I had a really great week these past seven days. I’ll blog the other parts of the perfect week once I have pictures uploaded, but I want to share this last happiness right away.
I sold one of my favorite stories, Enmity, to Electric Velocipede! Got the email late last night and did a happy dance that probably disturbed my neighbors. Now I have even more reason to wear my fabulous EV t-shirt.
More news as the publication date approaches — currently it’s TBD.
Next week author (and my good friend) Catherynne Valente will be in town for the last stop on the Three Wishes Tour to promote her new book The Orphan’s Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice. Tuesday, December 4th, the NYRSF reading will morph into an exhibition of art, jewelry, and music in celebration of the Orphan’s Tales. If you’re free that night, you should definitely come.
I have a piece in the show called Sigrid’s Prayer of which I am very proud. Come see it in person (and read the little story that goes along with it). Also, read the new book (and the first one, if you haven’t already).
The producers of NPR’s News & Notes invited me to take part of their Black Blogger’s Roundtable today (mainly for my work on The Angry Black Woman). I’m very, very excited because I love News & Notes — it’s a great show and my favorite thing to listen to on the weekdays.
Check your local NPR schedule for the broadcast time. Or, if your local station doesn’t carry it, you can listen online this afternoon.
I’m really nervous! Send good luck vibes.
ETA: the streaming audio is now online. I discussed black military enrollment, blackface as tacky Halloween costume, Oprah’s new YouTube channel, and money issues surrounding Jena 6 donations with Farai Chideya, Monroe Anderson, and Anthony Bradley.
The segment went really well and I enjoyed myself. I even got to go to WNYC’s offices and join the discussion from a studio. I felt quite fancy!
I am a little late with this, sorry. Also, I don’t do much in the way of detailed con reports. Not only because I’m lazy, but I’m convinced people don’t really experience the con vicariously through them. Overall, the con was really great for me. Got to see many people I haven’t seen in a long time, met some fabulous folks, was able to get things done, and I came away feeling like I have some of the most wonderful friends in the universe.
The one thing I did not do was go to any panels. I only attended two readings, and I only did that because I wanted to support those friends and didn’t happen to have something already scheduled or those times. I’m not a particular fan of readings. I think this is because I can rarely sink into fiction being read to me the way I can if I’m reading it myself. Also, not everyone is a terrific reader. Further, one of the points of going to readings for some is to meet the author in question. More often then not I find other ways to meet authors I really like.
Still, the readings I attended were good. Not like some others I heard about… goodness.
I spent a little time in the dealer’s room behind the Prime Books table, but only a little. During the day I tried to get things done, like writing or freelance work, and in the evenings I partied! There were several memorable dinners with the Prime Books crew and assorted special guests. I also got to eat with fabulous award winning and nominated Catherynne Valente and her entourage of sexy, sexy men. There was lunch with Scott from LaunchPad, whom I did not see enough of, and much running around with Alaya Dawn Johnson, Carol Burrell, Nina (Nivair H. Gabriel), and Evonne Tsang.
I met David Anthony Durham in the flesh for the first time. He’s an incredibly nice guy and I made sure to gush about his book to everyone. Mike Kabongo and I had to break the sad, sad news to him that there were, indeed, only about 8 black people at the con. I think he eventually met all of them.
I met a lot of other people for the first time, but at the risk of leaving someone out, I won’t go into a long list of names. Let’s just say that there were plenty of cool people running around and I got the chance to touch them, which is all I really want.
There were almost 1200 people there this year, which meant I kept missing people or sometimes saw them exactly once before they had to go. I’m particularly sad I didn’t get to spend more time with Karin Lowachee, whom I haven’t seen in years and years, and Steve Perry, same years and years deal. There were many OWW people there whom I haven’t seen in a while. Charlie Finley snubbed me! Is that any way to treat a cousin? Humph.
All the people I saw most I saw at parties. And there were some great ones.
The Paper Cities/Secret History of Moscow party was really, really great. I know we stayed up far too late at that one talking about all kinds of crazy stuff. If you do not have a copy of Ekaterina Sedia’s book, go to your local indie bookstore and buy it right this instant. It is seriously fabulous. She is a great person to hang around with and I couldn’t be happier for all her success so far. I’m also most pleased that Matt Kressel’s first foray into anthology publishing is shaping up. The book looks great, there’s a great roster of authors in it, and I think it will do well.
That night Nina and I decided to start writing at 3am. Somehow, words did not flow freely as we thought they would. We resisted Liz Gorinsky’s siren call to “breakfast” at the diner opening up at 3am, though.
Other memorable parties – the Abyss & Apex party, the Electric Velocipede High Tea, the Tor Party, after it calmed down a bit, the Aussie party, where Garth Nix served me wine, the Weird Tales party, which I could only be at for a little while, and other, secret soirées.
