Joanne Merriam » Fiction http://www.joannemerriam.com Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:58:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The hundred hidden chickadees http://www.joannemerriam.com/2012/01/25/the-hundred-hidden-chickadees/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2012/01/25/the-hundred-hidden-chickadees/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:58:30 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3990 “Larix laracina Anaphora” was just accepted for The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VI: Tennessee (Texas Review Press, 2013)!

Also! My short story “Facial Deficits” just appeared in PANK 6. I’m unusually proud (some would say smug) about this story, which is about a woman who gets a face transplant. It’s not one of my speculative stories—this is a real surgery, though very few of them have been done (two, in the USA, when I was researching the story). My day job is in academic otolaryngology, and I happened to be asked to escort one of the doctors involved in the first Cleveland Clinic surgery when he was visiting our campus to give a talk, and I asked him about it (some would say grilled) and then did a ton of research at PubMed and ended up condensing all of that into maybe 300 words in the story. ]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2012/01/25/the-hundred-hidden-chickadees/feed/ 0 a multitude of daggers http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/10/15/a-multitude-of-daggers/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/10/15/a-multitude-of-daggers/#comments Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:21:59 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3932

My ebook “A Multitude of Daggers” is now available on Amazon!

It’s a Kindle edition only for now. Once I finish working out the kinks for epub I’ll put that up too, and add vendors (Apple istore, B&N, etc.). I’m having a few technical difficulties with my process for epub which I expect to straighten out by November. This is by way of testing my books and the various vendors before I publish other people’s work for Upper Rubber Boot Books.

It’s a fantasy novella set in a world where the ruling class can fly and the afterlife is real—and it’s a giant therapist’s office, run by the Boatman from my short story “The Boatman” (I really need to pick less obvious titles sometimes) and Greek mythology. A half-blind goddess with a devilish sense of humour basically effs up the life of another goddess’ acolyte to try to avert the war that’s brewing people the people who can fly and the people who can’t. The first 2 1/2 chapters are available for free in the “look inside this book” feature.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/10/15/a-multitude-of-daggers/feed/ 2 What is wrong with the Man Booker Prize? http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/30/what-is-wrong-with-the-man-booker-prize/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/30/what-is-wrong-with-the-man-booker-prize/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:14:13 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3653 The finalists for the fourth Man Booker International Prize were announced today. Irritatingly, of the thirteen finalists, only four are women. Even more irritatingly, my kneejerk reaction to that was to be pleased that so many women were nominated, so accustomed am I to only one or two gracing such lists (not the Man Booker specifically, just prizes in general).

Also irritatingly, their website doesn’t link to further information about the authors who were shortlisted. Don’t these people realize they’re on the internet? The finalists are:

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/30/what-is-wrong-with-the-man-booker-prize/feed/ 2 I took the bladders of blood to the blood bank. The teller was a young woman in a smart black suit with big lapels that looked like they had coathanger wire inside them to keep the points pointy. Her face was as blank and innocent as a head of lettuce, like all the rest of them. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/05/i-took-the-bladders-of-blood-to-the-blood-bank-the-teller-was-a-young-woman-in-a-smart-black-suit-with-big-lapels-that-looked-like-they-had-coathanger-wire-inside-them-to-keep-the-points-pointy-her/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/05/i-took-the-bladders-of-blood-to-the-blood-bank-the-teller-was-a-young-woman-in-a-smart-black-suit-with-big-lapels-that-looked-like-they-had-coathanger-wire-inside-them-to-keep-the-points-pointy-her/#comments Sun, 06 Mar 2011 02:39:19 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3628 Hey everybody, the Strange Horizons 2010 readers poll closes tomorrow. I have a short story (“Sundowning“) and a poem (“Improving on Nature“) up for it. Also I thought Meghan McCarron’s short “We Heart Vampires” and Peg Duthie’s poem “By Way of Sorrow” were stand-outs.

