Where Am I
I have space in my schedule for copy editing or writing work. My ttrpg credits are below, as well as my spec fic and nonfic links. You can ping me at:
- Bluesky: @montelin.bsky.social
- mail: monte.lin.mail@gmail.com
- mastodon (writing): Monte_Lin@wandering.shop
- mastodon (gaming): Monte_Lin@dice.camp
Who Am I
Freelance Writer/Editor
Speculative fiction writer
- "Causality Syndrome," published in Phano, Issue 4 Reviews/recs: [1]
- "I found an old god in the woods," published in Apex Magazine, Issue 148
- "The In-Between Sister," published in Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 12 Reviews/recs: [1]
- "his love's ashes on his tongue," published in Deadlands, Issue 37 Reviews/recs: [1] [2]
- "Here in the Glittering Black, There is Hope," published in GigaNotoSaurus, September 1, 2024 Reviews/recs: [1] [2] [3]
- "we spilt our hydrazine blood for you," published in Haven Speculative, issue 12, December 2023
- "The Bleeding Moon," published in Galaxy's Edge, issue 62, May 2023
- "The Dream Market," published in Translunar Travelers Lounge, issue 8 Reviews/recs: [1] [2]
- "Shrine to the Ink Goddess" in Cast of Wonders 504
- "Little Bone Collector" in Flame Tree Press's Asian Ghost Stories
- "Bloodrunners" in Theatre Phantasmagoria, June 2022
- "This Choir of Ghosts" in Dark Matter, issue 009
- "The Alternity of Dead Universes" in Kaleidotrope Spring 2022 Reviews/recs: [1]
- "See With Your Eyes, Not With Your Hands" in Nightmare 105 Reviews/recs: [1] [2]
- "A Glut of Nothing, and Yet... Something" in Cossmass Infinities, issue 5
- "Unnamed" in Cast of Wonders 451 Reviews/recs: [1] [2]
- "The Absentee Library" in the Buckman Journal 005
- "Menobezoar" in Lamplight, volume 9, issue 2
- "heartsob playplayplay promisegift," published in Cossmass Infinities, issue 3 Reviews/recs: [1]
- "Adrift," sci-fi short story published in Flame Tree Press's Robots & Artificial Intelligence anthology
- Clarion West 2019 graduate
If the existence of tachyons means time travel exists, and if time travel means free will doesn't exist, would you embrace your destiny or fight against it?
When mortality meets divinity, what would one give up for the other?
"June's missing and no one seems to care.... No one seems to know she's missing except me."
In the city/planet Necropolis, Gabriel carries an urn full of ashes, touching stones holding alien memories, remembering what he once had.
A work crew lives in space, mining and hauling raw resources for the Immortals, the wealthy elite of Earth, undying and eternal. Decades spent in cryo meant these space truckers similarly live an immortal life, but one of toil and loneliness, chasing that ephemeral phantom, profit.
"They all drifted above until their veins were empty of hydrazine blood. Kin-ships, their ion drives spent of their krypton and xenon muscle, now sail the interstellar winds silent and cold."
The Moon bleeds and spills onto the land, creating ichorthings that terrorize and destroys. When Selene loses everything, she seeks out revenge but finds justice instead.
"You begin this dream in the middle, as always, knowing that the merchant is named Nihtcargast and sells nightmares."
Dana Liu's Ama loved that eucalyptus tree, so Dana does too. But now, a construction company, the one her brother works for, is going to cut it down, along with the memories, the spirit of her Ama...
Li-hao, in the hold of a ship to Giu Gimsan, dreams of joining his brother as a bone collector: someone who finds and brings back to China the bones of dead miners and workers. However, the voices of the dead, drowned in the ocean, whisper to him in his sleep...
"The Pacific Mass just floats out there, a large, blood-brown-bluish mass the color of bruised skin..."
"Subject-412 has no real choice: fold space-time or asphyxiate and die, but where one lone voice may fail, perhaps a choir can free them."
"StrangeCharm is a sentient dead universe, their neural network made of a soup of quarks. And even they face a challenge on what it means to be alive."
"When I was a boy, my left hand grew a cluster of tiny eyes..."
Jenny came to this southwest town to drink herself to death and get away from people, but an information singularity, the Glut, threatens to suck in the world, but worse, brings Tara into Jenny's life. Jenny can't tell which she's afraid of more.
Huìhuì Ga̅o has lost her name. No one remembers it, not her friends, not her teachers, not even her parents or cousin Katherine. The unnaming begins to unravel her, making her less, until it gets worse...
To Zari, Vellichor, the City of Books, is akin to heaven. To her sister, Nadia, Zari and Vellichor represents her discarded potential, her failures as the unaccomplished younger sibling. So when Nadia goes to Vellichor to find her missing sister, she learns that book-loving people are really really weird, especially when they start turning into books themselves!
Stephen receives an unusual offer, to help his brother Joe overcome all the things holding him back: his rage, his paranoia, his self-loathing. All it takes is for Stephan to eat the nails, wires, and metal shards of his brother's sins.
In a fae-scoured Earth, Caitlin plays several dangerous games with her fae counterpart, Aisling, in order to win her family back. But when stories and your own imagination can be turned against you, when even hope itself can lead you astray, what else is left?
With the Charon half-destroyed near Mars, the lone survivor, teenager Percy Winters, falls into despair. The ship's AI, Hayden, does everything he can to keep Percy alive, even if it means going against her wishes.
Speculative nonfiction writer
- Article on Uncanny Magazine, A Decade of Defiance, Delight, and Decadence in the Mary Sue
- Media critique essay, "Where Will You Place Us When We Are Dead?" in Strange Horizons, Ignyte Award finalist
- Book review of C Pam Zhang's "How Much of These Hills Is Gold" in Strange Horizons
A sample of the stories published in 2023 that showcases the kinds of stories Uncanny Magazine publishes.
