Outer Alliance Spotlight #90: OA Podcast #11 September 7, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, Outer Alliance Podcast, reviews , 8commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #90. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. Today we’ve got the eleventh Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
This month our guests are Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond of The Writer and the Critic.
This episode has an explicit tag! You are warned! Unlike the last time we used an explicit tag, when Amal El-Mohtar said one swear word, and Mike Allen read one bit of story which referenced male anatomy, this explicit tag means serious business. We all use salty language and touch on mature content (by which I mean the sorts of things that are sure to titillate all of our inner twelve-year-olds). So. Keep that in mind before turning this on at work, or around your young kids or sensitive friends.
I’ve cut an hour’s worth of stuff from our original conversation, but this podcast episode still runs just shy of two hours. Because it’s a long one, and in case you don’t want to be spoiled for any of the stories we discuss, here are some time cues for you:
We have general interview chat until the 43 minute mark. At around 43 minutes in we begin to discuss Peter M. Ball’s Horn and Bleed (as recommended by Ian). At about 1:09, we begin to discuss Hal Duncan’s “The Behold of the Eye” (as recommended by me), and at about 1:26, we begin to discuss Kim Westwood’s “Nighship” (as recommended by Kirstyn).
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Kirstyn and Ian’s Projects Mentioned in this Episode
*Madigan Mine is Kirstyn’s novel (which has won all the Aurealis and Chronos awards, and which is available on Kindle in the US). We didn’t get the chance to discuss the book, but if you’d like to hear Kirstyn speak more about it, you can listen to her interview on Galactichat.
*Last Short Story is the short story review project Ian’s taking part in.
*Ian wrote several stories for Big Finish Audio’s Doctor Who Short Trips series.
*Ian’s other podcast is Shooting the Poo.
*Kirstyn and Ian co-edited the first issue of Midnight Echo, the magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association.
*Bloodsongs was another magazine with which they both had some affiliation back in the day.
Writers/Projects/Pieces We Mentioned
*Peter M. Ball (Author of Horn and Bleed–e-books at Smashwords).
*Hal Duncan (author of “The Behold of the Eye”).
*Kim Westwood (author of “Nightship”).
*Felicity Dowker (guest on Writer and Critic Episode #4, Australian Horror Writer, and undeserving victim of Ian’s rumor-spreading impulse).
*Trent Jamieson (nice guy of Australian specfic).
*John Richards (part of the Boxcutters podcast team, and TV writer who created Outland, the series about a group of queer fans–he’ll be a guest on The Writer and the Critic in November).
*Tansy Rayner Roberts (One third of the Galactic Suburbia team, and writer of a trilogy, the first two books of which Kirstyn is hoarding unread until such time as the third one comes out).
*Alisa Krasnostein (One third of the Galactic Suburbia team, and the World Fantasy Award nominated person behind Twelfth Planet Press).
*Catherynne M. Valente (Writer, past Writer and Critic guest, and person who is not responsible for Ian’s guilt).
*Caitlín R. Kiernan (Author of The Red Tree, a book with queer content, which Ian and Kirstyn both liked).
*Kathe Koja (author of Under the Poppy, another queer content heavy story, which Ian and Kirstyn both liked).
*Rose Fox’s Genreville Post calling for honest reviews.
*Jennifer Pelland (author of some Nebula nominated stories, and person whose reading provided me with a safe place to hide during my first traumatic con experience).
*Nicole Kornher-Stace (whose stories, like Kim Westwood’s, are beautiful and hard to categorize).
*Wilde Stories ( 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011–the best gay stories collected each year by Steve Berman).
*Icarus (the magazine of gay speculative fiction)
*Poppy Z. Brite (author of many horror books with gay content, which Kirstyn’s ex used to imagine didn’t exist).
*Charles Tan and Cheryl Morgan (who Ian rightly called out as awesome specfic news resources).
*Mary Robinette Kowal (who put out her Hugo winning short story as an e-book with the first draft and commentary on the story’s evolution).
*Fran Drescher on Wikipedia.
*Coode Street Podcast (whose beginning we took for our ending).
