Plus, photos from an event back in December 2023 where I did a reading with three other fabulous authors in a Charmed City Spec Event in Baltimore at the Bird in Hand Cafe :D
First up is my story in the Robotic Ambitions anthology, edited by Lesley Conner and Jason Sizemore. This anthology was funded via a Kickstarter last year where a story from me was one of the stretch goals! Being a stretch goal wasn’t even something I envisioned happening, so it was an incredible honor, and I’m so, so grateful that I was unlocked!
Being unlocked meant that my story, “It-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-The-City,” not only got to be published in this anthology, not only got to open the anthology, but I’m literally within eyeball distance from Martha Wells’ name in the ToC for she wrote the Introduction! My story is the very next page after her name /sobbingemojiomg
Oh, as for the story! It is a story that … well, let’s let Alice from Goodreads tell you!
Of the stories that explore robots’ awareness of their impending obsolescence, one of my standouts was the sad and haunting It-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-the-City (Marie Croke), where a population of abandoned bots exhibit dementia-like symptoms.
~ Alice (from Goodreads)
Thank you, Alice!! And thank you to Lesley and Jason for believing in this story unread!! Ever so grateful!!
Between one step and the next, I reset.
The street is dark so my first action after rebooting to a prior me is to dial up my vision and engage an infrared scan. My internals tell me it’s 23:00 hours with a waxing crescent long set behind the heavy pollution cloud. The sector is abandoned, overrun with fungi and fauna, with a high concentration of oil lingering from a pipe explosion decades prior. This sector is also where a large mound of humans had been piled. Bone now. A graveyard sector.
There is nothing here. I should not even be here.
~ “It-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-The-City,” Robotic Ambitions
Not only did this anthology come out late last year, but I, along with Leah Ning, was able to participate in a reading from this anthology during one of the Charmed City Spec Events held in the Bird in Hand Cafe in December! I read from “It-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-The-City,” specifically parts where I got to do robot voices, one of whom was anxious, and the other who was a bit thrown for a loop, shall I say ;D (That’s a pun for anyone who has/will read the story! lol)
We were joined by two other authors, David D. Levine and Jo Miles, who both read from their most recent novels, while Leah read from her own story in Robotic Ambitions. Afterwards, we did a Q&A. Was a lovely, lovely evening. Everyone at Bird in Hand were fantastic and kind (and even won a few of the raffle books!) and a special thank you to Christopher Rose who organizes the Charmed City Spec Events!
From left to right: Leah Ning, David D Levine, Marie Croke (Me!), and Jo Miles
Next up, we go a little darker… My story “To Meld Flesh with Gown and Gown to Flesh” was published in Dark Matter Presents: Monster Lairs, A Dark Fantasy Horror Anthology, edited by Anna Madden. It’s a tale of a seamstress who takes matters into her own hands when women begin to show up with gowns stitched into their skin. Because of the turn the tale takes, this story was chosen for the very first Year’s Best Arthropod Short Fiction Anthology for 2023, edited by JW Stebner.
Thank you to both Anna and JW for believing in this creepy, seamstress story with ethereal gowns and terrible dreams!
“Who did this to you?” I peeled off a sticky thread caught between my fingers and wiped red against a towel.
“She is the mistress … who sews us into our best lives.”
But she’d say no more, that waning storm in her gaze disappearing completely.
~ “To Meld Flesh with Gown and Gown to Flesh” (Monster Lairs)
Third up is the tiniest!
“Down: 1) A Covering of Soft, Fluffy Feathers 2) Lowered, Worse, Reduced“ is a 250 word story in the brand-new online Crepuscular Magazine, edited by Rebecca E. Treasure. Super short fiction is always difficult. Getting a whole story, complete with character and motivation and movement, but in a teeny, tiny space is always an achievement, and I’m so very proud of this story and grateful that Rebecca saw fit to include it in her new magazine!!
If you back Crepuscular’s patreon, you’ll ALSO get access to two other wordy things from me! I wrote a mini essay about writing this story as well as answered a mini interview, both available as soon as you back! :D
And last, but certainly not least! Just the most recent! Is, “Secrets Locked in Metal Scrap” published in Luna Station Quarterly. This is a story that has been dear to my heart for a while. It features a girl who has grown up among a herd of pachycephalosaurus and who stumbles across hints of her past in the form of another young girl. Yes, it features dinosaurs! Particularly, my favorite dinosaur :D
Luna Station Quarterly is a magazine dedicated to women, written by women, run by a woman. Their stated mission is that they wish to “display the vast and varied talents of female-identified speculative fiction writers.” Because they “believe that women have a unique and universal voice in fiction” and they “aim to get it heard.” I have previous copies of the magazine and love their mission. I also love that they have physical copies on sale as well.
Thank you to Jennifer Lyn Parsons for including Kec’s story in this issue!
Later, Kec would wish she’d never found those old stone steps. She’d wish she’d never touched the moss and discovered the small sigils of a language she didn’t speak. She’d most of all wish she’d never gone back for her herd.
But all that came later. As regrets normally do.
~ “Secrets Locked in Metal Scrap” (Luna Station Quarterly Issue o58)
And that is all I have for you lovely folk today! These four new stories are going to be closely followed by a new story coming in Apex Magazine in July along with an interview with me from Marissa van Uden. Plus, two other stories will be coming in anthologies later on in the year: Strange Locations and Fathoms of the Earth. Looking forward to sharing with you!
Marie Croke 