Upcoming Conferences & Events

March 7-8th: The Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia (Loretto, PA)
The Scribble House/After Happy Hour/Last-Picked Books crew will be back in Loretto for the 2025 WCoNA conference. I'll also be leading a workshop this year on writing about cryptids during session 5:

April 5th: Mission Creek Festival Small Press & Literary Magazine Book Fair (Iowa City, IA)
We're taking a road trip! Folks in Iowa will get a chance to peruse Last-Picked Books titles, issues of After Happy Hour, and Scribble House prompt books at the Saturday book fair at Spare Me! Bowling Alley.

May 31st: Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books (Pittsburgh, PA)
For this year's festival, we're upgrading to our own tent for our After Happy Hour & friends collective. This will also be the official launch of the 4th annual After Happy Hour print issue.

July 25th-27th: Confluence (Pittsburgh ,PA)
We're tabling again this year at the Pittsburgh region's longest-running literary conference. Fans of speculative writing across genres will definitely find a lot to love at Confluence, especially considering this year's guest of honor is Cat Rambo.

Bio & Contact

 

Jess Simms is the author of the flash fiction chapbook Cryptid Bits (Last Picked Books, 2024) and the managing editor of After Happy Hour Review. They earned their MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University in 2012 and later that year they joined the Rahnd Table workshop group, which they've been a member of since. In 2022, they co-founded Scribble House with fellow Rahnd Table member Liz Abeling, with the goal of connecting writers in western Pennsylvania with knowledge, resources, and support.

In 2023, their micro-chapbook Shapeshifter Diaries was published as part of Rinky Dink Press' 10th series. Their short fiction has also appeared in more than 20 other journals and anthologies (some of which you can read further down the page if you're curious). Among their favorite things to nerd out about are mythology and languages, and they've tried their hand at creating both to varying levels of success. Cooking and gardening are foremost among their more normal areas of interest. They are mildly addicted to traveling, taking advantage of their digital nomad powers to meander around the world whenever possible, and are particularly drawn to ancient sites and ruins. They are also a life-long SFF geek, weaned first on stories like Animorphs, Redwall, and Goosebumps, then finding early influences in the Dune Series, the Wheel of Time, Star Trek, Star Wars, and novels by Anne Rice and Stephen King. They live with four cats and two humans in an old house in Pittsburgh, where they work as a freelance writer and editor.

Recent clips:

         

Get in Touch





 

Stories & Sundries

My other projects

Nerd for Hire blog
Book reviews, advice about writing, editing, publishing, and freelancing, and general musings about storytelling. Updated weekly (mostly).

After Happy Hour Review
Journal of writing and art. Published twice a year online (summer & winter) and once a year in print (spring). Founded by the Hour After Happy Hour workshop and currently run by the Rahnd Table workshop.

Scribble House Guided Prompt Journals
A series of journals designed to help writers find and develop ideas for their stories, poems, essays, and other creative works. Available in both print and digital formats.

Friends & further reading

Short Fiction - Online

Moonshine

Orca Lit, Issue 18
Burnout friends on a road trip become tourists to the aftermath of a tragedy (literary, short story).

Downsizing

Mythaxis, Issue 40
C-suite of a tech startup learn exactly how far they'll go to protect their IP (near-future sci-fi, short story).

Game Misconduct

Rind Literary Magazine, Issue #9
Backup goaltender Jason Heater finally gets a starter role, then has to fight to keep it (literary, short story).

Last Saturday there was a werewolf at the farmer's market

HOOT Online, issue 82
Even a werewolf needs to eat his vegetables (contemporary fantasy, micro-fiction).

Lucky Devil

Wraparound South
Neurotic college student learns his future from a fortune teller who reads scratch-offs (literary, short story).

Project Eden

MockingOwl Roost, Vol. 4 Issue 4
Disabled veteran signs on to an experimental project to regrow the leg he lost in combat (sci-fi, short story).

Shards

Menda City Review, issue 29
A bong commission from an ex prompts a glass-blower to think about her future (literary, short story).

The Vampire at the Blood Drive

Monster Flash: Small Stories, Big Monsters
Vampires can give back, too (contemporary fantasy, micro-fiction).

Print journals and anthologies

Kismet

SLAB Literary Magazine, Issue 19
2nd-place winner of the 2024 Boggs Fiction contest
The lives of an American couple vacationing in Turkey and a Kurdish orphan in Istanbul intersect with disastrous consequences. (literary, short story)

More Than Blood

Bardic Tales and Sage Advice, Volume X
2nd-place winner of the Bards and Sages Charity Writing Contest
Rebellious heir to a powerful crime family makes a series of bad decisions and learns painful lessons about consequences (alien-world sci-fi, long short story).

Pipe Dreams

The Oakland Review, Volume XLIII
A case study in inertia (literary, flash fiction).

Shapeshifter Diaries

Rinky Dink Press, series 10
Six pieces embracing your inner animals (literary fantasy, micro-fiction).

Third Shift

Geek Out II: Queer Pop Lit, Art, & Ideas
Overnight convenience store clerk discovers the brownies who have been secretly working alongside her at night (contemporary fantasy, short story).