Romie Says

Work by filmmaker Romie Faienza and author Romie Stott, who are the same person.

[romiesays]

This Saturday/Sunday, I'll be at Boskone 63 in downtown Boston, talking about urban fantasy, movie adaptations, and recent shifts in the depiction of romantic ideals.

I plan to read some of my published poems that aren't available online, an excerpt from Nothing in the Basement, and the short story “It Is My Circus; They Are My Monkeys; But I Have Limited Influence on the Monkeys” - which I encourage you to read aloud yourself; it's very entertaining to perform.

When I'm not on a panel, you'll most likely find me in the bookstore at the Broad Universe table.

[romiesays]

Nothing in the Basement is on the Locus Recommended Reading List as one of the best first novels in 2025. You can vote for it in the Locus awards! And I'd appreciate it if you did!

Buy the book: Bookshop.org (with an affiliate link for Strange Horizons) | Barnes and Noble  | Amazon (including Kindle Unlimited)

[romiesays]

In case you missed it, you can read my comedic horror story "It Is My Circus; They Are My Monkeys; But I Have Limited Influence on the Monkeys" in Die Laughing Magazine, issue 5.

Or, in a fairly complete tonal shift, you can read my poem "Prayer for Winter" in Uncanny Magazine issue 67.

[romiesays]

My new horror novel, Nothing in the Basement, will release on September 2. It's about two people trying very hard to ignore that their house is haunted, while also trying to stay in a marriage that doesn't work. Think The Haunting of Hill House or Rebecca, but funnier than that.

It's a quick, easy read that you could definitely finish in time for book club. Then, at the book club, you could talk about relationship red flags and whether you have yourself ignored them, and whether this led to your supernatural demise.

You can preorder in all the usual places. Here are some of them:

Bookshop.org (with an affiliate link for Strange Horizons)

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

and here's the Goodreads page, where you can click "want to read" if you are not ready to preorder but do want to read it someday.

[romiesays]

America (Death List Five, issue 5)

This is a poem I wrote in 2004, a little more than a year into the Iraq War, a little more than two years into The Patriot Act (passed shortly after my twenty first birthday, removing rights I'd just gotten), and about three years past the Roberts Court legitimizing a stolen election along party lines (the first presidential election I was old enough to vote in). It was a time when I was menaced for not having an American flag bumper sticker; I was often told "you're not from around here" in the place I was from. The poem was first published in in 2006, in a zine edited by Jolee Davis and Joey Cloudy.

[romiesays]

Readercon Schedule (Burlington, Massachusetts, July 18-20, 2025)

Here's my schedule for the upcoming SF convention:

When I'm not on a panel, you will likely either find me selling books at the Broad Universe table (including my new horror novel, Nothing in the Basement, which doesn't officially release until September), or at Saturday night karaoke.

[romiesays]

My new short story "The Electric Ant in its Natural Habitat" is out now—near-future social sci-fi about a shaggy group of people hanging out in a fairly scrubby yard, who wind up inventing a battery while messing around at farm auctions and debating which hot sauce is good.

It's in the second issue of Tractor Beam, a new magazine out of Texas that's focused on soilpunk—optimistic science fiction about agriculture, basically. Imagine if Amazing Stories had riffed on the Ag Advisory panel at the FCC instead of on Popular Mechanics. That's this magazine. It's exactly what I've been looking for.

[romiesays]

"That had been the last time he’d seen the inside of Clara’s room. She emptied her wastebasket into the kitchen trash can. Mark sometimes heard techno music through the door, and once, before a waterpark trip, he’d knocked to ask when she’d be ready. She’d shouted her answer through the door. Mark assumed she’d been naked."

Go read my short story "Nanny in the Darkroom" in Cutleaf issue 5.08.

It's about a good ol' boy who is obsessed with an au pair, and with social status. It's about summer in Texas. It's about discomfort with the interiority of other people. It's not horror and it's not a haunted house, but it has a lot of overlap with how I write about haunted houses. It's funny and ominous.

