My Author Copy of the Newest Anthology Arrived

I am so proud of the story in the anthology Once Upon an Ever After. "Old Roots, New Soil" was the first story of mine that was hand-selected, and not just a naked submission. That is just thrilling. 

Here is a link to purchase the book from:

https://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-After-Lynne-Booth

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/once-upon-an-ever-after-kaye-lynne-booth

Guest Blog published for "Old Roots, New Soil"

My next story will be in the anthology Once Upon an Ever After, releasing tomorrow! Kaye Lynne Booth has been an amazing editor, and is doing a digital book tour, releasing special guest blogs through the coming weeks and I kick it off. The first guest blog is "Finding Roots", about the inspiration for my newest story. I will post information for ordering it tomorrow!

Until then, check out my guest blog for Wordcrafter Press, about the inspiration for my newest story, here:

Welcome to the Wordcrafter Once Upon an Ever After book blog tour.

The Brave New Worlds Anthology Promotion

I have a science-fiction story in this amazing collection! It is available for pre-order on kindle now, and is due for a summer release!

Here is the copy from the back jacket of the book:

"What happens when a computer glitch sends eighty-nine copies of the same scientist (and no one else) to settle a new planet? Or a privateer gets stranded on a slow ship he tried to hijack that’s still years away from its destination and has no food?

BRAVE NEW WORLDS presents fifteen original stories that follow humanity’s long dream of traveling to the stars, from heart-wrenching departures from Earth, through the unknown dangers of the long flight through the cold vastness of space, to the immigrants’ final arrival on an alien world. Perhaps your father has signed you up for life on a gen ship before you’ve even graduated high school. Or maybe you’ve arrived at a gloriously green new planet…only to have it shoot you out of the sky when you try to land. Or worse yet, your attempts to terraform your new home have all failed. What do you do then?

Join Jamie Boyd, Gini Koch, Mike Jack Stoumbos, Stephen Leigh, A.M. Giddings, Auston Habershaw, Sarah Lyn Eaton, Ian Tregillis, Jack Nicholls, Willa Blythe, Chaz Brenchley, Ari Officer, Eric Choi, Jacey Bedford, and Juliet Kemp in the latest anthology from Zombies Need Brains, BRAVE NEW WORLDS, as they explore the infinite challenges of humanity’s race to the stars!"

First Story Announcement for 2022

My story "The Last Seven Tribes of Ketchari," previously printed with Transmundane Press in 2017, will be my first reprinted story, which is terribly exciting, is going to be published in the anthology Summer of Sci-fi & Fantasy, edited by Dustin Bilyk.

The contract has been signed! Now the publisher is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to pay each author a full professional rate. And you could help with that!

If you would like to patron my art, you can pre-order an e-book or paperback version of the book, due out this summer by meeting one of the donation tiers of the campaign. If you haven't read this fantasy story of mine, the first I finished after my accident, this collection will be a great place for you to read it. 

Click here to go to the Kickstarter project for this Anthology!

Thank you for all of your support.

A New Writer Milestone

I've experienced some personal writing milestones along this journey.

I had my first story published.

I had my first story published by someone who didn't know me.

I reached 100 rejections! Which meant I was sending my stories out.

I won a spot in a playwright festival.

I sold my first story at a professional rate! 

I was interviewed about a story for my first podcast.

This year I will have my first reprinted story.

And I just received word that my story, "When Apple Woke," from Upon a Twice Time by Air & Nothingness Press, is ELIGIBLE to be nominated for a Hugo Award. This is my first time being eligible. (Which is not even close to nominated for anything, but it is still really cool.)

This is definitely the right momentum.

air and nothingness press 2022 Hugo Awards eligible stories

The 2021 Working Class Writer Grant Winner

Below is a screenshot taken from the Speculative Literature Foundation's website announcing me as this year's winner of their Working Class Writer Grant. It was wonderful news!! Their foundation has been doing great work supporting new and young writers and offers a number of grants throughout the year. I am absolutely thrilled to win this grant. 

It is so important to stop and celebrate the gains. The feedback I received on the work I submitted with my proposal was the boost I needed to keep me focused on my story-crafting after a long set of rejections.

Announcing the Winner of the 2021 Working Class Writers Grant article here.

