Reflection Time

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group Day, and for this first Wednesday of the month we have a special reflection post as we get close to the end of the year and the end of our time writing about Dark Matter: Artificial anthology (Don't worry, there will be a new anthology coming up next!). Our authors share how this contest has changed them, what they've learned, how it will affect what they do as authors moving forward, the hardest parts about it all, and, of course, the best parts.

Kim Mannix - Rift 

Being a part of Dark Matter: Artificial has been my extreme pleasure and privilege. When I entered the contest, I was primarily writing poetry, and just dipping my toes into the sci-fi and dark fiction waters. Not only did being part of this great anthology give me a boost of confidence to continue writing short fiction, it's also connected me with some fantastic and supportive authors. I think people are often hesitant to enter big contests, or try to put their writing out in the world, but I encourage everyone to try. While I was personally attached to my story, "Rift," I wasn't sure that anyone else would like it, or consider it publishable. It's an example of why we, as writers, shouldn't let our self-doubt get the best of us. Taking chances can pay off in the best possible way.

Steph Wolmarans - The Utten Mission

I am so grateful for the experience of being published in the anthology. It is difficult to describe the transformation. "The Utten Mission" was my first published story and the first few months were full of confidence and pride.

The beginning of the journey—the editing phase—taught me important habits and knowledge I will carry with me forever. I became more motivated to write, hired a writing coach, and dove into my novel manuscript with renewed force. Inclusion in the anthology launched me into my dream of writing for others. Imagine if an alien race saw a lonely woman staring up at the stars holding a picture of a rocket and came to give her an actual spaceship so she could fly away to join them. It inspired me to create several stories and to join the A to Z Challenge on my blog. The experience erupted with positive energy. Writing about this now reminds me of the momentum that pulled me, yet saddens me a little.

Now to talk about the difficult part, which I hate to admit is still looming over me. Seeing reader feedback was the hardest part. The anthology had great reviews on Goodreads and Amazon from readers, but the comments for individual pieces (particularly my own) were a little painful. Despite being told personally by a few people that mine was a favorite, the tiny voice of insecurity crept in. It is embarrassing just how much it bothered me.

The confidence is returning and my drive to write is picking up. I hate that I wasted any time on feeling insecure. This is the Insecure Writer's Support Group for crying out loud! And what amazing support it has been! This group delivers support every time, and being a part of the anthology was the biggest gift I could dream of. This new network of writers around me is by far the best part!

Tara Tyler - Sentient
It's always exciting to connect with a prompt and have a story form in your head... Just submitting a complete short story by the deadline is a great feeling. But getting chosen for the anthology is the best! It's also a bit of responsibility with the marketing, but that part is worth it and can even be fun! I recommend everyone give it a shot--the more you write, the better you get, plus it can be a nice break from your WIP.

Deniz Bevan - One to Another
I loved being a part of this contest! It’s given me greater confidence in my writing, and I’ve loved being part of a group project--it’s lovely be a member of a collaborative project like this. I feel incredibly privileged to say that the hardest part was keeping up with all the fun promotional activities online! I hope that next time I’m in the United States, I can take part in an event in person!

Charles Kowalski - Resident Alien
"Resident Alien" was my first published work of science fiction, and I certainly hope not my last. The timing of this contest gave me the impetus to do something I had been wanting to do in the wake of the George Floyd incident: examine issues of racial justice by posing the question, “What if the entire human race together were an oppressed minority?”

It was difficult to write, but very rewarding. The writing process showed me what science fiction can do best: hold a mirror up to us, showing human nature from a different angle or from an outsider’s perspective. As Gene Roddenberry said of Star Trek, “There were civil rights and other social justice issues that were addressed, and the network didn’t mind because it wasn’t overt…If you talk about purple people or polka-dotted people on a far-off planet, the network never really caught on.” (1)
 
With all this in mind, I created a short story that I hope will be used as a teaching tool, with teaching materials to go with it (available here (2)). I also had the beginnings of a world, with its own distinctive history and languages, that I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to after one short story, so we may be seeing further adventures of humans on Ogygia. Upwards and onwards!

