Before we dive into the wide world of writerly education, there’s one bit of news I wanted to share. A lot of OA members have said they’re fans of Diane Duane, and cited her as an influence on their own work, so I thought I should pass on her call for help. Earlier this week someone fraudulently cleared out her bank account, and she’s scrambling to make ends meet while the bank sorts through fraud paperwork. A quick infusion of cash would be very welcome, so she’s offering a 20% discount on her personal e-book store. If you’d like to help her out and get some excellent books at a bargain price, just go over there and use the promotional code DDGOTSKIMMED.

Okay! Writing workshops!

The beginning of the calendar year is one of those times when a lot of people resolve to improve and grow. If you’re a writer, you might be drawing up plans to complete big projects, or making goals for submissions counts, or you might be trying to figure out how best to learn more about your craft. There are a lot of writing classes out there. Here are a few which are QUILTBAG friendly. All of these have either been recommended by OA members, or are taught by OA members.

I’m going to list these in order of pricing from high to low. I’m not valuing any workshop or class over another, though, just to be clear.

Clarion Workshops — These are six week intensive workshops. They’re competitive, and they’ll set you back a couple thousand dollars (though there are a few scholarships available). Several OA members have praised them for the diverse and knowledgeable instructors, and the residential setting, which focuses students on learning and making connections with their peers. Many Clarion students go on to sell a lot of work. If this sounds like your cup of tea, applications are open until the 1st of March for both Clarion and Clarion West. Both workshops this year feature instructors who have written stories with QUILTBAG content themselves, so it’s safe to assume they’ll be supportive of yours if you bring it.

Viable Paradise — Like Clarion, this is a residential intensive workshop with several instructors, and it’s also going to cost you a couple thousand dollars when all is said and done. Unlike Clarion, all the instructors are there together, and the whole experience lasts one week instead of six. It’s also competitive, and many Viable Paradise students go on to sell a lot of work. If the intensive residency idea appeals, but you have a job or family you can’t leave for long, this might be a good choice for you. Applications  for Viable Paradise are open until the 15th of June.  Again, the instructors here have written (or published) QUILTBAG material, so yours will be welcome.

Lambda Literary Writing Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices – If you want to spend time with other QUILTBAG writers, this might be a good choice for you. It’s another weeklong intensive residency program, which, again, will cost a couple thousand dollars after you’ve accounted for transportation and room and board on top of the tuition (though there are scholarships available).  Applications are open until mid-April. Lambda Literary has more information here.

Loft Classes — The Literary Loft is a Minneapolis area organization which offers lots of different classes for writers both in person and online. These are a good option for people who have less money to spend, and they’re not competitive–anyone may enroll. If you live in the area, you might consider taking Catherine Lundoff’s one day class on writing and selling QUILTBAG fiction on the 18th of February (a steal at $46.50). If you don’t live in the area, you might like Lyda Morehouse’s science fiction class, Mars Needs Writers ($425.00 for six weeks of online coursework starting on the 6th of February–video introduction here). Both of these instructors are most certainly open to QUILTBAG work. To find either class, visit the Loft site, and look them up under the teaching artists field in the search page.

Cat Rambo’s Online Classes — For the writer who wants to experience a workshop classroom environment without leaving home, this is a great choice. These classes run from $99 to $249, and Cat teaches over Google+ hangouts, which are video chats. I’m currently taking one, and can personally attest it’s been helpful. Again, this is a non-competitive open enrollment situation, so your class will likely contain people at different levels. I’ve found that perfectly agreeable, as Cat gives equal time and attention to everyone and is very good about tailoring classes to specific students’ needs. And Cat’s an OA member, so you know QUILTBAG content is welcome. You may find info on how to sign up at Cat’s blog.

That’s what I’ve got for now. If you have other QUILTBAG friendly writing education recommendations, please tell us about them in the comments!

Finally, there are still a few days left to enter the drawing for a signed copy of Natania Barron’s Pilgrim of the Sky. Just comment on this post to get your name into the hat!

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Part 3 is here.

Thanks to Charles Tan for letting me know this video existed!

This whole idea of celebrating and supporting QUILTBAG civil rights, and fair representation of QUILTBAG writers and characters in speculative fiction, is not in competition with other rights movements.

There’s this thing called intersectionality, which basically suggests that all oppressed groups intersect in some way, and if we’re working toward fairness and equality for one group of people, really, we need to be working toward fairness and equality for all people. We’re all in this together. This is one reason why I think the conversation Nnedi Okorafor recently started is really important.

