Fire Writing with Rachel Unger
BTL: First, thank you for sharing your work with Blood Tree Literature not only in Issue 05: Threads, but in our special Issue 15 legacy print. In researching ideal homes for your writing, how do you go about selecting publications to submit to?
Rachel Unger: I’m delighted to have had stories in both issues! My approach to submitting work has changed over the years. I used to use aggregator sites to find out about new-to-me markets, as well as mine author bios if I read a story that had a similar feel to one of mine. These days I’m part of several writer Discords, and we share calls for submission.
We also share if a publisher has been good or bad to work with—and I’ve checked SFWA’s Writer Beware at times. If a market doesn’t throw a red flag, I read the guidelines. (You never know when someone will say “Send me your orphan poems or stories marked Unshareable” and you immediately think of a particular piece!) As long as they indicate they will respond to all submissions, I’ll read freely available work to see the themes and tones that have resonated with an editor before. Some editors publish specific wish lists for issues, which is a great shortcut (Apparition Literary Magazine did this, and I pulled a number of story ideas from those posts!) All of that can suggest whether a press could be a good home for a piece of fiction.
Having said this, I know there are a lot of unknown factors every time I submit a story—I can’t see the other pieces under consideration and how they fit together, and I won’t know if mine is one of six stories about the sea in the same submissions pile.
Your piece in BTL Issue 15, “Fire Season,” follows flame as it swallows the world. Though a work of fiction, were there real-world circumstances that inspired this story?
At some point in 2016 or 2017 I looked out the back window of my work’s lunchroom, and hillcrests in the distance were in flames. Visibly. This was deeply unnerving, in no small part because it was never mentioned by my employer. We just got to eat staring at an active forest fire. That year a lot of smoke blew in from fires north of us—everything smelled like campfire, cars developed a fine film of ash, and geographical features just vanished. For months. I drove to work under a coal-red sun climbing into the sky. Did I mention it was deeply unnerving? I started trying to write about it then, but the focus of the story didn’t really come together until years later. I was spending more time online (checking the Cal Fire incident map daily!) and becoming aware that people were consuming news from social media more often than news media. Discourse felt more fraught. The story kept coming back to me at what felt like odd times, until I realized where my brain was trying to take it.
11am, September 2020
during the SCU Lightning Complex fire in
the San Francisco Bay area of California, USA, which burned nearly 400,000 acres.
Photo by Rachel Unger
You describe yourself as a speculative fiction writer with genre preoccupations in horror and fantasy. How did your creative attention arrive to these styles in your journey as a writer?
A lot of the credit goes to my godmother, who let me raid her closet of horror and romance novels at an age where I definitely didn’t understand the emotional nuances of what I was reading. At the same time, my father’s bookshelf was chock full of science fiction and fantasy, and every year in public school we had assigned reading (novels, poetry, Shakespeare in high school). I’d trade required reading lists with a friend in another school district, and at least one school librarian would hand me novels to try. I think being a voracious reader from an early age exposed me to different ways of telling a story, and that helped shape me as a young writer. Critique groups and online writing classes have continued to shape my interests and sharpen my skills. There’s nothing like seeing what other writers are attempting to inspire and challenge you in your own work.
How does the practice of writing fit into your life? For example, is it your main occupation, or do you have to carve out time/energy for it?
I’m a microbiologist by day, so writing has to curl around work and the rest of my life. I’ve carried a notebook since high school for drafts and ideas. I sort out plot problems on bike rides a lot of the time—so I have email drafts dictated with one foot on the curb, lines of prose and character notes and none of it with any punctuation beyond line breaks. (I do not guarantee that the scribbled notes have more coherence. That’s what editing is for, friends.) The most structured time I ever get is when I take a writing course because it sets specific deadlines and page/word count requirements. I have the best intentions every January that this is the year I’ll develop a consistent writing practice—I’ll let you know if that ever happens. Maybe in retirement.
And how would you say it enriches your being, creatively and personally?
Writing gives me a different way of looking at the world, because I’m often trying to explain the why behind what I’m seeing. Sometimes it’s a creepy why (the answer is cosmic horror!), but it’s frequently an empathetic one. That driver is racing to see someone in the hospital for the last time, or is going to rescue a friend. Metaphors can be a way to understand the world and each other, and a reminder that we all contain multitudes. Seeing the world through story can remind us to be kind.
Do you have any forthcoming publications, projects, events, or other writerly news to share?
I’ll be attending WorldCon in Seattle this August and will be doing a reading at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading event. I also have a horror short story forthcoming in the fourth season of The Night’s End podcast, and a “reprint” of a cosmic horror epistolary short story in season two of the After The Gloaming podcast.
Read more of Rachel’s work in Blood Tree Literature Issue 05: Threads and Issue 15 Legacy Print
Rachel’s
Recommendations
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What are some literary magazines you’re most excited by right now?
A lot of small presses are doing amazing work—Undertow Publications, Animal Heart Press, The Racket in SF. I think PodCastle and Uncanny Magazine regularly push the boat out on publishing vibrant, interesting stories and poetry.
What books would you suggest to the Blood Tree readership?
Two poetry collections: Laura Theis’ A Spotter’s Guide to Invisible Things (Live Canon Poetry Ltd., 2022) for the wondrous way she sees the built and natural worlds, and Lauren Parker’s Dark Way Down (Animal Heart Press, 2025) for the clear way she sees the human heart and how it can drive us.
Are there any resources you’d like to share for causes close to your heart?
This past June, I rode in the last AIDS/LifeCycle to support San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF). SFAF provides sexual health and substance abuse support, engages in advocacy, and partners with the community to help people. They offer programs like free Hepatitis C testing, treatment, and support—clients can take medication, get tested, get counseling, get vaccines (Hep A, Hep B, and flu) or wound care, and also be connected to a community of peers for support. SFAF offers an 8-12 week program of medication that can cure Hep C.
And I'm going to put that in context: to access this program and this medication, you do not need proof of insurance or other documentation. SFAF helps patients enroll in health insurance and obtain benefits, and helps with obtaining identification and referrals for healthcare providers and clinics for primary care.
They provide overdose prevention training—what an overdose looks like, how to avoid it, safer drug practices, and how to respond to an overdose. They're open to people who use drugs, friends and family of drug users, and medical service providers. SFAF has supplies to test for the presence of fentanyl. At Narcan trainings, they also hold space for people to talk about their experiences with overdose. They provide referrals to address other needs that may include drug treatment, mental health care and medical care. They also offer medication-assisted opiate replacement therapy.
All of those services are free.
This interview has been edited for style.
Rachel Unger thinks that now is an excellent time for us all to be kind to each other. Yes, really. She spends her days excavating stories from the dirt, staring down a microscope, and daydreaming about her next bike ride. Her fiction is published or forthcoming in On Spec, Blood Tree Literature: issue 05, and the Night's End podcast. You can find links to her work at www.rachelunger.com and her occasional thoughts about writing at @rachelunger.bsky.social.