Tag: science-fiction

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Starship Librarians reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books

Starship Librarians, edited by JR Campbell and Shannon Allen, recently received a glowing review in the Ottawa Review of Books.
Overall, the reviewer, Robert Runte, an awesome guy who I first met when he was working as an editor for 5 Rivers Publishing had this to say about the review:

Overall, Starship Librarians is a first-rate collection with some standout stories. I’m willing to bet at least some of these turn up again in ‘best-of-year’ collections. Kudos to editors Allan and Campbell. I hope we can look forward to more themed anthologies from them.

Mr. Runte was kind enough to go through the stories and provide comments on most of them. It’s always awesome when someone takes the time to get into that level of detail. Here is what he had to say about my story, “The Revolution will Not Be Fertilized”:

In contrast, “The Revolution Will Not Be Fertilized”, follows a group of guerilla gardeners led by a rebel librarian. I dreaded reading this one! First, it’s written in the second person, which rarely works. Second, it’s by horror writer, J. W. Schnarr. Schnarr is one of the gentlest people I’ve ever met, but his writing . . … Years after first discovering his stories, I’m still trying to excise a couple of the nightmares he’s given me. So, throughout this story, I found myself reluctant to turn the next page as things got progressively darker. But . . . it’s wonderful! Inspired. A rare example of the perfect use of second person, and a truly unique take on resistance to dystopia.

You really couldn’t ask for a better review, could you?

Please read the full review here.

You can pick up a copy of Starship Librarians on Amazon!

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Starship Librarians Cover Reveal

Here is the cover for Tyche Books’ anthology, “Starship Librarians”. The anthology features a story of mine called “The Revolution Will Not Be Fertilized”.

Shannon Allen and JR Campbell are awesome at what they do, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us this time around!

Tyche was kind enough to send along a Kindle preorder link for those of you who love their paper pixelized – and really, who doesn’t?

So support small press, support Canadian writing, support great people. I’m sure you know all this, and I don’t have to remind you.

Starship Librarians preorder link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FD4ZKNHX

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Our most precious resource

I’ve taken a few days off work. I didn’t take much time off last year, and I’ve been slow to burn through it so far this year. With all the changes going on, there have just been too many things to catch up on, stay on top of, get going on. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really do the whole work/life balance thing – I love my job, and want to be there. When I’m at home, I work on other things. There just never seems to be enough time for all the things I want to do, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

I find myself rushing between projects, juggling responsibilities, and moving things around. prioritizing. As a result, I usually end up being late for everything. I showed up 20 minutes late for a D&D game recently, apologizing for being late (as usual), and it was agreed around the table that if I ever showed up on time, everyone would know something is wrong. I mean, that’s probably true.

So, what am I doing with these few days off work? I tacked them onto the end of a long weekend, giving me some extra time. I have spent a bunch of that with my daughter and her German Shepard. But I really took this time off to catch up on the work I do at home. Writing fiction, submitting stories, and (as of 2025) designing and creating Dungeons and Dragons adventures. I’ve subbed a story to an anthology that looks promising, and I’ve mapped out a story I would like to write for another. Still waiting to hear back on a couple I currently have out.

I’ve also completed the second part of a trilogy of adventures I mentioned on here before. I’m itching to get them out in the world and off my plate, but I’m committed to releasing them all at once. And I’ve mapped out another adventure I pulled out of me D23 notebook from a couple years ago – I never finished because I ended up spending much of the spring, summer, and fall of 2023 assisting with more than 20,000 evacuees who came through our little town when the NWT and our surrounding communities were evacuated. There just wasn’t enough time.

I feel many artists might agree with this: The older you get, the more you wonder if there will be enough time to do all the things you want to do. The more you wonder if you will be able to look back and think, did I do enough? Have I contributed positively to the things I believed in? Did I spend enough time with the ones I most loved?

Of course not. There will never be enough time for all of that. Just ask Pink Floyd:

And you run, and you run, to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking.
And racing around, to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older.
Shorter of breath.
And one day closer to death.

If you’re not there yet, you soon will be.