New Stories In Print/Online

I had two new short stories published in January/February. “The Equationist” appeared in the Jan/Feb issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I’m pleased not only because of the wide circulation and legendary status of this magazine, but also because I’m a huge fan. Editor C.C. Finlay has excellent taste (and not just because he bought one of my stories–I savor every issue).

You can pick this one up at your local magazine shop, or online. I’m also interviewed by Stephen Mazur re: the story’s origins. This story and the entire issue have been reviewed widely and (mostly) favorably (all linked on my Published Fiction page). Here’s one from Filip Wiltgren in Tangent Online:

A young boy realizes that people can be described in terms of mathematical functions: his father is an exponential, his brother a circle, and he himself a chaos function. And when he accidentally changes the function of his middle school crush, “The Equationist” by J. D. Moyer really takes off.

I liked “The Equationist.” It felt full of a youthful optimism, and made me feel like the world was a pretty nice place in spite of everything going on. It then swung an emotional arc through nostalgia, the warmth of friendship, and a sense of wonder and possibly, to be rudely crushed by a coming of age moment. And who knows, maybe people really are mathematical functions.

Artwork by Michael Wolmarans

Story #2 is “Money in the Tortoise” in the current issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show. Here’s a quick review from Rebecca DeVendra:

“Money in the Tortoise” by J. D. Moyer is told from the point of view of a truck full of artichokes just trying to get to Chicago. It’s actually a person’s mind uploaded into a truck, which is certainly odd, but we just go with it. So what’s in the way? A rare tortoise that’s sitting in the road. It turns out to be a ruse: the truck is boarded by a girl who claims the tortoise is hers, and the story turns into a high stakes chase with military drones blowing lots of stuff up. This one is just plain fun, and made amusing by the protagonist’s absurd predicament.

Having four published stories, with two more in the pipeline (plus my first novel coming out later this year) is definitely helping me get over my imposter syndrome. I can actually make it through the gauntlet of “are you a real writer” questions one gets at a party if you have the chutzpah to introduce yourself as a fiction writer (Are you published? Are you published in print? Did they actually pay you money?).

So … onward. Currently I have seven short stories in submission, one novel in its third revision, and a new novel in progress.

If you are attending Worldcon76 or are otherwise eligible to nominate for the Hugos, please consider my only 2018 eligible story “The Fo’dekai Artifact” (Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores, March 2017). This is also my second and last year of eligibility for the John W. Campbell Award award for new writers. Hugo/Campbell award nominations are open until March 16th. Here is the ballot link.