Christie Yant

Stupefying Stories 2.1 is out and includes my story “Office Demons.” I am particularly happy to have this story out in the world as it’s vastly different from what I usually write. I hope that this one will make people smile. (When Wendy read it years ago, her first comment was “So, is this your first attempt at autobiography?”) :) I’m delighted to share the table of contents with so many friends and fantastic writers.

I think we can count Thanksgiving as a huge success–we managed to seat and feed fifteen people in our itty-bitty house, and everyone seemed to have a great time. I did my usual bacon-covered turkey, which fortunately slipped off the cutting board in the right direction (onto the counter instead of onto the floor). A high point of the day for me was that I finally got to meet my cousin’s boyfriend of four years, a singer and actor who not long ago was in Avenue Q in Santa Barbara, a fact which my kids and I completely geeked out over. I hope we made him feel welcome!

With the end of the year approaching I’m scrambling a bit to get these last few short stories out the door so that I have some inventory to circulate at the start of the year while I return my attention to the novel. And of course there’s all of this reading to catch up on, since Nebula nominations are open. I’ll put together a different post soon with my recommendations and what work of mine is eligible. (And yes, it feels incredibly weird to say that.)

I hope that your own holidays have been free of strife, and that your year is ending on a high note!

A few days ago, while still quite upset and angry, I wrote a longer post that detailed some of the grosser examples of cluelessness or malice that I’ve encountered over the past two-plus years regarding popular assumptions about John’s relationship to my writing. That draft didn’t make the cut–posting it would only make me feel worse, not better. But after several days I still feel I need to address it.

I’ll be brief:

John does not edit my work.

Assumptions, assertions, and anecdotes to the contrary are–whether willfully or not–hurtful, insulting, and factually incorrect.

I have spent more than a decade–thousands of hours–working my ass off to learn my craft. When people try to take that from me by crediting my few successes or the quality of my work to my husband, I get upset. And so does he.

*Yes, of course, he edited the two stories that he bought, because he was the editor of the publications in question. For a list of all of my editors, see my bibliography.