Jason's writings

Finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer

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For the second year in a row I’m a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Many thanks to everyone who supported my reporting and essays about the science fiction and fantasy genre, with most of these works published in my Genre Grapevine column on Patreon.

Worldcon is currently providing a Hugo Awards packet that includes a sampler of my 2021 fan writings. Here’s the sampler if you’d like to download it directly:

In addition, the contents of the sample can also be accessed online with the links below.

Essays, reviews, and special reports

Samples of Genre Grapevine Columns

Blood Grains sequence of stories

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My new novella "Blood Grains Scream in Memories" is out in the current science-fantasy issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. This novella is set in my Blood Grains universe, a far future Earth where nano-technology keeps humanity from damaging the environment. 

This novella is the final installment of my larger Blood Grains story arc, which functions as a mosaic novel told across four different stories. Each story focuses on a different main character as they deal with their place within the larger world that controls their lives. With this new novella, the complete story comes in at just under 80,000 words.

Many thanks to Scott H. Andrews, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, for his encouragement and support in creating my Blood Grains saga. These stories wouldn't exist without him.

2021 year in review and award eligibility post

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I’m late with this 2021 year in review and award eligibility post. Apologies for that but I’ve been dealing with some personal issues.

Fiction Writing

The big news last year is that my first novel Plague Birds was released by Apex Books. The novel is a genre-bending mix of SF and dark fantasy and the epic tale of a young woman betrayed into becoming one of the future’s hated judges and executioners, with a killer AI bonded to her very blood. Plague Birds is weird as hell and neurodivergent at its heart, being ripped from how I see the world.

The novel is eligible for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and other awards.

I also published three short stories in 2021:

Fan Writing

Finally, I’m again eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for my writings and reporting about the SF/F genre. I write a regular column called Genre Grapevine on my Patreon, along with publishing original essays and special reports.

Here are samples of my fan writings from 2021.

Essays, reviews, and special reports

Samples of Genre Grapevine Columns

Eligible for Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer

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My novel Plague Birds to be published by Apex Books!

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Art by Hugo Award winning artist Jim Burns for the second Plague Birds story "The Ever-Dreaming Verdict of Plagues." See below for more artistic interpretations of my Plague Birds universe.

Good news for fans of my Plague Birds stories: The novel has been accepted by Apex Books and is tentatively scheduled for release in the summer of 2021.

Many thanks to Jason Sizemore and Apex Books for accepting it! In addition, many thanks to all my Patrons for supporting my writing.

Plague Birds is set in the far future and is the epic tale of a young woman betrayed into becoming one of her world’s hated judges and executioners, with a killer AI bonded to her very blood. While the novel is science fiction, it reads much like fantasy and is weird and dark.

For those who haven't read these stories, the first one — "Plague Birds" — was published in the acclaimed British magazine Interzone, where it won the magazine's annual Readers' Poll. The story was subsequently translated into a number of languages (including Czech and Chinese) and was the subject of a well-received podcast on Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine.

The following year I wrote a sequel called "The Ever-Dreaming Verdict of Plagues," which was also published in Interzone. Translations of this story were published around the world while its podcast edition was named a finalist for the 2012 Parsec Awards. "The Ever-Dreaming Verdict of Plagues" is not part of the novel and functions as a stand-alone tale in the universe. I’m considering releasing this story on its own once Plague Birds comes out.

Above and below are illustrations by different artists of the Plague Birds characters. Note there’s a lot of artistic license here because the characters, for example, don't wear skin-tight leather clothes or look like vampires.

The original publication of the first "Plague Birds" story in Interzone. Cool art by Ben Baldwin, although there are artistic liberties. (Meaning no red leather skin-tight suits in my story or novel. Sorry.)

Artwork from the Chinese edition of the original Plague Birds short story. And no, the main character doesn't let her shirt fly up like that in the original story or the novel. Definitely artistic liberties at work again.