Long Hidden is an anthology of “speculative fiction from the margins of history”, edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older and to be published by Crossed Genres. It’s already funded, but I’m really hoping it will reach its stretch goal to be able to include even more stories. In the words of the mission statement, this anthology is participating in a tradition of “literary resistance to erasure”. I love this statement, I love the list of authors already lined up, and I love that there are more spots open for submissions from those of us not yet big enough names to have been asked in advance. Most of all, though, I love seeing the enthusiasm around this project. 680 people, as of this writing, are so into this idea that they’re supporting it sight unseen. That tells me there’s a really enthusiastic market for SF that isn’t just about royalty or spaceship captains. I’ve always liked to learn history from fiction. Oh, I’m fully aware that fiction can’t always be relied upon for facts–we writers are prone to moving cities, marrying off people who lived decades apart, and other such conveniences in service of a more enjoyable story. But […]
Story Day!
Item the first: “Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot“ is live at Podcastle today, read by Tatiana Gomberg, who does a wonderful job as the voice of the young, jaded and vulnerable Deirdre. I am so delighted by this. Item the second: Congratulations to all of the Nebula nominees. Many of the works on this list I’ve read and loved, and I’m looking forward to catching up on the others. I see this as a very strong year all round and I’m full of joy at the strength, beauty and relevance of our genre, and awe at the, well, awesomeness of the people I know. Item the third: speaking of beautiful and relevant work, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back has a wonderful story at Strange Horizons right now which you should go and read. Item the third-B: the first comment on that story was a hilarious troll complaining about SH publishing too many lesbian stories. (If you are wondering: yes, all of my SH stories feature lesbian or bisexual protagonists. Viva la revolucion! Although SH has plenty of stories without lesbians, also.) (PS: The fun that was had on Twitter today… well, I found a whole bunch of […]
In which I plan to unleash the Pussy Hurricane
The title for this post came to me from a cherished friend who is one of very few people in my life from whom I’d accept large-scale guidance on the direction of my fiction. She’s earned this right by being the only person to have read absolutely everything I’ve written in the last four years. She’s read a few things in draft which you, the world, haven’t seen yet, since I haven’t sold them yet. She says my fiction really comes to life when I write women protagonists, and she asks me to do more of that (the above-mentioned hurricane). This advice comes at an interesting time for me. When I first started writing seriously, in university, I had a hard time writing believable female characters. Partly due to internalized misogyny: it’s only recently that women’s works have become more included in the cultural canon, and the literary education I received as a kid was pretty heavily weighted in favour of the dominance of men’s works and men’s stories, which in turn influenced how I write. More personally, I’m told I’m a pretty atypical woman in some ways. When I tried to write characters like myself, I’d get feedback that […]
2012 in Review
Some statistics from the writing trenches this year: Rejections nearly tripled vs previous years. Not an accident–submissions also nearly tripled. Acceptances dropped, with no new pro sales in this calendar year–only reprints. Of course I feel less than happy about that, but I see it as a result of a strategic change I made: I focused on my novels in the early part of the year, and didn’t finish any new stories until quite late in the year (and still haven’t finished the final drafts of a couple of them). I now have a nice crop of things that are ready, or almost ready, to submit in the new year. I got to see my work reprinted in not one but two print anthologies, which was pretty exciting–I now have two lovely paperbacks on my desk, between bookends which are optimistically huge and heavy, built to bracket a whole lot more books. I remain less prolific than I would like, and too easily derailed by life events. My goals for 2013 include constructing a writing plan that will hold steady not only in the weeks where everything is golden, but in the weeks where I have a three-day migraine, a […]
World Fantasy: The Afterglow
I started this con with several rejection letters, a headache and a cold sense of failure–and I ended it in a state of exaltation and elation. Once again, spending time with about a thousand brilliant and fascinating people, talking about the thing that matters most to all of us, has had the desired effect–and so this post is a long, and highly incomplete, thank you note. Thank you to the friends I saw as soon as I walked in the door–Jennifer Brinn, Scott Andrews and Mike DeLuca–who swept me up and into a bar conversation that continued for the whole weekend, and ended spectactularly with Jennifer handing me the solution to my problem novel. Thank you to Elwin Cotman, who agreed with me about the superiority of metaphor in fantasy and also ran a fucking fantastic panel. Thank you to Gemma Files, who was awesome in Elwin’s panel and later showed me the most beautiful fan art–someone had given her careful and lovely ink drawings of all of the major characters in her Hexslinger series. Thank you to Stephen Geigen-Miller, who put up with my caffeinated ramblings for ages, and said wise and hilarious and kind things in return. Thank […]
My People
The reading last night went off without a hitch. I got to go first, thank God Sandra actually, so there was no time to sit around getting breathless. I remembered not to rush, I think. And I had my personal cheering section in the back row to tell me that the volume was good (the venue is a bit difficult that way, as often happens with readings–industrial fans for background noise plus a mike that wasn’t very loud). I was fully prepared to pretend the audience was made up of cats, but I didn’t have to–instead it was made up of members of all my various tribes. Friends, colleagues, fellow writers, readers and editors. I forget, sometimes, that all of these people want me to succeed–and I’m so grateful to have days like this one to help me remember. Now: off to Readercon! […]
Public Appearances!