If you have feedback, please leave a comment, tell us on the google group, or e-mail me directly at julia@juliarios.com. I’d love to hear from you!
Outer Alliance Spotlight #86: OA Podcast #10 July 31, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, Outer Alliance Podcast , 4commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #86. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the tenth Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
Ellen Klages joined me at a coffee shop to talk about her work, queer history, and other awesomeness.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Congratulations to N. K. Jemisin, Elizabeth Bear, and all the other World Fantasy Award nominees!
Ellen Klages’s Work (and things she’s been involved with):
*The Green Glass Sea and White Sands, Red Menace are novels about kids whose parents worked on the Manhattan Project.
*Portable Childhoods is the short story collection, which contains her two overtly queer stories, “Triangle” and “Time Gypsy”.
*The GLBT Historical Society
*Exploratorium: the museum of science, art and human perception
Some of the Historical Details We Discussed:
*Here’s a photo of the 1956 raid at Hazel’s in San Mateo County (as described in the lesbian time travel revenge story, “Time Gypsy”).
*The Stonewall riots (which Ellen mentioned in passing) were a major turning point in US LGBTQ civil rights history.
*San Francisco Pride, and the Dyke March are awesome reminders of how far we’ve come in the past 50 years.
*pink-triangle.org has some information about the experience of gay people in Nazi Germany. This page does not go into much gruesome detail, but keep in mind that even so, it’s awful stuff.
*Here’s a state by state breakdown of anti-miscegenation laws in the United States.
*Here’s a brief explanation of Loving Vs. Virginia, the Supreme Court Case that marked the end of anti-miscegentation laws in the US in 1967 (not 1970 as Ellen guessed, nor 1968 as I guessed).
Some things that have given me hope lately:
*The first legal same sex marriage in New York–two grandmothers at Niagara Falls, which was all lit up with rainbow colored lights!
*More pictures of couples getting married in New York!
*Lesbian married couple saves 40 people in Norway. I’m in serious awe of these women for doing what they did, and also really happy that we live in a time when they can be married, and it’s okay to report that as one of the facts. No one’s going to arrest them for being married, or loving each other, and it’s not the most important thing about this story at all.
Stuff we’ll be discussing in the next podcast in late August:
*Hal Duncan‘s Spectrum winning story, “The Behold of the Eye”. Read it for free online, buy it in Wilde Stories 2009, or listen to it for free at Podcastle.
*Kim Westwood‘s story, “Nightship”. Buy it in Dreaming Again, or listen to it free at Terra Incognita.
*Peter M. Ball‘s novellas, Horn and Bleed. Buy them in print or e-book format from Twelfth Planet Press, or get the instant dowload e-book versions from Smashwords. Trigger warning! Horn contains graphic sexual violence.
That’s it for this time. If you have feedback, please leave a comment here, tell us on the google group, or e-mail me personally at julia@juliarios.com.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #84: OA Podcast #9 July 14, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, news, Outer Alliance Podcast , 2commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #84. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the ninth Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
This month our guest is Kelly Jennings, author of the novel, Broken Slate, which is out now through Crossed Genres. Kelly talks about successful slave revolts, the trials and tribulations of being a socialist and atheist English professor in Arkansas, and lots of other interesting things. After the interview, she reads an excerpt for us, too.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Farewell to Wayne Hergenroder
One of the fan Guests of Honor from this year’s Gaylaxicon (featured here previously in the special OA Mini Podcast) has passed away. He will be much missed. If you have thoughts or memories to share with us, please leave a comment here or on the google group.
Find Kelly Online at her personal blog and at FanSci, the group science fiction and fantasy blog she shares with Barbara Ann Wright and Marilou Goodwin. You can buy Broken Slate in print or e-format through various venues. Crossed Genres has all the details.
Kelly’s Recommended Resources on Slavery
*The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James
*Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild
*Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon
*Born in Slavery: Narratives from the Federal Writers Project 1936-1938 (an online resource)
*Ta-Nehisi Coates’s blog at The Atlantic.
Reminder: Next Month is our Writer and Critic episode!
Do check out the stories we’ll be discussing if you can.
*The Writer & the Critic (in case you want to start listening to one of my favorite podcasts right away).
