Women taking their place in speculative fiction

My story, "Trapped Star", appears in the brand new anthology by Dark Quest Books Beauty Has Her Way, edited by Jennifer Brozek. Read it to see if Debra manages to steal and use the crystal that turns your run-of-the-mill transport booths into mega transport booths that span the whole galaxy. There's so many worlds that have never heard of her. They'll never know what hit them.

The British Science Fiction Association has published its shortlist of nominees. Paulo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl made the best novel list.

The Philip K. Dick Award shortlist is as follows:

Yarn, Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books)

Chill, Elizabeth Bear (Ballantine Books/Spectra)

The Reapers Are the Angels, Alden Bell (Henry Holt & Co.)

Song of Scarabaeus, Sara Creasy (Eos)

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Mark Hodder (Pyr)

Harmony, Project Itoh, translated by Alexander O. Smith (Haikasoru)

State of Decay, James Knapp (Roc)

Winners of both will be announced April 23rd at Norwescon in Seattle, WA and Eastercon in Birmingham, UK respectively.

Norwescon features mostly women guests of honor this year with Writer GOH Patricia McKillip, Artist GOH Kinuko Craft and PSIence GOH Marie D. Jones. Nevermind "ladie's night", it's our year! Seattle is also home to a new convention for women in the genre. Say hello to GeekGirlCon.

GeekGirlCon Releases Date and Location of Their Long-Anticipated Event

Seattle, WA -- GeekGirlCon, a female-focused, geek centric convention that celebrates the feminine involvement and contribution in Geek Culture will be making its debut Saturday and Sunday, October 8th and 9th, 2011 at the Seattle Center’s Northwest Rooms.

Erica McGillivray, GeekGirlCon’s President and Marketing Director says, “GeekGirlCon is a one-of-a-kind convention celebrating geeky women and the wide variety of geeky things they are interested and involved in.” The first of its kind, GeekGirlCon strives to be an event that celebrates women in the fields of math, the sciences, fiction, games, comics and more.

“Planning this convention has shown me that I am not alone,” Michelle Pearson, GeekGirlCon’s Treasurer and Account manager says. “Meeting other geeky women and realizing that there are men in the community who appreciate and support us has been the best part of this journey so far. I’m excited to be a part of this and can’t wait to see our plans and ideas become reality.”

And the staff members aren’t the only ones excited about this event. GeekGirlCon already boasts a very talented special guest list; authors Bonnie Burton, Trina Robbins, Greg Rucka and Jen Van Meter have already signed on to appear at the convention and support its cause.

Passes to GeekGirlCon can be purchased through convention’s website: both two-day passes for the entire weekend ($35) and single day passes ($20).

GeekGirlCon is a non-profit organization of 30 staff members and roughly 80 other volunteers equally passionate about promoting women’s contributions to geek culture. The group will be continuing to hold fundraising events leading up to the convention date. To find out more about GeekGirlCon visit http://www.geekgirlcon.com.

###

Contact: Kiri Callaghan

GeekGirlCon Public Relations Manager

Email: pr@geekgirlcon.com

*End press release*

All my literary friends are probably sick of me extolling the virtues of reading and writing flash fiction (that's fiction generally under 500, 750 or 1,000 words depending on the venue). Well, just hold your ears. I'm back on the flash wagon. Debi Orton, founder of Flashquake, passed the flash baton (in the form of Flashquake ownership) to Cindy Bell. Read more below.

Flashquake under new ownership

Cindy Bell of Eagle River, Alaska, took over leadership of Flashquake as

editor and publisher in January 2011, making changes to the design and

bringing new talent to the literary publication.

Flashquake, an independent, quarterly, web-based and print-on-demand

magazine, focuses on works of flash fiction, flash nonfiction (memoirs,

essays, creative nonfiction, humor), short poetry and artwork. Flashquake

aspires to no less than the publication of literary works of flash and

fine art.

To celebrate its new inauguration, there is a call for submissions of any

topic, and a special contest with four talented winners. The contest theme

is “new beginnings,” and the entry fee is a low $5. The winning work comes

with a grand prize of 35 percent of the pot (the pot being the total from

all entry fees). There will also be 3 runners up with first runner-up

winning 20 percent of the pot, second winning 15 percent, and third

winning 10 percent. Grand prize and runners up will also be awarded

publication in Flashquake’s electronic and print publications.

Flashquake was founded by Debi Orton in 2001, and to Bell’s knowledge, the

term “flash” was coined by Debi's team at that time. For more information

or to submit a piece of work, visit www.flashquake.org.

*End press release*

Now that I've started this whole "women in spec fic rock" theme, I can't leave you without sharing the new Broad Universe website. Very snazzy.

