Daniel Ausema's Blog

 April showers bring May...poems? Or, well, given the lack of rain for most of April around here, maybe it's April droughts that bring poetry. Anyway, I've had two poems come out this month!

The first is "Lesser Zodiacs" in Merganser Magazine. Their fifth issue was published at the beginning of the month. The idea for it was sparked by some art another poet shared, where the artist imagined zodiac-style art for constellations that don't get to be part of the usual signs. I confess to paying little attention to the recognized zodiacal signs, but (so?) I had a lot of fun imagining the other signs that might go under-appreciated.

The second poem came out in the middle of the month--"The River of Naming" in Orion's Belt. This one came from me being playful with linguistic terminology and the water cycle. The stanzas alternate here--not in meter or form (it's free verse) and not in point of view or other things I might usually play with in fiction writing, but in voice and register, with the alternating stanzas addressing some "fisher of words." Which is fun. I think.

Enjoy, all you Readers of Words!

Here is Spiral, the beetle a writer friend crocheted for me recently! I've been playing around with different ways to photograph them, so watch for more images floating around social media, my newsletter, and more!
For now, Spiral is inviting you to check out my new store on itch.io, https://danielausema.itch.io/. What is it? Well, the main goal of the page is to give people a way to buy ebooks directly from me, skipping Amazon and other vendors. I have some of my Spire City stories up there now for people to buy and will be adding more over the coming few weeks.
Episode 0 is one of the stories that's already available, so if you haven't bought it from Amazon or the other sites, consider buying it direct, and you'll learn how it began--before the infections, before the found family of the Weave, an urchin alone, "On the Streets."
But that's not all! ("But wait, there's more"...) Spire City itself is worth your time, worth playing around in and experiencing for yourself, with your own imagination. To give you a chance to try out some role-playing in Spire City, I put a 2-page one-shot TTRPG for you to try out. "Spire Songs & Steam Gears" is based on the very simple-to-use Lasers & Feelings system.
And it's free! Check it out--and if you try the game with your role-playing friends, let me know! I'd love to hear how it went and what could be better!

The world feels fragile these days. In all this chaos, corruption, and lack of empathy, the arts are as important as ever. So what do you need? I don't know--maybe it's to just breathe and find some way to steady yourself. Maybe it's to take in some (non-AI!) works of art or listen to some music (my kids are big fans of the musical/concept album Epic). 

But maybe you want to read. Maybe you want to read to escape--not to stick your head in the sand and pretend things are better, but escape as defiance, as healing, as a way to get back into life from a better place. Or you might want to read about the struggles directly, about the real world but told slant. You want stories of other people facing terrible situations, people who defied the corrupt and the powerful, who found ways to make their worlds better.

I recently sent this list out to my newsletter subscribers (if you haven't yet, subscribe!), dividing some of my writing into these two categories. I don't usually repeat my newsletter info here, but decided it was worth doing this time. So...read on!

Escapism? Slant? What?

Ok, brief intro: (not a full essay, don't worry) Sometimes when you're in a rough place, you need something light and escapist. A little bit of whimsy, a sense of playfulness--I don't consider myself a comical writer, but play and whimsy are important words in how I write and create.

But sometimes, when the world feels like it's falling apart, we find inspiration in characters who've faced terrible situations and pushed back or powered through--or...stumbled through, aching and broken, into some sort of success, however they define it. I have stories about that as well.

If I were turning this into a full essay, I'd point out how it's a false dichotomy, how even the play and whimsy are wrapped up in the world (and even the characters going through a wringer can have moments of wonder and whimsy).

But more importantly I want to say that there's nothing wrong with either need, and what each of us needs might change as our lives and the world around us change. There are times when people try to create a moral judgment of one over the other, but I say read what you need to read in the given moment.

Read, widely, of whatever will get you through.

How 'bout some escapism?

My sense of whimsy is rooted deep in Italo Calvino's works. Whether you know his writing or not, here are some that I think share a touch of his art:

Looking for poetry? Try Ephemeral Village, a chapbook collection of poems about a belonging and home, meaning and wandering.

Want some very short fictions? Try The Market of Magical Goods, which is me at my most whimsical, spinning little 100-word tales about an open-air market and the magical lamps and swords and potions you might find within.

Something a little longer? Cities of Wonder, Rails of Irreality is a collection made up mostly of flash fiction (1000 words-ish) but also some poetry and one longer story, about the lands visited by a wondrous railroad and the ways people construct their lives based on where they go and how they perceive those places. 

Or for something a little less whimsical, a little more narrative-focused, you might try the quest fantasy novella The Patterns of Cloth and Dreams. It's set in the same world as the Spire City stories (see below) and tells the story of a seamstress who travels north to procure a rare kind of cloth, in the homeland of a mysterious people.

