love. duty. adventure.

email: samcdonald (at) me.com
blogging at:
sandramcdonald.livejournal.com
Smashwords Author Page
Amazon Author Page

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May 2012: 

The anthology Speaking Out is a finalist for the 2012 Ben Franklin Award for YA fiction - congrats to Lethe Press!

Sam Cameron's Mystery of the Tempest is a finalist for YA Book of the Year, to be announced in June at ALA.

The anthology Take Me There including my story "Sea of Cortez" is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, to be announced in May.

My apocalyptic cowboy sexbot romp, Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots,  is on the 2011 James A. Tiptree Award Honor List.  It's available at   Smashwords and Amazon.

Writer, teacher, speaker.
M.F.A Creative Writing

2010 Winner, Lambda Literary Award, for best Science Fiction/Fantasy book.
Read about it in Entertainment Weekly.

-2011 Finalist, Book of the Year
-2011 Tiptree Award Honor List
- 2010 Tiptree Award Honor List (twice).
- 2010 Strange Horizons Reader's Poll, 2nd place.
- 2010 Rainbow Award winner
-2007 Compton Crook Award finalist. 
-2003 Tiptree Award Short List.

Available now:

Speaking Out

Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories

The Stars Blue Yonder

Breaking Waves

Fir Na Tine

The Monsters of Morgan Island

The Stars Down Under

The Outback Stars

Destination, Future

Best New Romantic Fantasy 2

Best New Paranormal Romance

Twenty Epics

Sex, Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Future



Praise for Diana Comet

Booklist Editor's Choice - Adult Books for Teen Readers

An American Library Association "Over the Rainbow" Book

Winner, 2010 Lambda Literary Awards

James Tiptree Jr. Award Honor List for "Diana Comet and the Disappearing Lover"

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2010 Rainbow Award Winner

Locus Reccomended
Reading List

 "Enthralling" - Booklist, starred review

"The stories are lovely" - Locus magazine

"Sandra McDonald is an excellent storyteller." - Strange Horizons

"Joyful, poignant, silly, clever" - Lambda Literary Review

"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

   

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. 

My work has appeared in Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy and several other magazines and anthologies, including Shape magazine.  In a bikini.  A long time ago.

Be sure to check out Sam Cameron, who writes stories for LGBTQ teens and adults starting with this adventure:

Mystery of the Tempest


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.

Various likes: My spouts (they know who they are), Star Wars, Stargate, Supernatural, 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


Podcasts

     Beach Blanket Spaceship - recommended by Locus and Tangent Online - is here at Clarkesworld.

     The Fireman's Fairy (including Bob, the tiny glittering firefighter) is here at PodCastle.

     Tupac Skakur and the End of the World is in The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine.



Short Fiction Bibliograpy

          The Road to NPS - forthcoming, TBA.  Europa or bust.

          Mehra and Juin - forthcoming, War and Space: Recent Combat.  Two soldiers and one fragile peace.

          Dress Code - forthcoming, Bloody Fabulous

          The English Garden - forthcoming, Wilfull Impropriety

          Beach Blanket Spaceship (reprint) - forthcoming, Women Writing the Weird
  
          Sea of Cortez (reprint) - forthcoming, Beyond Binary (starred review from Publisher's Weekly)

          Sexy Robot Mom - Asimov's, April/May 2012.  She's a sexbot.  She's a baby incubator.  She's both.  And there's an apocalypse.

          The Fabulous Hotel - Daily Science Fiction.  What a father will do for his son.

            Prepared - Pop Fic Review, Winter 2011

            Of Earth - Fall 2011, Abyss & Apex. Sometimes the women runners fall to their knees, weeping

  The Cat Who Signed - Icarus, Fall 2011
 
  Beach Blanket Spaceship - (reprint)  Wilde Stories 2011.   See the shoutout on Advocate.com

  Diana Comet and the Lovesick Cowboy - (reprint), Best Gay Stories of 2011.

  Sea of Cortez - Fall 2011, Take Me There. The best thing that ever happened to him was World War II. 

  All Gender U -  Speaking Out. The only thing standing between a boy and the college of his dreams is his little black dress. An American Library Association Rainbow List book.

  Last of His Kind - (reprint) ChiZine.

Moonlight and Bleach (reprint) - April, 2011 Bewere the Night

Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots (reprint) - March, 2011  The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2010, ed. J. Strahan.

Drag Queen Astronaut - Crossed Genres, November 2010.  One male astronaut in orbit, one lacy red bra.  James Tiptree Award 2010 Honor List.

Bluebeard by the Sea (reprint) - Winter, 2010  The Best of Talebones.

Moonlight and Bleach - Daily Science Fiction.com, October 2010. My mother was a werewolf and my father a janitor.  This is what I am. 

Origami Action Heroes at Singing River - Breaking Waves.  We row as far as Singing River/where all them Pascagoula Indians drowned.

Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots - Strange Horizons, October 2010. They roll off the truck wearing grins and ice skates. 2010 Locus Recommended Reading List, 2nd place Strange Horizons 2010 Reader's Poll.

Beach Blanket Spaceship - Clarkesworld, July 2010. We burst out of school singing and head for the beach. 2010 Tangent Online Recommended Reading List.  2010 Locus Recommended Reading List.

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. 2009 Tangent Online Recommended Reading List.

Diana Comet - Strange Horizons, March 2009 All she wants is her lover. 2009 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.


Other

                Locus Roundtable Discussion about teaching genre writing (April, 2011)

 

"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