 

(1)   https://pointofinquiry.org/2009/05/susan_sackett_the_secular_humanism_of_star_trek/
(2)   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Resident-Alien-short-story-lesson-plans-6866147

 

Elizabeth Mueller - Resurgence

Second time is the charm? The Dark Matter project hosted by IWSG has been a growth experience for sure since it was my second attempt at writing Sci-Fi. Before this, I'd been mulling over trying my hand at writing science fiction for a while and this has served as a boost of encouragement to attempt another story in the same genre. I'm working on a romance novel that takes place in the same universe and that has been a great ride! This is huge for me as I've broken from the fantasy world into realistic fiction (of which I've been dabbling in for the past several years).

I'd have to say that the hardest part of the Dark Matter tour is having to rack my brain for the interview questions--it's easier for me to hide behind my characters and let them have their fun. But the best part is meeting new people, making new friends, and working with my awesome publisher!

Mark Alpert - Vera’s Last Voyage
The publication of this short story has reminded me of the importance of trying new things and taking creative risks. Writing fiction is especially enjoyable when you're pushing the boundaries. My wife and I recently visited New Albany, Mississippi, the birthplace of William Faulkner, where I received an award from the William Faulkner Literary Competition. Faulkner was perhaps the greatest boundary-pusher of American fiction, a literary experimentalist whose novels are still amazing readers, and we can all take inspiration from his example.

You can find all these authors and stories in Dark Matter: Artificial, available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble.

Our next post will be on the last Insecure Writer's Support Group day of the year, Wednesday, December 1! In that wrap-up post, the IWSG Dark Matter contest winner will share her reflection of the year--how it started, and how it's going!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words....

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day! For this first Wednesday of the month, we have a few authors from Dark Matter: Artificial who got creative with ways to encapsulate their stories in a visual image. Click the pictures to view them full size! Is a picture worth a thousand words? You'll have to read the stories in Dark Matter: Artificial to find out! We hope they help pique your interest and pull you in--and it was fun to use our imaginations in a new way!

Stephanie Espinoza Villamor - Artificial

Kim Mannix - Rift

Tara Tyler - Sentient

Deniz Bevan - One to Another

Olga Godim - Nano Pursuit

Elizabeth Mueller - Resurgence

Mark Alpert - Vera's Last Voyage

Read the stories that inspired these images in Dark Matter: Artificial, available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble!

Our next post will be on the next Insecure Writer's Support Group day, Wednesday, November 3!

Dream Cast for the Big Screen

In today's fun post the authors of Dark Matter: Artificial weigh in on who they would cast to play their characters on the big screen! Which actors and actresses do they envision as perfect for each role? Read on and see if you agree!

Stephanie Espinoza Villamor - Bryan in Artificial

I often write characters inspired by the people and communities around me, so I'm always picturing a diverse cast! Lina is Hispanic, like so many of my family members. And even though Bryan is an AI, I kept thinking of my own husband, who happens to be Filipino. So I would cast a Filipino actor like Paolo Montalban, who I remember best as the prince in the 1997 Cinderella movie I watched as a kid.

Kim Mannix - Aunt Faye in Rift 

If I had a chance to cast Aunt Faye in a film version of my story, I would like her to be played by Frances Conroy, because she is very similar to the mental picture I had of Faye when I wrote the story. I also love Frances Conroy's work on the American Horror Story series, and just about everything else I've ever seen her in, and I think she could capture the free-spirited and eccentric nature of the character well.

Steph Wolmarans - Namiu in The Utten Mission

Jasai Chase-Owens. I loved him in The Expanse. He is not afraid to take on a role in science fiction, and he did a fantastic job of showing the internal struggle of his character to meet others' expectations while still fighting for what he believes in.

Tara Tyler - Absi and Grav in Sentient

In a film, I would choose David Tennant (for Absi) and Michael Sheen (for Grav). They starred in the hilarious series Good Omens playing an angel and a demon who had to work together to save the earth.

Deniz Bevan - Maja in One to Another

Isn’t it funny, I have faces for all the characters from my novels and novellas, but none selected for my short stories! I’m going to go with Maja, the main character. I’d love to cast Natalie Portman in the role!

