I suppose I should open with my standard apology for taking so long to update this site. But really, at this point, my silence is the norm; it’s not exactly worth commenting on. (Also, if I’m being honest, I’m just not in the mood to apologize right now. And for that, I’m sorry.)

With that out of the way, let’s get to some updates. I’ve actually been writing more over the past few months, because I appear to have found my muse. In a bowl of noodles.

(Is it a metaphor? Are we talking about an actual noodle? Has this guy finally lost it and decided he’s some sort of Spaghetti Whisperer? These are all valid questions. Unfortunately, I won’t be answering them. You’ll just have to live with this macaroni mystery and accept that you’ll never fully know why I started writing again. But my recent bout of motivation is definitely noodular in origin.)

Before I get into the benefits reaped during the Great Noodlization of 2022, I should talk about the story I finished just before that pivotal moment in my Ramen Rebirth. See, several years ago I got a very inspiring rejection letter from then-editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, C.C. Finlay. Charlie had frequently mentioned he liked my cover letters (which were written with the intent of both earning a laugh and ensuring I couldn’t be mistaken for a professional), and asked me to send him a humor story some day. Naturally, my inability to work under pressure kicked in, and I spent the next three and a half years in a blood-feud with a Word document I absolutely hated.

Charlie ended up retiring from his post before I could finish his story, but when the submission window for Unidentified Funny Objects 9 came around, I decided it was time to put my nose to the grindstone. And, once I realized how bad the grindstone smelled, I pulled my face away and got to work on the story.

The result was a piece called “A Crisis of Fate,” which editor Alex Shvartsman was kind enough to buy for his excellent anthology series of humorous SF/F. It’s probably the most “Zach” story I’ve ever written, so if you ever want to know why I’m the way I am, this is the thing to read.

UFO9 came out in November of 2022, and I’m pleased to announce that “A Crisis of Fate” was one of the volume’s four stories to make the Tangent Online 2022 Recommended Reading List. (And with a star by its name, to boot!) I haven’t made the list in years, probably because I haven’t been writing much since the last time I got there (in 2017, with two entries). Of course, now that I’ve had a run-in with a very inspiring noodle, the odds of making the list in the future have increased lexponentially.

Granted, I haven’t yet sold anything that I’ve written in this post-pasta era, but I also haven’t taken many swings yet. A few things are currently on submission; a few more need to be fixed up a bit before they go out again. But all in all, I’m pretty pleased with what I’m producing, which is a rare sensation for me. (This must be what it feels like when a starfleet engineer finally designs a spaceship that doesn’t explode, or an orc forges a sword that’s not pointy on both ends.)

As far as other publications go, I’ve also sold a reprint of my Christmas flash piece “When Friends Come to Call” to Holiday Leftovers. That story hasn’t been available for a long while now, so I’m glad to see it out in the world again.

Lastly, I sold something to an anthology called Merciless Mermaids: Tails From the Deep, which should be available sometime in 2023. My contribution is called “Apex Predators,” and it’s a drabble: a story of exactly 100 words. This is my first-ever drabble sale, which makes me extra proud of it–it feels like I’ve earned a new merit badge. (And I’ll put it right next to my “dribble” merit badge, which I earned for trying to chug a Big Gulp right after having dental surgery.)

And that’s it for today’s updates. If the Noodlemuse keeps doing its work, I’ll hopefully have reason to visit here more often.

Thanks for reading, friends–as always.

-Z