Read it!

[romiesays]

A 10-minute musical of mine is premiering in NYC on May 5 as part of Theatre Now's Sound Bites XII festival. If you're interested, you can get 10% off the ticket with the code TN10. Read more and buy tickets here.

In "write what you know" news, if you watch this musical you will instantly notice that I am EXTREMELY ONLINE.

[romiesays]

"I am two minds yoked, wishing either was strong enough to pull loose and trot a different plowed-up ground."

A new poem of mine came out in the March issue of Snakeskin. You can read the whole issue for free online, and this link is directly to my poem.

[romiesays]

Boskone 62 Schedule (Feb 14-16, 2025)

These are the panels and performances where you can be pretty sure to see me if you're at the SF convention in Boston this weekend.

Biology in SF/F (Friday 2:30pm)

Real but unusual plants and animals can lead to the creation of aliens or fantastical creatures. Sue Burke's "Semiosis" and Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time" are just two examples. The panel will discuss these and other examples of fiction inspired by unusual flora and fauna in the real world.

True Crime in a Speculative World (Friday 4pm)

What would a true crime novel or documentaries look like in magical kingdom or dystopian society? Let’s go wild with the science and magic! Our panelists breakdown how speculative fiction could reimagine true crime narratives, focusing on morality, justice, and the human condition … with a dash of magic or far off science to tip the scales of justice.

The Most Important Books I Never Read (Sunday 11:30am)

Panelists discuss seminal books in SF/F/H they haven't read and why. (I'm the moderator. I'll keep it lively.)

Concert: Romie Stott (Sunday 12:30pm)

I'll be performing a 20-minute set of some Stopwalk songs that haven't been released yet, and some that have. None of them have ever been performed live. I can't express how rare it is to see me do this. No clue when/if you'll get another chance.

Plus I made some surrealist secret fan club buttons and I might give you one.

[romiesays]

It is now possible to join a mailing list and get an email whenever I release something. Given that my ways are mysterious and obscure, this is genuinely the best way to find out things like "there's an album out" or "oh look, here is a novel I can buy in a bookstore." Emails from me will be rare. I may sometimes send secret bootlegs of things that aren't out yet.

[romiesays]

I just won a Hugo award (alongside the rest of the editorial team).

Best Semiprozine Strange Horizons, by the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective

Glasgow 2024 Worldcon

(go read the magazine)

[romiesays]

https://locusmag.com/2024/07/a-c-wise-reviews-short-fiction-analog-khoreo-and-clarkesworld/

Locus put "A Reclamation of Beavers" on its recommended stories list (June 2024 issue) (reviewer: A.C. Wise)

[romiesays]

You can now enjoy the "director's commentary" for my short story "A Reclamation of Beavers" on Analog Magazine's blog. I talk about all kinds of stuff (including one of the rare times I talk about my day job) and I link to a lot of cool research on what happens to depleted land set aside for rewilding.

Read it here: "Fire Ecology, Public Land Management, And AI Sidekicks: The Research Behind “A Reclamation Of Beavers”

[romiesays]

The March/April issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact must be read right out of the mailbox, because I'm in it - a story about a wildfire and a beaver AI. Peep the table of contents here.

[romiesays]

I'll be on a few Boskone panels next weekend (Feb 9-11).

Friday:

5:30 - "Our Air! Our Water!" Space Independence

7:00 - Write My Doctoral Thesis: Science Edition

Saturday:

11:30 - The Magic and Science of Scriptwriting

4:00 - 1,779 Miles to Mordor (hiking advice for fantasy adventurers)

Sunday:

11:30 - Real Estate in Space

Hope to see you there.

Unrelatedly, I forgot to mention that a story of mine, "Breath," was in issue #76 of Not One of Us.

It's a short piece about a microbotanist starting to terraform Mars, and is mostly me getting excited about the existence of injectable oxygen (experimentally trialed at Boston Children's Hospital a few years back). Not too late to buy a copy. The old-school way. Through the mail.