News

2022 Emerging Writer Award

2/6/2022

A bit late posting this, but I'm incredibly honoured and proud to share that I've won Moniack Mhor's 2022 Emerging Writer Award (formerly The Bridge Award).

If you know me, you know there's little I like less than talking about myself, so head to Moniack Mhor's website for more information about the award and all the wonderful writers celebrated this year, as well as a few words by me about winning.

I can't wait to head to the gorgeous Moniack Mhor for a writing retreat in the near future!

Just, seriously, look at this place.

Vampire: the Masquerade - Sins of the Sires is out now

27/3/2022

So I wrote a Vampire: the Masquerade interactive novel for Choice of Games, and now it's finally out in the world.
It's about vampires in the Balkans, Greek tragedy, and identity, that masquerade.

Find it here, with links to all the usual platforms (Steam, Play Store, App Store, Amazon, web).

"Ribbons" out in Uncanny Magazine

13/1/2022

I've mentioned a favourite new thing previously, and now it's available to read! "Ribbons" is made primarily of fairy tale scraps and gender feels. It's a story that means a lot to me, so I'd be grateful if you gave it a read.

Find it here, alongside a gorgeous cover, fiction by Leah Cypess and Christopher Caldwell and poetry by Mehnaz Sahibzada and Sonya Taaffe.

"Wednesday’s lover is a challenge: he just became human again after spending a few years as a bird. Some enchantment or other. A nettle shirt, perhaps, a kiss gone wrong. Jan knows better than to ask after other people’s curses."

Things I published in 2021, aka the Year-in-Review Post

29/12/2021

Novella
Mad Milk (19,700 words) came out in the November/December 2021 issue of F&SF. It’s a queer story and a messy story, about what happens when people and cultures relate to one another through the vocabularies, narratives, and practices of conquest alone.

Games & Interactive Fiction
Betwixt is a text-based choose-your-own-adventure app that helps you find clarity, courage and self-insight written in collaboration with Hazel Gale and Elitsa Dermendzhiyska. The first part is available in the App store.

“Pockets, or When the Giants” came out in the Strange Lusts/Strange Loves issue of erotic interactive fiction of Strange Horizons. It’s a story about gender, transition, and the things we hold on to.

Short Fiction
“Oh Man’s Land” was in Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World alongside a veritable wealth of incredible fiction.

“The Shadowed Undertows” came out in a gorgeous issue of The Deadlands (August 2021). A story of loss and death and birds (of course).

“A Welling Up” was in Strange Horizons (May 2021). A story about family and looking for each other. A woman sick with lakes.

“All the Ophelias in My Flat,” probably my favorite flash I’ve ever written, was published in Sylvia Magazine (June 2021). Based on true events.

I think that's everything!

Also, one of my favorite new stories, “Ribbons,” is forthcoming in Uncanny in a few days. This story means more to me than I can say. If you only ever read one thing by me, read this one.

Wishing everyone a great end to 2021, and a better 2022.

New story out in The Deadlands

20/8/2021

Hello from the scorching hell that is August in Greece, but I do come bearing gifts.

"The Shadowed Undertows," a short story about love lost and found, the bleached feasts of the underworld, and (is anyone surprised?) birds, is now available to read in issue #4 of The Deadlands, edited by the wonderful E. Catherine Tobler.

The rest of the issue will gradually be available online, too (and you're in for a treat!), but you can read everything now with a subscription. If you can, please support the magazines that publish fiction you enjoy, either by subscribing or spreading the word.

Website revamp, latest publications, & some news!

9/7/2021

I finally got around to restructuring my website a little bit. There's now a page with links to all my games and interactive fiction, as well as a page with my Greek work and translations in other languages.

And since I'm here, an update about recently published work and some upcoming things!

"A Welling Up," a short story about looking for a lost sibling, the undercurrents of loss and desire, and a woman sick with lakes. Published in Strange Horizons in May.
"All the Ophelias in My Flat" was published in Sylvia Magazine in June. This is probably my favourite piece of flash fiction I've written, and the one that got me my Word Factory Apprenticeship! Based on true events.

I have some exciting news coming up about a game project that should be released sometime next year. The kind of work that if you told my twenty-year-old self I'd do one day they'd die blissful and cackling. But I can't share the details just yet!
So here's another bit of news instead:

Late last year, I sold a fantasy novella to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction! Mad Milk is a story about what happens when cultures and people relate to each other through the vocabularies, narratives, and practices of conquest alone. It’s about the mythologies of belonging, queer desire, and what we do when we’re lost: the great things, the awful things.
I can't wait to share it with you all.

AMA about Betwixt

13/5/2021

On 19 May (10am EDT / 3pm BST), I will be doing an AMA on Reddit about Betwixt, the mental resilience game/interactive story I've been working on for the past year, together with the creators, Elitsa Dermendzhiyska and Hazel Gale. Join us and ask us anything!

Here's the link!
19 May
10am EDT / 3pm BST
u/n_theodor

2020 publications

6/1/2021

Aka: the Award Eligibility post.

I had three eligible short stories out in 2020.
- “Georgie in the Sun” (2,600 words, Uncanny Magazine, April 2020), written at Clarion West, my sad vampire in space.
- “The Shape of Gifts” (6,900 words, F&SF, July 2020). Birds, divination, and gender feels.
- “To Set at Twilight in a Land of Reeds” (3,700 words, Clarkesworld, October 2020). Cute robots, existential angst, sad stars.

I also hit a couple of writing milestones that I'm very excited to talk about (soon!).

Wishing everyone a happier, kinder 2021.

Award Eligibility 2019

3/2/2020

It's time for that self-promo post I've been putting off!

I published a lot of work I am proud of in 2019 (you can find the full list here), but if you are going to read one short story by me, make it this one, the story of my heart: "Poems Written While," published in Uncanny Magazine (January 2019). The blurb: Star poetry, a trans guy, and a world in which we take care of each other, for once.

In December 2019, I also published my second game/interactive novel with Choice of Games. An Odyssey: Echoes of War is a queer, feminist re-imagining of the Homeric epic, with a few twists. It's available to play on a number of platforms, including Steam, Android, and iOS.

That's it for now. Thank you for reading!

Award-eligible work published in 2018

8/1/2019

Happy New Year!

2018 was a long and complicated year for many of us. For me, it came with several life-changing moments (I won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story! I went to Clarion West and fell in literary love with every one of my classmates! I became a Word Factory Apprentice and got to work with the wonderful Courttia Newland! To list, astonishingly, only a few things that happened last year). But I also published a few works I am proud of, so here is a roundup of original work for your reading (and award-nominating) pleasure.

Games
So, the Nebulas this year have a new Game Writing category. And I published my first text-based game/interactive novel in 2018.

Rent-a-Vice, published by Choice of Games (May 2018), is a cyberpunk-ish noir about addiction and exploitation. It is available to play on several platforms, and you can read the first three chapters for free.

Short Stories

"The Names of Women" (2,500 words), published in Strange Horizons (November 2018). A retelling of an ancient Greek myth with some contemporary twists.
"Birnam Platoon" (3,300 words), published in Interzone (November-December 2018). Poetic bio-SF.
"The New Heart" (900 words), published in Fireside (November 2018). Not sure how to describe this one! It could be read as either SF or magical realism about artificial hearts and desperate love.

Notice how my publications tend to cluster? Last year it was November, this year it seems to be January. I had three of my Clarion West stories come out this month. Check them out--I would love to hear what you think!