Mara Lynn Johnstone

New anthology!  New short story!  It is delightfully absurd! 

Once upon a time, I was applying deodorant when I paused to wonder -- what if I got interrupted mid-process?  That would be annoying. But what could be enough of an…

The newest addition to the short stories section is a half-page bit o' fun that ended up being the first of several installments.  I may post the others later.  I may also come up with a better title!  The current…

I have two short stories in this anthology -- one is a weirdly poetic thing about surviving a magical apocalypse, and the other is prehistory for the book that's in the final editing stages right now. 

I am very excited…

There's a new short story up on the story page, inspired fully by the Humans Are Weird trend and this post on Tumblr. 

I love Humans Are Weird.  I've been writing it for years, and now tons of people have…

I'll be selling my book and giving a talk about my favorite method of beating writer's block at the county fair this year!  I'll be sharing a table with several other local writers -- we have the table for the…

This one's out too!  Sonoma: Stories of a region and its people.  It's a collection of stories, essays, and poems about this lovely part of California.  I have two contributions (three if you count the photo).  One is a…

It's out earlier than expected:  No Contest: A Decade of Contest-Winning Stories from Redwood Writers.  I have a steampunk short story in this anthology, with sky whales and a robot named Tankerbelle.  I am very excited. 

There would have…

I went to a three-day writers' conference this weekend, and it was a grand time.  I keep comparing it to a college creative writing course condensed down to a few days: I learned a lot, got valuable feedback on my…

Recently my local writing club ran a fanfiction contest.  I'd never actually written fanfiction, though I'd played with ideas and read some excellent works.  And what's more, I had an intriguing concept, suggested by someone on the internet:

An alternate…

I work at a plastic store.  It's an uncommon sort of day job, and more interesting than the usual retail experience.  It usually doesn't tie in much to my author life, other than the little display that I've gotten to…

You'll notice that "Barefoot in the Sky" has been taken down from the short story section, because it will be in an anthology!  The Redwood Writers have a collection of their various contest winners coming out soon, and my third-place…

I have the honor of being a runner up in the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition, which is delightful.  It even comes with its own nifty web badge.  Hooray!