2016 was a huge year for me in a lot of ways. First short story publication! Two Rhysling nominations! Poetry publications of deep meaning to me! A dozen people, many from Twitter, turned up at my house to help my spouse and I move when the house was literally killing us! I crowdfunded a wheelchair for Aleksei! I sold another short story to an anthology! I finished the first draft of a novel that will come out in 2017!
And I started a patreon. The patreon is for longform work by my spouse Aleksei Valentín and I, but is also a platform to publish poetry and short stories if it becomes profitable to do so on a month-to-month basis. I write poems because I have a compulsion and send them out for publication because I like money, but I write short stories for paychecks, usually. If I think a short story won’t sell, I often don’t even finish it: I’d rather expend my energy on the long form work which is my relaxing hobby with my spouse than rack up rejection after rejection because my work isn’t in line with current magazine editorial taste. If the Patreon funding hits a high enough point, I’ll begin publishing short fiction on the Patreon instead. Many people have asked if there is a way, in addition to Paypal, to support my work on a more regular basis. The Patreon, which is based on a monthly model of funding our work, is that way.
To launch off the Patreon, I’ve begun by releasing my only poem that was behind a paywall and not for charity (the remaining poem, ‘The First Wife’, continues to benefit Elizabeth McClellan and so I have not reprinted it). The Lessons of the Knife, originally published in the anthology ‘Spelling the Hours’, is now available for free. Please read and enjoy. I have wanted to make it free for such a long time, because of the subject matter’s importance and because it’s one of my few poems that’s had a lot of popular demand!
For those who do awards nominations and the likes, this is 2016’s body of work:
Fiction, Short Form:
Backgame, in Myriad Lands II
Poetry, Long Category (50+ lines)
‘My Heart Is Set On Wandering’ in Strange Horizons
‘The Doppelganger and the Ghost’ in Eye To The Telescope
‘The Lessons of the Knife’ first in Spelling the Hours
Poetry, Short Category (1-49 lines)
‘The Lost City’ in Remixt Vol 1
‘The Doorway’ in Pedestal Magazine
‘Death By Three Senses’ in Strange Horizons
‘Witch’s Brew’ in Stone Telling
Florida Water (self-published)
Essays
Why “Diversity” Is Like A Mix Tape
Thank you very much for your continued support and enthusiasm in 2016. I have heard wonderful, beautiful things from you about these poems (‘The Doorway’ especially seemed to be a favorite) and I look forward to sharing much, much more work with you in 2016. Please consider helping fund my continuing work in both long and short form via Patreon — in the first 12 hours we are halfway to being able to post a new poem each month on Patreon available for free. If you enjoyed my work this year but don’t have the funds to commit to regular Patreon gifts, please consider tipping me a one-off gift. They do, indeed, make a huge difference in my quality of life.
See you in 2017!
Lev Mirov 