While I am not a resident of North Carolina, three of the five darklies are (Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln and Ben Murphy) and the fourth, Cadwell Turnbull, had been both a student and faculty at North Carolina State University.

We are all thrilled to have received this honour as a part of an illustrious group of finalists.

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The first book in Darkly Lem‘s Formation Saga trilogy came out in March. Darkly is a five author writing team consisting of Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull and me.

Transmentation | Transience is eligible in the novel category for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards.

In 2025 I was also delighted to be a part of the ten person writing team who won the Nebula Award for Game Writing, for A Death In Hyperspace!

Finally, my short story “Artful Felicitations” was published on Many Worlds in March 2025.

It is eligible in the short story category for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Aurora and Sir Julius Vogel awards.

The post 2025 Year in Review (and Awards Eligibility) appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

So many thanks to my excellent collaborators: Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Natalia Theodoridou, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, and Jinjing Xiao.

The post A Death in Hyperspace is the Nebula Award winner! appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Thanks to my collaborators: Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Naca Rat, Natalia Theodoridou, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.

The post A Death in Hyperspace is a Nebula Awards Finalist! appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

My tie-in novel with the board game Terraforming Mars, Shores of a New Horizon, came out.

I contributed to the short interactive fiction project A Death in Hyperspace for the IF Comp.

Hamlet, Prince of Robots, won the Sir Julius Vogel award for best novella!

And, of course, along with the other darklies, I was working on the trilogy project which begins with Transmentation | Transience, which will be out in March.

It will be here before we know it!

The post 2024 Year in Review appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Phew, that’s a mouthful!

The book is the first in a trilogy coming in March 2025 from Blackstone, and the cover was designed by Kathryn English.

Darkly Lem is the shared pseudonym for five members of the Many Worlds collective: John Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and me! We are so excited to share these worlds with you all!

The post Transmentation | Transience Cover Reveal appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

I’ll be at the following events:

Is the Multiverse the New Time Travel?
Saturday, August 10, 2024 10:00 BST

• Edgar Governo
• M. Darusha Wehm
• Paul Princejvstin Weimer (moderator)
• Ruth EJ Booth
• S.B. Divya

It used to be that if you wanted to resurrect a character, you had to turn back time. Now, you just bring over a doppelganger from the nearest parallel universe. Is this innovative or lazy? Why is this happening all of a sudden? What does it mean for narrative conventions when all bets are off?

Stroll with the Stars – Sunday, The Tall Ship
Sunday, August 11, 2024 09:00 BST

The post Where to find me at Worldcon Glasgow appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Thanks to the voters and my esteemed fellow nominees for their excellent company!

The post Hamlet Won a Sir Julius Vogel Award appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

The Sir Julius Vogel awards are a fan-voted award recognizing excellence in science fiction, fantasy and horror from Aotearoa New Zealand.

The post Hamlet is a Sir Julius Vogel Award Finalist appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Novella

Hamlet, Prince of Robots

Short Story

“I, Not I” in Many Worlds or the Simulacra
“Blink” (as part of Darkly Lem) in Many Worlds or the Simulacra

The post 2023 Awards Eligibility appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Blackstone Publishing has also acquired another trilogy with Turnbull, as a part of Darkly Lem (which also includes authors Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, and M. Darusha Wehm). Book 1 will be called Transmentation | Transience and is expected to release in Fall 2024. 

IN A (MANY) WORLD(S)… in which people can travel between universes – entering new bodies with entire in-universe identities gifted to them by a mysterious entity known as the Simulacrum – universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen over thousands of years. But this unchecked expansion has been curtailed in recent centuries as these societies encounter each other with greater frequency… and friction. Now they vie for power, knowledge, wealth, and control within their many worlds (actually many universes, but… that’s just not as poetic, is it?). For fans of The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey, The Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin, and the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer.

Darkly Lem is five authors in an impeccably-tailored trenchcoat (Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and M. Darusha Wehm). They live in an Earth-type locality in the Central Cluster with their five kids, several spouses, and a modest menagerie, where they are at work on Many Worlds novels.