*I recommended Hal Duncan‘s Spectrum winning story, “The Behold of the Eye”. Read it for free online, buy it in Wilde Stories 2009, or listen to it for free at Podcastle.
*Kirstyn recommended Kim Westwood‘s story, “Nightship”. Buy it in Dreaming Again, or listen to it free at Terra Incognita. I listened to it this month, and really enjoyed Kim Westwood’s reading.
*Ian Recommended Peter M. Ball‘s novellas, Horn and Bleed. Buy them in print or e-book format from Twelfth Planet Press, or get the instant dowload e-book versions from Smashwords. Trigger warning! Horn contains graphic sexual violence. Bleed does not (though it isn’t non-violent, generally), and it explains all the necessary backstory if you want to be up to speed for our discussion, but can’t deal with the other content.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #81: OA Podcast #8 June 22, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, interviews, links, news, Outer Alliance Podcast , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #81. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the eighth Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
This month we have tons of news and two interview guests. David Levine talks about a few of his many short stories, and Dennis Upkins talks about his debut YA novel, Hollowstone.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes
On the Amina Arraf and Paula Brooks Hoaxes:
*The OA post I made about this last week: Are All Gay Girls Secretly Men?
*Liz Henry at BlogHer: Warnings and Question about Paula Brooks.
*Ben Rosenbaumguest posting on Liz Henry’s personal blog about when it’s okay to pretend to be someone else, and why it’s not when it’s not.
*Liz Henry on her own blog: Notes on Sockpuppetry and Astroturfing (explaining some internet jargon related to hoaxes, and the mechanics of how people perpetrate hoaxes.
*Daniel Nassar at Gay Middle East: The Impact of Audacity: The Amina Story and its Effect on the LGBT People of Syria and (with Sami Hamwi) From Damascus With Love: Blogging in a Totalitarian State.
*Britta Froelicher at The Washington Post: Britta Froelicher, wife of ‘A Gay Girl in Damascus,’ caught in her husband’s ‘hurricane’.
And because it bears repeating in writing: Trans women are not pretending to be women. Trans and genderqueer/questioning people who do not feel safe revealing their identities and need a pseudonymous online identity in which to explore that are not the people who are doing damage here. There’s a giant difference between that sort of thing and the Amina and Paula hoaxes. I think Ben Rosenbaum’s post above does a good job of exploring when and why pretending to be someone you’re not is harmful, so that’s a great place to start if you aren’t sure.
On Feminism and Gender Bias in SF:
*The OA post from a couple of weeks ago: Outer Alliance Spotlight #80: Feminism.
*The SF Signal interview (and large comments thread): MIND MELD: What’s The Importance of ‘The Russ Pledge’ For Science Fiction Today?
*Athena Andreadis voices her frustration: Why I Won’t Be Taking the Joanna Russ Pledge. (Note the comments. I was glad to see Nicola stopping in, and I particularly liked what JGStewart had to say–I feel that’s one of the great reasons for promoting things like the Joanna Russ pledge. You just never know when a basic step like that will reach a particular person and lead to more openness and consideration.)
*Ann Leckie on editorial bias in seven parts! This is a really great in depth look at bias, building on the things she said at WisCon on the editorial bias panel: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Congratulations to Sacchi Green for winning a Goldie!
On The Writer & the Critic/OA Crossover Episode:
*The Writer & the Critic (in case you want to start listening to one of my favorite podcasts right away).
*I recommended Hal Duncan‘s Spectrum winning story, “The Behold of the Eye”. Read it for free online, buy it in Wilde Stories 2009, or listen to it for free at Podcastle.
*Kirstyn recommended Kim Westwood‘s story, “Nightship”. Buy it in Dreaming Again, or listen to it free at Terra Incognita.
*Ian Recommended Peter M. Ball‘s novellas, Horn and Bleed. Buy them in print or e-book format from Twlefth Planet Press, or get the instant dowload e-book versions from Smashwords.
