Unlike most of the authorly folks I know, I didn't start reading in earnest until my mid teens, and didn't commit to writing until my late 20s. Oh, well. I write science fiction -- or, depending on how you look at it, fantasy -- that deals a lot with religion, ethics, and identity. My stories have been published in places like Asimov's Science Fiction, Murky Depths, and Crossed Genres. I just finished a novel, No Return, that mixes space opera-like stuff with epic fantasy-like stuff. It's not published yet, but I've got my fingers crossed.
My jobs have run the general gamut, I guess. I've been a bank teller, a bookseller, a night auditor, a barista, a bearing salesman, a bartender, an editor, and -- for a week -- an organic farmer. What I really want to do is teach writing at the university level. As for education, I have a BA in religious studies from Northern Arizona University and an MFA in creative writing from University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program. During my MFA career, I was lucky enough to work with awesome authors such as David Anthony Durham, Elizabeth Hand, James Patrick Kelly, Scott Wolven, and Nancy Holder.
Anyway, thanks for visiting my blog, folks! It means a lot that you'd stop by to read my posts and/or some of my stories. If you're interested, here's a list of my favorite books. If you're somehow even more interested in me, here are some pictures of my workspace. Feel free to email me for any reason at all at jerniganzachary@gmail.com or visit me on facebook.
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| Illustration for "Mexico Needs You" (Murky Depths #17) by Lee Simpson of Shot Hot Design, 2011 |
Bibliography of Short Fiction
- Reprinted in Crossed Genres Quarterly 4, January 2012.
An expansion of the first scene of my unpublished novel, No Return, this fantasy story follows a man as he loses one of the child soldiers he is responsible for. It is a slight variation from what one will find in the novel, but (hopefully) not so much as to disconcert any readers of the longer work.
Read the story!
What if a ethnic bioweapon cleansed an entire race (~ethnicity) off the face of the earth? This, my second professional sale, paints a portrait of one family in the fearful world of the future, where people segregate themselves into walled ethnic neighborhoods.
Reviews:
Colleen Chen of Tangent
One of the hardest sales of my career, this short-short (which I sent out about 30 times until MD took it; bless their hearts) mixes body horror and border politics.
Reviews:
Sam Tomaino of SFRevu
- Recorded and reprinted on Escape Pod, January 26, 2012.
- Reprinted in The Soundproof Escape Pod #16, February 2012.
Follow ghostlike Arihant and morphing Louca, the last embodied humans in existence, as they haul the souls of mankind from star to star to be sold. A story about revenge just as much as love, my first professional sale begins a future history I hope to return to at longer length someday.
Reviews:
Mark Watson of Best SF
Lois Tilton of Locus
John Coxon of Hugo-recommend
What would a sex-switching artist living in the radioactive wasteland of future-Dubai have to look forward to? My fourth sale of erotic science fiction.
Buy the e-anthology!
he story of two robots who try to save humanity from its fat, lazy self. Kind of a mix between WALL-E and Transformers. Also contained are some not-too-well-hidden references to one of science fiction's greatest writing duos.
Read the story!
Thus far, the only non-speculative fiction I've written. Still, this story of a blind old man abusing an idiot-savant child (no humor in this one) is, in my opinion, one of the best things I've put my name on.
Read the story!
"MAP REF. -4.296° N 239.193° E" appears in M-Brane SF #13, M-Brane Press, January 2010. - Reprinted in M-Brane SF Quarterly #2, M-Brane Press, March 2011.
- To be reprinted in Pink Narcissus Press's anthology, Daughters of Icarus (2012?).
What if James Tiptree, Jr. was still alive and had a relationship with Joanna Russ? On Mars? That's (kind of) the jumping off point of this erotic story, which is told mostly in dialogue.
Buy the quarterly!
The only outright supernatural-based story I've ever written, and also one of my favorites, "All My Ghosts" tells the story of an immortal man wrestling with a simple, horrifying decision: Whether to preserve his immortality or save his dying son.
Download the issue for free!
The first story I ever wrote, and the shortest one I've ever sold, follows an assassin on his way to killing your favorite characters.
Read the story!
What if the horizons beyond home were as lifeless as the surface of the moon? Follow two kids as they steal a truck and find out the horrifying nature of their world.
Read the story!
"THE SUCCESSION OF KNOORIKIOS KHNUM" appears in Wired Hard 4: Erotica for a Gay Universe, Edited by Cecilia Tan & Lauren P. Burka, Circlet Press, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-885865-71-7, ASIN: B002U829EU (Buy the e-anthology!).
- Excerpted in Sweet Somethings: Samples from the Circlet Press Smorgasbord, Edited by Cecilia Tan, 2010 (Download the e-sampler for free!).
- To be reprinted in Pink Narcissus Press's anthology, Queer Fish 2 (2012?).
Probably my favorite of the short stories I've written, this erotic science-fantasy introduces a variant on Adrash, one of the central characters in my first novel, No Return.
Shortlisted for a 2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Award!
Reviews:Christopher Fletcher of M-BRANE SF
My first sale tells the story of a world-weary author who just wants to spend her allotted orgasms in peace, only to be distracted by an eager fan.
Buy the e-anthology!
Bibliography of Longer Work
On the planet Jeroun, mankind is split between the followers of man and the followers of the god Adrash. They fight, believing the world will be destroyed by the actions of the other. On the eve of the half-millennium, three fighters set out on a journey across the continent to engage in a tournament—a tournament to determine which side will emerge victorious. Along the way, they will discover their roles have become more than mere fighters, but champions of the war against Adrash. Unbeknownst to them, two outbound mages—astronauts who use alchemy to reach orbit—are waging their own war on Adrash.
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