From tor.com

The post Three-Book Deal with my Co-Writing Team, Darkly Lem appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

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Here’s what I published this year:

SHORT STORIES

“The Stars Above Eos” in Fireside, March 2022 (1700 words). A short, sweet (sad?) science fiction love story about transcending death. Content notes for body modification and death.

“A Ghost of a Chance” (8400 words) in The Stars Beyond: A Twilight Imperium Anthology from Aconyte. Groundhog Day, but it’s a first contact story.

POETRY

“how to make time” in The Deadlands, March 2022. A recipe.

EXTRA

While not my things exactly, I would also like to draw your attention to the original stories we published at Many Worlds.

“Roamers of Tala” by Josh Eure 

“True Believers” by Craig Lincoln 

“And the Flower Grows and the Petal Falls and I Am Left Holding this Withered Stem” by Ben Murphy 

“What Has Vanished” by Elizabeth Sinden Pipher 

“Kichkandi” by Smriti Ravindra 

“The Cemetery for All the Mothers Who Died Way Too Young” by Mark Galarrita 

“Memento Mori” by Elliot Richards 

The post 2022 Awards Eligibility appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Welcome to the Hopepunk bundle!

What is Hopepunk, you ask?

It’s a subgenre of speculative fiction, so it includes fantasy as well as science fiction, and it’s a reaction to the dystopian views that grimdark novels have. Where grimdark is violent and amoral, hopepunk stories feature characters who fight for positive change, communal responses to challenges, and even radical kindness. It’s an intentional ray of sunshine in what could be a bleak literary landscape. It’s taking a stand because it’s right, not because it’s profitable. It’s rebelling against an oppressive regime to improve everyone’s lot, not just your own. It emphasizes cooperation over conflict while realizing that a Happily Ever After isn’t guaranteed.

And it’s everywhere.

A few examples, you say?

How about The Martian? The classic Discworld novels? Jumping into movies, look at Black Panther. Or head to television and watch The Orville or Doctor Who. Hopepunk promises that tomorrow can be better than today, given passion and effort.

And it’s here for you today!

We’ve gathered some of the most rousing, forward-thinking, relatable Hopepunk novels on the market for you today and put them into this special bundle. Check it out!

Adam Gaffen

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• The Stars and Green Magics by Novae Caelum
• Red Dot by Mike Karpa
• Children of Arkadia by M. Darusha Wehm
• The Road to the Stars by Adam Gaffen

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $20, you get all four of the regular books, plus seven more books/boxed sets for a total of 11!

• The Adventures of Wil Calder by John Wilker
• The Left Hand of Dog by Si Clarke
• Aces High, Jokers Wild: Books 1-3 by O.E. Tearmann
• Tanis Richards: Shore Leave by M. D. Cooper
• The Ariadne Cycle – Boxed Set by J. Scott Coatsworth
• The Andlios Collection – Books 1-3 by Dave Walsh
• City of Kaus: Books 1-3 by Dani Hoots

The post HopePunk StoryBundle appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

My short story “A Thorn in Your Memory” is eligible for prose.

My poem “the chrononaut” is eligible for poetry.

The post 2021 Award Eligibility appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Alien detectives stumble across a mystery that could tear apart their patchwork planet, the Crucible, in this riotous science fantasy novel from the smash hit game, KeyForge.

Wibble & Pplimz, the Crucible’s most unusual private investigators, must set off from their office in Hub City to clear the name of a former client. Along the way, their investigation broadens from a simple accusation of theft to include a missing person, a potential murder, and a highly unusual gem. Four interlinking incidents take them across the Crucible, as they attempt to solve the case. But there’s something more sinister lurking underneath: evidence of a secret society that aims to discover the power of the Architects, and forever change the nature of the Crucible itself.

The post The Qubit Zirconium is Out Today! appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

KeyForge: Tales From the Crucible

Take a whirlwind tour to the incredible planet of a million fantasy races, the Crucible, in this wild science fantasy anthology from the hit new game, KeyForge.

Fireweed: Stories from the Revolution

Sixteen stories and poems of triumph, resistance, and revolution.