Warning for anyone who has trigger issues with sexual violence: Horn does contain some graphic rape, which triggered me. I did like the story and find it worth reading, but I would have probably done a bit better if I had known going in that I was going to be reading about graphic rape. It’s not victim-blamey, and it is very much intrinsic to the plot, but you know, it’s still violent and awful because rape is violent and awful. “Nightship” also deals with sexual violence, but it maintains a distance that left me feeling okay. You may have different safe zones and boundaries than I do, though, so I thought I’d mention both. I still recommend these stories to anyone who feels up to reading them before our August episode. I just wanted to give any unsuspecting survivors a heads up about the potential triggers.
On David Levine:
*“At the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of Uncle Teco’s Homebrew Gravitics Club” — Subverting the sexy blonde stereotype character. Free online!
*”Second Chance” and many other free online stories are linked from David’s bibliography page.
*The 100th issue of Realms of Fantasy contains David’s lesbian plumber story, “Tides of the Heart”. Buy it in print or in digital format.
*David’s short story collection, Space Magic, is available through Wheatland Press.
*David’s Mars Journal chronicling his experience at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Available together with the journals of David’s other Mars research team members as a book, The Mars Diaries.
On Dennis Upkins:
*Denny’s website, where he blogs all about Hollowstone.
*Hollowstone as an e-book at Parker Publishing.
*Hollowstone in print at Amazon.
*Lee Thompson Young is Denny’s top pick for actors who might play Hollowstone’s main character, Noah, on the big screen.
*Denny is also on LiveJournal as Neo_Prodigy.
Okay, that wraps this monster episode up! If you have feedback, please leave a comment, or e-mail me at julia@juliarios.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #79: OA Podcast #7 May 27, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : events, interviews, news, Outer Alliance Podcast , 6commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #79. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the seventh Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
This is the big Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon tour episode. I basically spent my con weekend talking to fascinating people about their projects and their Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon experiences. It’s a great sampling of the con population, from gamers to cosplayers to writers to fans (and beyond!).
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Congratulations to the Award Winners! Steve Berman, Lynne Jamncek, Catherine Lundoff, Melissa Scott, Hal Duncan, and Sandra McDonald all deserve heaps of congratulations.
Sandra’s Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories just won the Lambda for Best LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror. You can buy that at Wizard’s Tower Press by following the link above.
Joan Slonczewski is a professor of microbiology and a science fiction author. You can find out more about both of those things at her website.
Michael Liebmann is a voice actor and filker. You can hear some of his voice work over at Starship Excelsior, and check out his filking at GAFilk, the Georgia Filking Convention.
Hushicho is a writer, artist and occasional Go-Go dancer. You can learn more about his work at his website.
Alex Martin is a gay gamer and gamecaster. You can follow his gamecasts on YouTube (and talk to him about playing an all gay game of League of Legends).
Dennis Upkins is the author of Hollowstone, a queer YA boarding school ghost story, which will be out next month through Parker Publishing. You can find out more about that at his website.
Catherine Lundoff is a writer and editor, who just made the Gaylactic Spectrum Award shortlist for best other works for the anthology she edited, Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades. Find out more about all her work at her website.
Rob Gates is the director of the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards.
Casey Fiesler is a PhD Student, Clarion graduate, and part of the YA lit track staff for Dragon*Con, you can find out more about her here.
JoSelle Vanderhooft is a writer and editor. You can learn more about her at her website.
Warren Rochelle is a fantasy author and has been part of the Spectrum judging process for several years now. His website is here.
Sara Amis is a writer, and mom to the awesome sixteen-year-old Raven, who joined us for this interview. Sara has a story and a poem (the one she read aloud on this podcast, in fact) in Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction, which is a charity anthology to benefit tornado relief efforts in Alabama and Georgia. Since Sara’s hometown was flattened by a recent tornado, this is a pretty personal cause for her.
Dale Everett is one of the hosts of Prometheus Unchained, an LGBT radio show. You can find out more about that at flamingfreedom.com, and if you feel so inclined, you can download past episodes, like the one broadcast live during Gaylaxicon, which features calls from Angelia Sparrow and JoSelle Vanderhooft.
Lee Martindale is a writer, editor, warrior, and bard. Her latest anthology, The Ladies of Trade Town, will be launched at A-Kon 22 in June. You can find out more about Lee and all her projects at harphaven.net.
