My story, "Cocktails at the Mad Scientist's House" is in the Spring 2018 issue of Mad Scientist Journal, out now! Makes sense that this is where this story would end up, doesn't it? I didn't initially write the story with Mad Scientist Journal in mind, but it turned out to be a perfect fit.

My story is classified as an "essay," but it's still definitely fiction (I should hope that would be fairly obvious). One of the quirky, fun things about Mad Scientist Journal is that they publish these first person "essays" as though the character were a real person who just dictated their experience to the author. That's why below, you'll see the byline says "An essay by Tina Eikenboom, as provided by Sarena Ulibarri." I even had to come up with a brief bio for my character. Here's what I said about her:

Tina Eikenboom is a real nobody. You've never heard of her, or met her. Unless maybe you went to high school with her. Or community college. If you ever lived next door, you might know her as that girl who plays music too loud. Tina's not her real name, but it does start with a T, and if she has too much to drink, she might accidentally tell you what it is.

I'm grateful to Dawn Vogel and Jeremy Zimmerman for giving Tina's frantic story of murder and mad science a home in this issue. I was also thrilled to recognize a couple of other names in the table of contents, including Holly Schofield, who has a story forthcoming in my Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers anthology. This story of hers is a lot darker than the solarpunk one, of course. Those feral clowns mentioned on the cover? Yeah, that's Holly's story. (And it's awesome.)

I hope you'll check out a copy, and let me know what you think of the stories!

I edited a solarpunk anthology! It's now a real live thing. You can pre-order it now, and it will be loosed upon the world on June 5, 2018. Over the three-month submission window last year, I received 62 submissions from authors all over the world. I put 25 of those stories on the shortlist and read them again, then sent 20 of them to one of the other World Weaver Press staff for a second opinion. I ended up with a table of contents of 17 stories that I am thoroughly psyched about, and a bunch of authors who have been wonderful to work with.

Wondering what it means to "edit" an anthology? See my post about that here. Wondering what "solarpunk" is? Check out an article about it here.

Solarpunk is an emerging subgenre, though it's situated within a larger tradition of "climate fiction" that is well established by now. My hope is that the stories within my anthology will help to solidify some of the tropes that set solarpunk apart from its more dystopian and apocalyptic cousins, and also inspire more writers to approach science fiction from an optimistic angle. And more than anything, I just hope these stories will make readers smile the way I did when I found each of them in the slush pile.

Okay, ready for the cover? (I designed that, too.)