Charles Kowalski - Mauvil Khaztaru in Resident Alien

As I was writing "Resident Alien," I couldn't help seeing F. Murray Abraham as Mauvil Khaztaru. The smug, supercilious manner he demonstrated so well in Finding Forrester would be perfect for the role. As for the young protagonists, I'd be delighted if they became the vehicle for hitherto unknown up-and-comers to get their big break.

Olga Godim - Alexa in Nano Pursuit

I would cast Emma Watson into the role of Alexa. But Emma Watson as an adult, not a child.

Elizabeth Mueller - Zarynah in Resurgence

Since Zarynah isn't the point of view character, I'm spotlighting her! I would cast Karen Gillan to play her.

Mark Alpert - Vera in Vera’s Last Voyage

I don't really know who would be the best actress to play Vera Rubin, the late astronomer who was the real-life model for the main character of my short story "Vera's Last Voyage." Playing the role of a scientist is tricky, but a few performers have managed the feat well; for example, I think Eddie Redmayne did a terrific job of portraying the physicist Stephen Hawking in the movie The Theory of Everything. I love Cate Blanchett, and she has incredible range, so perhaps she would be a good candidate for the Vera Rubin role.

You can find all these characters in their stories from Dark Matter: Artificial, available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble!

In our next post on Wednesday, September 1 . . . it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group annual anthology contest DEADLINE! The authors will recap what it was like to write a story for an IWSG contest deadline. Don't forget to finish up and send off your story entries by then if you haven't already!

Character interviews - Part 2!

The authors of Dark Matter: Artificial continue their responses from last post as we get to learn a little more about the rest of their characters!

The Prompt: Choose one character from your story in the anthology and have them answer these interview questions: What do you hope to accomplish in your story? What is your biggest dream? And...do you have a favorite ice cream flavor?

Kim Mannix: 

I'm picking the character of Aunt Faye from my story to interview. Though she's not the main character, she's very interesting to me! 

What do you hope to accomplish in your story?  In this story, I am both a comfort and a hope to my niece, Lindy, after she's suffered some devastating losses. My goal is to open her up to the idea of something beyond our known world, and to teach her that she can and should take action to find happiness.

What is your biggest dream? My biggest dream is to have humans become more open-minded about life, not just the one we experience here, but perhaps after we die, or on other planes of existence. I feel that we would all be kinder to one another if we weren't so focused on narrow possibilities about ourselves and our place in the world.

Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor? Yes! I love rocky road because of all the sweet and salty surprises it contains. 

Mark Alpert: 

The main character of my short story "Vera's Last Voyage" is based on Vera Rubin, the late astronomer who discovered the best evidence for dark matter. The real-life Vera Rubin was very interested in science education, and part of the goal of my short story was to explain to readers what dark matter is and why it's important. What makes this goal a little tricky is that astronomers themselves still don't know what dark matter is; although the researchers can observe dark matter's gravitational effects, they can't detect the particles directly because they neither emit nor absorb light. But there are several intriguing theories about the true nature of dark matter, and in the near future a few upcoming experiments may be able to provide some clues to the answer.

You can find all these characters in their stories from Dark Matter: Artificial, available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble!

In our next exciting post on Wednesday, August 18 . . . who would our authors cast to play their characters on the big screen? Find out the actors and actresses they envision as perfect for each role!

Writing Advice!

Today the authors of Dark Matter: Artificial share their best writing advice with their fellow writers! Come learn from what they've learned through their experiences!

Stephanie Espinoza Villamor: When I was 16 years old, author Joyce Spizer Foy gave me the advice to just "throw up on paper" first. It sounds gross but basically means get your words out. Put something on paper. Even if it's "bleh." Editing will come later, and what you think is "bleh" can lead you in the right direction or be better than you thought! But nothing will happen if you keep waiting for the right words/ideas and don't start! The best advice that I've learned on my own is to join critique groups with people who write in the same genre/age group as you. They'll give you ideas you didn't think of. They'll help you see what's confusing in you work. And they can be incredible support.

C.D. Gallant-King: My best piece of writing advice? Don't listen to anyone else's advice. Everyone has completely different opinions on how to be successful, and what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for someone else. Always look for qualified advice (randos on YouTube and Facebook don't count!) and take any suggestions with a truckload of salt.