Reviews for "When the Dust Settles"

Reviews have come in for the anthology Unburied: A Collection of Queer Dark Fiction. Here's what some people are saying about my story. Full disclosure, two other reviewers mentioned my story as the one they didn't care for but I already know I'm not everyone's cup of tea.

*

*

“When the Dust Settles” by Sarah Lyn Eaton (short story) - A story of bodily autonomy as the survivor of a cave-in adjusts to a new robotic arm and leg that don’t seem to be integrating well. The piece is intense and looks at the line between the human machine and less biological machines, and the feeling of invasion and disconnection that comes from traumatic injuries. A fine read! 

~ from Charles Payseur, editor of We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2020

Full review here.

*

"When the Dust Settles" by Sarah Lyn Eaton: 4.5 Stars!

"Now, this is an interesting story, one I definitely wish was a full-length book. I could vividly picture it and while I may not be a huge fan of Sci-Fi it definitely gave off a cool RoboCop/Terminator kind of vibe for me."

~from crazybookfanatic, Bayou Book Junkies

Full review here.

*

"Sarah Lyn Eaton creates a chilling tale of off-world horror in “When the Dust Settles,” where an injured asteroid miner is recovering from her wounds, but does not remember her accident. She has been fitted with some prosthetic limbs which she is still learning to control, or are they learning her?" 

~from Candace Nola, author of Breach

Full review here.

*

"I also enjoyed Sarah Lyn Eaton’s “When the Dust Settles,” an interesting SF/horror story about an asteroid miner’s accident and the replacement limb she receives as a result. "

~from Jerry L. Wheeler, Out of Print

Full review here.

*

"Shifting gears to science-fiction realms, "When the Dust Settles" by Sarah Lyn Eaton takes us off-world, where mining laborers are as expendable as the automated body parts they require after accidents. But where does the human end and the robotic appendage begin?"

~from Jim Provenzano, Bay Area Reporter

Full review here.

*

You Can Order Upon A Twice Time Now

My story "When Apple Woke" is available for sale in Upon a Twice Time with Air & Nothingness Press right now. My tale is a science fiction mash-up of the fairy tales Rapunzel and The Princess and the Pea. I'm very excited to share this story.

Order from Air & Nothingness Press here.

Unburied Anthology to be Released June 1st

 

Air & Nothingness Press and a New Story Contract

I am thrilled to announce that my story "When Apple Woke" will appear in the Air & Nothingness Press anthology, Upon a Twice Time, coming out this June. This story is a science fiction mash-up of two fairy tales and one I am especially fond of.

I will post again when the book is available for purchase!

[photo added April 8th, 2021]

New Paranormal Story Published!

I am happy to announce that my story "Footsteps on the Floor" is available for purchase in the December issue of parABnormal Magazine. This story is exciting for me because it was inspired by a moment that happened during my college years at SUNY Fredonia in New York. 

What spooky moments have you encountered in your lives? Have you ever wondered what might have happened? Have you ever wondered what those noises on the other side of the door were? Do they keep you up at night?

You can buy a copy of my story here.

Writing in Pandemic Times

I'm not going to lie, writing while the death toll is rising and people are getting violent over being asked to wear masks is hard. My work normally leans towards dystopian themes but this reality we are living in is too close to the way the horror in my stories start. 

I'm a hermit by nature and almost five years into isolated recovery from a near-death trauma. I don't mind the isolation (so far). But I keep thinking the same thing over and over again...

Science fiction is meant to be a cautionary tale, not a blueprint.

So watching the world unfold in the manner in which so many writers before me predicted humans would respond is more than a little disheartening and saddening.

I am currently isolating with my parents for a month, in a lake town closed for the season. Local people are still coming to the closed beach. I have been down there among them, hunting for fossils and beach glass, the only person in a mask. I was the only person in a mask among people shouting and spitting and laughing and I felt like I was living one of my own stories (and quickly broke through the crowd to go off to a more isolated stretch of shore).

I came back to work on a submission deadline and found it too sad to use that real-time experience as seasoning. I'm a sensitive person. I can imagine a great deal. But my joy in dystopian work comes from writing stories I think are real-enough but would never actually happen. I enjoy the What-If scenario when it isn't likely to occur.

I'm still writing, but my creations are more magical and modern right now. How can we change the world now to not-become-that? That kind of thing is living in my heart. How can we better the world with our crafts? Look at the numbers in which the world is turning to the Arts for relief. How can we tell tales but deliver a thread of hope?

