HEIDI RUBY MILLER

We really needed the inspiration, energy, and camaraderie from the 2022 Pennwriters Conference in Lancaster, PA. It was our second in-person event since the pandemic, but this one felt like old times. Keynote speakers were Jonathan Maberry ... ...and Jon Sprunk . We each taught two classes. Jason revived his Folk Yeah! and Rural Noir workshops. And I brought back Space Opera Is Still Queen and Pick Your Punk . There was a Saturday evening luau to celebrate Jonathan's love of Hawaiian shirts. First photo is Jason Jack Miller , Larry Ivkovich , and Jon Sprunk. Here I am with Maria V. Snyder . And with Heather Desuta and Abigail Drake . We caught up with old friends like Carol Silvis and Annette Dashofy ... One of my former mentees from Seton Hill WPF Sheri Queen ... And the publishers of Many Genres, One Craft from Headline Books the mother daughter team of Cathy Teets and Ashley Belote .

Sara Light-Waller interviewed me for the PulpFest 50th anniversary celebration. We spoke about my influences from within the pulp world, teaching at Seton Hill , creating and managing Dog Star Books , my writing, and what's in the future for my and Jason's collaborative efforts. Here is an excerpt: Sara Light-Waller (SLW) Hello Heidi, thank you for joining us! Let’s start with your background. When did you first know you wanted to be a writer? Heidi Ruby Miller (HRM) I wrote my first story — The Copper Kitty Mystery — in second grade and listed “romance novelist” as one of my high school ambitions. But I didn’t become serious about it until my late twenties, right before I found Seton Hill’s graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction. I haven’t stopped writing since. READ THE REST ON THE PULPFEST SITE

AWP was our first in-person conference in two years, and it felt good to be back among writers. Here I am with Mike Arnzen representing our genres. Our Seton Hill table had several recognizable faces, even under the masks, including MFA director Nicole Peeler (pictured with Jason above, above) and Natalie and Matt Duvall. We also ran into other academic friends: Gerry LaFemina (pictured with Mike and Jason), William Hamilton, Tod Goldberg , and Anthony Kapolka. And Jason got to meet Taylor Mali in person to tell him he borrowed his "What Teachers Make" TedTalk for the Pennwriters Keynote in 2019, "What Writers Make." As an added bonus, we got to stay at The Notary Hotel , an ultra-cool spot just down the block from the Pennsylvania Convention Center .

Our tenth volume of the Small Space Big Life newsletter is available now. Here's an exceprt: "After several emails and phone conversations over the past couple of months, we are happy to announce that Cherry Weiner is officially our new agent. That's us signing our agency and co-writer agreements below. It's the first time since our travel writing days that we've shared an agent. READ THE REST HERE. AND SUBSCRIBE HERE. In case you missed other recent editions, you can find them at the subscribe link.

I didn't dig into quite as many books as I did last year, but still had some great reads, many by authors I know personally and a couple which feature me. Action at a Distance (Aaronovitch / Cartmel) The Big Book of Science Fiction (Vandermeer / Vandermeer) Boyfriend Material (Hall) Childhood's End (Clarke) Christmas on Cavanuagh Hill (Elizabeth) Christmas on the Coast (McClain) Clash of Flesh and Metal (Ellis) Daddy's World (Williams) Dead Man's Party (Jayne) Death and Doubloons: A Cumberpatch Cove Mystery Book 1 (Robertson) Dragons of a Different Tail: 17 Unusual Dragon Tales (Pyle / Scott / Lynch / Mastro) Dreams of Flesh and Metal (Ellis) Effacement (Hawkes) Eureka: Substitution Method (Ramsay) Facing Fear (Williams / Palacios) A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year's (Lau) The Fey and the Furious (Aaronovitch / Cartmel) The Firflake: A Christmas Story (Cardno) Firekeeper's Daughter (Boulley) Flashe

Excited to have a new story from the Ambasadora-verse in this debut anthology from Cabbit Crossing Publishing . Here's an excerpt from my foreword for "Mastering Aesthetics." "I wanted to continue the feminist theme [from Marked by Light] and expand upon it in “Mastering Aesthetics,” which takes place just after the events of Marked by Light and leads into an upcoming tie-in novel Frostfall (From the World of Ambasadora). It will be my first time writing a dragon space opera. I like to shake things up a bit. Rest assured that Xin, Olivia, and the mysterious dragon-person will be making appearances in Frostfall. This is the second published short story from the Ambasadora-verse. The first was “Rainer” in Far Worlds (The Bolthole, 2014). The two stories take place concurrently." The beautiful cover is by Shayne Leighton . As you can see, I'm in good company: "A Friend Called Home" by Francis Fernandez "A Wild Beast of The West&qu