My WisCon 35 Schedule

By:  TempestConventions
My WisCon 35 Schedule

How To Describe Nonwhite Characters Sans Fail
Sat, 4:00–5:15 pm | Wisconsin

M: Mary Doria Russell, K. Tempest Bradford, Moondancer Drake, Amal El-Mohtar, Rachel Virginia Swirsky

How do we get beyond “Her skin was the color of a delicious Coca-Cola?” What metaphors, similes, techniques, and descriptors are less problematic when describing nonwhite characters’ physical bodies? We’re starting from this post by Jed.

How to Respond Appropriately to Concerns About Cultural Appropriation
Sun, 1:00–2:15 pm | Wisconsin

M: Victor Raymond, K. Tempest Bradford, Mary Doria Russell, Geoff Ryman, Rachel Virginia Swirsky

At WisCon 33, the Carl Brandon Society taught a course which reviewed the basic concepts around race, colonial history, and cultural appropriation, along with a discussion of ways to build a vocabulary to discuss these topics. Let’s use that background to discuss what would be appropriate, considered, thoughtful responses by authors to concerns that their work contains cultural appropriation.

SIBLING OF REVENGE OF NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL1
Sun, 2:30–3:45 pm | Wisconsin

M: K. Tempest Bradford, Amal El-Mohtar, Michelle Kendall, Victor Raymond, LaShawn M. Wanak2

Back for a third go-round, by popular demand! Writers of color working in F/SF face unique challenges, it’s true. But, at the end of the day, being a “person of color” is only one aspect of what makes up our identities as writers. While it’s very flattering to asked to be on panels, most of these panels never crack the ceiling of Race 101. With that in mind, wouldn’t it be nice for multiple writers of color to sit on a panel that isn’t about race at all? Here’s our chance to do just that. So, what are we gonna talk about, instead? Practically anything! Presented in game show format, SIBLING OF REVENGE OF NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL brings together writers of color to get their geek on about any number of pop culture topics—none of them race related.

Reading: For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Shapeshifting, Teleporting, & Conjuring….3
Sun, 4:00–5:15 pm | Conference 2

K. Tempest Bradford, Neesha Meminger, Nnedi Okorafor, LaShawn M. Wanak, Ibi Aanu Zoboi

Is Science Fiction the New Reality?4
Mon, 10:00–11:15 am | Caucus

M: K. Tempest Bradford, Richard Chwedyk, James Frenkel, Naomi Kritzer, Shira Lipkin

Star Trek offers a vision of the future that includes personal, networked communicators, talking, intelligent computers, and the tricorder, a portable, hand-held networked computing device. Today we have cellphones, IBM’s Watson,and the iPad. Are we already living in the science-fiction future? What does this mean for writers of speculative fiction?

I’m also going to do my best to coordinate the POC dinner for Friday.

Footnotes

  1. YOU GUYS. I am super excited about this panel. I’m collecting ideas on topics from my wonderful co-panelists right now, but excited suggestions are indeed welcome. Also welcome: ideas on how to do the game show aspect of things this year. I’m considering water guns… [⇧]
  2. Did I mention how much I heart my panelists? [⇧]
  3. I are intimidated. [⇧]
  4. So, check out the list of panelists there. Yeah. And I get to moderate. Bring popcorn. [⇧]

Best Birthday Present EVAR: Happily Ever After TOC

By:  TempestNews

Many moons ago the awesome John Klima emailed and asked if I had any fairy tale retellings since he was putting together an anthology of such things. I sent him Black Feather (my Interfictions story), he accepted, I made a happy face. Life is good. Yesterday, for the first time, I saw who else is also in this anthology from a post on SFSignal. People, I had No Idea. I sporfled so hard on the subway train New Yorkers gave me the side eye.

Just look here and sporfle with me, won’t you?

  1. “The Seven Stage a Comeback” by Gregory Maguire
  2. “And In Their Glad Rags” by Genevieve Valentine
  3. “The Sawing Boys” by Howard Waldrop
  4. “Bear It Away” by Michael Cadnum
  5. “Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower” by Susanna Clarke
  6. “The Black Fairy’s Curse” by Karen Joy Fowler
  7. “My Life As A Bird” by Charles de Lint
  8. “The Night Market” by Holly Black
  9. “The Rose in Twelve Petals” by Theodora Goss
  10. “The Red Path” by Jim C. Hines
  11. “Blood and Water” by Alethea Kontis
  12. “Hansel’s Eyes” by Garth Nix
  13. “He Died That Day, In Thirty Years” by Wil McCarthy
  14. “Snow In Summer” by Jane Yolen
  15. “The Rose Garden” by Michelle West
  16. “The Little Magic Shop” by Bruce Sterling
  17. “Black Feather” by K. Tempest Bradford
  18. “Fifi’s Tail” by Alan Rodgers
  19. “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link
  20. “Ashputtle” by Peter Straub
  21. “The Emperor’s New (And Improved) Clothes” by Leslie What
  22. “Pinocchio’s Diary” by Robert J. Howe
  23. “Little Red” by Wendy Wheeler
  24. “The Troll Bridge” by Neil Gaiman
  25. “The Price” by Patricia Briggs
  26. “Ailoura” by Paul Di Filippo
  27. “The Farmer’s Cat” by Jeff VanderMeer
  28. “The Root of The Matter” by Gregory Frost
  29. “Like a Red, Red Rose” by Susan Wade
  30. “Chasing America” by Josh Rountree
  31. “Stalking Beans” by Nancy Kress
  32. “Big Hair” by Esther Friesner
  33. “The Return of the Dark Children” by Robert Coover

