Five Ways
Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free story!
Share this:

Snow

Snow in Redmond
It's not quite the thick coating we see in Northern Indiana, but for Redmond, this is a decent amount of snow.
It’s snowy out, the sort of snow I grew up with in Northern Indiana. A clumpy snow, a little wet, so it clings to branches in inch thick lines, making some more snow than branch. Last night I watched it drifting past the light in the parking lot, which illuminated a sphere of falling snow, like an open-air snow globe, the good kind without sparkles or glitter, just evocative white bits that make us think of quiet nights, growing quieter as the snow muffles sound.

Sometimes writers need to stop and look and figure out what makes a scene real, what distinguishes it from one of the many movie backdrops in our heads, so that when we recreate it or take a piece from it or somehow incorporate it into a piece of writing, we can convey that quality. Karen Joy Fowler mentioned that often the most unique detail of a landscape is one of the most transitory: a busker, the shape of a cloud, the noise of the rock concert next door. Right now it’s snow for me. So, I ask you – what’s the most evocative detail of your current landscape?

One Response

  1. A songbird and a bluejay conducting a contest outside my window. 😀

    Ah, such snow. I guess we had ours three-ish weeks ago. Yesterday I laid out sunbathing. Go figure.

    Best!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Fiction in Your Mailbox Each Month

Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.

Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.

 

"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."

~K. Richardson

You may also like...

Cover of You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo
Less Than a Month to You Sexy Thing's Arrival!

The fabulous cover illustration is by Mike Heath.
I’m counting down the days till YOU SEXY THING comes out. It’s not my first published novel, but it’s my first one with a major publisher, Tor Macmillan, and it’s a book that I have enjoyed writing SO much! I just turned in book 2, have started book 3, and have notes for more along the way.

“Farscape meets the Great British Bake-off” is how they’ve been billing the book. If you’ve missed the hoopla so far, it’s the story of a band of former mercenaries who’ve opened a restaurant on a space station and are doing well, so well a critic may be about to bestow a coveted Nikkelin Orb on the restaurant. But then a mysterious package arrives, things start exploding, and they have to steal a ship to escape. But that ship’s intelligent, and it’s not so sure it wants to be stolen.

Some of the reviews so far:

  • “A romp. If you’re the kind of person who likes Mass Effect, or enjoyed Valerie Valdes’s Chilling Effect and Prime Deceptions, or fell head-over-heels for Tim Pratt’s Axiom trilogy… then this book is definitely for you. This is a fast, zippy novel that hides some surprisingly substantial emotional heavy lifting under its hood…. Cozy-with-a-soupçon-of-suspense hoot-and-a-half.” “•Locus
  • “Rambo (Tabat Quartet) launches a delightful, action-filled space jaunt, packed with engaging alien species, a bioship that learns emotions, and witty references.” – Library Journal
  • “Fun, fantastic, and delicious”•I loved it!””•Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice
  • “Fun and action-packed…. This action-packed space opera is loads of fun.” “•BuzzFeed
  • “If you like Mass Effect, or enjoyed Valerie Valdes’ Chilling Effect and Prime Deceptions, or Tim Pratt’s Axiom trilogy, Cat Rambo’s space opera romp You Sexy Thing was made for you. Captain Niko Larsen and some of her surviving company got out of the military of the Holy Hive Mind the only way they were allowed: by becoming artists. Their artistic calling is their restaurant, but it’s only one step along Niko’s grand plan that’s been thirty years in the making “” a grand plan that’s either interrupted or sped up when the station the restaurant is on blows up and the restaurant crew, plus an extra special guest, find themselves on a biological ship en route to pirate space. Fast, pulpy, explosive, and full of feeling, You Sexy Thing is an utter delight. I thoroughly recommend it.” -Liz Bourke
Cover of the space opera novel, You Sexy Thing, by Cat Rambo, published November 16, 2021
Preorder now!

Please preorder if that sounds interesting! Here’s some links for doing so.