I brought many wonderful shirts with me to cons, as I am determined to be known for having awesome shirts. But none of the shirts I brought could top the one John Klima had waiting for me:
It reads: tempest says read electric velocipede or she’ll come to your house and smack you around.
And, you know, I totally will. Because that zine is pretty damn great. I had the pleasure of seeing that t-shirt on several people over the weekend. And I know David Anthony Durham, Matt Kressel and Nina all have one. I hope they wear them to the next con.
There was a very interesting progression of shirts over those first few days. They got more and more threatening. Day 1 I was in a posse, Day 2 I was going to smack you around, and Day 3 I was tired of slitting throats. I felt the need to buy a shirt with a fist coming out of it for Day 4.
What else… several editors said, “Send me a story!” which I love to hear. (And I did send two of them, just two more to go.) An agent said, “Hey, when am I going to see a submission from you?” which also makes me happy. I pitched a non-fiction book to a publisher and, when I told others about said book, several people encouraged me to put the proposal together and try to get it in front of a major press. I shall not ignore such advice.
And just to round out the business dealings, I asked some people about doing interviews and artist profiles for Fantasy magazine, and all said yes. A productive weekend to be sure.
Sunday night, when most folks were gone and things were winding down, I had a nice (slightly drunken) conversation with Jetse de Vries about being cool, asked Jim Minz his opinion on some agents, and talked with Holly Black about “beavage”. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what that word means. Apparently the conversation that gave birth to that unholy (but incredibly awesome) word was about the subject discussed in this post. When I told Holly that I had written said post, she exclaimed, “That was you? Oh my god, that post is legendary!” which I was not aware of. Nice! At least I do not have cause to write another one like it this year.
I’m glad I got a chance to see so many people and sad that I missed so many others. But it was a good con, I had many great conversations, things got done, and I came away feeling like an awesome person for knowing so many awesome people. I’m not suffering too much post-con depression, but I’m chalking that up to the fact that I am surrounded by a sizable chunk of those very awesome people here in my regular life. I don’t have to go far to be with my people. If only everyone was so lucky!
More of my pictures here. Pictures by Stephen and Nina here. Pictures by Sean Wallace here. Ellen Datlow’s here. WFC Flickr Pool here.
A couple of newish projects to announce. Firstly, I’ll be writing reviews for The Fix online, the revival of TTA Press’ short fiction review magazine. I am only one of many, though, and if you’re looking for some insightful reviews across the scope of short speculative fiction, The Fix is the place to go.
Also this week, Fantasy magazine relaunches online (I sense a theme) with yours truly as the non-fiction editor. Right now there’s an interview up with the fabulous Catherynne Valente and soon there will be a spotlight on a young artist who bowled me over with her talent. There will be new fiction, non-fiction and reviews up every week.
Hopefully when this goes live the November issue of Cerise will be up. It contains my review of the game Wedding Dash, which I object to on feminist principles.
Finally, by the time you see this I will be at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY and probably having a fabulous time. No readings or panels scheduled, thank goodness. I’m spending the day working and the evenings partying.
Interfictions is a one-of-a-kind anthology published by the Interstitial Arts Foundation and Small Beer Press. Between its covers, nineteen writers dig into the imaginative spaces between conventional genres — realistic and fantastical, scholarly and poetic, personal and political. This evening at McNally Robinson, three of those writers join editor Delia Sherman to read from their boundary-crossing stories. K. Tempest Bradford is a widely published author of fantastical short stories and a prolific blogger. Matt Cheney is a fiction writer and critic who maintains the blog The Mumpsimus, focused on reviews and interviews with authors in science fiction genres. Veronica Schanoes’ work has appeared in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Trunk Stories, and Jabberwocky. Join us for an evening of unclassifiable fiction.
(McNally Robinson events page)
When: Tuesday, October 30 at 7.00 PM.
Where: McNally Robinson
52 Prince St.
(between Lafayette and Mulberry)
New York, NY 10012
I’ll read from Black Feather again and see if I can’t come up with an interesting way to read it this time. If you’re going to be in NYC on the 30th, drop by!
At Readercon, I read a short bit of Black Feather at the group Interfictions reading. The podcast of my teaser (Catherynne M. Valente’s “A Dirge for Prester John” ) is now available thanks to fellow interstitial writer Michael J DeLuca. Go download!
Also, The Seventh Reflection is now online, in full, under a Creative Commons license.
Clia stood before the large, oval mirror in her room and stared at the reflection. Bone-straight hair–long, shiny and black–a heart-shaped face, perfect button nose, sensual mouth, and wide green eyes. The skin held no blemish and no imperfection–not too dark, but not too light. An elegant neck; firm, round breasts; smooth, flat stomach; curvy hips; long, muscular legs tapering toward the floor and ending at the bottom of the mirror.
“Yes, this is what I want,” Clia said. Her mouth moved. The reflection’s did not.
Are you ready to gather what I need?
“Yes. It’ll take a few days, though.”
