Sandra McDonald's Web Site

"All experience is an arch wherethrough/Gleams that untravl'd world"-
Tennyson, Ulysses

Writer, teacher, speaker.

Author of several published short stories and novels.

Available at Amazon:

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

Short-listed for the 2003 James A. Tiptree award.

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

The Outback Stars is my first novel. If you like romance, adventure, cute heroes, brave heroines and really big spaceships, maybe you'll like this. The Outback Stars web site has some some fanfic, some visual aids, and other information.

The sequel, The Stars Down Under, is full of more heroes, more romance, cliff diving, crocodile women, true love torn apart and more . . . It's my own little The Empire Strikes Back.

I keep a LiveJournal for talking about writing, and a reading blog for favorite quotes. My email is sandra (at) sandramcdonald.com

My first novel, The Outback Stars, was published in April 2007 by Tor. The first sequel, The Stars Down Under, was released in March 2008. Another sequel will debut in 2009. I also write short stories, and sometimes editors buy them and readers enjoy them. 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. One day soon I hope to visit New Zealand, Nepal and Bali. My kitties, the adorable Princess Leia and Sir Grant, hope I don't.

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

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

Links: Viable Paradise, a most excellent workshop. Ralan.com, a great resource. Making Light, because these people are very smart. Online Writers Workshop, to meet and critique.

THE OUTBACK STARS

Love. Duty. Really big spaceships.

The Soundtrack:

Fiction from my Archives -- Fir Na Tine

Download the pdf or visit my Sribd page.

Short Fiction Bibliography

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

Recipe for Survival - Electric Velocipede, forthcoming. A legacy of food and allegiance.

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