Happy to announce I have a new story out this month titled “Learning the Loom,” published in Uncanny Magazine Issue 71. At 10,703 words it’s really a novelette: a bit of dark fantasy about the weapon of a god who falls to earth, and must now endure mortality. There’s also a fair amount of weaving.

That fantastic cover is by artist Ejiwa “Edge” Ebenebe, and you can view more of her work at ArtOfEdge.com.

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Fantasy and world building. They’re my two favorite-est things in genre. Nothing I like more than creating a fantasy world that feel fleshed out, with its own history and depth. I want readers to feel like, if they keep peeling back layers, there’s more just behind the page. To sit back and wonder, what are the hierarchies and conflicts of this world? Who are its different peoples? What are its scents? Its foods? Its culture, languages, colloquialisms, and folkways?

Fantasy, especially secondary world fantasy, allows this perhaps more than any other speculative fiction genre. Don’t get me wrong. As a historian, I love creating alternate history, and have several books to prove it. I even like the research that goes into them: whether it’s reading maps of late nineteenth century New Orleans or trying to figure out how fast a truck can go in the year 1912. Nothing like tumbling down a research rabbit hole. But with secondary worlds, the rules are so much more relaxed. I don’t need to scan through maps to figure out some real life city or hope my fashion choices match the time period. Sure, it’s also work—because the canvas is absolutely blank. There are no cities or persons from our real world to anchor you. You’re building from scratch. But on the flip side, you’re free to soar as high as your imagination will take you.

“Learning the Loom,” published this July in Issue 71 in Uncanny Magazine, is such a story. A lot of my earliest secondary world fantasy stories tended to draw heavily on our world–-in particular, the many and diverse cultures, peoples, and histories of Africa. Much like the late Charles Saunders, often considered an architect of modern Afro-fantasy (at least those created in the West) I drew on the continent’s richness to create worlds of fantasy, in part as what I saw as a needed corrective to the Eurocentric dominance in the genre. My earlier stories like “Shattering the Spear” (2011) published at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly or “Ghost Marriage” first published in the print anthology Griots: Sisters of the Spear (2014) and then reprinted in Apex magazine (2018) were part of this trend. The closest I came to trying my hand at something different was in the story “The Things My Mother Left Me” (2016) published in Fantasy-Magazine/Lightspeed. While that story also used Africa as a clear inspiration, I quite purposefully filled the world with unexpected elements–from sky ships to six-legged predator cats to folklore from the Eastern Caribbean, like a Jab Man.

I still create that type of fantasy. Because it’s still needed. My current Middle Grade series Abeni’s Song, which draws heavily on West African culture, history, and aesthetics, is certainly part of that genre. And numerous authors from throughout the Diaspora like Moses Ose Utomi, Suyi Davies Ogungbowa, Ayana Gray, and Tobi Ogundiran continue in this tradition of Afro-fantasy all in their own unique ways. Go read some!

But I also like letting my imagination roam further–to break away from our own world (as much as that’s ever possible in fantasy) in interesting ways. Unlike my African-centered secondary worlds, where I want to be quite clear of my cultural and historical influences, I’m purposefully vague in these other stories. I want their settings to defy easy recognition. I want to require readers to do some work to figure the various influences I drew upon. I want a world like this to seem fresh, new, and unfamiliar. I’m still borrowing from the many histories and cultures of our world–including Africa. But if my approach to Afro-fantasy world building is like a bit of pelau, consider the secondary world I’m offering up today as a sort a complicated stew. But enough with the food metaphors. What’s this story about?

“Learning the Loom” follows the story of Okono, a girl in a small rural village. Only, Okono is not really a girl. She was once the weapon of a god–granted near limitless power, able to take any form she wished, to traverse dimensions out of space and time, and to wage war upon immortals in service to her maker. That is, until she’s defeated by a goddess of battle, stripped of her power, sealed into the body of a mortal, and exiled from the god’s realm. Now Okono must learn to endure mortality, trapped in a fragile form that requires sustenance, rest, and, as she will soon learn, community and companionship. But when her past returns to threaten all she has come to know, Okono must make a fateful choice. One that will determine who–and what–she truly is.

Here’s an excerpt:

And that’s all. Because of COURSE you want to read the rest at “Learning the Loom.” If you can support Uncanny Magazine by purchasing a subscription or donating, that’s good too.

Pictured below is a visual board I created for the story. Back in the day, writers made these to help them get through a project. Or even start. It’s a good way to get inspiration for your WIP. Me, I tend to make these once I’ve finished. To look for images I think best fit what I’ve created.

Images listed from L to R. Top row: “African Deity” by Dani Fernandez; Nyarlathotep from Force of Will TCG; Golden Lady with Crescent, artist unknown. Center: Ceremonial sickle blade, Verre, Nigeria; Bottom Row: Lady with Double Crescent Swords, artist unknown; Royal Display Cloth Bamileke people, Cameroon, at the MET; Zahara from the webtoon Ordeal.

Oh yeah. One more thing. While this is the first story I’ve published this year, it’s not the first story I’ve published in this world. In fact, this will make story number 5. So, how and why did I go about creating a world so big I could set multiple stories within it? And what are the other published stories? How do they fit in and intersect with this one? And does this world or series of stories have a name? I feel like all of that deserves another blog. Look for it later this week.