My short story, “A Scarcity of Sharks,” is now available free to read online over at Reckoning Magazine! It’s published as part of Issue 7, which can also be ordered via ebook or print book.
Gorgeous cover for Reckoning 7!
BEHIND THE STORY
One thing I’ve been wanting to do with these blog posts is share behind-the-story of various pieces. To explain how “A Scarcity of Sharks” came about, I first need to tell you about a different piece.
In 2020, I was working on a novel that required extensive research. I consumed over 70 pieces of media (nonfiction books, novels, movies, podcasts, documentaries), including a fair number which focused on sharks and oceans.
Here’s the (sad? funny?) thing: I never finished that novel. It’s the book I was writing during NaNoWriMo 2020 (I reference it in the Afterword to Bound Feet and in my podcast interview on Dog-Eared Nightmares). And aside from the trauma that abruptly stopped my work on that book, the story’s needs had grown out of control. All that research I did still didn’t feel like enough for the scope of the piece I’d planned to tell.
I still hope to return to that novel someday. But in the meantime, something was born of all that research.
Sharks have been my favorite animals for a very long time. I was vaguely aware that humans are killing off sharks, that we are hurting our oceans on a large scale. But I didn’t understand the extent of it until I began researching sharks and oceans on whole. I had thought to learn about these fascinating creatures and the alien environment in which they inhabit, but every single book and documentary included a plea to all of us. To care. To save our oceans. To stop killing sharks.
With that in mind, I began writing “A Scarcity of Sharks.” It was my first near-future sci-fi/climate fiction short story.
It’s always fun seeing my story on the front page of a magazine when it’s just been released! Here it is at Reckoning on launch day.
RECKONING MAGAZINE
When I saw that Reckoning, a magazine dedicated to creative writing on environmental justice, had an open call specifically seeking ocean-themed stories, I sent them my shark story immediately. I was absolutely thrilled to receive an acceptance from Octavia Cade, the fiction editor for Issue 7 (who is also an accomplished writer)! I knew I had found the perfect home for this piece.
That’s the story behind “A Scarcity of Sharks!” Thanks for reading my behind-the-story post. As always, previews, story hints, and content warnings for all my stories are available on my short stories page.