Jennifer Jeanne McArdle

@mcardlejeanne

Work in animal conservation Short fic author/editor with work in A&N Press, Interzone, Tenebrous, Agita, LSQ, Sentinel Creatives, Baubles from Bones, Hyphenpunk, Mythaxis, All Worlds Wayfarer, + more

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Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· 21d

my next "pit" is my pit bull mix telling folks they should publish my novel. she will get so many more treats.

photo of a black and white dog, pit bull blue heeler mix on a couch with a red cover

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· 21d

Image with Alt Text, sorry about that!

MILK DRUNK VENOM 76K Words Near Future Dystopian America
Even though they took the baby with them, I’m still making milk. I don’t know how else to use the stuff, so a few times a day, I use a hand pump and give my milk to Ginger, my only companion. All the chickens have given up living and the cows and goats, unlike me, stopped making milk, so they were sold long before my family left. Every morning I make a porridge with the grain still left in storage and boiled water and try to salvage what I can from the tiny vegetable garden. I wait for my body to decide it does not want to waste calories on milk anymore, but my breasts are still full and prickly, the blue veins prominent, and the glands on the underside heavy, smooth, and hard like river stones.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Jul 13

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER X STATION 11 Once cast aside, Diane takes control of her life & reunites with her baby, but her breastmilk is now poisonous, she maybe killed her spouses, and she has to dodge fascists and rebels who think she’s key to controlling a virulent plague. #BluePit #📖 #Q #A #D #SF

MILK DRUNK VENOM
76k words
Weird Dystopian Gothic Roadtrip
A grapnic showing a road, mountains, rattlesnake, cockroaches, soldiers and a mother with a poison sign in her chest holding a baby.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Jul 7

I think the first paragraph of a story is more important than the first line. This is mine of the novel I’m querying! What’s yours?

Even though they took the baby with them, I’m still making milk. I don’t know how else to use the stuff, so a few times a day, I use a hand pump and give my milk to Ginger, my only companion. All the chickens have given up living and the cows and goats, unlike me, stopped making milk, so they were sold long before my family left. Every morning I make a porridge with the grain still left in storage and boiled water and try to salvage what I can from the tiny vegetable garden. I wait for my body to decide it does not want to waste calories on milk anymore, but my breasts are still full and prickly, the blue veins prominent, and the glands on the underside heavy, smooth, and hard like river stones.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Jun 8

my Medieval weird story “Chanticleer” which is about a strange priest and the human fam who owned Chanticleer the Rooster in Chaucer’s version of the Chanticleer the Rooster and Reynard the fox fable will be in Golgonooza Issue 1

Golgonooza Collective is proud to announce the inaugural issue of Golgonooza Magazine Releasing July 31 2026

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Jun 4

I used to know how to take moody, over-exposed selfies worthy of a MYSTERIOUS speculative fiction author. [this picture is 14! years old...]

over-exposed selfie of a young woman, pale skin, gray eyes, brown hair looking sideways at the camera.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· May 13

aanpress.com/aanorder.htm... Moving Across the Landscape in search of an Idea from Air and Nothingness press

Cover of Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea which shows a photograph of many open books and pages

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· May 10

‪Jennifer Jeanne McArdle‬ ‪@mcardlejeanne.bsky.social‬ · 18s My story ”the money left in my account“ is now free to read at Slugger’s website, including bespoke artwork by Esme Gonzalez sluggerfiction.com/horror-ficti...

A grayscale drawing of two faces connected by a single eye in the reflection on an ATM screen

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· May 9

Sometimes I feel bad that the dog gets less attention bc of the baby and then I catch her sleeping so blissfully on all the pillows, free of responsibility, and don’t feel bad at all

Spotted dog curled, asleep on couch pillow. Window in background

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Apr 9

I have a Gilded Age Gothic story, "On the Life of the Cinderella Who Lost Her Princes and Other Musings" set in Thousand Islands region, New York in this cute anthology with SFF stories about food. Coming out on May 11, 2026. @purpletoga.bsky.social www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHMCMKVZ

Cover of Feast of Famine edited by Eric Klein: Right side shows the back of the book including the list of authors and bar code and the left side shows the front cover

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Mar 1

‪Interzone 304, coming soon! Lots of awesome new stories and review! Read my novelette “The Island Without Spice” about a young mother in the “Spice Islands” in the 1600s who meets a Dutch alchemist desperate to find a magic ingredient

Interzone 304 promo image including cover with rabbit and snake and list of contributors

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Feb 27

I have no idea where this shirt is for sale but someone posted it today and I feel very called out and marketed to, specifically

a beige shirt with a picture of two paws and a mallard duck that says "I LIKE DOGS AND DUCKS AND MAYBE 3 PEOPLE"

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Feb 21

I ordered formula and a sofa cover from Walmart and they sent me those things but also a second box, addressed to me with this cat toy 🤔 Is it a mistake? Subtle promotion!? Secret spy device or inter-dimensional hiccup from a universe where i do own a cat??!

