Very pleased to report that my short story The Family Ghost is now live at The Sockdolager in the Spring 2016 issue. This is a story about love, family and ghosts, set in rural India. A young girl is married off to a young man she barely knows. How does her mother protect her from overbearing in-laws? It’s a light-hearted story that, I hope, will make you smile. But I was thinking of deeper issues while writing it. Perhaps you will think of them too.

The Sockdolager is edited by Alison Wilgus and Paul Tuttle Starr. I must say the name of the magazine is intriguing. A “sockdolager”, their website explains, is a forceful blow, or an exceptional thing or person. It’s certainly an exceptional little magazine. I’ve enjoyed all the Sockdolager stories I’ve read so far, and am delighted to find my story among them.

In other lovely writerly news, I’ve sold a story to Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling by Apex Publications, edited by Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates. I’ve also sold Hatyasin (first published by Abyss & Apex) as a reprint to Podcastle, a fantasy fiction podcast. No dates yet, but I’ll definitely post here when they’re available. March has been a good month! Apart from the weather, of course. And a bout with pneumonia. And taxes. Okay, I’ll stop talking now while I’m still feeling happy.