In creating a fictional afterlife, creators can inadvertently erase or flatten the complicated issues of identity, ethnicity, and culture. Using American Gods, The Good Place, What Dreams May Come, and Soul as examples, we poke at how different fictional afterlives can enact this erasure through their own worldbuilding.
In C. Pam Zhang's debut novel, Chinese-American siblings Lucy and Sam struggle to understand their place in America during the Gold Rush era, who they are in relation to each other, and who they are in relation to being a permanent Other.
Managing editor for Uncanny Magazine
Assistant editor for Uncanny Magazine
Writer for Echo Park, a Realm podcast series
- Echo Park on Apple Podcasts, near future cyberpunk clone thriller, narrated by Harry Shum Jr., new episodes available each Thursday
Contract writer for Paizo
- Lost Omens Tian Xia setting book for the Pathfinder roleplaying game
- Content writer for up and coming rpg supplement
Contract writer for Green Ronin
- Cthulhu Awakens Kickstarter, Mythos-based horror in the Weird Century
- Fifth Season Kickstarter, Roleplaying the the Stillness
- Content writer for up and coming rpg supplement
Copy editor for Angry Hamster Publishing
- Afterlife: Wandering Souls quickstart
- Afterlife: Wandering Souls, surreal tabletop rpg
Copy editor for Magpie Games
- Supplement for the Masks rpg, Masks: Unbound
- Zombie World, card based tabletop rpg
- Fate Codex Anthology, volume 3
- Cartel core book
- Root Clearing Booklet
- Avatar Legends the rpg core book
Copy editor for Nahual rpg
- English version of Nahual
Contract Writer for Edge/Fantasy Flight
- Adventure writer for the Force & Destiny core book Star Wars rpg
- Content writer for Star Wars rpg supplement, Special Modifications
- Content writer for Star Wars rpg supplement, Endless Vigil
- Content writer for Star Wars rpg supplement, Fully Operational
- Content writer for Star Wars rpg supplement, Unlimited Power
- Content writer for Star Wars rpg Era supplement, Rise of the Separatists
- Content writer for Star Wars rpg Era supplement, Collapse of the Republic
- Content writer for Genesys rpg supplement, Shadow of the Beanstalk
- Content writer for Legend of Five Rings rpg supplement, Emerald Empires
- Content writer for Legend of Five Rings rpg supplement, Path of Waves
- Content writer for Legend of Five Rings rpg supplement, Celestial Realms
- Content writer for Legend of Five Rings rpg supplement, Writ of the Wilds
- Content writer for up and coming Legend of Five Rings rpg supplement
- Content writer for up and coming Genesys rpg supplement
Copy editor for John Wick Presents' 7th Sea, Second Edition rpg
- Heroes & Villains
- Nations of Theah, Volume 1
- Nations of Theah, Volume 2
- Crescent Empire
- Lands of Gold and Fire
- Copy editor for up and coming rpg supplement (pub date TBD)
Writer for Cortex Prime
- Stretch Goal writer for Prime Spotlight Volume Three Cortex Kickstarter
Writer for Fate of the Remnants
- Content writer for the dark fantasy Fate RPG setting
- Monthly updates available on patreon
Writer for TableStar Games
- Content writer for the mobile tapper, Idle Outbreak
- Available on iTunes
Contract Writer for Wyrd Miniatures
- Primary writer, "Northern Aggression" adventure for Through the Breach rpg
- Writer for Through the Breach rpg supplement, A Night in Rottenburg
- Writer for untitled Through the Breach rpg supplement (pub date TBD)
Contract Writer for Watchtower Games' Fallen
- Wrote and designed some of the Story Cards
- Project fully funded on Kickstarter
Contract Writer for Rumpus' iPhone game Mo'Monsters
- Provided world-building and story background
- Provided sample NPCs and location descriptions
Contract Writer for Blue Shell Games' iPhone game "TinyTown"
- Provided NPC dialogue
- Provided quest descriptions
- Designed tutorial
Game Writer for EA Mobile/Centerscore Studios' mobile phone game titles
- Primary writer for Surviving High School '08
- Supplementary writer for Surviving High School '09
- Peer editor for Surviving Hollywood
- Supplementary writer and editor for Surviving High School for iPhone
Head Writer for Hazmat Games' mobile phone titles
- Level design and story design for Pegasus Lost
- Level design and story design for Pegasus Lost prequel
- Level design and story design for Zombie Noir, Chapter 1
- Level design and story design for Zombie Noir, Chapter 2
Miscellaneous work
- Rulebook editor for TableStar Games
- Wrote and designed "The Stink", a Dungeons & Dragons adventure in Dungeon magazine #105
- Wrote "The Spirit Speaker", a Dungeons & Dragons article in Dragon magazine #323
- Wrote "Dead Factions", a Dungeons & Dragons article in Dragon magazine #339
- Designed fan-playbook "The Radio" for the small press RPG Apocalypse World
Misc
- self-pub'd the Sig Planar Digest #0 a fanzine for Sig: City of Blades, a Forged in the Dark roleplaying game by Jason Pitre
- panelist at A Weekend with Good Friends, a virtual gaming con: Ways of Writing Good Scenarios
- also at A Weekend with Good Friends: Cosy Horror
- again at A Weekend with Good Friends: The Overlap between Horror and Urban Fantasy
- at Norwescon 2023 supporting Uncanny Magazine: Q&A with Uncanny Magazine
- also at Norwescon 2023: Interview with Grace P. Fong!
- panelist at Orycon in 2023, 2024, and 2025, talking about editing and working in the tabletop roleplaying game industry
