This year, I focused on writing short fiction. I had just finished a very long and emotionally demanding novel, and writing short fiction was a healthy shift for me in terms of creative rhythm. The great thing about short fiction is that it's SHORT. It's entirely possible to write, edit, and submit in a matter… Continue reading 2022 in Review: Publications
When I was a kid, magic was essential to my inner world. I read fantasy books full of witches and magicians and children with innate powers over the elements. I read about magic rings and wishing stones. I read about fairies and their glamours, about dragons and djinns. In The Real World, there was no… Continue reading What Magic We Make
This year, I have been focusing on short fiction. And... I have a pair of anthologies with my name in the table of contents! Let me introduce you to these books. First, you can order a copy of Well, This is Tense, an anthology of horror shorts all in second person. My piece, "Crawling Back,"… Continue reading Publication Announcements: TWO Anthologies!
I am publishing a story! "Footnotes on a Space Opera" is a humorous first encounter short story, written in a satirical academic voice (complete with footnotes), in which the alien species that lands on Earth is interested in only one thing: opera. Story Origin I wrote the first draft of this piece way back in… Continue reading Publication Announcement: FOOTNOTES ON A SPACE OPERA
One of the most difficult parts in processing my late autism identification and diagnosis (at 30 years old) is dealing with a constantly shifting perspective, specifically in comparing how I function in the world and how non-autistic people function in it. I spent my whole life assuming my way of being was "normal" or neurotypical,… Continue reading Querying While Autistic
My recent autism and ADHD diagnoses have prompted some intense reprocessing of my own memories and lived experiences. It's like sitting in the chair at the eye doctor, and a new lens is flipped down. Suddenly, everything is clearer. Through the lens of neurodiversity, many things about me and my life make a lot more… Continue reading Why I Write: Through a Neurodiverse Lens
Where do dystopian and post-apocalyptic genre fiction stand when the external world looks worse than the stories?
On January 30, 2020, I participated in my very first Twitter pitching event. And girl, do I have some THOUGHTS. But first, maybe some definition of terms. I know not all of the people who read this blog are writers, and y'all might be thinking, what the heck is pitching? When writers write a story,… Continue reading Pitching a Novel in a Tweet? What is this, the technological dystopian future?
November is gone. I have to take a moment, to lift my head from the laptop, to let my eyes adjust to the sunlight, to start breathing again. 50,011 words. National Novel Writing Month is over. I did it. None of it feels real. I wonder if this has to do with John Gardner's idea… Continue reading What I Learned from My First NaNoWriMo
can't talk right now got to write 5,653 words in three days or less with a national holiday in the middle whose idea was it to do this in November my god happy thanksgiving i guess and see you on the other side unless i write myself to death which is possible given i'm feeling… Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2019: Week 4 Update
Allison Wall 