My work is a mix of science fiction and fantasy. Speculative fiction is so often plot-driven, so I strive for stories that are as much about the concept is it is about character — the choices made, the sacrifices, the fears and hopes, the joys and losses.
I am a submissions editor at the award-winning Uncanny Magazine, and submissions editor at Heartlines Spec. I teach genre fiction (mystery, fanfic and franchise writing, science fiction, and fantasy) with the University of Calgary Continuing Education’s Creative Writing Certificate program as well as grant and funding proposal writing. I am also a past writer-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
I’m available for critiques and developmental editing, resume and cover letter advice, and workshops. Please contact me to discuss your ideas.
FICTION
Sister Martin of the Stars, Fusion Fragment, Fusion Fragment
Beneath the Streets, Fusion Fragment
Comrades, Beloved, Kaleidotrope Magazine
Coaltown, Genius Loci, Ragnarok Publications
Darcy’s Law, Geeky Giving bundle
Wild Things Got to Go Free, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Culpability, Bartleby Snopes
Disciplinary Action, Strange Constellations
Cuts Both Ways, Lightspeed Magazine: Women Destroy SF
Victoria Howard’s Retirement Party and Other Stories, Kobo and Amazon.
Gone Sleeping. Beneath Ceaseless Skies #77 and The Best of BCS, Year Three
Forest-Bathing, Evolve 2
Bacillus anthracis, Trachodon Magazine
An Open Letter to Our Valued Clients, Awkward Two
I Bet I Can Find a Million People Who Hate Slab Cakes, Hobart
Victoria Howard’s Retirement Card, Awkward Press
Come to Me. Evolve anthology
The Trying Times of Herman Sligo, The First Line
Replicate Fade, Kaleidotrope
Two Left Hands, The First Line
AUDIO
Cuts Both Ways, Lightspeed, June 2014
Gone Sleeping, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #78
EDITING
Heavy Metal Jupiters and Other Places – STEAM multi-issue zine collaboration with NExScI (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech), 2020.
Uncanny Magazine, submissions editor (2004-present)
Heartlines Spec, submissions editor (2022-present)
Open Minds Quarterly, submissions editor (2017)
WORKSHOPS AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING
Calgary Public Library
“Teen Writing Cafe” (2021-2024)
Drop-in youth creative writing program offered semi-monthly through the Calgary Public Library, ages 12-17.
“Virtual Writers’ Circle” (2023-2024)
Drop-in adult creative writing program offered through the Calgary Public Library, ages 18+.
“Getting to Proxima b” (2020)
Youth creative writing workshop (ages 12-17) offered in collaboration with University of Calgary Department of Physics and Astronomy.
“So You Want to Write Sci Fi” (2019)
Youth creative writing workshop (ages 12-17) offered in collaboration with University of Calgary Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Telus Spark
Presenter, “Writing Encounters of the Deep Space Kind” (2023)
Invited speaker at Telus Spark After Dark adult engagement event.
Beakerhead
Panelist, “The Alien Talk Show”
NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
Co-editor and organizer, “Heavy Metal Jupiters and Other Stories” (2020)In collaboration with the NExScI at California Institute of Technology, science fiction writers were matched with conference attendees to create short stories based on papers and abstracts presented. Resulted in daily magazine distributed to attendees and published online (https://nexsci.caltech.edu/conferences/exodem/).