The real world, but tell it slant

Want a story about a corrupt, eccentric inventor who uses his wealth and connections to push down the powerless? Well, the original Spire City novels aren't that exactly--they aren't about the obscenely wealthy per se; instead they're about those powerless ones who find a way to fight back, expose the inventor, and save what they can about their city. A steampunk series that's as rooted in the punk as in the steam.

Want a story about living through a time of change, about a group of people who dream of a more just society and do what they can to create it--even as those with the power and wealth do all they can to stop them? Throw in a new kind of storytelling magic (new media!?) that's changing the world and a frozen land made inhabitable by geysers, and you've got the Arcist Chronicles.

Maybe you want a standalone story about an occupied city after the death of a local hero. Spire City: Occupied weaves a fast-paced story of five people in a steampunk city after the death of a famous inventor. Featuring trench warfare, chained singers, new inventions, a harsh wilderness, and a smuggler's airship! The characters face cruel armies and unreasonable demands and even their own misconceptions while trying to get through their own terrible times.

And as a related note--but avoiding spoilers--I have two novels that include a key scene of a large wall coming down. Each plays out differently in its novel--and each in a different imaginary world. These are not exact analogs for real-world events--neither wall was built for racist purposes but rather constructed out of a mistaken belief that they would be beneficial. Still, I'm entertained by the way they resonate with (and play against) both each other and all the rhetoric around building walls.

If you're looking for an assignment (the teacher in me suggests), find both scenes I'm referring to, and compare them :)

May all walls that divide people come crashing down.

Are you reading for awards? Or simply interested in what work I've had out this past year? I think my story in Factor Four Magazine especially is worth an extra look, if you're considering fiction nominations. One of these years, hopefully there'll be a flash-specific award...

For poetry, you might consider my Dreams & Nightmares poem for the Rhysling, and I'd love to have Ephemeral Village under consideration for the Elgin.

And apart from awards, don't forget A Trade in Betrayals when it comes to novel reading. It's the final book in a trilogy. Seven years ago, book 1 was published, but the writing for that started even ten years earlier, so it's a closing of the chapter for me, a big part of my writing these past years. And I think it's well worth that time--it brings the story of Pavresh and Jaritta and Indima and the rest--the story of Arcist magic and its implications on a changing world--to a stunning close with some of my best writing and an energy that will really draw you in once you start reading.

Give the novel (and the series) a shot!

That said, in 2024 I had three flash fiction short stories published (one more properly a micro-fiction), poem by itself, and then a novel and a chapbook of 20 poems.

Flash fiction:

“In the City of the Faced” in Factor Four Magazine (1,000 words, fiction)

https://factorfourmag.com/in-the-city-of-the-faced-by-daniel-ausema/

“Traveling the Seed Migrations” in 100-Foot Crow (100 words, micro-fiction)

https://100footcrow.com/traveling-the-seed-migrations/

“Benthic Myth of the Deep Sea” in The Pink Hydra (500 words, fiction)

https://www.thepinkhydra.com/issues/0103202409/benthicmyth/

Poetry:

“What Grows From Our Heads” in Dreams & Nightmares (15 lines, poetry)

May 2024, https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/p/ordering-dreams.html

Novel!!!:

A Trade in Betrayals from Guardbridge Books (novel)

https://www.danielausema.com/p/the-silk-betrayal.html

Poetry chapbook:

Ephemeral Village from Island of Wak-Wak Press (20 poems)

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ephemeral-village-daniel-ausema/1146530845

https://www.amazon.com/Ephemeral-Village-Coffee-Table-Chapbook/dp/9198959840

In addition, I've had two poems that have been accepted this year but are still forthcoming:

“The Truth About Trees” (16 lines, poem)

Star*Line

“The Palms That Tear Through Human Thought” (14 lines, poem)

Kaleidotrope

I've been talking about this on social media and in my newsletter, but haven't put the announcement here yet (facepalm emoji...).

I have a chapbook of poems out! It was a whirlwind from acceptance to publication and right as A Trade in Betrayals was releasing as well (not to mention...lots of other head-spinning things in the world and my life...).

Has my head stopped spinning? No. But taking a moment to share this here, anyway, because it's super cool! Ephemeral Village is a collection of twenty poems that I wrote specifically to be a chapbook, all focused on the idea of a floating, transitory village in a place that vaguely resembles the northern provinces of the Netherlands.

Not that I've ever been to the Netherlands... But I was looking at memories and family stories of my grandparents and reading up on the kinds of folktales that might have been common in the region where their ancestors had lived, and the idea for the village came to me.

Ultimately, there's a Calvino-esque sense to these poems, of holding up the details and idiosyncrasies of an imaginary place as a way to reflect and counter the ways we create meaning and truth and identity in our own ephemeral homes.