On a personal note, I have started out the new year by getting all of my reprints back in circulation. I put a couple stories that haven't found the right homes yet back into play last week, too. Mike Resnick has inspired me in this endeavor with his 19 foreign and reprint sales in one week!

I'm looking forward to meeting some of my SFOO staff at conventions later this year. My next science fiction convention is FogCon in San Francisco, where I'll hopefully be on some panels and hosting a Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. Then there's BayCon in May, Westercon 64 in July and Renovation (WorldCon 69) in August. The best part? I don't have to buy a single plane ticket. I even have a cousin who'll put me up for Renovation.

Abyss & Apex editor and writer, Wendy S. Delmater

I met Wendy at World Fantasy last year. We sat at the same table during the mass book signing. She was gushing over a particular story in an issue of Abyss & Apex because it was so fresh and well-written. Oh, to have an editor do that about one of my stories! Well, maybe they have when I wasn't listening. Anyway, I found Wendy a delightful tablemate and I am so glad of this opportunity to get to know her better and share her with my readers.

Wendy is the Editor in Chief for Abyss and Apex magazine and a speculative fiction writer herself. In fact, she just sold "Jack & the Beanstalker" to a new webzine called Uncast Shadows, publication date TBA.

AW: What or whom inspired you to write? To become an editor?

WD: My father was a reading tutor and he got me reading at a college level before fourth grade. And it was a lonely childhood: my mother was sick since I was three, and my father worked two jobs (and was often bitter and abusive). So I was an avid reader as a child; an avid reader who needed an escape into the worlds of Kipling, Frank Baum, Walter Farley, Louisa May Alcott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. I grew up with some very talented friends – but they were all authors.

Connie Willis once said that she had read so much she was no longer surprised, so she wrote stories to surprise herself. I found that to be a big part of the draw of writing. But I also wanted to write things that had that “aha!” moment, a reveal for the reader. To learn how, I joined the Del Rey Online Writing Workshop when it was about six months old. It eventually morphed into the Online Writing Workshop and I was a member for six years. I made lasting friendships there, people like author Charles Coleman Finlay, Melinda Goodin (who does the Locus Spreadsheet), Ilona Andrews, Ruth Nestvold, Marsha Sisolak (former editor of Ideomancer), copyeditor Deanna Hoak, writer (and blogger and editor) K. Tempest Bradford, and so many more you’d run out of space if I listed them all. You really bond with people when you share manuscripts: it’s like baring your soul and those who deal kindly and constructively with your faults are a treasure.

Oh, and by the way this meant I was no longer lonely: in writers and editors I’d found my “tribe”, as it were.

AW: When did you latch onto speculative fiction and why?

WD: Do you know what editor John W. Campbell called the golden age of science fiction? About twelve to fourteen years old. I was privileged to have a middle school right next to a public library and I dropped by several times a week. The new book acquisitions were done by a serious genre fan. She introduced me to Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Pohl Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Clifford D. Simak and Ray Bradbury. I was thrilled to discover that Andre Norton was female. I was introduced to Tolkien and from there to fantasy authors like Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Lewis, Madeline L’Engle and more.

I was well and truly hooked. It was the worldbuilding that drew me in, and the “what ifs”. How would people respond to having magical powers or objects? How would human nature respond to this or that new technology or disaster?

AW: Are you often surprised by prose submissions? I mean in a good way. Something that is truly unique?

WD: *laughs* I’d better be or I’d never buy anything!

AW: Do you notice a difference in writing style between men and women?

WD: Nope. Next question?

Seriously, I am pretty much gender-blind. There have been many messy blog wars and accusations of bias made about other editors (who will remain nameless). Fur has flown on the issue. Genre watchdogs do headcounts on how many male vs. female authors a mag publishes, and to be honest my staff has some internal stats: percentage of male/female submissions vs. how many of each we publish. Me? I pretty much strip off the headers and go by the story itself. And I am no longer shocked at how well guys “get” what it means to be female, or how macho (if you will) a woman writer can write.

AW: Are women able to pull off a male protagonist as well as a female one, generally? And can guys get women protags right as easily as they can men? Do you think this is something writers struggle with?

WD: We’re writers. We make stuff up based on research and observing people. If we are good at it, they publish us. Anyone can observe the opposite sex or study them, and then writers can have someone of the opposite gender read a manuscript to see if it sounds authentic. Simple.

AW: I imagine that you have to contend with a lot of overused phrases and devices. What was the 2009 crop like? What phrases and devices should writers avoid in 2010?

WD: Anything derivative. I mean that! Editors watch TV and movies, and they know what’s hot and what’s not. Your Twilight fanfic or your thinly veiled Famous Role Playing Game scenario with the filed off serial numbers? We see right through those, yes we do. And it does not endear you to us at all. Please do not copy the Next Big Thing. We are looking for originality.