Kim Mannix: I know a lot of writers would give the advice that you have to write every day to keep yourself in practice, but I think it's important to remember that it's important to give yourself breaks from writing too, if that's what you need. Take a vacation. Go experience things that you can take back to your writing. Absorb. We're basically like sponges in the way we collect our stories, but we don't have to constantly be wringing them out. I think so much writing happens in the heart and the head, before you get to the page or keyboard, and it's ok to allow yourself that time to think and process.

Steph Wolmarans: Start doing it because it is fun, improve how you do it because you want others to have fun, then keep doing it!

Tara Tyler: Follow your gut. Write what you feel good about writing. The tough part is ignoring the nagging doubt fairy and the distraction demons who can be tough to distinguish from your tried and true gut. Just keep writing!

Deniz Bevan: The best short advice I’ve ever heard is from Diana Gabaldon: “Read. Write. Don’t stop.”

My longer advice would be to send your characters to a writers’ houseparty! http://thegirdleofmelian.blogspot.com/2017/04/h-is-for-writers-houseparties.html

Charles Kowalski: A young English teacher once sat down to write a high-school horror story, but gave up after three pages and threw the manuscript away. The story didn’t excite him, he didn’t like the main character, and he didn’t feel he could write convincingly from the point of view of an outcast teenage girl. The next day, he came home to find the pages back on his desk, smoothed out with the cigarette ashes brushed off them, and his wife urging him to finish what he had started. The writer’s name was Stephen King, and Carrie was the book that launched his career. Moral of the story? Don’t self-censor. If a book comes to you and tells you it wants you to write it, listen to it. (And when its voice grows too faint to hear, it always helps to have someone who believes in you strongly enough to fish your pages out of the wastebasket.)

Olga Godim: Usually, my advice runs to one word: PERSEVERE. But now I want to add a couple more: READ WIDELY. The more you read, in any and all genres, the better your writing will be.

Elizabeth Mueller: There are many voices out there, pulling you into many different directions. Be true to yourself and your writing! It also helps to connect with other writers, because writers need writers after all!

Mark Alpert: You can’t be a writer unless you’re an avid reader. If you want to write science fiction, read lots of science fiction; if you want to write thrillers, read plenty of thrillers. And so on and so forth.

Next post is coming up Wednesday, July 7, 2021 . . . IWSG Day!

Don't forget! Dark Matter: Artificial is available now on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble!

Author Projects

The authors of Dark Matter: Artificial certainly keep busy with their writing! Everyone has different styles and different projects they're working on or have already published! For this week's post our authors responded to the following prompt:

Let's talk about your writing! Share about a current project in the works or a published project readers can look for.

Stephanie Espinoza Villamor: As I continue to write short stories, I'm constantly working on revising a middle grade contemporary novel I've been working on for 10 years. It's an important story about neurodiverse siblings that I want to be able to one day share with the world. Contemporary books for middle school students are a lot different than science fiction stories for adults, but I particularly enjoy writing any genre for kids--including sci-fi! After I wrote "Artificial" for the Insecure Writers Support Group anthology contest, I was inspired to write a middle grade science fiction story called "My Life in Cube 19," which was selected to be in the Henderson District Public Libraries' anthology, Impressions: Isolate.

C.D. Gallant-King: Dark Matter: Artificial is a sci-fi collection, which ties neatly into my current project: Gale Harbour, a series of books about adolescents in small-town 1990s Canada battling other-worldly monsters. It's not hard sci-fi, as it contains touches of fantasy and horror as well, but there's definitely aliens (spoiler!). My best pitch calls it Degrassi High meets Stranger Things. The first book, Psycho Hose Beast From Outer Space, came out last year to moderate success, and book two is in the editing process and should be available this Fall!

Kim Mannix: I'm primarily a poet more than a fiction writer, but I have been working on a collection of short spec/horror fiction for a long time. I recently finished what I hope will be a poetry chapbook, so now I have turned my energy back to the weird stories, like the one that appears in Dark Matter: Artificial. They need to be edited, expanded or started from scratch. Like most writers, especially those that work other jobs, I always have more ideas than time! 

