I’ve been waiting to hear back about Salt of the Earth, which was at the Writer’s of the Future contest. And finally queried because I was paranoid that my response had been lost in the mail.

Dear Mary,

Your story made semifinalist for the 4th quarter contest! This is a very high achievement. You will be receiving a critique from the coordinating judge, K.D. Wentworth, and a certificate of merit.

Thanks very much for your patience!

Please send another story soon!

Best Wishes,

Judy
Contest Administrator

Short Fiction

Waiting for Rain: In India, a winemaker has beggared himself to pay for his daughter’s wedding and can no longer pay his weather bills.

Body Language : Near-future. Saskia, a puppeteer, is called in to help solve a kidnapping because the only witness is eDawg, a toy for which she did the motion-capture work. The kidnappers demand that the ransom be sent in on eDawg, and Saskia has to manipulate the puppet while pretending to be nothing more than a toy.

Some Other Day - Josie’s father managed to rid the world of mosquitoes when she was little. The unintended consequences still affect both the adult Josie and the world.

Trip, Trap, Tripping - The three Billy Goats Gruff retold in a NY walk-up, with a single mother and her tap-dancing daughters as the goats, and the guy downstairs as the troll. (I want to do a series of these, but darn, where do I market them?)

This Little Pig - Near-future. After the Oil Wars, private vehicles are largely considered taboo, but a young boy in the Netherlands covets a 1952 MG-TD. He starts work at a pig farm/methane factory where things go horribly, horribly wrong.

My Friend Anna - 61 word flash involving a tapeworm, bathtub and pregnancy.

Horizontal Rain - A New York contractor discovers that his job in Iceland is being held up because the crew believes in trolls.

Birthright - Near-future flash. In a world with severe birth control regulations, a couple has to decide whether to give up their birthright in exchange for enough money to finish college.

Death Comes But Twice - Epistolary short. A Georgian-era Doctor has discovered a cure for death, but it only works for twenty-four hours.

A Hand in My Colon - Bitter monologue by dying puppet.

The Promise of Chocolate - An unhappy single mother makes cupcakes for her son’s birthday. One of them contains cyanide.

Changed Itinerary - UFOlogist is abducted by aliens.

Salt of the Earth - On a sodium-poor world, where every scrap of salt is saved, a salt merchant’s daughter is killed by a salt-overdose.

Chrysalis : The Husiths undergo Chrysalis to become an adult, but the enzymes involved in the process scramble their memories. As a culture, they are obsessed with documenting their pupaehood, which is when the serious work takes place, before becoming a playful adult. Geroth is determined to put off his Chrysalis so he can finish his mathmatical treatise. He hires a human documentarian to help him retain his memories after Chrysalis.

Novel

Journey to the East: The Legend of the Monkey King YA Novel - Two American kids find themselves caught up in the oldest legend in China as they struggle to rescue their baby sister from the Bone

Short Fiction

Beauty Will Come:Prequel to “Beauty and the Beast” from the Beast’s mother’s POV.

The Case at Landon Manor: In 1924, Ginger Carrington, the glamorous young heiress, must use her skills as a medium to solve a haunting.

Shades of Milk and Honey: Regency Romance, with fantasy. Magic is a woman’s art, like painting or music. Jane uses it to prove that Mr. Dunkirk is wooing her and her sister at the same time.

Novels

Virus Attached SF murder/mystery - Scott Huang and his AI partner Metta are trying to solve a murder, when Metta’s chasis (containing her memory) is stolen. She is rebooted from her last back-up, which occurred six hours previously. She and Huang must find her original version before the perpetrator can use it to hack into the police department and erase all evidence of his crime.

Good Housekeeping: Contemporary Fantasy. The Faerie Queen sent a human changeling, Grace, back to try to keep the old ways alive in the world. Grace uses the internet to manage a network of Goodwives who let brownies, elves and other housefolk live in their homes. But the Unseelie Court has decided to drive out all of the housefolk to diminish the Faerie Queen’s power. Grace has to try to save the Housefolk while adjusting to life as a human.