Annual Eligibility Post 2017

'Tis the season! 

I was not very prolific in 2017, because I spent a lot of it finishing my dissertation, but I still managed some things!

"Eruption" in Anathema Magazine #2 is a letter of a long-dead woman to her younger brother, who himself is in the twilight of his life, recounting the bloody history of their community. I jokingly refer to it as my #killallmen story but I was inspired by Robert Sapolsky's observations of the Keekorok Babboon Troop. In addressing the very concept of genociding an entire gender in order to start fresh, I also had to think through trauma, from abuse, war, systemic oppression, and how to dramatically transform all of that in a single generation. 

"The Reset" in Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, edited by  Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland, published by Upper Rubber Boot Press is not available for online reading, but if you would like to read it, email me. I considered the consequences of a world that's suddenly "reset" to what it was 30 years ago, mostly to tell the story of a hapless grad student who has a fraught relationship with her parents. It was.... vaguely autobiographical and difficult to write. 

"The Last Cheng Beng Gift" in Lightspeed Magazine #88 is the story of a long-dead Singaporean matriarch (wow two stories about long-dead women) who becomes dissatisfied with the Qingming gifts she receives from her wayward daughter. This was part of a pact to write a fish spa story that I made with Joyce Chng. I think a lot about parental expectations and how sometimes they're a bit like a thousand papercuts, and the scars aren't visible but still hurt later on, and how parents try very hard but still don't get it. It doesn't mean they love their children any less. This one I addressed specifically to an audience of Asian women as the group most likely to "get it," and I feel, based on informal interactions on Twitter, that it got through. It's been really fascinating to see the difference in reception, though...