Speculations: a newsletter from award-winning speculative fiction author, L. D. Colter. Musings on writing, reading, and various piffle, but always a cute animal video.
November Speculations: I'm a Pushcart Prize Nominee!
I'm a Pushcart Prize Nominee!A few words from editor Scott Beggs about his nominations: Every year, small press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 stories they published during the year for the Pushcart Prize -- the most prestigious indie Big-L literary award. More than anything else, my focus with Adventitious has been to create a haven for writers with equitable contracts, a refusal to accept AI in words or art, and to promote the work as loudly as I can. Naturally, I'm taking award season seriously, and I'm incredibly proud to have mailed (snail-style) copies of these stories to the Pushcart jury:
"The Soundtrack of My Afterlife" by P.A. Cornell
"This Is Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn't Mix" by Abigail Guerrero
"What A Name Does Is Let You Leave" by Meagan Kane
"All Of My Tomorrows" by L.D. Colter
"Saul & Noah's Hot Bouleutophagy Summer" by Elijah J. Mears
and "Puddlejumping" by Parker M. O'Neill
I adore all the stories I accept for the magazine, and picking from the 66 stories published so far was agonizing, but I wanted to balance the Pushcart's historic allergic response to science fiction with some honest envelope-pushers. All of these stories carry first-class literary merit, and they deserve genuine consideration, especially by readers who aren't used to three-legged robots, politician-eating mobs, living cars, magic cameras, behooved little girls, and cryofrozen reverse centaurs.
I'd like to congratulate these fine authors and thank them for sharing their work with our readers.
Adventitiously,
Scott
To have a story published in a terrific pro magazine is always exciting and validating. It's truly humbling, tho, to be chosen from among an entire years' worth of pro stories to be printed and snail-mailed to the Pushcart Prize jury. Obviously, the full list of Pushcart nominees is not going to be a small shortlist, but I'm tremendously proud of this novelette and grateful to Adventitious for putting it forward. The story was also written up as the favorite of the issue by Jay at Tar Vol On reviews and favorably by Tangent. (Yes, they misspelled my name.) All of My Tomorrows is free to read at this link -- and if you haven't read it yet, I hope you will! It's the only short-form work that I'm putting forward for the 2026 awards season, so if you're voting for the Hugos, Nebulas, Locus, or other awards next year this qualifies for, I'd appreciate your consideration. It's not a story about me, but it is a story close to my heart, an homage to my best friend who passed away suddenly about 10 years ago, and one that probably required more research than any of my other short stories so far in an attempt to portray the details of Jakarta and the 1998 riots there as accurately as possible. (CW -- Heavy themes. The specific CWs are blurred at the top of the story if needed.) Adventitious Magazine is an intelligent, literary-leaning speculative magazine. If you aren't familiar with it, please check them out and consider supporting them. I'm a Podcast Guest Today!I'm not certain if this will air live or be posted later but I'm going to be talking at 9:30a.m. PST today on the Writers of the Future Podcast about my novel When the Wind Sings, the Perilous Gods set... and well... writing stuff in a one-hour one-on-one. Check in here to have a listen. What I'm Reading:Over the past month or two I've been doing a re-read marathon of a few favorite books featuring unusual families to mood-set for the current WIP novel that I'm starting: Nothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson Spoonbenders - Daryl Gregory The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll (less "family" but still fits) Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (the dinner scene about halfway thru the book is brilliant!) (Plus the non-fiction book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: tales from the crematorium for research) Instead of going for one of my John Irving re-reads -- usually a slam dunk for weird families and great storytelling -- I tried the new-to-me The Last Chairlift but it ended up being my first John Irving DNF (at least in part since I realized once I'd started it that it's enormous. I was reading in audio, but the novel is over 800 pages in print.) Now I'm looking forward to starting back to regular (non-themed) reading with: Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones The Rouse, China Miéville's first new novel in years! The Gates of Midnight by Helene Wecker (The Golem and the Jinni #3) What I'm Watching:New (I've finished all of these except an episode or two of Silo): Silo S3 (good but slow enough I haven't binged) Slow Horses S6 (another good season, of course!) Dark Matter S2 (another good season) (I also enjoyed Widow's Bay very much. I'm not usually a fan of straight up horror, but horror/comedy, especially as well written as this -- yes, please. It reminded me strongly of Shining Veil, which I also enjoyed.) Rewatches: Midnight Mass -- such a good, slow-burn miniseries! (And yes, horror, but so much more.) Being Human - US version -- I love this show. Have watched both the US and the UK versions. Charmed -- I've seen episodes here and there before, but have never watched it right through from the start. I seem to remember it being more... well, more... so I probably saw shows from later seasons. First two seasons definitely not grabbing me. It's my 'while I'm doing other things' watch, but to be seen if I stick with it. To wrap up, as usual, a cute animal videoSomething joyous felt very appropriate this week!! Until next time, happy reading! If you enjoy the newsletter you can sign up at the link below. If you're already subscribed, feel free to share the link.
L. D. Colter has farmed with draft horses and worked as a paramedic, Outward Bound instructor, athletic trainer, roller-skating waitress, and concrete dispatcher, among other curious choices. She’s an author of contemporary, epic, and dark fantasy novels, a WSFA Small Press Award finalist, and a two-time winner of the Colorado Book Award for science fiction and fantasy. Her website can be found at ldcolter.com Other links: https://linktr.ee/L.D.Colter |
L. D. Colter -- Speculations
Speculations: a newsletter from award-winning speculative fiction author, L. D. Colter. Musings on writing, reading, and various piffle, but always a cute animal video.
Escaping a wildfire, reading and viewing recommendations, events, and Bumpy the orphan hippo Be the worst wildfire, not the 2nd worst... Deposit photos, no AI In our new normal, the western half of the US is again on fire this summer -- and not only the US, but countries around the world. The one near us last month started with an alert for a two-acre fire that spread under red-flag conditions (high heat, low humidity, high winds) to over 20,000 acres by the end of the day. We had to evacuate...
Speculations for June 2026 - A free novelette, a library of free short stories, and the secret lives of squirrels... All of My Tomorrows is free to read My hard-to-categorize novelette, All of My Tomorrows is out now and free to read in Issue #3 of Adventitious Magazine. Three or four other stories, along with the entertaining editorial are also free, and the rest will be progressively unlocked over the next couple of months. Adventitious is a relatively new literary/speculative magazine...
Obsession Brains are weird. Mine is one of those that never shuts up. I sub-vocalize everything I read and everything I hear. Taking something “out there” and hearing it again “in here” is how I process information. And when I’m not reading or watching TV or in conversation with someone? A constant stream of thoughts, again, all sub-vocalized. Meditation? Full of chatter. I’m not remotely a talkative person, but my internal voice is never quiet, even though I dearly love silence. If this...