Em Elliot is an activist with Georgia Equality, and an avid costumer. SHe works to promote safety, fairness, and opportunity for LGBTQI people in Georgia. To find out more about how to help with that, visit the Georgia Equality website.
My Flickr set from Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon has photos of many of the people mentioned in this podcast (including one of Em in costume, and one of me being fabulous with Hushicho).
If you have feedback, leave a comment, tell us on the google group, or e-mail me at julia@juliarios.com.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #78: Jon Wilson May 23, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #78. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’re going to have two because that’s just how things worked out. First, for your Monday reading pleasure, an interview with Jon Wilson, author of The Obsidian Man.
Jon is a gay writer with two novels in two different genres under his belt. The Obsidian Man, his latest, is a YA fantasy, while his earlier work, A Hundred Little Lies is a romance/western. Jon recently started a blog, and he’s also active on GoodReads, where his publisher is holding a giveaway for The Obsidian Man this month.
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Gaylactic Spectrum Awards and Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon Mini OA Podcast Special May 16, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, events, interviews, news, Outer Alliance Podcast , 4commentsFresh from Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon, here is a special mini OA Podcast update for you! In this short (about 7 minutes long) episode, we congratulate the winners of the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for short fiction, and talk to fan guests of honor Wayne Hergenroder and Don Schermerhorn about Mobicon.
Mobicon is happening this weekend, the 20th-22nd in Mobile, Alabama. It’s got all sorts of exciting programming lined up, and all the proceeds go to benefit the Bay Area Food Bank.
There will be a much bigger fabulous Gaylaxicon episode coming up on the 27th with lots of interviews and awesomeness, but this is a little sneak preview to whet your appetite (and entice any Mobile, Alabama area locals to attend Mobicon this weekend!).
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Rob Gates announced the winners for the 2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards in the categories of Short Fiction and Best Other Work on Saturday night. Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone who made the shortlist!
The two winning short stories were:
“The Behold of the Eye” by Hal Duncan, which appeared in Lone Star Stories, and was reprinted in Wilde Stories 2009 (edited by Steve Berman). If you’re a fan of audio fiction, you can also listen to it at PodCastle.
“The Rocky Side of the Sky” by Melissa Scott, which appeared in Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures (edited by Lynne Jamneck).
And here’s the shortlist of notable works:
*”Angels Alone” by Carolyn Ives Gilman in Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures
*”Behind the Curtain” by Joel Lane in Dark Horizons, Issue 22, also available in Wilde Stories 2009
*”The Bloomsbury Nudes” by Jameson Currier in Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (edited by Vince Liaguno and Chad Helder), also available in Wilde Stories 2009
*”City of the Dead” by Kate Welsh in Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (edited by Catherine Lundoff)
*Firooz and his Brother” by Alex Jeffers in the May 2008 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction, also available in Wilde Stories 2009
*”Here Lies the Last Lesbian Rental in East Vancouver” by Amber Dawn in Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire (edited by Amber Dawn)
*”I’m Your Violence” by Lee Thomas in Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet
*”In Circles” by Aurelia T. Evans in Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire
*In the Night Street Baths” by Chaz Brenchley in Lace and Blade (edited by Deborah J. Ross)
*”One Horse Town” by Melissa Scott in Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories
*”Parts” by Kal Cobalt in Wired Hard 4 (Edited by Lauren Burka and Cecilia Tan)
*”Remember” by Astrid Amara in Tangle (edited by Nicole Kimberling)
*The Succession Knoorikios Khnum” by Zachary Jernigan in Wired Hard 4
*”Waiting Tables and Time” by Lyn McConchie in Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories
Best Other Works:
*Were the World Mine, a film by Tom Gustafson.
*Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (edited by Catherine Lundoff)
*Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures (edited by Lynne Jamneck)
*Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (edited by Vince Liaguno and Chad Helder)
*Wilde Stories 2009 (edited by Steve Berman)
Congratulations to all!
