Meet Kangaroo,
a superpowered spy facing his toughest mission yet:
Vacation.

WAYPOINT KANGAROO by Curtis C. Chen
2017 Locus Awards Finalist
2017 Endeavour Award Finalist


Kangaroo's back!
And this time it's personal... maybe?

KANGAROO TOO by Curtis C. Chen
Publishers Weekly ★ review


Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers - Fire in the Pocket
includes KANGAROO tale "Fire in the Pocket"





512 Words or Fewer
short story: Restart


365 tomorrows


FREEFALL






Curtis C. Chen's Journal



Travels With our Cats



ProgrammableWeb



Wired How-To Wiki



 

Stories by Curtis C. Chen (陳致宇)

CURTIS C. CHEN - photo by Folly Blaine

Curtis on Mastodon Curtis' Facebook Page Curtis on Goodreads

PRESS KIT

Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen now writes fiction and runs puzzle games near Portland, Oregon. His debut novel Waypoint Kangaroo (a 2017 Locus Awards and Endeavour Award Finalist) is a science fiction thriller about a superpowered spy facing his toughest mission yet: vacation. The sequel, Kangaroo Too, lands our hero on the Moon to confront long-buried secrets.

Curtis is a Full Member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), "possibly the most powerful and militant of the writers' trade organizations" (DailyKos). He currently serves as a Board Member for Willamette Writers.

Want more insight into Curtis' writing process?
Become a Patron!


 
ECHO PARK starring Harry Shum Jr.

Malka Older's NINTH STEP MURDERS

Fran Wilde's MACHINA





Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey - Better Luck to Borrow
includes "Better Luck to Borrow"

Dispatches from Anarres - Laddie Come Home
includes "Laddie Come Home"

Oregon Reads Aloud - Have Spacesuit, Will Travel
includes "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel"

Mission: Tomorrow - Ten Days Up
includes "Ten Days Up"

SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror - Making Waves
includes "Making Waves"

Leading Edge issue 65 - Somebody's Daughter
includes "Somebody's Daughter"

BUY Blaze of Glory
includes "Don't Fence Me In"

BUY From the Porch Swing
includes "At Long Last, Love"

BUY 100 Stories for Haiti
includes "The Stories We Tell Ourselves"
Meet me at Cascade Writers
More author events...

Novels

WAYPOINT KANGAROO (Thomas Dunne Books, 2016)
    2017 Locus Awards Finalist, First Novel Category
    2017 Endeavour Award Finalist
    "an engaging character and a rich, believable world" - Kirkus Reviews
    "[a] rollicking splice of mystery and high-tech SF" - Publishers Weekly
    "a great, fun read for anyone who loves a mystery or a spy story" - Booklist
    MORE REVIEWS...

KANGAROO TOO (Thomas Dunne Books, 2017)
    "as smart and sassy as its title character" - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
    "Anyone who loves science fiction is sure to love this book." - The Oregonian
    "kept me turning pages well past my bedtime" - Tina Connolly, Nebula-nominated author of Ironskin
    MORE REVIEWS...

Short Fiction

In Print
"Better Luck to Borrow" (Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey, 2022)
    "a strange combo, but it really worked, and I definitely want to see more stories in this universe play in this kind of territory" - Amy Walker, TRANS-SCRIBE
"One of Our Angels is Missing" (Devil's Ways, 2020)
"Fire in the Pocket" (Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, 2019)
"Go, Space Racer!" (Playboy, 2018)
"Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" (Oregon Reads Aloud, 2016)
"Ghost Patrol" (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, 2016)
"Laddie Come Home" (2016 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide, 2015)
    reprinted in Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin (2021)
"Ten Days Up" (Mission: Tomorrow, 2015)
    "suspenseful" - Locus Online // "often satirical, sometimes hopeful" - Publishers Weekly
"Making Waves" (SNAFU, 2014)
    "a tale that's begging for [a] film version, preferably directed by Guillermo del Toro" - Horror Talk // more reviews...
"Somebody's Daughter" (Leading Edge Issue 65, 2014)
"Don't Fence Me In" (Song Stories: Blaze of Glory, 2013)
"At Long Last, Love" (From the Porch Swing, 2010)
"The Stories We Tell Ourselves" (100 Stories for Haiti, 2010) + audio podcast (The Overcast, 2020)