Nnedi is a woman of color, and her World Fantasy Award winning novel, Who Fears Death, is set in a future Africa with a protagonist who is a woman of color. Given that, it’s pretty understandable that Nnedi might feel uncomfortable with the World Fantasy Award’s form: a bust of H.P. Lovecraft. Her post is worth reading in its entirety, but in the interest of continuing the discussion with context, here’s some of the heart of it:

This is something people of color, women, minorities must deal with more than most when striving to be the greatest that they can be in the arts: The fact that many of The Elders we honor and need to learn from hate or hated us.

…

If Lovecraft’s likeness and name are to be used in connection to the World Fantasy Award, I think there should be some discourse about what it means to honor a talented racist.

Now, Lovecraft wasn’t just a racist. He was also a misogynist, and probably a homophobe as well. Sarah Monette talked a little bit about this in the 13th episode of the OA Podcast (on misogyny, around the 17:28 mark, she said, “I mean, Lovecraft has two female characters with names, and one of them is an inbred, passive receptacle for a monster, and the other one is a monster herself.”). And yet, Lovecraft is a giant influence on many modern fantasy and horror writers with much more progressive ideals. His work, his style, and his meshing of things both beautiful and dreadful, have seeped into modern American culture so much that Cthulhu, a tentacled horror, is widely recognized and reinterpreted in text, film, visual art, game, and plush toy forms (to name a few). A quick check on Amazon shows 683 items tagged with Cthulhu, and 515 tagged with Lovecraft. Like Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, the Cthulhu mythos has permeated pop culture enough that there are likely a lot of people who enjoy the references without ever having consumed the original source material, much less considered the author’s politics.

But many of the modern writers who cite Lovecraft as an influence have indeed considered those politics, and their work often engages in dialogue with them. Elizabeth Bear’s 2009 Hugo winning  “Shoggoths in Bloom” (with an African American protagonist, who considers Lovecraft’s shoggoths in the context of slavery and the oppression of minority groups) is one example, and Sarah Monette’s The Bone Key (which explores issues of gender and sexuality with several named female characters and a gay male protagonist) is another.

Does any of this change that Lovecraft was a racist, or that his published and celebrated works include a lot of horribly racist content? No. Some argue that he seems to have had a change of heart at the end of his life–there’s a letter from 1936 in which he wrote, “The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right—for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past.” Of course, the context of that statement is economics and not racism, but it does imply that he was human, and had the capacity to change and grow, which is somewhat reassuring. It doesn’t undo the horrible things he wrote, though.  And while I can’t deny that his work was compelling and remains widely influential, I have to say, I’m not sure why we need a bust of his head commemorating one of the more progressive awards out there (past winners include China Miéville, Ellen Kushner, and Margo Lanagan, among others).

Theodora Goss (another World Fantasy Award winner) has also posted about this, and (in addition to a brilliantly specific example of how she reads Lovecraft with a critical eye, and what she sees in his work despite the unpleasantness) she offers a suggestion for a new award form, which sounds pretty great to me:

I think the award should be different each year, and it should be designed by a contemporary fantasy artist. Imagine winning an award designed by Shaun Tan or Charles Vess or Omar Rayyan! That would also recognize the wonderful work being done in fantasy art, which is such an important part of book publication in this “genre” (a word I use for convenience, since I don’t think fantasy is a genre).

What does it mean to honor a talented racist? I don’t have a good answer. I think it’s good to recognize and respond to the sources which help shape our work. I think it’s good to remember and examine both their strengths and their flaws so that we can continue improving, evolving, and growing as artists and as humans. But it does trouble me to have this symbol on an award. Partly, I think it’s that when we choose to commemorate someone with a bust like that, we’re implicitly approving of everything about them, whether we intend to or not. And partly, it’s a broader issue for me. The World Fantasy Award is not about one person. It’s not an award for the work most like Lovecraft’s, it’s an award for the best fantasy works of any given year. Fantasy covers a lot of ground, and not all of it is tinged with the Lovecraftian influence. Why narrow the form of the award down to honoring one person? The Hugos and the Nebulas manage to do all right without being busts of anyone’s heads, after all.

What are your thoughts? How do you feel about Lovecraft, the World Fantasy Award, and Nnedi’s call for discourse? Have you seen other posts in this conversation which particularly moved you? Have you written one of your own? I think it’s a very good thing to talk about, and I would really love to hear from others.