Steph Wolmarans: Progress continues on my novel involving the distant descendants of the Artusans and the Utten. They were first introduced during my short story, "The Utten Mission," in the Dark Matter: Artificial anthology. Thousands of years in the future, they will meet again. Sadly, their relationship does not improve. Currently, I am wrapping up the first round of revisions—only a few scenes to go! (Maybe a rewrite for the ending.) Hopefully, it will be going to some beta readers and/or critique partners in the next month or so.

Tara Tyler: I love summer! As a teacher, I have gallons more flexible hours to write than during school. Right now, I'm working on CONDUCTION, book 4 in my Pop Travel techno-thriller series, which write themselves by now, I love those crazy characters! When I write, I jump from project to project: something new, some editing, and usually a short story or two, like last year I was able to write my Dark Matter story and finished my latest UnPrincess novella, GERTRUDE. I also love to catch up on my writerly connections. We'll be starting our chat group again as soon as I figure out the best conduit to use--Look for it!

Deniz Bevan: I have way too many projects in the works! Quite a few finished NaNoWriMo novels that need editing (historical romance), one novel in the process of being queried (contemporary romance), one novella that may be on its way to publication (paranormal romance; fingers crossed!), and one short story collection by another author that I’m copy-editing. On top of that, I just wrote a new short story for the first time in a couple of years! This one is also a post-apocalyptic tale, just like my story in Dark Matter: Artificial, and also for the first time in a long while, I drafted it on pen and paper. Now I need to find time to type it up. It’s great having so many projects on the go so that I can constantly switch to something new!

Charles Kowalski: Before blasting off to a distant world in the future for “Resident Alien,” my first foray into IWSG anthologies took me to a magical version of this world in the equally remote past: seventeenth-century Japan for “Simon Grey and the Yamamba” in last year’s VOYAGERS anthology. The story fit into my novel, SIMON GREY AND THE MARCH OF A HUNDRED GHOSTS. Simon, cursed with the “gift” of seeing the spirit world, signs up as a cabin boy on a ship bound for Japan, hoping that a long sea voyage will provide some respite from the ghosts that always haunt him on land. But when a shipwreck leaves him stranded, only with the help of Yokai – quirky creatures from Japanese folklore – can he find his way home. (The pandemic delayed the release of the sequel, SIMON GREY AND THE CURSE OF THE DRAGON GOD, but it’s in the works!)

Olga Godim: I want to tell you about my current WIP, a novella with no title yet. Like my story for Dark Matter, it is science fiction. It was born, like many of my stories, out of my reading. Months ago, I read the sci-fi novel Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik. Before Mihalik’s book starts, the heroine Ada, unwilling to submit to her despotic father’s wishes to marry her off for political gains, runs away. Her father sends bounty hunters after her, and Ada’s struggle to stay free, plus many a fun adventure and a muscled hunk as a love interest, form the bulk of the novel. But Ada’s original escape is outside the pages of the book. That stirred my interest. How did she escape? It is science fiction, so technology is well developed, and everything is on the computers. Is true escape even possible? I started playing with possibilities, and my own heroine Talia sprang up in my head – having nothing in common with Mihalik’s protagonist. Talia also must escape her domineering relative, and her situation is similar to Ada's, but Talia's escape mechanics are the focus of my novella. And after she succeeds, what is she to do? How can she build her new life in a highly technological society while staying hidden from possible searches? Where does she go: a planet, a space station, a spaceship?  

Elizabeth Mueller: I’m honored to have another chance to present myself. Thank you! I love to read and write romance. For me, it’s true escapism! and refreshing. From time traveling to dancing with faery princes, to ballerinas and cowboys!

A dangerous creature hunts Damarin through the deserted streets, and he races home with Zarynah in his arms. Isn’t that love? Possibly romantic? Welcome to "Resurgence," my story inside Dark Matter: Artificial.

I admit it’s challenging to write a story without romance and "Resurgence" challenged me a bit but it still bloomed into the story it is now!

Here is the aesthetic I’ve created for your pleasure. Enjoy!