Photo of a “catstages hunt n’ wobble fruit bowl” toy in its pink package

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Feb 14

Screen shot of Very large and ornate hutch for sale on facebook marketplace

Screenshot of ornate velvet chair for sale on facebook marketplace

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Jan 20

Met this lady today

Photo of the right side of a Gorilla who is sitting in hay with her back against a bamboo wall. She has her hands folded and she's staring at something. She is behind glass

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Jan 3

tfw when your favorite human (not jennifer, the one with the beard) forces you to go the groomer in the afternoon and in the evening he tickles the baby instead of petting you

White and black dog sitting on red and green knitted blanket glaring at the camera

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Dec 26

Guess we’ll be livin’ on the hot chocolate we got for xmas the next few days because I haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while

Weather forecast showing 100 percent chance of heavy snow for hours

Weather forecast showing snow from friday-monday

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Dec 18

Is it a late bday present or early Christmas present? contributor copy of @sluggerfiction.bsky.social

Copy of slugger issue 1 in front of xmas tree

Illustration by Esme of two faces sharing an eye in an ATM screen

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Dec 15

One last story promo graphic and then I'll stop torturing you all...I put this one off because I can't beat the actual art in the @sluggerfiction.bsky.social 's first issue. ko-fi.com/sluggerficti...

THE MONEY LEFT IN MY ACCOUNT

There’s 2631 euros left in this bank account, and I just want to remember what my damn pin is so I can get the rest of my money and go home.

The truth is it’s not something I can remember because I never knew what the pin was; my other head, my sister, used to take care of this kind of stuff. But she’s dead now, and her head and neck have been removed, and the bones of my sternum and my shoulder have been rearranged ...

SLUGGER ISSUE 1

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Dec 15

Now with one more story! Thanks for reading :)

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle
Award Eligible Fiction
Half-Orc Songs
Fantasy/9000w in Dirty Magick Magazine Issue 6

When to Choose the Snake God
Fantasy/5000w in Luna Station Quarterly Issue 61

Sea Junk Shaped like the English Alphabet
weird horror/4500w in Fraidy Cat Quarterly Issue 5

Of Bats and Apes
historical horror/5600w in In the Eyes of the Hungry

Most Humans Listen when a Duck
Talks to Them
contemporary fantasy, humor/5000w in Madam Don’t Forget Your Sword

How a Satyr becomes Real
weird fantasy/920w in This Exquisite Topology

Westward I Reach
historical weird/6000w in Baubles from Bones Issue 6

The Money Left in My Account
weird/1000w in Slugger Issue 1

I’ve Seen the Movie
dystopia/7500w in Penumbric December 2025

2025

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Dec 15

Read this story here: www.penumbric.com/currentissue...

I've Seen the Movie

Smoke wafted around Herrera. “Some of us have been losing our whole lives. Before the Enforcers were chipped and mind controlled, a bunch of them beat down my door while me and my family were watching TV. They took my parents and my sister, and I never saw them again. We were the wrong kind of people. I only survived because I hid in the cupboards. I’ve just been losing people since.”

Reynard exhaled. He had heard this story before. Herrera liked telling it to remind everyone that he had been stewing in his loss longer than most other people.

“We all better hope that Twitchy is trustworthy,” Herrera mumbled after he had smoked enough to calm his nerves. “We don’t know a thing about her. How did she know my name? How does she know this stuff?”

Penumbric - December 2025

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Dec 11

I'll be appearing on the web show Galactic Terrors tonight at 8pm along with two other writers to read a portion of my story "Westward I Reach" and answer some Q and A with the hosts and audience. A recording of the show will be up on YouTube afterward

Promo image for galactic terrors featuring photos of Oliver Baer, Jennifer McArdle, and Rafael Taveres. The date of the show is Thursday December 11 at 8pm EST. The link is https://tinyurl.com/y4gj654q

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 24

I know it sounds like something out of a victorian sentimental novel but across the street from an apt i inhabited some years ago was this singular bush of orange roses growing from the asphalt in a keybank parking lot and i still have a photo of them as my phone wallpaper

Screenshot of smart phone wallpaper with photo of bright bright orange roses

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 21

This is probably the best-written of what I've published this year. And it's free to read www.baublesfrombones.com/westward-i-r...

