Just to change things up, I decided to pair my stories for 2022 with ~vibes~ and recommended drinks!
I published 4 short stories and 1 novel in 2022. (The novel, Every Version of You, was published in Australia and New Zealand.)
If you like the sound of any of them, I’d be honoured if you gave them a look and considered them for awards nominations.
NOBODY EVER GOES HOME TO ZHENZHU – Lightspeed
~vibes~: Interstellar detective noir; acid rain battering roadside stalls; love-hate relationships with your shipmates; punching up against the system
drink: rice wine, preferably hot with floral notes
TO THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – Hexagon
~vibes~: melancholy love in a feminist utopia; dude in distress; brooding cyborgs and coy androids and shiny spaceships
drink: a warm, creamy matcha latte with a drizzle of honey
AS THOUGH I WERE A LITTLE SUN – Fireside Fiction
~vibes~: cosy; bittersweet; a tree remembers how she became a tree
drink: pear and red date soup (or any sweet, clear soup)
DEATH BY WATER – From The Waste Land, PS Publishing (paperback available, e-book forthcoming)
~vibes~: an abandoned space mission; underwater caverns choked with ice and water; threads of memory, love, hope, rebirth, regeneration
drink: shots of strong coffee, swigged with each scene break
EVERY VERSION OF YOU – Affirm Press
~vibes~: “how to stay in love and feel real after mind-uploading into virtual reality”
drink: make a pot of your favourite tea, sip it slowly, until it’s bitter and cold; when you reach the final chapter, you may brew a fresh pot.
The Epoch Engine, my story for Magic the Gathering’s newly launched Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty plane, was published in February.
I published poetry for the first time: Inertness in Going Down Swinging (illustrated by the otherworldly, fantastic James Alexander Martin) and Symmetry, in the Winter 2022 edition of The Victorian Writer.
I published two non-fiction articles: a personal piece in SBS Voices and a column for Meanjin’s What I’m Reading. I also did a few interviews and podcasts.
In summary? 2022 was a year unlike any other. It was exhausting, delirious, wonderful, overwhelming, fuelled by sugar and adrenaline. But I feel incredibly lucky–that Every Version of You is out in the world, and that I managed to publish a bunch of short pieces.
If you want more of a reflection about the joys and challenges of this year, I’ll be sending out my year-end newsletter soon, so jump onto my Substack if you haven’t!
As always, thank you for following my work. I hope the stories whisk you away to adventures surreal, fantastic, and futuristic.
Grace Chan 