Susanna Clarke, Kelly Link, Jeff Vandermeer, Genevieve Valentine, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, the list of awesome just keeps getting longer and longer! Nancy Kress was my first Clarion West instructor and now I am in an anthology with her. What.

But the most exciting bit is this. No anthology of this kind would be complete without Theodora Goss, that goes without saying. But the story in here, “The Rose in Twelve Petals,” is one of my favorite stories of All Time1. One of the first that ever moved me to track down an author’s website and email her2. That one of my stories gets to be in the same book as that is a most excellent way to begin my next year of life.

The book is out in June, and you can pre-order it from Nightshade or Amazon or Barnes & Noble or likely your local bookshop.

P.S. I would also like to point out that, once again, I’m in a book with a gorgeous cover.

Footnotes

  1. I just came across this blog post where Dora talks about how the story came to be. She mentions that it was her first story ever published — a surprise to myself — and that it’s been 10 years now. That… makes me feel old. [⇧]
  2. the other was “The Run of the Fiery Horse,” which I talked about in the PodCastle introduction. [⇧]

Wiscon 35: Safer Space for POC – Ideas, Discussion

By:  TempestConventions
Wiscon 35: Safer Space for POC - Ideas, Discussion

As part of my duties for the WisCon 35 programming committee, I’ve been put in charge (officially) of the Safer Space for POC at the con. Essentially they’d like me to address any issues the community has with said space and make it as useful and comfortable as it can be. Thus, I’m opening up the discussion here to make sure I address issues I’m not aware of. Hopefully, even though this is online, we’ll get a mostly representative mix of ideas and concerns.

First thing: the Safer Space is still in the Solitaire Room this year, just like last year. I remember hearing people complain that this ended up being a detriment as it is so out of the way. However, it’s too late at this point to move it this year. Next year, perhaps. The reason it ended up in the Solitaire Room (from what I understand) was to cut down on gawkers.

One solution to this issue is to plan events and meetups in the space to encourage people to come. And I wouldn’t mind having a lunch together again. The concom also said they’d look into having a coffee/tea service in the room.

So, my question to the WisCon-attending POC out there is: how can we make this room more useful to you beyond the basic function? Are there things you want to happen that didn’t last year? Events you want to see continue? Suggestions, comments, issues, cookies in the comments below! However, if there’s anything you’d like to bring up with me privately, please use the contact form on my website if you don’t know my email or message me on Facebook. I can keep your concerns private/anonymous if need be.

Oh Hey, My Stories Finally Made It To The Big Booksellers

By:  TempestWriting
Oh Hey, My Stories Finally Made It To The Big Booksellers

As promised, I’m keeping everyone abreast of my dealings with SmashWords so as to give my impression of the process. Back in December I published a short story (actually, a novelette) through their site which was immediately available via SmashWords but took some time to make it through distribution channels. SW will send your eBook to Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, iBooks and Diesel on their behalf as the publisher. It sometimes takes a while. Now my book is in all of those stores except for Amazon, as there’s some kind of renegotiation going on with them overall.

Anyway, I did a search and found the book in each place except iBooks (can’t get there from the web) and linked them above. So now phase 2 is over.

Thus far, 50 people have downloaded the except of the story (free) and only 3 have bought it. However, I haven’t done any promotion beyond this blog yet, mainly because I was waiting for the distribution thing to happen. However, I’ve learned a few things already:

  1. I suck at writing jacket copy.
  2. My cover is all right, but it’s not stunning, and thus probably not driving many sales.

These things I knew before, but seem particularly important now that I’m considering publishing more stories in this manner.I’m trying to take more time to work on these aspects in the next iteration so that when people do land on the page, they’re enticed to click. I recognize the limits in this area as I am not an artist or book designer or copy writer, cannot afford a decent artist or book designer or copy writer, and would have to consider very carefully employing their services if I did. After all, I’m not going to make much money off of these stories no matter what.

The next step is being a little more aggressive in the promotional area. But not overly so. I’m dipping toes in the water here to work out what’s best for this kind of fiction. I may even wait until I have all the stories I plan to release this way (for now) in the SmashWords catalog at least.

Any thoughts, Internets?

Keeping First Drafts

By:  TempestWriting

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, last week I was on a writing retreat with some awesome folks. I am finishing up my YA novel (finally, I know) and plowing through the revisions and edits I’ve settled on now that the new material is out of the way. At one point I realized that I needed a snippet of description from an earlier draft of the novel and didn’t have it in my current files. I think I may have overwritten it accidentally. Fie. So I went over to my first draft journal to see if it still lived there.