I’ll be reading next week with the winners and other finalists of the Friends of the Merril contest! It’s at Augusta House, 8pm, July 11, as part of the Chiaroscuro Reading Series. Full details are here. My first hometown reading! I may have to get drunk employ responsible coping strategies to deal with my nerves. I shall pretend the audience is made up of cats. Someone told me that at Readercon before my first reading there, and I wish I could remember who it was, because it was grand advice. Speaking of Readercon: I shall be there too! I am participating in the Ideomancer reading of Kenneth Schneyer’s hypertext story “Neural Net”. From the program: “Group Reading: Ideomancer Speculative Fiction. Mike Allen, Leah Bobet, C.S.E. Cooney, Amanda Downum, George Galuschak, Claire Humphrey, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Kenneth Schneyer, Sonya Taaffe. Authors and poets read work from Ideomancer Speculative Fiction, one of the longest-running speculative fiction webzines still publishing.” 3pm on Saturday June 14th, folks–see you there. That’s my only programmed appearance at Readercon, as I am not important enough to be a panelist yet–I will spend the rest of my time there attending other people’s panels and readings, meeting people from Outer […]
Good editors. Also, preserved lemons.
Cool news from Strange Horizons this week: Julia Rios has joined the already-fantastic editorial team. I already loved reading, and selling to, Strange Horizons, and I think they’re set to continue their excellent track record. It’s also fascinating to realize how much more a part of the SF community I have become. In 2009 when I made my first sale to Strange Horizons, I didn’t know anyone there–I just knew they were consistently publishing stories I loved, and even more importantly, stories that made me feel welcome. (I don’t mind telling you, oh entire world, that when I made that sale I was so happy I actually wept.) Now, I’ve worked with all three of editors in different ways and I hope to do so again (as soon as I finish the next damned story, damn it). I became acquainted with Julia through the network of Viable Paradise alumni who gather at cons. Julia did an amazing podcast of my story “Who in Mortal Chains”. The other new editor, Brit Mandelo, is also the editor of Beyond Binary, and so of course I have a very high opinion of her editorial sense. Senior editor Jed Hartman was the one who […]
In which we have a WitchShark
I’m on the tasting panel at Bellwoods Brewery. (It’s a volunteer position–I love to give back to my community!) We had our first tasting Sunday, and yesterday was the soft opening. Bevin and I stopped by after work for a couple of delicious pints and a salad made of rye kernels and hen of the woods mushrooms with a dressing of stinging nettles (YUM). When I applied for the position, I promised (tongue firmly in cheek) that I’d give them product placement in my internationally acclaimed fiction. I now have the perfect centerpiece for the story I’m going to write for them. My favourite of their beers, so far, is called WitchShark. It’s a high gravity double IPA with all the floral bittersweetness you’d expect. The WitchShark is apparently some kind of totemic creature of the brewery–here you can see it making an appearance during renovations: […]
In which we have shameless self-googling
In today’s news, the internet has awesome things: Beyond Binary received a starred review at Publishers Weekly “Nightfall in the Scent Garden” received thoughtful reviews from Tangent and Locus “Bleaker Collegiate” was also reviewed at Tangent a while ago I really like it when people talk about my work. I also like talking about other people’s work: “My Dignity in Scars” by Cory Skerry: I read the demons in this fascinating story as a metaphor for cancer, maybe, an illness that takes people on a long journey away from the familiar. An illness that can become inseparable from a person’s identity, and even a source of strength. “Chorus of the Dead” by S.E. Gale: sorrowful and sweet, exploring the collision between a quotidian life and the enormous strangeness of death And finally, congratulations to the winners of the Friends of the Merril Contest! […]