key scenes.

Unfortunately, after my hospitalization, it appears that face-to-face events are going to be off the table for the foreseeable future. I had planned to attend BayCon this summer but, unless things change, that now looks unlikely. But I really can’t complain as things could have been so, so much worse.

In mid-February, I needed to be rushed to the emergency room and spent 12 days in the hospital. It’s the first time I’ve been hospitalized since I was a child. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the emergency room and hospital for family members, but being there for yourself is different.

I was particularly crushed because I ended up missing Boskone. I had been selected to moderate and serve on panels, I was scheduled for a reading, and I was the primary representative of the dealer table for Water Dragon Publishing.

That said, it was fascinating, as a biologist, to see medical science up close. I underwent a number of procedures that generated fantastic amounts of data and it was interesting to see how the medical practitioners used those data to falsify some hypotheses and make others. I discovered a lot about myself and much of it was reassuring: I do have some chronic medical conditions that will require long-term treatment. But many of the scariest possibilities were excluded and it was encouraging to learn that those that remain can likely be managed.

I was cared for by more than 50 people during my stay, the majority of them nurses. Nurses are amazing. I have new-found respect for nurses who must accomplish many thankless tasks while providing emotional support yet, at the same time, must be prepared to enforce the rules on a patient that deviates from the care guidelines. It’s a delicate dance.

It gave me an idea for a new Better Angels story which will hopefully make it to the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy before too long: the working title is “Better Angels and the Nighty-Night Nurses.”

Note: I selected the image for this post because it is my “medicine basket”. Many years ago, I traveled to the desert southwest and visited a museum where, among the displays, was a medicine basket that had been discovered in a archaeological dig which had a whole variety of interesting items inside: ground minerals, feathers, dried plants, bones, etc. which researchers believed were used by a shaman for ritualistic purposes. And I was seized with the inspiration to make one for myself. So I purchased a basket at a native market and have collected all kinds of weird things that I keep in mine.

I’m been myopic and needed glasses since I was in middle school. Around the time, I turned 40, I asked my optometrist about when I might need to start using reading glasses. He looked over his glasses at me and said, “You’ll know.” Sure enough, a few years later, I discovered my arms weren’t long enough anymore and I got progressive lenses.

I’ve been very happy with progressive lenses for most things: you just rock your head up and down and things generally just come into focus. When you’re first getting used to them, you have to be careful because there are certain things you simply can’t focus on anymore — like your feet — and it’s easy to trip until you get used to it.

During the pandemic, I got a second monitor and set it up in portrait mode next to my computer. It’s awesome for looking at whole documents (and most responsive web pages). But, I discovered that it was really hard to focus on the top region of the monitor because I had to tilt my head way back. So I decided to invest in some “computer glasses”.

Computer glasses are dedicated to a single, middle-distance focal area. Stuff is out of focus both close up and far away. But the whole region of the computer is in perfect focus, which makes all kinds of stuff easier. It’s been a great investment and makes doing my computer work significantly easier.

I’ve also found they’re great for cooking. I had never noticed, but it’s hard to read the spice bottles over my head above the stove. With the computer classes, the whole range, counters, and cabinets are in focus.

Best investment I’ve made in years…

When Charlie Jane Anders wrote about short fiction it resonated with me because this is exactly what Water Dragon Publishing has been trying to do!

To be clear(er) Water Dragon Publishing has been developing a short fiction program for several years called “Dragon Gems”. Novelettes accepted for publication get their own individually designed cover and are published as both ebooks and printed books. Shorter fiction is now collected together in quarterly anthologies.

I submitted a novelette, The Third Time’s the Charm, to the Dragon Gems program which was accepted for publication. I then succeeded in persuading my (soft-hearted? soft-headed?) editor to open-endedly serialize subsequent novelettes as Revin’s Heart.

In the end, I wrote seven novelettes with the intention of collecting them together as a fix-up (along with several side-stories.) I did it partly because, like Charlie Jane, I really like episodic fiction. (Tho partly it was also because that’s where I was in my fiction writing at that point — I hadn’t written any longer fiction and I was nervous about taking on longer projects.) It’s worked out well for me as it’s given me a year where every three or four months I could go back and promote something. As a new author, it must be difficult to publish a debut novel and then say, “Well, I’ll be back in two years.”

Now, Water Dragon has asked me to write some new stories extending my Better Angels stories with the goal of eventually developing a collection. So far, I’ve written seven stories (maybe eight, depending on how you count). So I expect you’ll be seeing more of those this year.

I’ve now helped run the dealer table for Water Dragon at Worldcon, ComicCon, and Arisia (and, in a few weeks, Boskone ). It’s been interesting to see the reactions that readers have to the Dragon Gems. A number of people have said that, for whatever reason — pandemic, social media, dystopia, planetary collapse, take your pick — they are looking for shorter fiction and the Dragon Gems are just what they want. Similarly, many authors have stopped by and been giddy to see that Water Dragon accepts novelettes.

My brother Philip Brewer pointed out he wrote a relevant post 10 years ago about short fiction. I think this would be a great model to help raise the profile of short fiction too.

And neither of them are talking about Amazon’s Kindle Vella or Radish which are yet further takes on serialized fiction.

In any event, I was very pleased to see Charlie Jane’s post because it dovetails with my experience perfectly. There’s a lot of short fiction out there, but the market for it is broken. And there are too few mechanisms for people to discover it.

Only a month after Arisia, I will be returning to Boston to appear at Boskone where I will be reprising my role coordinating the dealer table for Water Dragon Publishing and serving on a variety of panels.

I’ve never attended a full Boskone before, but I did drive over for a day a few years ago. It was great. So I’m really looking forward to it this year.

It’s a little tricky because I have to teach a class in Amherst at 1:25. But I’ve made arrangements with my department to teach my class via Zoom and then I will run downstairs for my first appearance.

Below are the program elements where I’m appearing:

Serving up a Tasty World (Friday 4pm in Burroughs)

Inventive gastronomy can really spice up speculative fiction. We look at how food and local cuisine can explore character, society, setting, gender, and more. Our panelists dish on the culinary delights that tantalize us in fiction, from regional teas to tasty grubs and kingly feasts. How can we redefine, re-imagine, or recover the historical aspects of the kitchen and the cook fire in fiction? And what should you know about writing food-centric scenes that sizzle?

Reading (Sat 12:30pm in Griffin)

I’ll be reading with Laurence Raphael Brothers!

In Our Own Voices (Sat 7pm in Marina 2)

The world is a many-splendored and wondrous thing! If you are from a marginalized community, how do you tell your story? What restricts your opportunities to do so? For what audience do you write? Where can your voice be heard? Our panelists discuss why this is important.

Disability in Speculative Fiction (Sun 10am in Galleria Meetup 1)

Disability takes many forms, both visible and invisible. In the past, characters in the background were often given disabilities just to check the diversity box, but that’s changing. We take a look at disabled characters across the speculative fiction genres and how their disabilities are featured within their stories, the roles they take, and the types of stories they tell. Why don’t we see more disabilities in stories that take place in eras or worlds without decent medical services? And what does it take to tell these stories well? And why are they so important?

Bioethical Issues Raised by SF (Sun 11:30 in Marina 2)

Ongoing advances in biotechnology and biomedical research have delivered some important benefits and promise more. But they’ve also brought ethical concerns, new moral dilemmas, and calls for moratoria or fresh regulation. There may or may not be something wrong with playing God: but are we playing blind? What might we unleash with stem cell research, modified viruses, bioengineered cures, self-replicating nanobots, cloning, and regrowth of organs or limbs?