Artists, keep making your art.

We have no idea how long this will last or what else will be asked of us. The flu of 1918 lasted two years. I'm watching the people at the park here being so careless with each other's lives that I am certain we have to be prepared for a marathon, not a sprint. The pure science behind how long it would take to get a vaccine that works out into the population tells that even that will take time. 

[But in the meantime, for a start, if people stopped littering the ground with their disposable masks, that would be great. Masks that might have virus on them. It's just health protocol. And we need to cut the strings when we're done. I've already seen birds with legs caught in them.]

We are our own heroes thrust onto an unwanted quest. Only we know if we will rise to meet it. 

[I'm just going to plug masks one more time. I'm chuckling as I write that but it is startling after isolating in solitude for three months to find myself in a crowd of people who are talking about this virus like it's not a big deal and won't touch them. Wear a mask to curb the spread. I think we're going to see the numbers go back up again. The flu of 1918 saw an increase that first fall season.]

May we all see the other side of this virus. 

Retold Fairy Tale Anthology Release!

I'm very proud of this story. It was the first fiction story I finished years ago. It was rough and done before I had begun to hone my craft. The characters were so vivid to me that I understood I had not done them justice yet and I tucked it away.

It stayed with me over the years. When I pulled it out to take another go at it I could see where it needed to be tightened and trimmed and fleshed out. I breathed new life into it and then I sent it out.

Only two subs before 'The House on Blaubart Street" was accepted. And now it's in print with Immortal Works. I am a proud parent.

From the press information:
“Consider, amigo mío, that all stories begin with some grain of truth.”
“They’re no ordinary horses. They’re kelpies.”
“A strong arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her over the rail of the deck.”
“Cleanse the house on Blaubart Street.”

Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty aren’t the only fairy tales in the world, but they tend to steal most of the glory. It’s time to let others shine for a change. Sixteen talented authors each put their own spin on different fairy tales that you won’t find in animated films.

Trade your pining fair-haired princesses for fire fairies, conquistadors, plucky young men named Jack, and a fisherman’s daughter. You won’t see too many castles, but you’ll visit a haunted house, a mill, and a Russian bathhouse. This book also features not-so-wicked stepmothers, a hungry jackal, a black cat with a mysterious secret, and a ship full of pirates.

Move over, Cinderella. Make room for Mercedes.


Buy it from Immortal Works.
Buy it from Amazon.

New Anthology Release!

I have a story in this anthology with Anvil Press, a piece of creative non-fiction titled "When Something Awful Happened," about my interaction with death and how my accident changed my views.

This was a labor of love for Elee Kraljii Gardiner ad everyone involved could feel her dedication to creating a special collection that our world needed. Several of the other contributors died before publication. This anthology is amazing and has a lot to say that our culture doesn't talk about. This collection has a lot to teach us.

"Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. Essays. AGAINST DEATH is an anthology of creative non-fiction exploring the psychological shifts that occur when we prematurely or unexpectedly confront death. AGAINST DEATH is a natural outgrowth of the editor's experience of surviving a vertebral artery dissection and stroke and the subsequent writing of a long poem memoir about the event. To be "against" something can mean two different things at the same time. "Against" can mean pressed up close to something, yet it can also signify refusal. These texts deal with the affects of this proximity, taking into account any meaning of the word. Rather than showcase only extreme survival stories or difficult biological situations, the pieces in AGAINST DEATH consider the ways we make sense of death on a personal level and how we integrate that thinking as we continue forward. AGAINST DEATH articulates the personal experiences of each author's "near-deathness," utilizing fresh and inventive language to represent what "magical thinking" proposes. These pieces are incisive and articulate, avoiding the usual platitudes, feel-good bromides, and pep talks associated with near-death encounters. The writing moves past the sob story and confronts the tough circumstance of facing death with truth and compassion, no matter how ugly or (in)convenient."

Buy it from Anvil Press (Canada).
Buy it on Amazon.
Buy it at Barnes and Noble.

On the Other Side of Opioids

I posted over a year ago about getting back on my feet with writing after my accident. Soon after that post came the death of a dear friend, the death of my doctor, the loss of recovery services, and then new information about long-term opioid use.