Online
"Because I Could Not Stop" (Uncharted Magazine, 2023)
Echo Park (co-creator/showrunner, Realm, 2022)
    Season 1, Episode 1: "Addictive Personality"
    Season 1, Episode 9: "Cognitive Closure"
"The Book of Unwritten Poems" (The Sunday Morning Transport, 2022)
    reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy, Vol. 2 (forthcoming)
"Habeas Codex" (Fireside Magazine, 2021)
"What I Found in My Neighbor's Garbage" (Curious Fictions, 2021)
"Midnight at the Comedy Club Under the Bridge" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"Million Dollar Mustard" (Curious Fictions, 2020) + Author's Notes
"Unwrapping the Moon" (Toasted Cake, 2020)
"Working Graves" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"The Long Hello" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"Kinky Bots" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"Dragger's End" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"When Second Is Actually First" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"It Takes Two" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"Cats Don't Care About Universal Basic Income" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
"Ghosts of Earth (2020)" (Curious Fictions, 2020)
Machina (series contributor, Realm, 2020)
    Season 1, Episode 4: "Pseudo, Make Me a Drink"
    Season 1, Episode 8: "The Promise You Made"
    Season 1, Episode 9: "The Bargain You Kept"
"Fresh Off the Bod" (Curious Fictions, 2019) + Author's Notes
"Defeated" (Curious Fictions, 2019)
Ninth Step Murders (series contributor, Realm, 2019)
    Season 1, Episode 3: "The Fallen Executive"
    Season 1, Episode 6: "The Stolen Xiaohai"
    Season 1, Episode 9: "The Assassin's Nest"
    Season 2, Episode 2: "The Absent Artifacts"
    Season 2, Episode 6: "The Memory of Love"
"Players" (Kaleidotrope, 2018)
"Like a Ghost I'm Gonna Haunt You" (Daily Science Fiction, 2016) + audio podcast (Toasted Cake, 2018)
"Bounty Call" (Perihelion Science Fiction, 2015)
"Godwin's Law" (The Future Fire, 2015)
"It's Machine Code" (Unlikely Story #11: The Journal of Unlikely Cryptography, 2015) + audio reprint (Serial Box, 2020)
    "a story that gets best right at the end" - Charlotte Ashley // more reviews...
"Zugzwang" (Daily Science Fiction, 2014)
    "not in the least bit groundbreaking, but still enjoyable" - Psocoptera // more reviews...
"Born to the Legion" (Sledgehammer Writing Contest, 2013)
"Restart" (Strangetastic, 2009)
"Love Lucy" (365 Tomorrows, 2007)
"Ghosts of Earth" (365 Tomorrows, 2006)
"Birthdays" (365 Tomorrows, 2006)
"Antique" (365 Tomorrows, 2006)
FREEFALL: an outer space adventure serial (1995)

512 Words or Fewer
A weekly anthology of flash fiction (2008-2013), now collected in THURSDAY'S CHILDREN
    "some of the tales would make great bedtime stories. Others will keep your kids up at night." - GeekDad

My Audio Narrations of Other Authors' Stories

"Field Reports from the Department of Monster Resettlement" by L Chan (PodCastle, 2020)
"A Time for Heroes" by Ed Lerner (StarShipSofa, 2019)
"Silkstrand, a Minute of" by Anton Stark (Cast of Wonders, 2018)
"To the Moon" by Ken Liu (cast member, PodCastle, 2018)
"The Heaven-Moving Way" by Chi Hui; translated by Andy Dudak (Apex Magazine, 2018)
"A Spirited Education" by Tony Pi (PodCastle, 2017)
"Or Be Forever Fallen" by A. Merc Rustad (PodCastle, 2017)

Non-Fiction

Blogs

Curtis C. Chen's Journal
Some Folks Call It a Blog
Travels With Our Cats (2008)
CKL+D drive across the USA with Jasper and Bayla.

On Writing

VIDEO
Query Letters and Other Author Nightmares (FVRL Words & Pictures Festival, 2021)
Professional Querying Practices (Flights of Foundry, 2021)
Query Letters That Work™ (Flights of Foundry, 2021)

AUDIO
ITF Read: A Princess of Mars (1912 novel) ft. Curtis C. Chen (Ink to Film podcast, 2020)
ITF Watch: John Carter (2012 film) ft. Curtis C. Chen (Ink to Film podcast, 2020)
"Curtis Chen: Using NaNoWriMo to Kickstart Your Novel" (Grammar Girl podcast interview, 2019)

"Vancouver author: April's spinoff of National Novel Writing Month is here" (The Columbian, 2020)
"The End Is Near, But The End Is Not The End" (Camp NaNoWriMo pep talk, 2019)
"Curtis Chen: Act Out" interview excerpt (Locus #691, August 2018)
"How to Write a Query Letter" (SFWA Bulletin #213, 2018)
Eating Authors: Curtis C. Chen (lawrencemschoen.com, 2017)
Reddit AMA (r/Writing, 2016)
The Kanga-Roundup (CKL's HotSheet, 2016)
Special Synopsis Sauce (SFWA Blog, 2016)
My Murdered Darling — "The Crazy Flirty Lady" (KatTales, 2016)
The Page as Performance (NaNoEdMo, 2016)
The Joy of Deadlines (ShadowSpinners, 2016)
I applied to Clarion West SIX TIMES (CKL's HotSheet, 2016)
original WAYPOINT KANGAROO query letter (Query Shark, 2013)
Me and Ken Levine (CKL's HotSheet, 2008)

Freelance

On ProgrammableWeb
Netflix Open Sources "Resilience Engineering" Code Library
Tracking Hurricane Sandy via Social Media Data
W3C Proposes Push API Specification
Why Amazon Needs a Kindle API--and Will Never Have One
NASA Wants You to Help Build More APIs
...and more!

On Wired How-To Wiki
Get Your PC Wires Under Control
Make a Podcast
Open Docx Files
Read a Barcode
Set Up a Firewall


Curtis is not an aardvark.
Last modified: Sunday, 07-May-2023 16:47:46 PDT