Oh, hello, there. Have you been there this whole time? I’m sorry.
As you may have gathered, I have some new fiction out. Three stories, in fact:
- “Domestic Violence” Slate This is a story about smart home technology being weaponized by abusers, and the chief of staff at a Toronto tech startup who decides she’s going to do something about it. Three months after the story came out, the New York Times did a story about the exact same thing. I think it’s quite possibly the sexiest story I’ve ever written. I’m trying to ramp up my skills there, because of other things I’m working on. I’m fine writing violence, but with sex I don’t know where to put my fingers (on the keyboard). So I’m prototyping and iterating, via short stories.
- “Tierra y Libertad”MIT Tech Review This is a story about a woman being deployed by a UN agency to assess whether a robot strike on a California pistachio farm is in, fact, evidence of an emerging artificial intelligence. Which is to say, it’s a California noir with robots, themepark Americana, and people who might not identify as human. Also, it let me make a joke I’ve been waiting literally years to make, about an empathy disorder called Graham-Pollards. I really like this character, Dash, and her whole setup, and I’d like to do more with her later.
- “The Cure for Jetlag”Women Invent the Future, an anthology by, for, and about women in tech, published by DotEveryone, who you should check out. The collection debuted at London FutureFest.
I have a couple more short stories coming out this year, assuming I can, you know, un-fuck them into something sufficient for publication. And there are a couple of Secret Projects in the offing, which with any luck I’ll be able to tell you about, soon. In the meantime, enjoy.