Critical Role: Vox Machina–Stories Untold

I mentioned last post that I have a story in the forthcoming Critical Role anthology, VOX MACHINA: STORIES UNTOLD, which celebrates a decade of Critical Role with ten brand-new stories featuring some of Vox Machina’s dearest friends, worst enemies, and dudes they hung out with like once. I’m excited to get to share a quote from my story, “Take This Down: Being an Accurate Accounting of Doty and Taryon Darrington in the Basilisk’s Den”, which is Doty’s tale of his adventures with Tary prior to joining up with Vox Machina. Writing Doty was an absolute blast; I hope the following leaves you as psyched to read the rest of the story as I was to write it!

A blue and gold quote card from Critical Role’s Vox Machina: Stories Untold Anthology. The card title says “Take This Down as told by Jess Barber". It reads: ‘“Doty, take this down. Clarke”—a slightly awkward pause as he visibly tried to recall the remaining names, then moved on—“Feathers, Big and Tall.” He focused his gaze on each of them in turn, striking a bit of a pose. Expression: Noble, Determined. “As the leader of your party, I give you my solemn vow: We will emerge victorious in our quest. No matter how dangerous the road ahead, we won’t abandon our duty, nor shall we back down in the face of near-certain death. The Taryon Darrington Adventuring Party is going to slay this basilisk,” said Tary, clapping one gauntleted hand over his heart. “And save the people of Lichenvel—together.”’

VOX MACHINA: STORIES UNTOLD hits shelves March 4th from Del Ray Books and Critical Role. It features a foreword by Liam O'Brien and stories by Martin Cahill, Becca Coffindaffer, Aabria Iyengar, Sam Maggs, Sarah Glenn Marsh, Rory Power, Nibedita Sen, Izzy Wasserstein, Kendra Wells, and yours truly. You can pre-order it now at criticalrolebooks.com. Get there!

happy 2025

It’s been a minute. Let’s get down to business.

First: I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that I am now represented by Maeve MacLysaght at Aevitas Creative Management. Her help has already been invaluable on more than one project, and I’m unbelievably excited to get to work with her.

Second: One of those projects was a story I wrote for the upcoming anthology Critical Role: Vox Machina–Stories Untold. I’m a huge Critical Role fan, and was over the moon to be asked to contribute to this anthology, along with so many heavy hitters. The anthology will be available in early March, but I’ll hopefully be able to share more with you on it before then.

Third: I will be at Arisia 2025 in a couple weeks, appearing on quite a few panels. It’s been a few years since I was able to make it to Arisia, and I’m very glad to be going back. I’ll post another update shortly beforehand with my schedule, once it’s properly locked down.

That’s it. Thanks for hanging in there with me, and happy 2025.

anthologies and "queering solarpunk"

Happy Halloween month, everyone! Three small bits of belated news:

1. The Kickstarter for the 4th edition of "The Long List Anthology: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List" is live, and closes in 5 days (on October 8). It will include “Pan-Humanism: Hope and Pragmatics”, the novelette Sara Saab and I co-wrote, which originally appeared in Clarkesworld. The Kickstarter is fully funded, but you can still back it if you want a copy of the anthology when it comes out!

2. That same novelette also appears in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-fifth Annual Collection”, which is now available for purchase. This is the last edition of the collection to be edited by the much-missed Gardner Dozois, and I’m really honored to be included in it.

3. Shelley Streeby, author of “Imagining the Future of Climate Change: Worldmaking through Science Fiction and Activism” and director of the Clarion Writing Workshop, recently posted an essay on her blog entitled “Queer Solarpunk: Imagining The Future Of Climate Change From Beirut To Appalachia To Oceanside, California”. It’s a reflection on the Solarpunk genre, and it features a lot of discussion of “Pan-Humanism” as well as two of my other stories, “Lanny Boykin Rises up Singing” and “You and Me and the Deep Dark Sea”. It’s a super fascinating read, and I’m extremely flattered that a brilliant scholar like Shelley did such a deep dive into my work. Definitely check it out!

2017 publications & awards eligibility

I know we've all beaten the "2017 was a trashfire" drum into the ground by now, but boy, 2017 sure was a trashfire, huh? In spite of spending the whole year feeling like the world was slowly tilting off its axis I managed to publish four (4!) pieces of short fiction, which is basically unbelievable considering my usual glacial writing pace. In fact, I increased my oeuvre of published original fiction by 200%, which I am dang proud of. Here's what I put out into the world in 2017. (Please note that all of these are eligible for awards such as the Hugos and the Nebulas in their respective categories, if you are nominating and so inclined!)

• "Pan-Humanism: Hope and Pragmatics" (novelette, available free online) with Sara Saab in Clarkesworld. If you were to read/consider only one of my pieces of 2017 fiction, I'd humbly request it be this one. A story about a future where things are maybe a little fucked up but everyone does their best to work together and make it better. As Sara succinctly describes it: "urban design, sexy showering, Beirut, polyamory, water scarcity, Nantes, copious intellectual sparring." (You can also read our essay about the co-writing process on Medium.)
   
• "Lanny Boykin Rises up Singing" (novelette) in Reckoning. About lake monsters, coal, and growing up in southern Appalachia. One of my heart stories; one of the more personal things I've written. This issue of Reckoning came out fairly recently (December 21), so I'm still a little nervous/anticipatory to hear what people think. I hope y'all like it. :)
   
• "Maybe Look Up" (short story, available free online) in Lightspeed. Brief, quiet, second person piece about time travel and regrets. Pairs well with Sara Saab's flash piece Immortal Still and/or the song "Maybe Sprout Wings" by The Mountain Goats, both of which helped unlock its existence.
   
• "You and Me and the Deep Dark Sea" (short story) in Sunvault. Eco-terrorists, deep-water drilling, making a home after the end of the world. Like a post-script for The Monkey Wrench Gang, but gayer.

And that's it! Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my fiction. May your 2018 be gentle, and filled with wonderful stories.