Danai's Dispatch: October 2024

Welcome to Danai's Dispatch, where I pop into your inbox once a month whenever something exciting happens, bearing gifts: thoughts on writing, short story and book roundups, resources for writers, and exclusive giveaways! Thank you for reading. If you haven’t subscribed already, please consider signing up below.

October honors all our inner monsters

Oh, hi, welcome. Come sit by the candlelight with me, won’t you? Grab a pumpkin. It gets dark fast these October evenings in the Swedish forest. Sit, sit. Never mind the screams that echo in the mist—probably foxes or deer. Where were we? Ah, yes: if you’ve been here for a while, you might remember we last spoke in December 2023. Almost a year has passed, with no dispatches in between. I blame Time; it keeps running out on me. But if you’re new here, I’m happy that this is the first dispatch you will get. To honor the season, I’ll keep it as spooky as possible. Both tricks and treats.

To begin with, here’s some treats this year brought me so far:

• After a year of interning at the Tobias Literary Agency, I was promoted to an Assistant Literary Agent in March. I had the pleasure of signing my first two clients (co-repping them with the amazing Lane Heymont) and I’m ridiculously proud of their talent. Can’t wait for their books to soar out there! Not sure yet when I’ll be able to open to queries, but follow this space for updates.

• Apart from reading poetry submissions for Haven Spec, I’ve also started writing short fiction reviews for the magazine, which you can find here.

• I was honored to be a guest of Electric Sheep and have a wonderful conversation about short fiction with Myna Chang and the group.

• I’ve had an unforgettable first year as an editor for khōréō! The first story I had the pleasure of acquiring and editing is out now in issue 4.3: A Little Like Sap, a Bit Like a Tree by Natalia Theodoridou, a heartbreaking meditation on healing and letting go as the seasons turn. Please read it and recommend it for all the awards if you enjoy it (I’m not allowed to do so, as its editor).

• “Pegasus”, my short story that was originally published in The Icarus Writing Collective and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, is being reprinted in Flame Tree’s Medusa anthology amid so many other great stories inspired by one of the most misunderstood “monsters” of Greek mythology.

  Preorder the Medusa anthology by Flame Tree Press here

Next, the tricks—or, what I'm working on

Beginning with a trick the verdict is still out on whether I’ll be able to pull off.

On my last dispatch, I had mentioned my fourth novel, which I was hoping to get out on submission in 2024. “Fourth time’s the charm?” I’d written back then, battle-weary from being on submission since October 2021. (If you’re a fellow author pursuing trad pub, currently querying or out on submission, solidarity. It’s rough out there. If you’re self-publishing, it’s also rough out there, just for different reasons. Solidarity regardless.) With several close calls and almost yeses on my books, at that point, it appeared that publishing didn’t want the kind of weird, queer, Greek myth inspired stories I veer toward writing. But appearances can be deceiving…

So, what is this book I’m talking about?

VILE LADY VILLAINS is a fever dream I’ve had since 2021, but really since I was a kid being raised on ancient Greek drama and Shakespeare monologues and made to memorize them. (Growing up with actors for parents is fun, if you can afford therapy.) It’s an adult horrormantasy—yes, I said what I said—that asks: what if Klytemnestra and Lady Macbeth had met? VILE LADY VILLAINS is filled with female rage, it has Mortal Follies’ mix of Shakespeare and myth, the stabby sapphics of A Dowry of Blood, the skeletons and dark humor of Gideon the Ninth, and the liminal spaces of Piranesi. I’m being told that fans of of Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra, Ava Reid’s Lady Macbeth and Bea Fitzgerald’s The End Crowns All might enjoy VILE LADY VILLAINS.

Here’s a more coherent blurb of what’s happening in this fever dream of a book:

With the consequences of her murderous actions closing in, Lady Macbeth turns to the three witches for help, but all she’s given is a brew that transports her to a limbo realm. Desperately lost, she opens a door she shouldn’t—and comes face to face with a woman drenched in blood. 

Klytemnestra, queen of Mycenae, is exacting bloody vengeance on her husband, a vengeance a decade in the making. Yet as she revels in her triumph, an otherworldly door appears and a strange woman steps in. Thinking her a hostile spirit, Klytemnestra chases her away, getting them both trapped in that liminal realm.

Hunted by screaming wraiths and unable to find their way home, literature’s most vile lady villains form an uneasy, daggers-to-the-throat alliance to survive. But nothing in this world is what it seems: not the three witches and their ambiguous guidance, and certainly not the drunken Bard himself. The realm’s goddess, The Mistress of the House of Books, holds the keys to all storydoors—which can release the two women, and all the realm’s trapped characters, into new stories of their choosing.

