This year, The Pulse between Dimensions and the Desert was nominated for a Wonderland Award for Best Collection and it won! I set up my little online shop, did a bunch of readings and wrote new fiction. This is compilation of podcasts, online articles, reviews and fiction I had published online and in some badass anthologies.
2016: The Year in becoming Fearless
PODCASTS
The Outer Dark (Hosted by This is Horror): “In this archival podcast Scott Nicolay interviews Rios de la Luz, author of The Pulse Between Dimensions and the Desert. It was recorded on January 11, 2016 and originally aired on January 13, 2016.” This was a wonderful interview with Scott Nicolay. I had a lot of fun talking to him even in my nervousness.
The JDO Show: “Rios is a great writer. Her book The Pulse between Dimensions and the Desertis out, and it is quite good. She’s also ME WOIF (that’s “my wife” in a Cockney accent). We talk about Korean dramas, feminism, performatively woke dudes, The Wailing, Reincarnation, Ringu, and American Honey.” JDO is my planetary partner. It was very easy talking to him and making fun of him.
Varieties of Weird (The Outer Dark: Hosted by This is Horror) from BizarroCon: “In this podcast The Outer Dark presents the “Varieties of the Weird” panel from BizarroCon 2016 in Portland, OR. The moderator was G. Arthur Brown, and the panelists were Kirsten Alene, Garrett Cook, Rios de la Luz, Kevin L. Donihe, and Michael Griffin. It was recorded live on Saturday November 19, 2016. The broadcast also kicks off with an all-new News from the Weird with Michael Griffin and ends with a visit from special guest Scottish Weird fiction writer/poet/journalist Paul StJohn Mackintosh.”
FICTION
October 26th 2016: The Bruja Handbook published at Luna Luna Magazine.
Here’s a snippet: “Daisy was covered in egg yolk and uprooted plants. She crawled under the bed and started praying. Daisy poured piles of salt into the corners of the room and hid yellow pieces of paper under the mattress with scribbled prayers. She prayed to the spirits on her father’s side of the family. She prayed for guidance from the spirits on her mami’s side of the family. She wanted to know if the blood rushing inside her meant she was like her father. Why did she have to share matter with him. Why did his actions only get him kicked out of the house and not into a hole under the earth. Why was he such a coward. He fled the house after he was caught with his hand cupped over her sister Rosa’s mouth as Rosa pretended to be asleep. Daisy prayed harder. She asked her ancestors to make her stronger than any man who ever decides to cross her.”
October 2016: An Altar to the Ashes on the Moon was published in States of Terror Vol. 3 (Ayahuasca Publishing)
October 2016: Orchids by the Sea was published in Eternal Frankenstein (Word Horde)
Info from Word Horde’s site: “Two hundred years ago, a young woman staying in a chalet in Switzerland, after an evening of ghost stories shared with friends and lovers, had a frightening dream. That dream became the seed that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, a tale of galvanism, philosophy, and the re-animated dead. Today, Frankenstein has become a modern myth without rival, influencing countless works of fiction, music, and film. We all know Frankenstein. But how much do we really know about Frankenstein?
Word Horde is proud to publish Eternal Frankenstein, an anthology edited by Ross E. Lockhart, paying tribute to Mary Shelley, her Monster, and their entwined legacy.
Featuring sixteen resurrecting tales of terror and wonder by Siobhan Carroll, Nathan Carson, Autumn Christian, Rios de la Luz, Kristi DeMeester, G. D. Falksen, Orrin Grey, Michael Griffin, Scott R. Jones, Anya Martin, Edward Morris, Amber-Rose Reed, Betty Rocksteady, Tiffany Scandal, David Templeton, and Damien Angelica Walters.”
NON-FICTION
March 31st 2016, published on WEIRD SISTER: Growing Up Xicana: Looking Back at La Reina Selena 21 Years After Her Death.
Excerpt: “Selena was fierce, charismatic, and someone I looked up to as an example of what it meant to be powerful. I was a shy and timid kid, but I cannot tell you how many times I wore red outfits and snuck on my mamá’s red lipstick, then danced in front of the mirror to see my own fierceness. Here was this brown woman, with a beautiful voice, singing in my first language, reminding me: I could achieve my dream. It sounds cheesy, I know, but as a kid growing up in a turbulent environment these were the reminders I needed.”
May 4th 2016, published on WEIRD SISTER: Rejecting Forgiveness Culture: Women in Revenge Films
Excerpt: “I write about my trauma because I am no longer afraid. I write about my trauma because I know I am not alone. I never deserved to carry that burden. I was very angry for a long time. I was angry with the fact that I felt responsible for his actions. I was angry that he was still alive. From a very young age, I understood humanity was very flawed and complex, but I only understood his existence as evil. He didn’t deserve to love or be loved. Why did he get to experience warmth?”
June 7th 2016, published on WEIRD SISTER: La Virgen de Oklahoma: Jane the Virgin and Flashbacks to Abstinence-only Education in Biology Class
Excerpt: “The concept of virginity is heteronormative and sexist. I didn’t have these words to describe how I felt in high school, but something about seeing the girl volunteer in front of class in a state of obvious embarrassment made me angry. As a queer brown woman (words I did not have to navigate my identity then either), I knew I had these little butterflies in my belly for people other than just boys, and I knew this didn’t fit into the proper box of being a proper Christian teenage girl in Oklahoma.”
REVIEWS
January 2016, published in World Literature Today: Review of The Body Where I was Born by Guadalupe Nettel
May 2016, published in World Literature Today: Review of Seeing Red by Lina Meruane
November 2016, published in World Literature Today: Review of Umami by Laia Jufresa
Rios de la Luz 