Vote here: http://strangehorizons.com/poll/

ETA: Results here.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/05/i-took-the-bladders-of-blood-to-the-blood-bank-the-teller-was-a-young-woman-in-a-smart-black-suit-with-big-lapels-that-looked-like-they-had-coathanger-wire-inside-them-to-keep-the-points-pointy-her/feed/ 0 steered by a virgin http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/03/steered-by-a-virgin/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/03/steered-by-a-virgin/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:35:42 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3623 My short, short, short story “The unicorn pulls…” (originally called “Work Requirements”) was reprinted today at Trapeze Magazine.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/03/steered-by-a-virgin/feed/ 0 The first word we lost was the name of that thing with the buttons, the one you speak into to talk to someone who is far away or at least not in the same room. The thing you call people with. We woke up one day and the word was just gone, no one anywhere could remember it. It even vanished from dictionaries, as far as we knew, though in all fairness no one could recall how to spell it to look it up. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/01/the-first-word-we-lost-was-the-name-of-that-thing-with-the-buttons-the-one-you-speak-into-to-talk-to-someone-who-is-far-away-or-at-least-not-in-the-same-room-the-thing-you-call-people-with-we-woke/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/01/the-first-word-we-lost-was-the-name-of-that-thing-with-the-buttons-the-one-you-speak-into-to-talk-to-someone-who-is-far-away-or-at-least-not-in-the-same-room-the-thing-you-call-people-with-we-woke/#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:16:23 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3621 Read “The Way We Speak Now” by Angi Becker Stevens.

Also, further to my last: HarperCollins, OverDrive Respond as 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Debate Heats Up.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/03/01/the-first-word-we-lost-was-the-name-of-that-thing-with-the-buttons-the-one-you-speak-into-to-talk-to-someone-who-is-far-away-or-at-least-not-in-the-same-room-the-thing-you-call-people-with-we-woke/feed/ 0 “Facial Deficits” http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/24/facial-deficits/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/24/facial-deficits/#comments Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:50:45 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3612 My news! Let me tell you it! PANK just accepted my facial allotransplantation short story. THAT’S RIGHT I’M AWESOME.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/24/facial-deficits/feed/ 1 My youngest kid hits Jane’s kid on the head using a bright green dragon puppet. The dragon is on my kid’s hand, so the line between hitting her kid with a toy and hitting her kid with his fist is thin. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/17/good-things-i-read-recently/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/17/good-things-i-read-recently/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:39:35 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3592 Read “Truths about Suicidal Women” by Jenniey Tallman.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/17/good-things-i-read-recently/feed/ 0 The couch caught a number of Estelle Markowitz’s tears, just as earlier in the day it had absorbed Jack Green’s, and the day before, Roger Barber’s. Over two decades so many tears had landed on the couch, the cushion was shot through with salt. In the summer, patients experienced a mysterious burning sensation on the backs of their exposed legs, but they never bothered to mention it. At $180 an hour, it didn’t seem worth mentioning. http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/15/the-couch-caught-a-number-of-estelle-markowitz%e2%80%99s-tears-just-as-earlier-in-the-day-it-had-absorbed-jack-green%e2%80%99s-and-the-day-before-roger-barber%e2%80%99s-over-two-decades-so-many-te/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/15/the-couch-caught-a-number-of-estelle-markowitz%e2%80%99s-tears-just-as-earlier-in-the-day-it-had-absorbed-jack-green%e2%80%99s-and-the-day-before-roger-barber%e2%80%99s-over-two-decades-so-many-te/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:10:34 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3594 Read “Couch” by Rachel Maizes.

]]> http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/15/the-couch-caught-a-number-of-estelle-markowitz%e2%80%99s-tears-just-as-earlier-in-the-day-it-had-absorbed-jack-green%e2%80%99s-and-the-day-before-roger-barber%e2%80%99s-over-two-decades-so-many-te/feed/ 0 I have a lot of things to say… http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/12/i-have-a-lot-of-things-to-say/ http://www.joannemerriam.com/2011/02/12/i-have-a-lot-of-things-to-say/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 01:15:46 +0000 joannemerriam http://www.joannemerriam.com/?p=3588 …mainly about epidemiology and Bobby Rogers (who I saw read on Thursday; short version = he’s great) and more on gender parity, but it all has to wait because I’m in the middle of an epic submission spree (yes, because of the gender parity discussion), but I had to let you all know:

Trapeze just put up one of my very (very) short stories.

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