When 2022 slouched into 2023, a switch went off in my head and the depression I had been cultivating over the last couple of years seemed to lift. This allowed me, among many other things, to start writing a new series of short stories that hadn’t even been a glimmer in my eye when the year had started (I will have more to say about that in a future post).
And projects have moved forward. The first was a short story called “Girls Rule the Cyberpunk World!” which, I am delighted to say, has been accepted into the seventh volume of Brave New Girls. So much yay! For those of you not familiar with the series of science fiction anthologies: each story must feature a teenage girl who uses one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas of research. Proceeds of sales of the books go to funds that support girls and young women going into STEM research.
This is actually my second story for the series: the first, “Girls Rule the Steampunk World!” was published in last year’s anthology. Funny thing about that. When I first thought of submitting a story, I had intended to write a triptych, a story with three parts set in three different universes. I had been writing triptychs for a year or two and found them an interesting form for short stories (I will have more to say about that in a future post – saaaay, where have I heard that before?). In its original formulation, each part of the story would take place in a different science fiction sub-genre and each heroine would use a different STEM area to solve her problem.
The problem was that the first part of the story was over 7,000 words long, and the limit on stories in Brave New Girls was 10,000. When I had finished the first part, I didn’t have enough room left for the others. What to do? What to do? What to do? Obviously, I decided to treat each section of the story as a separate story in its own right. Fortunately, the editors enjoyed both sections of the story that I have submitted to them so far.
The final section of the triptych is currently called “Girls Rule the Solarpunk World!” How will it do? Ask me again this time next year…