Although this episode has an explicit tag, most of it is fine for everyone to consume. If you are concerned about exposing your delicate ears to a bit of salty language, however, you should avoid listening to the very last excerpt (from Patty Templeton’s story).

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:

Awards!
*The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards writeup is here. The OA sends hearty congratulations to all!
*Elisa Rolle’s Rainbow Awards list is here. So many OA members to congratulate! Excellent job all around! Particular congratulations to JoSelle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff, Cecilia Tan, Lauren Burka, Lee Thomas, Lee Benoit, and Kyell Gold!

Zen Cho’s Links
*Zen’s blog, which has links to all her stories.
*Eileen Chang‘s stories were part of the inspiration for Zen’s story in SteamPowered II.
*Malaysian and Singaporean writers: Jaymee Goh, Stephanie Lai, Fadzlishah Johanabas, Ika Koeck, Alfian Sa’at, Eeleen Lee, Joyce Chng.
*Ken Liu and Aliette de Bodard are not Malaysian or Singaporean, but Zen recommends their work, too.

Shveta Thakrar’s Links
*Shveta’s blog.
*“Lavanya and Deepika” is Shveta’s retelling of “The Beautiful Twin and the Ugly Twin” in Demeter’s Spicebox.
*Shveta recommends the Hindu myth comic books from Amar Chitra Katha.

Patty Templeton’s Links
*Patty Templeton’s blog.
*The Foxfire Books seek to preserve and celebrate the culture of Southern Appalachia.
*Naked Girls Reading is a group of women who like to read in the nude (yes, this page does contain pictures of naked women). They also give out a Literary Honors Award, which Patty won in 2010.

More About SteamPowered II
*Jaymee Goh interviewed every contributor for this volume on her blog. See the collected interviews here.
*The Skiffy and Fanty Show (a podcast co-hosted by OA member, Shaun Duke) had an LGBTQ themed episode with SteamPowered editor, JoSelle Vanderhooft this month.

This year’s Best Novel winner is Under the Poppy by Kathe Koja! You can read more about Kathe and this Spectrum winning novel in Outer Alliance Spotlight #53. It involves love, war, and puppets, plus it’s got a really interesting structure and voice. Kirstyn and Ian gave it a a rave review on episode #5 of The Writer and the Critic, and the Spectrum judges say, “… the
novel engages the reader from the start, provides a way to taste and smell the world through brilliantly-crafted prose, and presents a heart-wrenching romance.” You can buy Under the Poppy from Small Beer Press.

Recommended Short List:

Black Blade Blues by J.A. Pitts (Tor) — Urban Fantasy with dragons and adventure and a female protagonist, who has a girlfriend!
Bob the Book by David Pratt (Chelsea Street Editions) — A story about a gay book, who gets separated from his partner and interacts with other books and people as he tries to find him.
A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications) — Weird Western with lots of action, magic, crime, and a gay couple at the center of it all.
Red Hood’s Revenge by Jim C. Hines (DAW) — The third in his Princess series, this book gives us tough, capable fairy tale heroines, some of whom are lesbians! Yay!
Stealing Fire by Jo Graham (Orbit) — Historical Fantasy set just after the death of Alexander the Great. This one features a bisexual hero, and is written by a bisexual author.
The White Road by Lynn Flewelling (Spectra) — The fifth book in Lynn’s Nightrunner series (which features a gay couple, and is often gushed about by OA members).
The Wolf at the Door by Jameson Currier (Chelsea Street Editions) — New Orleans, ghosts, and a gay hero blended into scary story with wit and sentiment.

Congratulations, all! You can read what the Spectrum Judges had to say about all of these books on this PDF handout. Have you read any of these? What did you think of them? Feel free to share your favorites in the comments!

Me? I’m a bit of a rebel. I hate shopping usually, and I loathe giant crowds. I tend to fall by default into the segment of the population  which calls this day Buy Nothing Day. Some of my compatriots feel passionately political about their choice. I mostly just feel relieved not to be in the middle of that fevered mess of acquisition. This year, though, I thought maybe it would be fun to do a little more. Instead of just quietly hiding from the world, or (horror of horrors) going out and joining the hordes of consumers, what if I offered an alternative? Whether or not you’re in the US, if you’d rather spend a bit of time reading free fiction than shopping today (or even in addition to shopping), this post is for you.

