Main File: Here’s How We Survive: The (Love) Stories for 2020

In late 2019, I conceived of a project where I’d post a story on my website each Friday for an entire year. Since we were heading into what was bound to be a contentious election in the US, I thought we could all use a little compassion, kindness, and love. 

I had plenty of previously-published stories to post and several others that had garnered lovely personal rejections but hadn’t found a home. During the year, I figured I could leisurely write new stories to fill in the blanks. 

Then 2020 actually happened. 

That I managed to complete this project—post a story every single Friday for an entire year—is something that still astounds me. In a year that was fraught for so many reasons (including my own bout with COVID-19), I became increasingly grateful for this project. It became my anchor in a year that often left me feeling rudderless. 

Here’s How We Survive contains stories that run the gamut from urban to epic fantasy, fairy tales to the future, contemporary to the historical. This compilation includes four dozen stories and spans fifteen years of my writing career. 

I chose it as my main file for that reason. I wouldn’t say I’m a short story writer first, but I seem to have a lot of them. 

Coffee and Ghosts:

Coffee and Ghosts started off as a simple short story based on the premise of catching ghosts with coffee. It was first published in Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic.

Once, a very long time ago, I wrote a murder mystery that involved a ghost. During the research phase, I came across a tidbit about catching ghosts using coffee and glass Mason jars. The novel never went anywhere, but years later, when I saw the call for submissions for Coffee, something clicked. Katy, her grandmother, and their business of catching ghosts with coffee and Tupperware (a far more practical and, frankly, safer option) were born. 

Not too long later, I realized that I wasn’t done with coffee and ghosts—or rather, they weren’t done with me. They’ve demanded their own type of storytelling as well. 

I wrote all three seasons serial-style, in episodes. Each episode has its own story arc but also supports a larger one for the season. All three seasons add up to an entire story as well. 

This method blends my love for writing both short and long fiction. It’s a technique I’ll continue to use with future stories. 

I’ve also included the audio production of the first episode, Ghost in the Coffee Machine, narrated by Amy McFadden. Amy is one of my favorite narrators, and she really is Katy in this performance. 

The Complete Coffee and Ghosts, Seasons 1 – 3: includes:

• Must Love Ghosts, Coffee and Ghosts, Season1
• The Ghost That Got Away, Coffee and Ghosts, Season 2
• Nothing but the Ghosts, Coffee and Ghosts, Season 3
• Audio: Ghost in the Coffee Machine

Military Themed:

I served on active duty in the United States Army from1988 – 1993. I was deployed to Desert Storm with 3rd Armor Division and also received the Bronze Star Award. 

I wanted to include my military writing in my payload as one woman’s perspective of what it was like being female in the mostly male world of the military. 

Blogging Airborne: this is a collection of blog posts I wrote explaining what it was like to attend Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, during July 1988. 

The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath: a young adult novel about a young woman whose mother died during Desert Storm.

I also included an unpublished novel based on many of my experiences in the Army and during Desert Storm in particular. This was another manuscript that garnered personal rejections, won any number of unpublished manuscript contests, but never found a home. Not autobiographical, but I participated in or witnessed the various events depicted in this novel. Someday, I may decide to self-publish it.

With Darcy Vance:

I met Darcy in an online writing workshop in 1998. We joined the same writing group, became critique partners, friends, and then co-authors. We wrote two books together (and attempted several others that didn’t go anywhere). We exchanged thousands upon thousands of words via email. 

We met in real life only twice: once at a writing retreat and the second time at our book launch party for The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading.

For many years, I considered her my best friend. She died on January 10, 2018, and I felt like I’d lost a piece of myself when she did. Not a day goes by when I don’t think of her.

The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading: a young adult novel about what happens when a geek girl makes the varsity cheerleading squad. I’ve included the final document that we turned in to our publisher before the book went to copyedits. 

Dating on the Dork Side: a young adult novel about what happens when a geek girl stumbles across a secret, boy-only website and sparks a war of the sexes. 

Other novels and stories:

I included several individual short stories as well as compilations in my payload, including Straying from the Path: a compilation of fairy tales, original and retellings; Now and Later: a collection of young adult short stories.

Also included is The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet, a young adult novel about learning to speak up, based on my personal experiences on the high school speech team.

Additionally, I couldn’t go to the moon without my husband. I added his first novel to my payload (written under a pseudonym). He’s such a huge fan of science fiction and technology in general, I couldn’t leave him behind. He’d love to go to the moon, and now his book can! 

About me:

Charity Tahmaseb has slung corn on the cob for Green Giant and jumped out of airplanes (but not at the same time).

She spent twelve years as a Girl Scout and six in the Army; that she wore a green uniform for both may not be a coincidence. These days, she writes fiction (long and short) and works as a technical writer for a software company.

Her novel, The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading (written with co-author Darcy Vance), is a YALSA 2012 Popular Paperback pick in the Get Your Geek On category. Her stories have appeared in various journals, including Deep Magic, Daily Science Fiction, Escape Pod, Cicada, and Pulp Literature. 

She loves coffee, ghosts, and all things fantastic.

#

Charity Tahmaseb

February 15, 2021

Manifest #95

Peregrine Mission One to the Moon