short fiction Archives - M.A. Carrick

Posts Tagged ‘short fiction’

Awards 2023 Eligbility Post

Alyc Helms

Remembering what came out when, and which category it falls into, can be hard even for the people involved in writing, so we’ve compiled this list of award-eligible works from the past year for the upcoming season. The biggest one is obviously the completion of the Rook & Rose trilogy, but we think there’s a lot of great short and medium-length fiction as well.

As M.A. Carrick (pseudonym for Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms)

Eligible Series

Rook & Rose – comprised of The Mask of Mirrors (Jan 2021), The Liar’s Knot (Dec 2021), and Labyrinth’s Hearth (Aug 2023)

Eligible Novels

Labyrinth’s Heart — Orbit Books, August 2023

As Marie Brennan (solo)

Eligible Novels

The Game of 100 Candles — Aconyte Books, March 2023
The Waking of Angantyr — U.K. edition from Titan Books, October 2023; U.S. edition from Book View Cafe, November 2023; audiobook edition from Podium, December 2023

Eligible Novelettes

“Pearl’s Price” (writing solo as M.A. Carrick)— When Swords Fall Silent, ed. Bryce O’Connor, March 2023 (anthology; requires purchase)
“The Naming of Knots” (writing solo as M.A. Carrick) — Beneath Ceaseless Skies #388, August 2023

Eligible Short fiction, flash, poetry

Short fiction

“Silver Necklace, Golden Ring” — Uncanny Magazine #50, January 2023
“Constant Ivan and Clever Natalya” (writing solo as M.A. Carrick) — Beneath Ceaseless Skies #373, January 2023
“At the Heart of Each Pearl Lies a Grain of Sand” — Sunday Morning Transport, April 2023 (requires subscription)
“Oh, My Cursed Daughter” — Dream of Shadows, April 2023 (market unfortunately folded and took the website with it, so this won’t be available again until I republish it in a collection)
“A Mighty Huntress” — Frivolous Comma, June 2023
“Your Body, My Prison, My Forge” — On Spec #124, July 2023 (requires purchase)
“999 Swords” — Interzone #296, November 2023 (requires purchase)
“A Tale of Two Tarōs” — DreamForge Anvil #14, December 2023

Flash

“Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library” — Lightspeed Magazine #153, February 2023
“The Merchant With No Coin” (as M.A. Carrick) — Flash Point SF, June 2023

Poetry

“Damnatio Memoriae” — Fantasy Magazine, August 2023 (Baby’s First Published Poem!)

More Rook and Rose short fiction to you enjoy!

Marie Brennan

To celebrate the launch of the pattern deck Kickstarter (up to 53% in the first two days!) and the release of Labyrinth’s Heart next week, we’ve got a new novelette for you to enjoy! “The Naming of Knots” takes place a couple decades before the series begins, but features a familiar hooded figure, asking a thief for help . . .

More Rook and Rose short fiction!

Marie Brennan

In honor of National Flash Fiction Day on June 24th, Flash Point SF published Marie’s “The Merchant With No Coin,” a bit of Vraszenian folklore — complete with an illustration of the Face of Gold and the Mask of Hollows!

Also, we’re very pleased to announce that Beneath Ceaseless Skies will be publishing another novelette in the setting of the Rook and Rose trilogy: “The Naming of Knots,” a heist story set some years before the events of the novels. That will be coming out in August, shortly before the release of Labyrinth’s Heart, and may be paired with a giveaway of some kind . . . so stay tuned for news on that!

More Rook & Rose short fiction!

Marie Brennan

We didn’t expect to have more news today (after the flood of the last two days), but the universe had other ideas! I woke up this morning to an acceptance from Flash Point SF for my Rook & Rose folkloric flash story “The Merchant With No Coin.” Not sure yet when that will be published, other than “some time in 2023,” but I will keep y’all posted!

Discover the origin of the Rook . . .

Marie Brennan

Because it is just raining news around here, in addition to yesterday’s cover reveal for Labyrinth’s Heart and call for artists for the pattern deck (please spread the word!), we have EVEN MORE excitement for you today:

cover art for When Swords Fall Silent, showing a hooded greyscale figure wielding two blades

My Rook & Rose novelette “Pearl’s Price” is out at last, in the anthology When Swords Fall Silent! Because the anthology’s theme is “assassination,” “Pearl’s Price” tells the story of the origin of the Rook and the downfall of Kaius Rex. If you’ve read The Liar’s Knot you’ve already gotten some hints of that (and more will be coming in Labyrinth’s Heart), but this is your chance to experience the tale in full . . .

The electronic and audio editions are unfortunately only available from Amazon, as near as I can tell (US ebook / US audiobook / UK ebook / UK audiobook), but there is also a Kickstarter underway right now for paperback and hardcover versions. This entire thing is a charity project, with net profits (including from the Kickstarter) going to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and the research they do into childhood diseases, so it’s very worth supporting just on those grounds! (But, of course, I hope you enjoy the story, too.)

A new Rook and Rose short story!

Marie Brennan

Happy New Year! We are officially in 2023, which means that the publication of Labyrinth’s Heart suddenly seems so much closer than before: not next year but this year. About seven months from now! We anticipate getting our copy-edited manuscript in the next week or two, so the wheels of production have begun turning . . .

In the meanwhile, we have a new short story for you: “Constant Ivan and Clever Natalya,” written (or if you prefer audio, narrated) by yours truly. Those names may look familiar to those of you who have read the novels; the characters in question are figures out of Vraszenian folklore, a trickster heroine and her good-hearted hero. Having referenced them several times in the books, it seemed only natural to put their story properly into the world! So strap yourself in for a challenge set for a year and a day, horses of the dawn and the dusk and the mountains and the sea, and some prophetic turtles — it’s folklore time!