One of the neat things about the OA is that so many of the members are writers as well as readers. This means that, as a group, we produce a lot of awesome fiction. Much of that is for sale, but thanks to this wonderful internet, there’s a lot of great free stuff out there, too. Below are a few stories by OA members which have appeared online this month. Enjoy!

“Conjuring Shadows” by Craig Laurance Gidney is a story about a transgender conjure woman in 1920s Harlem. Since November is the month in which the Transgender Day of Remembrance falls, I thought we’d lead with this one. It’s a lovely fantasy, which will take only a few minutes to read, but which might linger in your mind for quite a while after you’ve finished it. You may read it at Expanded Horizons (and if you’re unfamiliar with that magazine, I highly recommend it in general. It’s full of gems, and makes a point of celebrating diversity in specfic).

“Cockatrice Girl Meets Statue Boy” by Willow Fagan is a funny and sweet story about… well, the title says it all. It doesn’t feature overtly QUILTBAG content, but it does playfully examine gender assumptions, and the author identifies as genderqueer. The bio accompanying this story on the Cast of Wonders page explains that, “… they feel more like a pirate princess than like a man or a woman.” Rock on, Pirate Princess Willow! I love that description! You may listen to this story in two parts here and here.

“Eight” by Corinne Duyvis is a more somber exploration of personal sacrifice, war, and alternate timelines. The protagonist is a bisexual woman, though this is neither integral to the plot, nor really mentioned in more than a passing sentence. This is a story which suggests a hundred other stories, and given its subject matter and prose style, it might especially appeal to fans of Elizabeth Bear’s Jenny Casey books. “Eight” is available at Strange Horizons.

“The Day Alan Turing Came Out” by Leonard Richardson explores alternate timelines from a different perspective. This one has a bittersweetness, which comes from knowing that in our current timeline, history unfolded less pleasantly. This story first appeared in the Retro Spec: tales of fantasy and nostalgia, but the author has now put it up on his own website. If you are curious about the background on this one, you can find a brief interview with Leonard as part of the OA Spotlight post about Retro Spec.

That’s all I’ve got for today, but if you have recommendations for great free fiction, I’d love to see them! Please consider leaving them in the comments!

Our guest this month is Sarah Monette, author of The Bone Key, which is just out in its shiny second edition with an introduction by Lynne M. Thomas (astute listeners may remember her as the guest on last month’s OA podcast). After the interview, Sarah also reads an excerpt from one of the stories in The Bone Key.

Annnnnnd…

She’s graciously donated a signed copy for our birthday giveaway, and we have two other books as well! Signed copies of Vintage by Steve Berman, and Hollowstone by Dennis Upkins are also up for grabs. Three lucky listeners will win one of these haunting tomes. The contest is open until the end of November. I’ll draw winners in December. To enter, send me an e-mail (julia@juliarios.com) with “Podcast Contest” in the subject line. I will ship anywhere in the world, and everyone who is not actually me is eligible. This means you!

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:

News
*Malinda Lo has redesigned her website, and is also giving away books to celebrate!
*The World Fantasy Awards happened last month, and Alisa Krasnostein won in the Special Award Non-Professional category for Twelfth Planet Press. Hurray! If you would like to read some awesome Australian specfic (often with queer content), Twelfth Planet Press is a great place to look!
*The Tiptree Recommended Reading List  is full of awesome stories, many of which are by OA members! There is still time to recommend books and stories to the Tiptree jury, so if you’ve read something this year which explores or expands our notions of gender, do go tell them about it!
*Maria Lima‘s Bood Sacrifice has been nominated in the Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist category for the RT Awards! Hurray, and best of luck to you, Maria!
*It’s [Inter]National Novel Writing Month! Bon Courage to all the wrimos in the OA crowd!
*Dennis Upkins will be signing books at The Great Escape in Madison, TN on the 19th of this month
*Sarah Monette will be signing books on that very same day (with Elizabeth Bear) at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge, MA.

Sarah’s Work
*The Bone Key and Somewhere Beneath Those Waves are her two short story collections, available from Prime Books.
*“After the Dragon” and “The Devil in Gaylord’s Creek” are the two stories we talked about that appeared in Fantasy Magazine.
*“Letter From a Teddy Bear on Veteran’s Day” is one of the first stories Sarah successfully wrote (the other is the opening story in The Bone Key, “Bringing Helena Back”).
*Here is Sarah Monette’s Author Page on Amazon, where you can find all of her novels.