Outer Alliance Spotlight #72: OA Podcast #6 April 15, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, Outer Alliance Podcast , 4commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #72. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the sixth Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
In this episode, Cheryl Morgan joins me to talk about Wizard’s Tower Press and trans characters in spec fic, and Elizabeth Bear joins me to talk about her new subscription service and all her other ongoing projects (and there’s a special guest appearance by the Giant Ridiculous Dog).
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Books Cheryl sells include:
*Bob the Book by David Pratt (in which a gay book lives happily in a bookstore until someone comes along and buys his partner–oh noes!).
*Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories by Sandra McDonald (featuring a transwoman who does all sorts of extraordinary things). This one’s on sale because it’s a Lambda Finalist.
*Wilde Stories 2010 edited by Steve Berman (gay spec fic anthology). This one is also part of the Lambda sale.
*Goblin Tales by Jim Hines (the first author-published book Wizard’s Tower has carried).
*White Queen by Gwyneth Jones (the first in the Aleutian Trilogy–if you buy all three together, there’s a discount, too).
Books not available through Wizard’s Tower Press, but which Cheryl recommends include:
*Supervillainz by Alicia Goranson (set in the Boston area trans community).
*Living With Ghosts by Kari Sperring (on the Tiptree shortlist, and featuring a feminized male protagonist).
*Brasyl by Ian McDonald (who will be a guest of honor along with Bear at Eurocon in June).
Explanations for some miscellaneous stuff Cheryl and I mentioned:
*Cheryl’s post about the Ibis Reader (a web-based e-reader for people like me who haven’t got a dedicated e-book device like the Kindle).
*THE…. Sodomite Hal Duncan!! (Because Hal is awesome and owns the hatemail like nobody’s business).
*Australian Podcasts (hello, Australia!): The Writer and the Critic, Galactic Suburbia, Notes from Coode Street.
*Clarkesworld (where Cheryl is the Non-Fiction Editor).
*Lauren Beukes and Angelia Sparrow (whose names we have historically mispronounced–oops).
Small Presses or authors who want to sell their books in Cheryl’s store should write her at info@wizardstowerpress.com.
Bear’s Creatively Funded Projects:
*You can sign up at her LiveJournal or on her Facebook Fan Page for the subscription service and/or to get a hand-decorated postcard story.
*Shadow Unit (the virtual television show about unrealistically sexy FBI agents who fight monsters, and who may in fact be monsters themselves).
*Veronique is Visiting From Paris (A collaborative story told in 12 postcards, featuring text by Bear, and Photos by Kyle Cassidy).
Bear’s Traditionally Published Books Mentioned in This Episode:
*The Jacob’s Ladder Trilogy–Dust, Chill, and Grail (Arthurian fantasy tropes revisited in deep space with a lot of chewy explorations of gender).
*The Edda of Burdens–All the Windwracked Stars, By the Mountain Bound, and The Sea Thy Mistress (science fantasy trilogy in an alternate world where Norse magic is real, and they have technology, too). By the Mountain Bound stands alone as the “Big Gay Norse Fantasy” with hot gay Vikings who have, uh, magic swords…
*New Amsterdam is the first in the Vampyr series, and is available in e-book format at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The White City is the third in the series, but makes sense if you’ve read New Amsterdam. Seven for a Secret is the second in that series, but takes place later than the events of The White City.
*A Companion to Wolves (co-written with Sarah Monette) is an animal companion fantasy, which features giant, telepathic wolves, and a lot of sex (but not that kind of sex!). The sequel, The Tempering of Men, is coming in August.
*Carnival (SF set on a world run by radical lesbian separatists in a future where nanites have eaten all the white people, which means that, no, Vincent isn’t a white guy, even if he does have reddish hair and freckles).
*The Jenny Casey Books–Hammered, Scardown, and Worldwired (in which all the major characters are bicultural, and several of them are also queer).
Miscellaneous Stuff Explained!
*Marc Bolan of T-Rex (who inspired David Bowie to write the song, “Lady Stardust”).
*Patti Smith’s Just Kids (where she tells the story of her first meeting with Allen Ginsberg).
*The Turkey City Lexicon explains Burly Detective Syndrome (and a bunch of other literary pitfalls).
*70s feminist science fiction: The Female Man by Joanna Russ, Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas, and the works of Jo Clayton.