AW: What is the Abyss & Apex guidelines instruction most often ignored by writers?

WD: It’s a tie: about half of them ignore the “no horror” admonition and the other half ignore our reading periods.

AW: What was your favorite story in A & A? What made it stand out above all the others?

WD: I have to pick one? I had trouble picking a dozen, and they went into The Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume one from Hadley Rille Books.

I guess I am always fondest of the current edition. The First Quarter 2010 edition of A&A leads with Lisa Koosis’s “How We Fly,” which (as I was telling Gardner Dozois at the SFWA reception) is an amazing story. You know that sense of wonder, that human connection, that awe and tears that the reality of our humanness can create? It’s all there.

AW: Do you still find time to write? Are you working on something now?

WD: I just quit my engineering job in NYC, got married, moved to the Deep South, and terraformed my house. Yes, I still write a little, but although I have novels nearly done it’s just short fiction at the moment. It looks like I sold a story this week but I will not mention where until they send me that all-important contract. (This was the aforementioned "Jack & the Beanstalker". )






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Science fiction hump day haps

Since I'm currently in a winter slump, apparently, with no news of my own, I thought I'd share some news from my fellow writers:

David Brin reports that the movie option on his short story, "Detritus Affected" was just extended. You can read the story in his anthology, Otherness.

According to SF Awards Watch, Cherie Priest's steampunk novel Boneshaker (Tor), won a 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award.

And if you have your own steampunk novel you've been shopping around, send a query to Junior Agent Sandy Lu at L. Perkins Agency. She's hungry for steampunk. (nods to Cynthia Ward for the tip)

More news from the Pacific Northwest: Jay Lake received the John Dalmas award. The award is in appreciation for his many years of support for Radcon and fandom in general. I'll be there, Jay, to see you receive it. :)

Stephanie Osborn reports: The Y Factor, best-selling ebook and sequel to Dream Realm Award winner Human By Choice, is an EPPIE finalist, just released in print. Book 3 in the series, The Cresperian Alliance, will be released as an ebook around 1 Feb.

Apparently reports of Kirkus Reviews' demise were exaggerated -- or rather overridden? Read about it at Locus.

As I reported on Friday, IROSF (Internet Review of Science Fiction) is closing up shop. But they're going out with a bang. Don't miss the last two issues. Read January issue now.

And here's some science without the fiction news from Daily Mail: What on Earth was that? Mystery space object whizzes past our planet Experts disagree on what it was.

Here are the books at the top of my TBR list. Most will be reviewed at Mostly Fiction.
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett (currently reading)
Are You There? And Other Stories by Jack Skillingstead (currently reading)
Starbound by Joe Haldeman (author interview in the works, too)
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Able One by Ben Bova

Next interviews up:
Michael Hanlon, Daily Mail science editor and author of Eternity
Wendy S. Delmater, Editor in Chief of Apex and Abyss magazine
Joe Haldeman, SF author
Deborah J. Ross, Fantasy author



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New for me, in the news and let the sales begin

There's nothing like the buddy system. I just joined a critique group again after almost 2 years away. It's helping me to prioritize my time better with regard to my writing. That's a very good thing. I'm actually finding time to write spec-fic again. Woo hoo! I'm currently cutting a 5100 word story down to 4K for my next target market. Only 350 words left to chop. ;)

I also joined a local MeetUp for Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fans. As the Mystery Science Fictionator, how could I resist?

I finished In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D'Amato and will be reviewing it at Mostly Fiction soon. I'm still chewing on it. That's a good sign. ;)

I receive a number of emails about new issues of magazines coming out. Just in case you're not on the same lists that I am, SF Crowsnest and Ideomancer have shiny new December issues available.

And these publishers are having holiday sales:

Five Senses Press
Mundania Press
Phaze Books
Awe-Struck Publishing

(For the last three, enter the code SANTA when you check out and receive 20% off your entire order.)

Looking for spec-fic books for yourself or for gifts? Try starting with the Beyond Reality shelf at Mostly Fiction. You can read reviews (many by yours truly) and click through to Amazon (which helps support the site) to purchase.

On my TBR shelf is Jack Skillingstead's collection, Are You There and Other Stories? Here's an interview with Jack at Locus. I became a fan after reading his stories in Asimov's. I'll have to hit him up for an interview here. He gave me a blurb for Awesome Lavratt.

71 more days till RadCon in Pasco, WA! I think I attend as many cons in the Pacific Northwest as I do right here in the SF Bay Area. It's great to see my PNW buddies.


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BayCon, writing and new SF mags

Ack! Larry Dixon and Mercedes Lackey are sick. They were to be the guests of honor for BayCon. The staff are still scrambling and trying to have them attend "virtually" etc. Of course I wish them a speedy recovery.

