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Anaxagology for December 2024
A Free Monthly(ish) Newsletter from Author David Anaxagoras
David Anaxagoras
December 21, 2024
Asking Uncle Ray to help my words be pretty and plentiful
The soundtrack for this month’s newsletter is John Williams’s original score for Superman: The Movie.
Hello!
It’s been a long year; it’s been a very short, fast year. The last couple of months have been a particularly rough ride for me, and more on that below. I know it’s been rough for everyone. Check on your neighbors. Call old friends. Connect and reconnect. We need each other. You are needed.
Take care of yourself, too. For myself this holiday, I’m looking forward to a cozy, calm, and peaceful Christmas, some crisp winter air, and cups of very hot chocolate. And maybe, finally, I’ll get to catch up on some reading. Christmas might come late for me this year, but I’m holding on for whenever it arrives.
The Tower Update
My novel, The Tower, has a new release date of March 4, 2025! Very soon, now!
I’ve had a chance to see some preliminary cover designs and I can’t wait until I can share the final version with you. The Tower is an original audiobook and I’ve heard some snippets of Christopher Gebauer’s narration. He’s fantastic. I could not have hoped for better.
For the incurably curious, follow the link below to the publisher’s webpage for the book. You can read a full plot description and listen to a brief audio sample. No cover art yet, as I mentioned. There are links to your favorite booksellers if you wish to preorder now.
New Short Fiction This Month
I have two new flash fiction pieces being published this month—my final fiction of 2024. Because they are coming right at the tail end of the year, they run the risk of being overlooked. You could do me a huge favor if you would share a link on social media. If you are a member of SFWA, adding it to the Nebula reading list (or upvoting it if it’s already listed) also helps to boost visibility. Thanks!
December’s Lightspeed features “Three Birds That Came Out of Grayson Huff and a Bunch More That Fell from the Sky.“ It’s exactly what it sounds like. I have some affection for this story because it’s quirky and weird but also sort of sweet. Follow the link to purchase the December issue with my story and a ton of other great fiction, or you can read it for free online on December 26th—a Boxing Day gift from me to you.
Also releasing this month from From Beyond Press is their zine Xanax Hamster, Vol. 1, Issue 2, which includes my story “All the Things We Can’t Outrun.” When I was young I often had recurring anxiety dreams about being trapped in the backseat of a car that had no driver and was racing down the road. Climate anxiety feels much the same way to me. Those feelings guided this story, which began with a simple prompt to write about a road trip.
Follow the link below to order your copy of Xanax Hamster!
Follow me on Bluesky for timely updates on these projects and more.
Award Eligibility
Somehow despite working on a novel all year I published four short stories in 2024. Two came out just this month. If you are reading for awards season (Nebulas, Hugos, Stokers, etc.), here’s a guide to what I’ve published and includes word count, market, logline and synopsis.
Published in Lightspeed, January 2024.
SF. 3,000 words.
As the reality-bending cosmic menace Wormwood hurtles toward Earth, a 12-year-old boy celebrates his final birthday, finding hope among an unlikely collection of unusual friends and fantastical creatures.
Dad says the gravity will hit us long before Wormwood physically does, and already the moon is cracking and reality is getting pushed and pulled and squeezed and twisted (like taffy, Mom explains, but I’ve never really had taffy because Mom always says it is bad for my teeth and I’m thinking instead when I used to stretch and pull different colors of modeling clay together and each color became a thin band, then many thin bands, then eventually blended all together into itself). That’s what’s happening now. Everything we know is getting all mixed together. Even time, because it’s all one thing with space, Dad says, and I said I know that already because I watch science on YouTube. Amelia Earhart was here last night but I missed her because I had already gone to bed and apparently there are still bedtimes at the end of the world, which sucks.
Published in Lightspeed, April 2024.
SF. 1,054 words.
A woman races to give birth to our new machine/AI Messiah under a shining star because that’s how the story goes.
Jo drives urgently as they race toward the star, not sure how far to go, racing because the baby is coming tonight, now, and He (a He, of course) is supposed to be born under the star, that’s how the story goes. The story, the new story and the old, begins with a visitor, a messenger. Molly had just logged out for the day when the monk knocked on her door.
Published in Lightspeed, December 2024 (Free to read 12/26)
Fantasy. 980 words.
A teen boy begins uncontrollably manifesting birds from various orifices of his body, each bird carrying a cryptic message that threatens to unravel his fragile adolescent world.
The lady cardinal hopped around on my pillowcase, the one I refused to let go of because it had been on my grandmother's bed and was old and soft and had a design of intertwining vines and flowers. I thought maybe I was still dreaming when the bird started talking. Not with her mouth. Just words in my head, a deep voice plowing into my brain. 'Everyone shall die,' she said. And then to prove the point, she died.
Published in Xanax Hamster, Vol 1. Issue 2, December 2024
Horror. 1,000 words.
A young boy struggles to comprehend the apocalyptic nightmare unfolding around him, desperately seeking safety as his family races through a landscape of terrifying storms toward an even greater danger.
I am hoping bad for the Magic Sword Ladies to come, hoping so hard my stomach aches, when the new critters, the should-be-dead things, the not-raccoon things, start peeling up off the road. They are flat and floppy like an empty glove, so they take turns blowing into each other's snouts and inflating themselves like furry balloons and then they shovel up their squished-out insides with their broken jaws and fill themselves full again.
Rumors of My Death are Not as Exaggerated as I Would Have Liked
And now, a few words about that rough ride I mentioned earlier…
For those that aren’t aware, I was rushed to the ER on Nov. 18 with a serious leg infection and a blood oxygen saturation of 80%. The following day in the hospital they were unable to rouse me. My CO2 levels had shot through the roof. It wasn’t supposed to be survivable.
But I’m too stubborn to go, and I have writing to do. I pulled through but I’ve been in the hospital ever since. I’ve made huge progress. I don’t think I’ll make it home for Christmas, but I have so much to be grateful for nonetheless.
Anyone who has experienced the joy of the American health care system knows that even with insurance, an extended hospital stay can be financially devastating. I’ve started a gofundme and the donations so far have been life sustaining. Please follow the link below and if you are able to donate, remember that any amount helps. You can also help by sharing the link on your own social media. Anything you can do will literally make a huge difference in my life. You have all my gratitude and appreciation in advance. Thank you!
ICYMI
If you’re just joining the party, here’s a rundown of what I’ve been up to and where you can find my work.
I am the author of the middle grade action & adventure audiobook original, The Tower (Recorded Books, 2025), coming March 4, 2025 and narrated by Christopher Gebauer.
My short story, “Three Birds That Came Out of Grayson Huff and a Bunch More That Fell from the Sky“ is free to read at Lightspeed. Also newly published in Xanax Hamster, Vol. 1, Issue 2: “All the Things We Can’t Outrun”.
Other recent fiction includes “Under a Star, Bright as Morning”, “We Shall Not Be Bitter at the End of the World” and “The Boy Who Ran from his Faerie Heart.” Visit my Bibliography for a full list of short stories and other works.
I wrote for Nickelodeon’s Glitch Techs, an animated sci-fi adventure about teens who hunt video game monsters that have broken out into the real world. I also created and co-executive produced Amazon Studio’s first live-action kids and family series, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, about three kids whose life is anything but normal.
Have Something to Say?
I’d love to hear from you. If you’re reading in your inbox, you can reply directly to this email, or comment publicly on the website. Say hi!
Anaxagology is a free monthly(ish) newsletter from TV writer, SFF author and novelist David Anaxagoras. Subscribe now! You can find more about Dave at his website, or follow him on Bluesky.
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