For the Good of the Order- Writing Goals 2026

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Once again trying to return to blogging. As you saw last year, didn’t get far. So, once more, figured the best way to start off is with one of these. As in previous years, I take this time to look back at the past year in my SFF writing life–and what I might hope for in 2026. Here we go!

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Night Doctors

“De only Ku Klux I ever bumped into was a passel o’ young Baltimore Doctors tryin’ to ketch me one night an’ take me to de medicine college to ’periment on me. I seed dem a laying’ fer me an’ I run back into de house. Dey had a plaster all ready for to slap on my mouf. Yessuh.”

—Cornelius Garner (ex-slave, Virginia), interview by Emmy Wilson and Claude W. Anderson, May 18, 1937 (Weevils in the Wheat, 1976:102)

Image: Actor, Rapper, Artist Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) featured on a cover for his 2004 album, The New Danger–one of many visual inspirations for the enigmatic Dr. Antoine Bissett. A fellow boogie man.

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A Kraken Gets Shortlisted for a Hugo and Wins a British Award

🦑 In recent good news, my 2023 short story How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub”—a tale of colonialism, sea monsters, and men of ambition—is a finalist for the Hugo award (wow!) and a few weeks ago, won for Best Short Fiction at the British Science Fiction Association Awards! (Whuuut?!) Back when it was featured in January 2023 by Uncanny Magazine, it was my first published new short story in three years. So, these acknowledgments have been some wonderful surprises. Didn’t know this short story had legs—or in this case, tentacles! Below is somewhat of a repost from what I wrote back in January 2023 on the story’s origins and inspiration, with some updates on recent events.🦑

Image: “Le Poulpe Colossal,” drawing by Pierre Denys-Montfort, engraved by Étienne Claude Voysard, 1801

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