I had thought that because I was taking less than half of the recommended daily dose that I was doing well. I discovered that I was still taking a significant dose. And I learned that a small percentage of patients were experiencing a sensitivity to it that created more physical pain instead of diffusing it.

I was in that category. And thinking I was experiencing more pain-- which I was-- led me to take more oxycodone. I was still under my daily allowance. But it didn't matter. I had been on oxy for three years and it only takes 7-9 days for a patient's body to become dependent upon it.

I may not have been addicted but I was dependent. And without a doctor. And scared.

It took me a while to find a doctor who would see me. I found one. No one wanted to take on a patient who was already taking a narcotic that was now being closely monitored and regulated. I was not treated kindly by everyone. I often felt like I had to point out what should have been obvious from my file-- I was burned badly. I almost lost my legs. I needed the pain meds.

I didn't want to need them.

I spent October through December weaning off them, cutting every dose in half for a few weeks and then cutting it in half again until I was taking the smallest sliver. I was told by my doctor to take those slivers and to call the office if I had any issues.

Which of course I did. Always at 3 a.m. when no one was in the office. And there were a few nights that my heart was swollen in my throat and racing so fast I thought I would die. 

The months that followed have been better and harder. My mind is clearer but physically there was some backsliding. So while I am ready for more mentally I can do less than I could. I was visiting with my mom recently and when I complained about my lack of energy, compared to last year she said something that stopped me cold.

That energy level was drug-induced.

So I'm aware now. I'm awake now. I have more pain than I hoped I would. But the stories are coming out. Editing takes too long still but I have learned to carve out the time I need to get deadlines met. I don't have the energy to write all night anymore. I have lost count have how many times I have fallen asleep mid-blink and wake with my hand on the mouse, hovering over a highlighted section. A couple of times I have discovered I deleted passages I meant to cut and paste.

I'm learning a new routine to make my artistic process possible for these new hands and this new body.

Speaking of new things, I have some things to look forward to, to keep encouraging forward momentum. I have a non-fiction story on my near-death moment coming out in five days in Against Death: 35 Essays on Living edited by Elee Kraljii Gardiner. And I have a supernatural urban fantasy story coming out in the anthology Of Fae and Fate in October.

Some of these hurdles have been hard enough to almost convince me that maybe one of the sacrifices of living was going to be my storytelling. I had to consider that maybe my post-trauma brain was different. And maybe it is. But the stories are there, more than just whispers of birdsong. 

I'm listening. And I'm ready. 

Lag Time

It’s been a while. Since my last post I have had two more Outpatient surgeries with a Carbon Scar Laser to breakdown the thicker scar tissue on my legs limiting my mobility. With that came two weeks of intense recovery, which included pain as well as exhaustion and mental fatigue from the anesthesia.

It made writing practically impossible. That was severely frustrating, coming after two years of trying desperately to regain my form, discipline, and momentum.

Then the day came where I found myself with no submissions out for publication consideration. No one was reading my work. And I panicked.

It’s hard enough, while in recovery, not to feel useless every time I have to set a story aside to be finished later, or let go of a submission deadline I could meet if I only didn’t do any of the self-care I need to do. It feels like failure.

If I want any kind of longevity my self-care has to come first. I know this. It doesn’t mean I don’t push at the edges of what that means to see how much more I can do as I heal.

So I spent two weeks in a half-haze discerning which submission calls were realistic to attempt time-wise. I sent a few out and then had to stop. The quality was lagging. I didn’t want to compromise my writing out of fear. But now there are subs still out, still being considered. Every day that goes by without a rejection is a blessed day.

And I’m starting to have the energy again to work.

Stories are forming from the warming days. Characters are climbing out of the birdsong and their histories poke through the cold earth. There will be time to recover and time to write.

NaNoWriMo & Me & 52,000 words

I finished. I reached 50,000 words. But I'm not done yet.

It was easy to flesh out my coma memories. It was also easy to slip into them. I haven't tried to bring them to the surface since I wrote down my outline after my discharge. The more I wrote the more I remembered.

NaNoWriMo became more of my recovery therapy than I anticipated. I spent my mornings pulling posts from social media during my time in the coma. I split posts up into groups and months. I fleshed out the spaces between. And I fell into my own rabbit hole and wrote down that journey.

All the little shadowed nooks and crannies in my mind got turned upside down and inside out. My coma journey was like my own shamanic-underworld-experience. While I do not endorse the method to anyone I am considering it a gift from this accident and riding it.