The book is available (at least to US readers) from Barnes & Noble, Amazon (that's new--it wasn't on Amazon last I checked!), and various other online bookstores. Here's a UK link from Foyles. And the first link that went live was this bookstore in Sweden. (Google is showing me bookstores in Finland, Denmark, and Taiwan, as well, on the first page of results--so check your own favorite, local source!)

 

Yesterday I finally had a chance to hold a copy of A Trade in Betrayals in my hands! I'll be down at MileHiCon in Denver this weekend for its release. I have a few panels I'm on, and I'll be hanging out at Guardbridge Books' vendor table a bunch of the time as well.

The city of outcasts has been protected by Pavresh's magic for five years, but food is scarce and their enemies powerful. When a rival city employs its own magic against them, nothing stands in their way, and Pavresh is nowhere to be found. Has he betrayed them? Or been captured himself by their controlling magic?

This conclusion to the Arcist Chronicles opens up the world of the Eghsal Valley while destroying much that is good about it, with battle-dancing and exploration, coded messages and lost wanderers, and underlying it all, competing visions for the way the world is and the way the world could be. 

And here's a look at all three books in the trilogy!

There is no way to buy the book online yet, but I'll be posting links as soon as I have them!

 

A short flash fiction story of mine, "A Benthic Myth of the Deep Sea," recently came out in The Pink Hydra. Lots of other stories and poems in that issue, as well, so plenty of excellent things to read.

It's a stealing-fire-from-the-gods story. With giant isopods (see pic, from Wikipedia). Isopods are cool--the story is an older one, so I don't recall precisely, but I think I'd just seen a recently captured video of one walking along the seafloor when I turned that image into this little myth.

Enjoy!

 

Here's something fun that you may have missed!

Last month I had a chance to participate in Deborah L. Davitt's Shining Moon podcast with a group of other speculative poets. We talked about poetry and our paths with writing it, and the central focus of the episode was a Poetry Thunderdome, where we collaborated to come up with a mostly random topic and had a brief time to write...something poetical with that topic.

I'd never done anything like that before (apparently some conventions feature something similar, and maybe some day I'll get a chance to start attending cons more regularly...), but it was really fun.

You can listen to our poems and banter at many of the usual podcast venues--just look for Shining Moon Podcast, episode 37 (lots of handy links there). Or if you'd rather, simply open it up on YouTube instead right here.

This publication went quickly from acceptance to being available. "In the City of the Faced" is a story about a person who's actually a swarm of bees. It's in the March issue of Factor Four Magazine. Give it a read!

It's that time of year to look back at what I had published this past year (and supposedly to advocate for them to appear on year-end recommendation lists and award short lists and the like, but I'm never very good at that part of it). I had 3 short stories published in 2023 (one flash), 2 poems, and one chapbook of microfictions. Plus one short story reprinted in an anthology.

"The Life Cycle of a Shadow" appeared in the anthology *A Compendium of Enigmatic Species* It's a pseudo-journalistic piece about the lesser and greater shadows and the threat one specific shadow poses to the world 

https://practicalfantasists.wordpress.com/2023/02/09/a-compendium-of-enigmatic-species-now-available/

"Excavating Lost Languages" appeared in issue 8 of Frozen Wavelets. It's a flash story full of linguistic whimsy and imaginary writing systems, lost to time. 

https://frozenwavelets.com/sdm_downloads/issue-8/

"What Passes for Eyes in Dreams and Death" appeared in issue 92 of Fantasy Magazine. (And currently short-listed for a best-of anthology...) A Piranesi-tinted story of the beings that haunt a funeral home. Tangent thinks "It would have worked better as a poem" ...

https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/what-passes-for-eyes-in-dreams-and-death/

Now the poems. "Hands That Cannot Grasp" appeared in spring 2023 issue of Kaleidotrope. It's a poem of transformation. 

https://kaleidotrope.net/archives/spring-2023/hands-that-cannot-grasp-by-daniel-ausema/

And "The Alien Words, Formed and Empty" appeared in the fall 2023 issue of Star*Line. It's a poem about aliens, architecture, and communication.

https://sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/starline46.4.html

Finally my chapbook: *The Market of Magical Goods* is a collection of drabbles about a magical market, a little over half never before published. It's fun, short, and whimsical.

https://www.amazon.com/Market-Magical-Goods-Daniel-Ausema/dp/B0C87SH75D/

And it may not be award eligible, but do check out my "The Triptych of the Final String," which was reprinted in November in the anthology *The Cosmic Muse*

https://books2read.com/u/br6Z67

Do I have a favorite from this year? Don't make me pick...But "What Passes for Eyes in Dreams and Death" is the sentimental favorite because of Fantasy Magazine closing down.

As a story it's high on craft and strangeness. Or, you know, "shoulda been a poem..."