I have nothing but time. The reflection shimmered away, replaced by an image of what Clia looked like in every other mirror.
She did not often look at mirrors.
Read the rest here.
This week was tough! I was suffering post-con depression because of LaunchPad and was a little sick and I was tired of people talking about Harry Potter but I could not stop talking about it myself. Work was more stressful than usual on top of all that. And I had a story to write.
I ended up dusting off an old idea that I’d already written up once and just writing it again, but with a few different ideas thrown in. I ended up with a vastly different story, so I’m calling it done. I reached my write-a-thon goals!
That makes 4 new stories and 2 revised and polished stories out the door. A very productive result!
Thanks, again, to everyone who sponsored and encouraged me. Doing this is always exhausting but so very worth it. And I’ve raised money for Clarion West and the Butler Scholarship! I’ll let you know how much when I know.
It’s not too late to send in money if you were waiting until I’d hit all of my goals :)
I will now take a week to sleep. And then get started on making these new stories workshop worthy so I can get to work on them.
It’s the end of week 5 and I am exhausted! I had a terrific week but the plane ride back home took a lot out of me. Perhaps because I did not rest but finished off Harry Potter 7, instead.
As far as my Write-a-thon goals go, I was able to finish my edit of Elan Vital! It will go through one more round of critique before I send it out somewhere. Asimov’s, possibly.
I mostly worked in the morning since I was able to easily get up two hours before class time. Plus, the group had a writing night which I really enjoyed.
So, the LaunchPad Workshop! For those who don’t know, this is a workshop administered by Mike Brotherton, an astronomy professor at the University of Wyoming. The purpose of the workshop is to “provide a ‘crash course’ for [science fiction writers in] modern astronomy science through workshops, guest lectures, and observation through the University of Wyoming’s two large telescopes.” We essentially had a semester of Astronomy 101 in a week. And it was wonderful.
We covered several subjects, from really basic stuff like what causes the seasons and the phases of the moon to what happens when galaxies collide and how astronomers know what elements make up distant stars and nebulas. The best part, for me, was the ability to ask fiction writer specific questions. In college, it was always sort of frustrating not to be able to ask “But if I wanted to do this in a story, how could I in light of X?” This workshop was specifically about asking those kinds of questions. So awesome.
My fellow attendees were also awesome. A few I know from conventions and other SF gatherings. Some I’ve known online for a while. It was a real treat to spend time with writers I greatly admire, like Vonda McIntyre and Eugie Foster (just to name two). We had a lot of fun in the classroom and at dinner and at the evening outings.
One of my favorite things was getting to look through telescopes of various sizes. It’s amazing what you can see with greater and greater powers of magnification. But also amazing what you can see with the naked eye on a clear night, or a pair of binoculars. On Friday night we went to WIRO, where the telescope was so huge that they didn’t even bother having an eyepiece hooked up to it, just a camera. The students there recorded an image for us and Jeremy Tolbert put it together (see above).
That was another thing we learned – how those beautiful images of deep space are actually put together. If you look through a telescope, or a camera attached to one, you don’t see the full-color beauty of the finished product. Through the compilation of images taken with filters or taken with different kinds of scopes (radio, infrared, etc.) you can cobble together an image that makes sense to us color-viewing people.
This was the first year of the workshop and things went extremely well. All down to Mike and Jim and their assistants. Next year it should be even better.
There were 13 attendees. Of them, 8 were female and 3 were people of color. (We would have had four, but one person had to drop out at the last minute.) On the application, the administrators specifically stressed their desire to bring in women and writers of color. It’s definitely something they are paying attention to and I cannot but agree.
They’ll probably be accepting applications for next year in January or February, so keep an eye on the website. Even if you’re just a writer starting out and only have a few pub credits under your belt, it’s worth it to apply. They’re looking for writers with a commitment to educating through fiction that reflects accurate scientific knowledge.
So, once I’ve slept and recouped I’ll start on my, very short, week 6 story. And then the Write-a-thon will be over! I hope the Clarion West kids are having fun. This upcoming week will be tough.
I reached my week 3 goal! Go me. It was difficult with ReaderCon impinging on my weekend writing time, but I had a lot of fun and it was worth it. I didn’t end up taking any pictures, so unfortunately you’ll have to do without.The con itself was great. I ended up not going to many panels. I think that I completely paneled myself out at WisCon and felt more like relaxing and talking with friends. I spent a lot of time in the dealer’s room behind the Wildside Press table. Lots of people hang out in the ReaderCon dealer’s room, though, so I was sure not to miss anyone standing around in there.
I finalized all the details of my new position as Fantasy Magazine’s non-fiction editor. I know now exactly what I need to do and when. I already have my first interview in the bag and I’m ready to start on at least three more. I’m very excited about this job! I get to have conversations with awesome people about fantasy and writing and literature. How cool is that?
This next week is all about getting stuff done before I go to the LaunchPad workshop (and still having to write a story). I may also have a small surprise.