Westward I Reach
Baubles from Bones Issue 6
historical dark fantasy/6000 words

They smelled of rot, of diarrhea, of sicknesses too foul to name, and the fungus inside me thought maybe they were food, but we did not, and Mamma says we won’t ever eat human flesh because we may be different but we’re still good souls.
From our carriage, I watch lines of the poor in the distance, waiting, huddling with children unable to keep their eyes open, wailing for the government men to give them food, trying to prove they are both desperate and dignified enough to deserve charity. On the roads, men and women slap stones with rusted hammers, attempting to earn their relief, as their naked skin fries in the weak sunlight. The hungriest and most naked are wandering, like dying bees at the end of summer, buzzing in circles, their homes destroyed by their landlord and no one willing to care for walking corpses.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 20

This one is available here! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

HOW A SATYR BECOMES REAL

You cannot stop running through the fields, long grass collecting on your fur, scratching your naked skin, the pollen swirling around you, filling your sinuses, blurring your vision. You run through trees, hear the branches of the forest cackling, the magpies screaming insults, the juicy smells of ripe berries tempting you to stop and rest, but you keep running because these are all the things you need to leave behind if you’re going to make yourself anew, if you’re going to avoid shriveling up with them at the end of the season.

This Exquisite Topology
weird fantasy/920 words

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 20

my brain found a new hyperfocus...must keep making promotional graphics... Found here, Helen and Elizabeth at Dead Fish Books were lovely to work with...https://www.amazon.com/Madam-Dont-Forget-Your-Sword-ebook/dp/B0FF3QJX3D

Most Humans Listen
When a Duck
Talks to Them
Madam Don’t Forget Your Sword
humor/contemporary fantasy, 5000w

<He’s bitter he got tricked out of getting a cool animal. Never mind the fact that we ducks are all like little all-terrain vehicles, and we survive all over the world, can fly long distances, have huge networks. You want to know what’s going on in the world, you tap into the mallard news and gossip network. We see a lot of shit. But I don’t have sharp claws, so I’m useless. I’m not even a male duck, so I’m just ugly. His words, not mine. There’s some Caesar chicken salad in the main kitchen that Julia left. Tommy-boy won’t eat anything green.>
“If I eat chicken, it doesn’t bother you?”
<Hm.> Kachka scratched her head with her foot. <Haven’t had an interesting conversation with a chicken
in twenty-five years...

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 19

I think I'm getting better at these silly graphics! This anthology deserves more love: castaignepublishing.bigcartel.com/product/in-t...

Of Bats and Apes
In the Eyes of the Hungry
historical monster tale, 5600 words

For a moment, I watch the large
vein of Leandra’s neck, and I think of sneaking up on her, slashing her throat

McArdle/Of Bats and Apes/18
before she knows what I’m doing and drinking every last bit of her powerful
blood. How amazing would I feel, how beautiful would I be? I wouldn’t
have to worry about her anymore. I remember her pressing the cross into my
palm, how my hand stung, but I didn’t show any pain. I wanted to impress
her. I wanted to take care of her, to make the world as good as she deserves.
But for now, I have to trust her. I can’t lose this job, not after how far we
traveled, how hard the journey was to get out here, how many towns turned us away for our strange looks.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 19

This story spent a lot of time in rejection limbo, but it felt like it wanted to be written!: fraidycatpress.com/product/frai...

Sea Junk Shaped like the English Alphabet
I was thinking about toxic dust, how there’s whole worlds of creatures under the ocean, about what if that sea basket fell on me, the slimy brush of its tendrils suckering my body, when I arrived at the elementary school where I worked. The windows almost always kept open, no matter the season, were shut; the sliding panel doors closed off classrooms and hallways; and the pile of rubber slippers near the doorway was bigger than usual, meaning many teachers hadn’t come to work.

Fraidy Cat Quarterly Issue 5
Weird Horror/4500W

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 18

part 2 in Jen procrastinates doing something useful with Canva

When to Choose the Snake God Luna Station Quarterly Issue 61 fantasy/5000 words

"Why are you so sure you need to die? Why does your family need his blessing? The Tavan Empire is huge and there are many gods. The Yimi don't try to please every tree sprite."

The golden snake lifts its head. If you want my help, you need to ask for it.

Jennifer Jeanne McArdle@mcardlejeanne· Nov 18

Part 1 in Jen procrastinates writing or doing her actual job to make graphics in canva for her stories