I had hoped to post my schedule today, but it is a bit fluid at the moment. They scheduled me to moderate a panel on vampire lit. Guess how much vampire lit I've read? So, it's still in flux. I wonder if the denizens of the Cloud City of Pyrocumulon (this year's theme) dance like Greeks? I could so teach Greek folk dancing. ;)

I finally finished that story with the whale-like creatures with humans living on them. Just a few tweaks and it's off to a magazine for consideration. I'm really enjoying reading The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton. It starts with a bang and doesn't let up (so far). Review forthcoming.

Two magazines have contacted me. Though I haven't had time to look them over, perhaps my readers can help. They are iPulpFiction.com and M-brane SF, blog-based SF mags (M-Brane available in pdf).

Stay tuned for up and coming SF author Gareth Powell.

Review - GUD (Greatest Uncommon Denominator)

I met the editor of GUD over at LinkedIn and scored a review copy of GUD. It took me a while to get through the pdf version, as I'm an ink and paper miser and don't like reading on the screen. But, at long last, I've finished it.

GUD bills itself as: "GUD (pronounced "good") is Greatest Uncommon Denominator, a print/pdf magazine with two hundred pages of literary and genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles."

First off, I'd have to say that GUD could just as easily stand for Gloomy Utter Doom. Of course, if that's what you're into, it's a veritable banquet. Now that I've peeled myself off the floor and listened to some Blues to pick me up, I'd like to tell you more about it.

The issue I reviewed is the Spring 2007 issue. It's chock full of stories, poetry, and art. It also has a couple of non-fiction pieces. I won't go into the poetry as I'm not the best judge of poetry. I'll stick to what I know. The stories were, as I said, very dark. But they were also well written and unique.

John Mantooth's "Chicken" was so full of emotion as to make me almost gasp. His treatment of a young man's bravado, fear and regret overlaid onto a troubled alcoholic seeing another troubled young man who is frighteningly past caring was a moving, credible symphony of bitter memory.

I enjoyed Jason Stoddard's "Moments of Brilliance". He set the bread crumbs along my path. I knew where they led, but it made me want to run there all the more. Besides, I'm a sucker for the musings of how other beings or even robots might think. The gradual awareness, the piecing together of the various visual and aural input to decipher its surroundings and the meaning of life. Can't say more...

In AB Goelman's "4 Short Parables Revolving Around the Theme of Travel", I found a welcome respite from the doom and gloom and a fun time travel romp.

"Cutting a Figure" provided a bit of comic relief while still making some social commentary. Charlie Anders had me hooked with his dual duty breast implants. Need I say more?

Last, but not least, I'd like to mention "She Dreams in Colors, She Dreams in Hope" by F. John Sharp. His well-rounded characters deal with sweat-shop socialism. The man who seems the most resistant, lets another man's dreams invade his own and imbue him with hope that he carries into the waking world.

If you don't buy the magazine to experience it for yourself, I suggest you head over to their website, if for no other reason than to check out the cover art by Konrad Kruszewski. He also has another very striking image within.

Fringe and Change

Watched the pilot of Fringe last night on Fox. Wow, what a ride! I'm hooked. Like I really needed another show I have to see every week. If you like stuff like time travel, teleportation, astral projection, etc, you'll have to see it, too. The writing was good, there were no obvious cliches and there were some moments that completely took me by surprise. That's hard to do. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll only tease a bit. An airplane lands itself with the next level auto-pilot software--on time. The passengers, however, arrive with much less flesh than they started with. All dead. Two of the investigators are having "a thing" and while checking on a lead, he's infected with something similar. His romantic interest, our heroine must seek the aide of a man who's been in the loony bin for 17 years with the help of his son, who she must first fetch from Iraq.

A lot of the pilots I've seen lately are big on character development and short on action. This was an exception to be sure. If you missed it, don't worry. There's an encore presentation on Sunday.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...
I don't blog about my animals. It's like a rule with me. Plenty of people have that covered. And good for them. I just figure that this is a SF blog and therefore the blogger's pet's are irrelevant unless they're alien. George was not alien, but he was my beloved kitty for 18 years. He died in the night. At least he's no longer hurting.

On the job front, I actually applied for two FT, local writing jobs in two days! They don't come up very often. Fingers crossed. Oh, to be able to say I write for a living! :) I also have an interview with an arm of the county that I'm hopeful about.

I just signed on to do even more book reviews. I'll be reviewing books for Pantechnicon, a cool SF ezine I just stumbled upon. I've already put in requests for great upcoming titles. Stay tuned for my review of Mars Life by Ben Bova, complete with author interview.

I'm still working on the sequel to Awesome Lavratt. Poor Horace keeps coming back for more.