Sandra's pix
love. duty. really big spaceships.

Writer, teacher, speaker.

Available at fine bookstores:

M.F.A Creative Writing
B.S. Communications

Short-listed for the 2003 James A. Tiptree award. Finalist for the 2007 Compton Crook Award. Made a preliminary ballot once. Woe is the bridesmaid, never the bride

Member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. Guest speaker for the Florida Writers Association and other organizations.

  

"Enthralling" - Booklist

"A book to fall in love with"- Hal Duncan, author of Vellum

"Sandra McDonald writes like a dream" - Leslea Newman, author of A Letter to Harvey Milk

"Delights from a world where the mundane and fantastic intertwine" - EDGE Publications

     

Diana Comet Presents...75 Years of Fabulous Writers is a periodic table of 117 great women writers in sf/f. You can view the YouTube movie, download your own free black and white pdf, or obtain the source files over here.

I keep a LiveJournal for talking about writing. My email is sandra (at) sandramcdonald.com

Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories is now available for pre-order on Amazon. This is my first collection, and I'm very excited.

My novels -The Outback Stars,The Stars Down Under, and The Stars Blue Yonder - are about an Australian military lieutenant, her handsome sergeant, and their adventures in deep space. Book 3 is now available for Kindle.

I also write short stories that have appeared in Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy and other magazines and anthologies.

I'm a graduate of scenic Ithaca College and the University of Southern Maine, where I studied with great writers including James Patrick Kelly and Dennis Lehane.

The U.S. Navy commissioned me as an officer and sent me on various and odd (mis)adventures to Guam, Newfoundland and Key West: since then, people have paid me to be a Hollywood assistant, software instructor, bureaucrat and college professor.

I'm a sucker for formulaic TV science fiction if the guys are cute. These guys are pretty cute, too.

Various likes: My spouts (they know who they are), Shania Twain, Salon.com, being vegetarian and fabulous writers such as (but not limited to) Stephen King, Guy Gavriel Kay, Diana Gabaldon, Dennis Lehane, James Patrick Kelly, Greg van Eekhout, Sarah Prineas, and C.C. Finlay.

Thank you to Sue, Terry B., Terry O., Stephanie, Janine, Wendy, Cindy and Angela

d this doc on Scribd: Fir Na Tine by Sandra McDonald

 

Short Fiction Bibliography

 

Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots - upcoming, Strange Horizons. They roll off the truck wearing grins and ice skates.

Beach Blanket Spaceship - Clarkesworld, July 2010. We burst out of school singing and head for the beach.

Diana Comet and the Lovesick Cowby - Icarus, Spring 2010. The captain needs his boyfriend and a week-long drunk.

Tupac Shakur and the End of the World - Futurismic, February 2010. Hip hop and the apocalypse. Read nice words about it from Cory Doctorow.

Watching - Destination, Future - February 2010. Someone's spying on the crew of the USS Obama.

The Monsters of Morgan Island - Asimov's Science Fiction , June 2009. At the end of Main Street is a pit. Tangent Online Recommended Reading List.

Diana Comet - Strange Horizons, March 2009 All she wants is her lover. Locus Recommended Reading List.

The Hero of Ward 6 - Lone Star Stories, April 2008. Jack's heroic alter-ego can't even spell correctly.

Recipe for Survival - Electric Velocipede, Spring 2008. A legacy of food and allegiance. Honorable Mention, Year's Best Science Fiction 26th Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois.

The Fireman's Fairy - Realms of Fantasy, Dec 2007. A macho firefighter and a tiny magic fairy.

The Mountains of Key West (reprint) - Best New Romantic Fantasy 2, Summer 2007.

The Valhalla Job - Realms of Fantasy, December 2006, Norse gods meet HGTV.

Fir Na Tine (reprint) - Best NewParanormal Romance, October 2006.

The Mountains of Key West - Lone Star Stories, July 2006. Reprinted in Best New Romantic Fantasy 2.

Constituent Work (reprint) - The Best of the Rest: The Best Unknown Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2005

Women of the Lace - The Town Drunk, fall 2006. Magical knots bind us all.

The Green House - Fantasy, summer 2006. Families and trees, houses and secrets. Honorable Mention, Year's Best Science Fiction 24th Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois.

Life Sentence - Twenty Epics, July 2006. Violence repeats itself, and repeats itself, and repeats itself.

A Lock of Ra - Lone Star Stories, December 2005. When science fails, what's left?

The Writer's Orchard - Fictitious Force, September 2005. If only stories grew on trees. Honorable mention, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006.

Papa and the Sea - Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, June 2005. Ernest Hemingway and the island of misfit writers. Honorable Mention, Year's Best Science Fiction 23rd Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois.

Constituent Work - Say, May 2005. You can't fight city hall. Reprinted in The Best of the Rest: The Best Unknown Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2005.

Last of His Kind - Rosebud, Spring 2005. Vampires and hookers.

The Heirs of Cenpa - Lone Star Stories, April 2005. Read the lovely review here. A fantasy world gone wrong.

Mrs. Gillingham's Constitutional - Space & Time, Spring 2005. When a walk is more than a walk.

Fir Na Tine- Realms of Fantasy, February 2005. Mysterious firefighters, consuming passion. Honorable mention, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006.

The Instrument - Chiaroscuro, January 2005. In a desert hanger, a speaking corpse.

The Ghost Girls of Rumney Mill (reprint) - The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1: Sex, The Future, & Chocolate Chip Cookies, November 2004. Dead children and transvestites.

Bluebeard by the Sea - Talebones, Summer 2004. Honorable mention, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, ed. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. Here's a nice bit about it from Matt Cheney. Set in historic Revere Beach, Massachusetts.

The Ghost Girls of Rumney Mill - Realms of Fantasy, August 2003. James A. Tiptree Literary Council Short Listed story for 2003. Dead children and transvestites.

Spam of God - Full Unit Hookup #4, Fall 2003. Spam comes from high places.

Lost and Found - Strange Horizons, May 2003. Honorable Mention, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection ed. Gardner Dozois. A search engine for your lost car keys.

When Laughing Pigs Fly - Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #8, Summer 2003. It's all about choices.

Opening Night - Electric Velocipede, Fall 2002. Read the review. The drama of it all.

 
"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." ~ Gene Fowler