As far as the work of writing, I maintained my speed and reached the goal. I will spend the winter finishing the coma experiences and then work on the night terrors over the spring. I am hoping to add in the recovery posts and weed the important ones out of them over the summer. By fall I mean to have a read-worthy draft ready.

NaNoWriMo & Me

This year for National Novel Writing Month I am writing out a manuscript of my coma experiences and subsequent night terrors from my accident.

I am just on track. It is day 15 and I am at 25,600 words. But I am just on track. I need two good days of nothing but writing this week to get a jump ahead.

Writing in recovery is hard. And it's been hard to keep up with it when I keep falling asleep with my hand on the mouse. The want is there but the physical ability is not.

I'm not upset about it. I expected it. The goal is not 50,000 words. It's working on it every day. It's chasing the finish line. But I'm not where I thought I'd be, even after cutting myself some slack.

I feel worse off than last year.

And my wife reminds me that I have been undergoing surgeries this year, which is different from last year.

So there's that.

But I am on the track and plugging along. I hope that by putting these stories to paper, so to speak, they will release some of the hold they have on my every day. I appreciate the tool nanowrimo has been for me in my recovery.

My Latest Story is in the Anthology On Fire

BURN, BABY, BURN

Capable of creation and destruction, fire burns within us.

Behind the thick, black smoke of our lives, we blaze with our own unique flame.

While love compels some, others feed greed and lust into their hearths.

A tool for the deft hand, used with magic or as a weapon, but irresponsibility leaves deep burns and promises dreadful consequences.

ON FIRE brings to light twenty-six tales that explore this unpredictable yet beautiful element.

Handle with care.

Coming out 12.01.17!

Contact Information

Website:http://www.transmundanepress.com/

Blog: transmundanepressblog.wordpress.com

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TransmundanePress/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/TransmundnePres

Newsletter sign up: http://eepurl.com/bYiL2r

Editors’ Bios:

Alisha Costanzo is from a Syracuse suburb. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she currently teaches English. She’s the author of BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH, BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED, LOVING RED, and BLOOD PHOENIX: IMPRINTED and is co-editor of DISTORTED, UNDERWATER, and AFTER THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. LUCIFER’S DAUGHTER, her new novel, is its creation for a hopeful 2018 release. In the meantime, she will continue to corrupt young minds, rant about the government, and daydream about her all around nasty creatures.

                                              

Having relocated from Northwest Florida’s lonesome roads and haunted swamps, Anthony S. Buoni now prowls the gas lamp lit streets of New Orleans, playing moonlight hide and seek in the Crescent City’s above ground cemeteries. Anthony is the author of Conversation Party, Bad Apple Bolero, as well as the editor to the Between There anthologies.  His stories and articles have been featured in North Florida Noir and Waterfront Living. When not prowling, Anthony keeps it scary, writing dark fiction, editing, and watching horror movies.  In his spare time, he DJs, plays music, and conjures other worldly creatures with tarot cards and dreams.

Visit our author pages to learn more about the contributors here.

A Book Cover Reveal & What It Means to Me

Not the book cover; just a meaningful image.

This Halloween is the cover reveal date for the anthology my latest short story will appear in! I hope it always feels this exciting. It's an anthology of short speculative fiction stories called On Fire, published with Transmundane Press.

Yes. 

On Fire.

If you know my personal story, you understand why I clarified that they were works of fiction. And lest you don't find it funny, I assure you that gallow's humor is the bread and butter of recovering serious pain and moments of facing one's serious mortality.

October 31 will also be the second anniversary of my being on fire. Of when I was on fire. I never quite know how to put it. Words seem to fail the experience.

I'm not big on anniversaries as a rule, but the fact that this accident fell on a holiday makes it a bit more difficult to distance it from the upcoming calendar date. It's not like I'll be like, oh last Tuesday was the anniversary. I forgot. Not ever. But it's a day. It's just a day. It will pass. And someday it will pass and fire will not be the first thing I think about.

And this year there is a happy note to the day. The story in this anthology is the first story I finished after my accident, while I was early in recovery. My latest work, "The Last Seven Tribes of Ketchari", contains a thread related to my journey, the thread of finding courage in a hopeless situation and rising above it to become something more than you imagined possible.

In an original, fantastical world, it's about how we adapt to survive.