Mark Alpert: If you liked the short stories in the Dark Matter anthology, you’ll probably enjoy my novel Final Theory, an international bestseller that was published by Simon & Schuster and translated into two dozen languages. The novel is about Albert Einstein’s quest to find the holy grail of physics, a Theory of Everything that would explain all the forces of nature. In Final Theory, Einstein succeeds in discovering the mathematical blueprints of the universe, but he’s forced to keep them secret because they would enable the building of weapons even worse than nuclear bombs. Decades later, though, the secret leaks out, and physicists start turning up dead as terrorist mercenaries and FBI agents race to piece together the world-changing formulas. You can read more about the novel on my website — www.markalpert.com — which has excerpts and buy links.

To learn more about all our authors, check out their websites and social media on our bio page!

Coming on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 . . . 

Next up our authors share their best writing advice with our readers!

Dark Matter: Artificial is available now on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble!

In the Spotlight: Kim Mannix ~ Author of "Rift"

The IWSG Anthology blog will be featuring posts from each of the contributing authors in Dark Matter: Artificial over the next few weeks. We’ve asked them to share a little about how they came up with their stories and preview what’s to come!

Kim Mannix on her short story, “Rift.”

It’s difficult to remember exactly how the seeds of a story take hold, isn’t it? Or maybe that’s just the case for me. This one started about two years ago. I had the pleasure of being a part of a mentorship program where I worked with horror writer and filmmaker Susie Moloney in order to develop a collection of dark short fiction. Together, we picked at and sharpened some of my existing stories, but she also challenged me to create a few from scratch. So, I wrote a draft, and then another, but the story--"Rift"--mostly just sat there, lonely and incomplete. When the IWSG Dark Matter call came along, it served as good motivation to finish it.

My favourite kind of weird stories--whether they be literary, horror, dark fantasy or science-fiction--are those that are rooted in a believable sort of reality. I had a character in my mind of a woman who found herself alone and dealing with a certain amount of guilt about it, even though the circumstances were out of her control. Having had my own losses in life, I suppose part of it was drawn from personal experience, but what really made me want to write the story was the whole notion of, what if this isn’t the only world for us? What if there’s a place where another version of our life exists? I am by no means a scientist, but the idea of the multiverse is one of my favorite things to ponder. So I took my character, Lindy, and put her in a seemingly boring and normal setting, that still held the possibility for something extraordinary to develop. The wide open and isolated prairie, not unlike places I spent much of my childhood growing up in Saskatchewan, often find their way into my stories. I think all that expanse leaves a great deal of room for the imagination to run wild.

I was, and still am, surprised and pleased that Rift was selected to appear in the anthology. When I’m not writing for work, most of my creative writing time goes into poetry, but my heart--and writing aspirations--always come back to fun, creepy and weird short fiction. It’s so exciting to have my story in the company of such accomplished writers, and I can’t wait to hold this anthology in my hands!

Blurb:

One quiet morning, a grieving woman encounters a mystery that makes her question the path her life has taken, as well as everything she thought she knew about reality. How thin is the fabric between her world and the next?

Excerpt:

Lindy reached down and picked up a handful of stones from the edge of the pond. She tossed them one at a time, asking herself the same agonizing question she had so many times before. If the baby had lived would Matt still be here?

After the fifth toss, Lindy realized the rocks weren’t making any ripples in the still pond. Only the smallest splash, and then they’d sink. She threw a few more and watched, in confusion, as they did the same thing.

“You seeing this, Janeway? What is up with this day?”

The horse neighed back and started twitching her ears. Lindy heard, or rather felt, an odd rumble that seemed to move across the air. Janeway shifted back and forth and whinnied louder. The vibration continued, and Lindy grabbed the reins and pressed her palm to the horse’s neck.

“Shhhh, shhhh, it’s ok girl.”

The rumble stopped as suddenly as it started. Lindy looked over the fields, then up to the sky, trying to find the source. Thunder? It didn’t seem like that exactly. It felt closer and sharper. Like someone scraping heavy furniture across a floor. She kneeled on the dirt, and put her ear toward the ground, listening and waiting. For what, she didn’t know.

Kim Mannix is a fiction writer, poet and journalist currently residing on Treaty 6 territory in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She has been published in several journals and anthologies in Canada and the U.S. and is a contributing editor of Watch Your Head, a climate crisis anthology. You can find her on Twitter (@KimMannix) usually posting about kids, cats, music and creepy things.

Coming on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 . . . 

Next up is Steph Wolmarans, who shares about her upcoming story, “The Utten Mission.”