I write all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, but any time I set a story in or near the Churchlands, the priority is emotional honesty. I want the Churchlands stories to feel familiar to people who’ve worked themselves out of similar situations or wish they could. So I make it all as real as I can, take it as seriously as I can, as a matter of respect.

I know people—I am intimately related to some of them—who say, “I never read fiction. Why would I want to read about something that didn’t happen?” Those people all seem to function just fine in the world, but it is not my world. I and they have, at best, achieved peaceful coexistence.

How did “Operation: Grapevine” take shape for you? I collect a lot of ideas for short stories as I wander around the city with my head in the clouds, so it’s hard to remember the genesis. But I do remember feeling very energized as soon as it popped into my head and wrote it mostly […]

We’re excited to have “How to Build a Homecoming Queen: A Guide by a Bad Asian Girl” in Lightspeed Magazine! How did this story come into being, and what are the inspirations behind it? I’m excited that this story is in Lightspeed too! The first scene of this story came to me in a dream. […]

I wrote this story for a contest. The prompts were “veteran” and “art museum.” I’ve written several stories set on Kata Space Station (including “Gateway Night,” which appeared in the DAW anthology Love & Rockets in 2010), and I thought that would be an interesting place for a museum, since it’s where four different kinds of people interact with each other.