As every threat brings our vile lady villains closer, turning ill intentions into fiery attraction, they have a choice: remain within the confines of their narratives, safe and apart … or burn down the world to pen their own story together.

So, about this book, what’s happening is… [Scoots closer to you on the forest floor, whispers Vague News while the deer and the foxes are screaming, but there is a sigil in our circle that does not allow words to come out—yes, just like in Agatha All Along.]

Anyway, now that I’ve shared everything I can at this point, I offer you as a treat an exclusive first view of my two main VILE LADY VILLAINS characters, drawn by the fantastic Marina Charalambides. Marina captured the heart of my vile ladies and their daggers-to-the-throat attraction so brilliantly, I’m convinced it’s a spell because I can’t stop looking at them and seriously considering turning this into a tattoo at some point:

Wait… I have more tricks. And this one might interest you.

When I’m not hyperventilating over character art and Vague News, I spend my time working with authors. Authors at every stage of their career, whether pursuing traditional publication or self-publishing. You may already know I’m offering editing services but in the beginning of the Autumn I was asked by one of my clients whether I would consider offering author/writing coaching sessions. I struggled with the idea at first, because while I know how valuable coaching can be, I also know that these services are usually expensive, inadvertently acting as yet another gatekeeper in an industry that’s already too gatekeep-y on working class and marginalized authors.

But in the end, I realized I can do this in a way that would be helpful to authors while also being feasible for me and my time.

So here’s how my coaching services work: we will be doing hourly sessions, weekly or bi-weekly via Zoom, and they can be about anything writing/publishing related you’re struggling with. For instance, with my existing clients so far we have done pitch preparations for them to pitch agents at workshops, we have revised book outlines, we have looked at short stories and how to sharpen them, and we’ve worked on strategies for being consistent with writing and with pursuing publication. I am offering starting, half-hour sessions at 25USD, so that you can decide if we’re a good fit.

(After that, prices start from 50USD per hourly session, which includes me reading and giving you verbal feedback on up to 5K words of text.)

13 treats for the end—Superb Short Stories and Essays

To end this dispatch on a spooky note, here are some more treats: 13 stories and essays I read and loved this year. Unwrap carefully, some of them have teeth.

• Kiss of Life, by P.C. Verrone in Fiyah, discussing colonization, complicity, and passive resistance through a science fantasy lens that does not spare you one drop of blood in its effectiveness.

• Your Body Conquers Death, by Sophia-Maria Nicolopoulos in The Deadlands, a heartbreaking essay on loss, faith and funeral customs in Greece.

• Godskin, by C.L. Hellisen in Strange Horizons, a tale of revenge and emancipation with lush, lyrical prose that drips with seaweed and salt.

• The Goddess of Loneliness and Misfortune, by Anna Bendiy in khōréō, about returning to a home that needs you more than you need it.

• Your Sword, Your Trumpet, by Anjali Patel in The Deadlands, a captivating love story between two immortal beings that is surprisingly relatable and sweet.

• If You Wake, by Avra Margariti in Hexagon, a lusciously dark, satisfying tale of queer liberation and reclamation of one’s true self amid the stars.

• The Family You Lost Before You Had This Name, by A.J. Van Belle in Heartlines Spec, on the complicated, painful, gorgeous process of building a chosen family as an adult.

• A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places, by Marissa Lingen in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, on the importance of showing up and not giving up, even if all the difference you can make is subtle.

• Remembering Day, by Vanessa Fogg in Uncharted Magazine, a mesmerizing meditation on the nature of consciousness and the act of remembering.

• Skinless, by Eugenia Triantafyllou in Haven Spec, on the sweet power and monstrosity of girlhood.

• Sibilance by E.G. Condé at Interzone, a crescendo of humanity’s hubris juxtaposed with hope, powered by a love “as hellish as the furnace of the stars.”

• The Angel’s Share, by Martin Cahill at Reactor, a story that’s both hilarious and heartbreaking, about surviving trauma and reclaiming one’s life and future.

• Horror Tells Me I’m Not Alone, by John Wiswell in Apex, an extremely relatable essay about horror’s ability and potential to combat loneliness.

Thank you for spending this time with me

The forest floor is getting frosty now; dawn is about to break soon. When shall we two meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain? Perhaps, in the next instalment of this dispatch. So if you liked what you read, I hope you’ll subscribe, if you haven't already! And maybe help my ravens spread the word by sharing it on your social media?