University Bookstore
Powell’s
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
Audible

Or request it from your local library! Most library systems have a webform for requesting books that you want to see them acquire. Here’s the information you might need for that:
ISBN-10 “ : “Ž 125026930X
ISBN-13 “ : “Ž 978-1250269300

I have some bookplates if you’d like to get a dedication and signature for your copy. Mail me a shot of the receipt, your mailing address, and how you’d like the dedication made out.

...

Reflecting on the Past Year

Overall, 2010’s been a much better year than 2009, although it’s had its less pleasant moments, such as special assessment convulsions in my condo complex, my Grandmother’s death in November, and the usual array of rejections implicit in being a writer and sending stuff out. 🙂

On the bright side, my collection was a 2010 Endeavour Award finalist and I had fourteen stories published in 2010. Here’s the list, with a notable reprint and two podcasts to boot:

  1. 2020 VISIONS, edited by Rick Novy. Therapy Buddha.
  2. A dark story of data herds and contraband foods, edited by a fellow Codex writer.

  3. CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3, 2010, edited by Mike Allen. Surrogates.
  4. An R-rated absurdist story telling of Belinda and Bingo’s love.

  5. TRIANGULATION: END OF THE RAINBOW, 2010, edited by Bill Moran. In Order to Conserve.
  6. A reprint from the collection, which also appeared as a podcast on Podcastle. A slim little political fable.

  7. M-BRANE, January, 2010. Fire on the Water’s Heart.
  8. Far flung tragedy of alien species interacting and sparking a doomed romance.

  9. MOOT MAGAZINE, April 2010. Biosapiens.
  10. Who is V-man, what does he want, and why does he glow under certain conditions?

  11. MOOT MAGAZINE, April, 2010. The Strange Case of Maya Andaluz.
  12. Graduate student and artist Maya is abducted by a strange alien light, leaving behind a fishbowl filled with desiccated fish and half-melted glass pebbles.

  13. EXPANDED HORIZONS, June, 2010. Coyote Barbie.
  14. Contains a favorite line of mine, “Barbies who run with the wolves”.

  15. EXPANDED HORIZONS, July, 2010. Swamp Gas.
  16. This was originally written for the Apex magazine contest asking writers to combine urban legends with UFOs – it’s my version of the vanishing hitchhiker.

  17. EVERY DAY FICTION, August, 2010. The Investigation.
  18. Flash fiction detailing events in a mythical location that I think of as vaguely French.

  19. PODCASTLE, August, 2010. Sugar.
  20. A Tabat story that originally appeared in the first Fantasy Magazine sampler and was later reprinted in my collection.

  21. LIGHTSPEED, September, 2010. Amid the Words of War. (Kindle version)
  22. One of my Clarion West stories, the first set at the brothel The Little Teacup of the Soul.

  23. DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, September, 2010. Seeking Nothing.
  24. 2010 was a year for dark SF, and here’s another example of that.

  25. CROSSED GENRES, September, 2010. Centzon Totochin.
  26. Horror set in a small Mexican town.

  27. EVERY DAY FICTION, September, 2010. Love Affair.
  28. Written during my grad student days at Indiana University.

  29. TOR.COM, October, 2010. Clockwork Fairies
  30. Perhaps my favorite of the 2010 publications, this is my attempt to talk about some of the problems implicit in the steampunk genre. I -love- the accompanying artwork by Gregory Manchess.

  31. REDSTONE SCIENCE FICTION, November, 2010. Not Waving, Drowning
  32. A final dark story of a marriage between telepath and non-telepath to finish out the year.

In 2011, I have stories coming out from ABYSS & APEX (Bots d’Amor), BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES (Love, Resurrected), BULL SPEC (The Coffeemaker’s Passion), GIGANOTOSAURUS (Karaluvian Fale, which Armageddon players should note is set in Allanak), DAILY SCIENCE FICTION (Pippa’s Smiles), LIGHTSPEED (Long Enough And Just So Long), SHADOWS AND LIGHT II (Aquila’s Ring, another story that Armageddon players will be interested in, since it takes place in Allanak and Tuluk). Podcastle will be doing an audio version of my collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale.

I got a Kindle and discovered the joys of e-readers, and even converted my collection, EYES LIKE SKY AND COAL AND MOONLIGHT, into a Kindle version, as well as one for other e-readers.

...

Skip to content