The post Two Anthologies Out Today appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Hope can find its origin in friendship, whether on an alien planet or a New York street corner. It can come from writing, in a myriad shades as multi-colored as the ink in which it’s inscribed. It glitters at the bottom of Pandora’s box, waiting to escape. Waiting to provide comfort and light and renewed vigor for the fight.

So this is a bundle centered on hope with a touch of glitter, rather than grit, and I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did. It’s a range of flavors as well as forms: novels, including some beginnings; connected short stories; sequential novellas, and an anthology of stories connected by theme. 

Cat Rambo

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• Diamondsong – Escape 01 by E.D.E. Bell
• The Burglar of Sliceharbor by Jason A. Holt
• Modern Surprises by Joan Marie Verba
• The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus by Alanna McFall

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular books, plus seven more more books, for a total of eleven!

• Diamondsong – Capture 02 by E.D.E. Bell
• Tales of the Captain Duke – Vol. 1-4 by Rebecca Diem
• The Voyage of the White Cloud by M. Darusha Wehm
• Community of Magic Pens by Atthis Arts Anthology
• Carpe Glitter by Cat Rambo
• Missing Signal by Seb Doubinsky
• The Legacy Human – Singularity 1 by Susan Kaye Quinn

The post The Glitter And Hope Bundle appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

My novella “Retaking Elysium” is eligible for prose.

My poems “recursion” and “. ….. ..story .. time” are eligible for poetry.

The post 2019 Award Eligibility appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Jules Morales’s life has always been a state of contact change. When the opportunity comes up, why not take a trip to Mars to work on the platinum mining operation—and make a load of money? But what if there is more to Mars than just a payday and an adventure?

The woman now calling herself Lisa Marie has spent her whole life trapped by the struggle to make ends meet, and sometimes held hostage by her own memories. On Mars she might finally find financial security, but will she also find something to care about today, and maybe even for the future?

Mars is a world in transition, caught in the balance between capitalist exploitation and human exploration. The first people of Mars need to find a way to build a functioning economic zone and liveable habitat on the Red Planet. But could they do more—create a community, a true new home for humanity?

Out now, Retaking Elysium, the prequel novella to The Martian Job.

The post Retaking Elysium Out Now appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Mars is good place to reinvent yourself, isn’t it?

Jules Morales’s life has always been a state of contact change. When the opportunity comes up, why not take a trip to Mars to work on the platinum mining operation—and make a load of money? But what if there is more to Mars than just a payday and an adventure?

The woman now calling herself Lisa Marie has spent her whole life trapped by the struggle to make ends meet, and sometimes held hostage by her own memories. On Mars she might finally find financial security, but will she also find something to care about today, and maybe even for the future?

Mars is a world in transition, caught in the balance between capitalist exploitation and human exploration. The first people of Mars need to find a way to build a functioning economic zone and liveable habitat on the Red Planet. But could they do more—create a community, a true new home for humanity?

Read or listen to Chapter One for free.

The post Retaking Elysium Chapter One — Read or Listen Free appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Mars is good place to reinvent yourself, isn’t it?

Jules Morales’s life has always been a state of contact change. When the opportunity comes up, why not take a trip to Mars to work on the platinum mining operation—and make a load of money? But what if there is more to Mars than just a payday and an adventure?

The woman now calling herself Lisa Marie has spent her whole life trapped by the struggle to make ends meet, and sometimes held hostage by her own memories. On Mars she might finally find financial security, but will she also find something to care about today, and maybe even for the future?

Mars is a world in transition, caught in the balance between capitalist exploitation and human exploration. The first people of Mars need to find a way to build a functioning economic zone and liveable habitat on the Red Planet. But could they do more—create a community, a true new home for humanity?

All patrons will get the weekly chapters in text, patrons at the $2 or more level will get the exclusive audio podcast, and patrons at the $3 or more level will also get the ebook before it is released worldwide in October.

Join my Patreon here!

The post Retaking Elysium — Coming in July appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

The SJVs are New Zealand’s fan-voted awards for best science fiction, fantasy and horror.

The post The Martian Job wins Sir Julius Vogel Award appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.