Having a first draft journal is awesome, can I just say. Not only is it good as an extra backup, but it’s interesting (at least for me) to see how my stories and novels change over time from the first stuff that comes out of my head to the version I eventually send out to editors. Looking back at the journal I see the insane struggle it was for me to write the beginning of this novel. I must have a dozen false starts. Makes me feel all the better for finally getting it out in a form I’m happy with.

I did eventually find my snipped of description and added to the new version which is now very nearly complete.

It’s nice to live in the future…

Tempest in da Bay Area

By:  TempestGeekitude

All right, folks. I will be in San Francisco this afternoon and hanging out in Mountain View until Friday. There are some plans afoot for Friday and Wednesday. Possibly something for tonight. But right now I’m honestly not sure how I’m getting from the airport to my hotel.

At any rate, ping me on Facebook or Twitter (@tinytempest) if you want to meet up for dinner or something!

In San Francisco Next Week

By:  TempestGeekitude

Very quick:

I’m going to be in San Francisco next week for a Google announcement. Work is flying me out there and paying for my hotel on Tuesday night. However, because of the cost, I’m flying back on Friday afternoon.

So I’m looking for a place to stay Wednesday and Thursday night. I have to work remotely on Thursday and on Wednesday I’ll need to get from Mountain View to wherever I’m staying, but that can happen in the evening (I’ll be at Google headquarters for most of the afternoon then in the hotel lobby trying to write everything after that). And I guess I’ll need some help figuring out how to get to the airport on Friday. I’m not afraid to take public transit, I just need explicit directions.

If anyone has room for me and it’s not too much of a burden, let me know. I’ll be entertaining in the evenings, I swear!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It- OW!

By:  TempestGeekitude

Yesterday all of the news sources I knew of predicted that we’d get just 5 – 9 inches of snow overnight. Then  again, those same sources also said it wouldn’t start snowing until the afternoon. Judging by the inch of accumulation before I left the house at 9am, someone was clearly wrong.

I woke up this morning at 5 in order to go to the gym. I turned on WNYC and, lo, the news dude was all: “There’s 15 inches of snow in Central Park.” I looked out of my window at the courtyard of my building and, lo, it seems we got at least that much of here, too. Fabulous.

Thus, the gym was out, because none of the sidewalks had even begun to be shoveled and even walking down the middle of the somewhat plowed street was precarious. How do I know these things? I went out just to assess how bad things were and this is what greeted me at the front door:

Inwood, NYC, 1/27 Snowstorm

Here’s the scene from the bottom of the stairs:

Inwood, NYC, 1/27 Snowstorm

I attempted to make my way down those stairs. But, due to the near foot of snow and the impacted bits from others who were forced to leave their homes, every stair was a death trap. I fell down around the third step. Thankfully, a foot plus of snow is very soft. However, I wrenched my back attempting to not fall. Good times!

Since I was already down, I took a bunch of pictures of my street and the cross street. Note the “plowed” street, which is still unpassable unless you have 4 wheel drive. And the poor people who live up that hill…

Good thing I can work from home.

End of Year Donating

By:  TempestGeekitude

A few years ago I read a post by Jed Hartman wherein he listed all of the various organizations and charities he donates money to, usually at the end of the year. I’ve rarely been in a financial position to be a generous donor — one of the reasons I volunteer my time, instead — but this year I have a small bit of extra money and some worthy entities I want to support. And since I can never keep my mouth shut about the things I’m passionate about, I shall also take this opportunity to encourage you to join me in supporting them. It’s only a slightly evil plan, I know. Next time I will do better.

First up: It’s just been a few weeks since the Carl Brandon eReader Drawing fundraiser ended, so you might be a bit burned on this one. However, the Society is in the midst of another fund drive, this time to benefit their general fund. SF3 — the parent org of WisCon — recently awarded CBS a $2000 challenge grant. That means they will match any donations made in December and January up to $2K. The Drawing didn’t count toward this since all the money we raised in November is earmarked for the Butler Scholarship. Any general fundraising will support other activities of the Society, including the Parallax and Kindred awards. You can make a donation via PayPal here. However, if you send a check to the address on that page, CBS gets to keep more of your donation.

Next: If you’ve used Wikipedia any time in the last few months you probably noticed the banner at the top asking for donations. They are apparently within 1.1 million of reaching their goal, and I intend to donate. I know a lot of people scoff at Wikipedia, but I find it to be an incredibly useful resource for some information. I am on the site at least once a day, usually more. And having written an article about Wikipedia lately, I have an even greater appreciation of how important it’s become and how much work the Wikimedia Foundation puts into the site. Click here to donate.

Finally: As much as NPR sometimes makes me roll my eyes, I have to admit that public radio is a constant part of my life. I wake up to it every morning, I’m always downloading podcasts, and I’ve even been a guest. So I’m going to send a bit of change to WNYC and WBAI (which is Pacifica, not NPR). And, who knows, someday you might hear me on the radio begging you to send us money so we can continue operating. I promise, I will not be as annoying or horrifying as Ira Glass.