Conventions and Events, Paranatellonta

Paranatellonta 400!

Dear friends,

2025 started horribly for me and my family. My mother passed away in January, far too young and without warning. My world was flipped upside down and I’m still trying to find my footing, so writing a blog post hasn’t been at the top of my priorities.

However, today is a very special day that I do want to give some attention: Fie and I have just posted the 400th edition of our photography and flash fiction project, Paranatellonta. You can check out this festive double edition here (post 1) and here (post 2). As ever, you can read all editions of Paranatellonta for free, so please come and join our celebration!

While I’m here, let me add a quick flash of positive things that happened in the past months:

1) The Neurodiversiverse is a finalist for the IBPA Book Award in the Neurodivergent Communities category. The winners will be announced at the IBPA Book Award Ceremony on May 16 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

2) Atthis Arts’ catalogue came out, so if you work at a bookstore or want to see a beautifully illustrated list of this kind publishing house’s books, you can do so here. Of course this includes my novella The Dragon of Ynys, and anthologies Community of Magic Pens and Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, which each contain one of my short stories.

3) Also at Atthis Arts, fairy tale Wishing Well, Wishing Well by Jubilee Cho (1998-2024) came out last week. If you liked The Dragon of Ynys, you’ll want to check this one out! Author royalties are donated to Los Angeles-area efforts dedicated to directly supporting LGBTQIAP+ people in crisis.

4) If you backed the Be the Sea: Audiobook and Hardcover Editions Kickstarter and selected a physical reward, your set of Sea Creature postcards should have arrived by now. I’m very proud of how they turned out! You can still buy other postcards designed by me via this site.

5) Finally, if you’re in my area, you can come and listen to me telling a story in Dutch on the stage of Alden Biesen’s International Storytelling Festival on the evening of April 26! My performance is part of the Tales & Ales Festival, on the “open podium” for new talent sometime between 19:00 and 20:00. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re able to come listen and want more information! You do need a ticket for all of the Tales & Ales Festival.

Enjoy spring,

Minerva

Banner for "Refuge" - 10 years of Paranatellonta
Paranatellonta

TEN YEARS of Paranatellonta!

Hello!

It’s a day of celebrations: Paranatellonta is 10 years old!

The little project in which Fie takes a photo twice a month to inspire a ten-sentence story by me is still going strong! Back in 2013, we were inspired by Erin Morgenstern and Carey Farrell’s Flax-Golden Tales, of which there were 261. That sounded like quite a lot when we started, and to be honest, it still does—but today we are at our 360th edition!!!

Of course, we have a special edition for you to mark this anniversary. Just like for the fifth anniversary, we have asked none other than Ava Kelly to be our guest photographer and author. Ava’s photo inspired my 10-sentence story “Scrutiny”, and Fie’s photo inspired Ava’s 10-sentence story “Refuge”.

Banner for "Refuge" - Paranatellonta

Banner for "Scrutiny" - Paranatellonta

Click on the banners to be taken directly to both new Paranatellonta pieces, or click here to see all three of today’s new posts, including the introduction of our anniversary edition.

The banners were also created by Ava Kelly.

Ava Kelly is a nonbinary speculative writer and engineer. Secretly a pile of cats in a trenchcoat, Ava’s goal is to bring into the world more tales of friendship and compassion, dedicated to trope subversion, stories that give the void a voice. Romanian living in Norway, Ava is an avid explorer of culture and its reflection upon life and creativity, both in art and in tech design. Among their works are the award-winning novel Havesskadi, the short story A Sudden Displacement of Matter (part of the Lambda-nominated anthology Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers), and the illustrated dual language book of nonbinary fairy tales Alia Terra – Stories from the Dragon Realm.

Thank you for yet another wonderful collaboration, Ava!

You can always read and watch all editions of Paranatellonta for free here. Enjoy, and let us know what you think!