Hello, dear readers, and happy October! I've got some news I've been waiting to share for a good while...

Out now in Uncanny Magazine: "A Menu of First Favorite Meals"

I'm so excited that this story is now live online and I can share it with you. "A Menu of First Favorite Meals" is among the stories that it took me the longest to get right, and I'm pretty proud of it---and couldn't be more thrilled for it to find a home in Uncanny, one of my favorite genre magazines, and among the most respected out there. It's a bucket list moment for me, to be sure.

This story, like many of mine, came out of the Weekend Warrior flash contest that I participate in each year. Unlike many of those stories, this one grew and evolved a lot after the contest, both in length and depth. It came from a prompt to turn a common sci-fi trope on its head, and I thought about the trope of implanting someone's mind in a new body, robot or cloned or otherwise. You know these scenes: the patient sits up on the hospital bed, staring in amazement at their new hands, and soon is up and walking around like normal. That's not how bodies work, though, and definitely not how brains work. Did you know that every person's neurons are uniquely wired up? You can't just download memories like computer files. So I set out to explore that in a story... But the story turned into much more.

I hope you enjoy it.

Is the Hero's Journey bad for hope?

I had a busy weekend at Flights of Foundry and the Baltimore Book Festival. Two of my panels had closely related themes: one on activism and social change in sci-fi and fantasy, the other on how hope in SFF stories leads to hope in the real world.

Both of these prompted excellent conversations, and both touched on the idea that change comes from collective action---which got me thinking about the Hero's Journey, the story "archetype" proposed by Joseph Campbell. Supposedly (though dubiously) derived from a wide range of stories across history and cultures, it has certainly been influential in modern storytelling, especially within sci-fi and fantasy. You've seen these stories: an ordinary boy (or these days, girl) is told that only he can save the world, and after some reluctance sets off on an adventure with a mentor and a sidekick, picks up a magic sword (or lightsaber), etc, etc.

There's nothing wrong with a Hero's Journey story, but there are a lot of problems with it being such a prevalent narrative---including that that's not how real life works. Change in the real world doesn't come from Chosen Ones or even from leaders (not positive change at least; maybe fascism). It comes from groups and movements, vast numbers of people all working in small ways toward the same goal. Martin Luther King Jr didn't create change all on his own. Neither did Nelson Mandela, or Gandhi, or any other leader you can think of. These people led movements. They were the symbols, the figureheads, the rallying point, but they did not do it alone.

Stories have a powerful effect on our collective consciousness, telling us about ways of being in the world and in relationship with each other. I believe science fiction can, and has, created positive change in the world, not just technologically, but socially.

But if we're always told that chosen ones save the day, and we're not the chosen one, then why bother working for change? Why try to make a difference? When in fact, the opposite is true: it's because of all of us making our own small contributions that big change happens.

So if you're worried about the state of the world, go act in your own small way. If you're in the US, are you ready to vote in November? Are you registered? Can you help a neighbor register and get to the polls, or remind a friend in a swing state? Can you write letters, or knock on doors, or support a candidate in a tight race?

I'm full of hope and fear for what the next few months will bring our country and the world. We've got a big chance for things to get better... or worse. Let's get out there and make it better.

Thanks for reading! Until next month,

Jo