Author: millersminusculemystories

Fertility of Ash in Necessary Fiction

| millersminusculemystories

Sometimes you noodle a story and then sleep on it for years and noodle it and submit it and fiddle until it ends up at an amazing place and you are surprised and so happy for the set of words who could. “The Fertility of Ash” is one of those, which started out as a prompted contest story (drama, forest fire, and mechanical bull – wait really, mechanical bull, yes, good gracious…) and I loved it so. Laney too. I also met some nice people while writing it and added that to the good memories.

All to say, that I am so pleased for this little story and so grateful to Necessary Fiction for making a nice little nest for it to rest in.

The Fertility of Ash

photo credit Lucas Myers (Unsplash)

2022 End of year musings

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I usually post numbers around this time that may or may not mean anything, but here I am gathering them from the tree anyway. Look at the pretty numbers! If each one were a leaf, there would be a nicely turned out fledgling oak.

Short Story Stats for 2022

119 story submissions

109 story rejections

12 story publications

3 forthcoming publications

I also rewrote Ivy in the Age of Falling Ash twice more and queried until the branches were bare.

Ivy in the Age of Falling Ash stats (some are from 2021, but I can’t be bothered to separate it out!)

132 queries

3 fulls, 2 partials, and an R and R

But there were other good things!

I restarted a second book and finished 75%

I sent out a short story MS and chapbook

I started reading at SmokeLong Quarterly

I wrote a ton of stories and made some new friends.

It was a trying year, writing-wise, in that I lost some confidence along the way. But, like many things, it was just a season. Time to turn over a new leaf.

image from Maria Paula Contreras (Unsplash)

2022 Best MicroFiction Nominations

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So incredibly grateful for two Best of MicroFiction nominations for 2002!

The first is for my piece “What Bones Carry” in Whale Road Review’s Fall 2022 Issue

You can read it here: http://www.whaleroadreview.com/miller-4/

http://www.whaleroadreview.com/about/nominations/

The second nomination is for “No Matter How Much Time has Passed, Some Houses Don’t Die” from Janus Literary’s Issue 8

You can read it here: https://www.janusliterary.com/2022/06/29/janna-miller-no-matter-how-much-time-has-passed-some-houses-dont-die/

Thanks so much for the editors and readers of Janus Literary and Whale Road Review and best of luck to the other nominees!

Janus the Two Faced God and Two Stories (two)

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A little like an echo in the room, two stories are out with Janus Literary. Like two sides of a coin, two slices of bread, two choices of dessert.

“Countess Herzinga’s Alchemy” is a drabble with magic and birds and birth. https://www.janusliterary.com/2022/06/29/janna-miller-countess-herzingas-alchemy/

“No Matter How Much Time Has Passed, Some Houses Don’t Die” is a micro with teeth, and analogies, and political ramifications, and well, Nazi ghost houses. It is about complacency and packaging. https://www.janusliterary.com/2022/06/29/janna-miller-no-matter-how-much-time-has-passed-some-houses-dont-die/.

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Grateful to Janus Literary and the writing community!

A Few Publications I forgot to post about

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Some really nice places have been kind in the month of June and I have not posted about them here (it happened all at once!). So ICYMI….

“Atmospheric Variations”. FlashFlood. June 18, 2022  http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2022/06/atmospheric-variations-by-janna-miller.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Her mother never touched the ground, so Su didn’t either. Her toes splayed on rooftops and gables, curled around hanging vines and gutters. (speculative, literary)

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“The Sternum Ties it All Together”. Molotov Cocktail. June 15, 2022  https://themolotovcocktail.com/vol-13/vol-13-issue-1/sternum/

My teeth wandered off their tether in the night, bringing back the taste of calcium bones and morning dew. (horror)

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“As Fast as She Can”. Gastropoda. June 5, 2022  https://gastropodalitmag.wixsite.com/main/post/as-fast-as-she-can-by-janna-miller

Cars then and now. Also how fast a baby-blue flower-painted 1979 Pontiac Bonneville can go along Racetrack Road in the dark. (creative non-fiction)

Best wishes to all!