*The previous interview with Bear about Chill and other exciting stuff is Outer Alliance Spotlight #22.
*Gratuitous photo of the Giant Ridiculous Dog (in case you were wondering what that mysterious barking entity looks like, the answer is: a giant muppet!).
That’s it for this time! If you have feedback, please leave a comment, or e-mail me at julia@juliarios.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #71: Shweta Narayan and J. C. Runolfson April 8, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, interviews, links, news, publications, queer-friendly publishers, submissions , 5commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #71. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week our guests are Shweta Narayan and J. C. Runolfson, co-editors of Stone Telling #4.
Before we get to our main dish, though, there are some news tidbits to share.
*The Jessica Verday situation has developed and drawn further comment from many people since OA Spotlight #70 went up two weeks ago. Charles A. Tan has a good summary at Bibliophile Stalker.
*This week marked the release of Malinda Lo‘s second YA fantasy novel, Huntress. Happy release week, Malinda! Huntress is set in the same world as Ash (a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian protagonist), but several hundred years earlier. Malinda will be traveling with the Diversity in YA Fiction Tour in May, so you might want to check and see if she’ll be visiting your area.
*And, finally, Lauren McLaughlin and K. T. Holt weigh in on the proposal to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Lauren explains why this is not actually about abortion, while Kay offers a Super Uterus t-shirt to anyone who wishes to make a fashion statement. All the profits from t-shirt sales go to Planned Parenthood.
And, on to our awesome interviewees!
Shweta Narayan is a writer and visual artist. She received the Octavia Butler Memorial Scholarship for the Clarion Writers Workshop in 2007, and is an active proponent of diversity in speculative fiction. Her stories and poems have appeared in Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, Clockwork Phoenix 3, Jabberwocky 5, and Apex, among other places. Her novelette, “Pisaach”, which appeared in The Beastly Bride, is currently up for the Nebula Award.
J. C. Runolfson is a poet, reviewer, and knitter. Her reviews have appeared in The Fix and Strange Horizons. Several of her poems have been Rhysling nominees, and she has new ones forthcoming in Goblin Fruit and Mythic Delirium.
Stone Telling is a quarterly poetry magazine published (and usually edited by) Rose Lemberg. Stone Telling welcomes queer content any time, but Shweta and Jules wanted to come talk about what kind of poems they’re especially hoping to see for Issue #4. They have a general guideline theme of inter- intersectional, international, interstitial, and the reading period for this issue is open until the 25th of May.
Outer Alliance podcast #69: OA Podcast #5 March 18, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : events, interviews, news, Outer Alliance Podcast , 3commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #69. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the fifth Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
In this episode, Catherine Lundoff, Jean Marie Ward, and Lisa Nohealani Morton talk to me about Hellebore and Rue, an anthology about lesbian magic users. After the interview, Catherine reads a selection of teasers from the book, and Jean Marie reads an excerpt of her contribution.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Angela Korra’ti’s post about her plans to raise money for disaster relief in Japan is here.
This year’s Lambda Award Finalists are listed here. Congratulations to everyone, especially OA members, Steve Berman, Katharine Beutner, and Sandra McDonald!
MidSouthCon is happening next weekend in Memphis, Tennessee. I’ll be there along with OA member, Angelia Sparrow. if you’re nearby, come say hi!
The Rainbow Book Fair is also happening next weekend in New York. It’s a big and free LGBT book event, and Craig Laurence Gidney, Nora Olsen and Kat Lively will all be there!
Lisa’s poem in Strange Horizons is “How to Bake a Cake From Scratch”.
Viable Paradise, the writing workshop where Lisa and I first met, is open for applications until the 15th of June.
Catherine’s reading last Friday (we recorded the interview on Sunday the 13th) took place at Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis. If you’re in the Twin Cities area, and want to support an awesome indie bookstore, that’s a great place to go.
Finally, in addition to all the cons Catherine and Jean Marie listed, Lisa says she’ll be at WorldCon in Reno this August, so if you’re there, say hello!
Thanks for listening, and please do feel free to leave feedback here, on the google group, or by e-mailing me at julia@juliarios.com. I’d love to hear from you.