Other Works We Mentioned
*The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
*“Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” and “The Wailing Well” by M.R. James
*“The Statement of Randolph Carter” by H.P. Lovecraft (the inspiration for “Bringing Helena Back”)
*“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” by H.P. Lovecraft (Sarah’s favorite Lovecraft story)
*The Dead Zone by Stephen King (in Sarah’s estimation, one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century)
*P.G. Wodehouse (whose work, like Sarah’s Booth stories, features eccentric characters with strong personalities)
*Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (which Sarah says is a huge influence on her fantasy novels)

That’s it for this episode. If you have feedback for me, please leave a comment here, talk to us on the Google Group, or e-mail me at julia@juliarios.com. And do enter to win one of the three books in our Birthday Ghost Story Giveaway!

Crossed Genres has been actively involved in the Outer Alliance from the start. I interviewed owners Bart and Kay back in 2009 for OA Spotlight #8, and they’ve been industriously celebrating, promoting, and soliciting queer content for the duration of Crossed Genres Magazine‘s run.

Earlier this month, they announced that the magazine will be closing. This is sad news for those of us who have loved anticipating each new theme for the past three years, but it’s actually great news, too. The reason Bart and Kay are closing the magazine is so that they’ll have more time to concentrate on anthologies and novels, like Fat Girl in a Strange Land (whose table of contents just went live today!)  and Broken Slate (which was the subject of OA Podcast #9).

With a solid track record of diverse content, we can certainly look forward to excellent things once the magazine closes, but first, Crossed Genres Magazine is having one last major hurrah. Issue 36, which will come out in December, has the theme: Different. Submissions are open until the 31st of this month, and they’re accepting all sorts of different things for this one.

For this issue, we are open to all types of media. Previously we haven’t accepted poetry, or podcasts, or photography; now we are. We’ll even consider longer or shorter pieces of writing. (maximum 10,000 words though!) This will make the final issue – well, different from anything we’ve published before.

And we’re looking for as diverse a body of submissions as possible to choose from! We want submissions with characters of color, quiltbag characters, disabled characters, elderly or child M/C’s. We want underrepresented perspectives!

Wouldn’t it be lovely to see a lot of OA members in that last issue? I think so! If you have something Different for Bart and Kay to look at, do send it in!

I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read?: Lee Wind’s awesome book recommendation blog. He reads all kinds of things and shares his thoughts with the rest of us–and there’s always an open comment thread. Seriously excellent resource. Right up there with…

Bibrary Book Lust: Sally Sapphire’s super book recommendation resource. Sally’s open to all sorts of genres, and super interested in keeping the conversation going–she started the Gender Identity and Expression Book Challenge at the beginning of this year. There’s still time to participate, if you like!

Twitter #FeministSF Chat: This happens every Sunday at 2pm EST. Every week there are one or two host/moderators who guide discussions on particular themes. This Sunday, Catherine Lundoff and Kathryn Allen are going to be talking about outsiders and cyberpunk. Sign into Twitter and follow the #FeministSF hastag. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to meet other people and get book recs.

In Person in New York This Month: On the 24th, The Center for Fiction is hosting an Outsiders in SF panel with Steve Berman, Samuel Delaney, Andrea Hairston, Carlos Hernandez, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Ellen Kushner.  And on the 10th (that’s Monday!) Bluestockings is hosting a reading from Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry. Rose Fox will be a part of that one. Honestly, if you’re ever in New York, it’s worth checking out the Bluestockings events calendar, since they have stuff going on nearly every day.

In Person in Washington DC This Month: Capclave is next weekend, the 14th-16th in Gaithersburg, MD. Catherynne Valente is one of the Guests of Honor.

In Person in San Diego This Month: The World Fantasy Convention is on the last weekend of October. It’s already completely sold out, and has been for some time, but it promises to be full of exciting conversations, which I’m hoping will spill over onto the internet so that people like me, who can’t be there, can join in the fun.

If you know of other places where excellent conversations are happening, please tell us in the comments here or on the google group. And if you’re going to any of these in-person events and want to share your experience with us, we’d love to hear those, too!

OA member Keffy Kehrli was a guest on Writing Excuses during WorldCon, and the episode went live this week. It’s a short (about 20 minutes), but good discussion. All of the participants talk about different ways to think about (and write) gender, and Keffy patiently explains some of the unfortunate stereotypes that trans people face.

There are also some resources on the comments page (and some unfortunate comments, but surprisingly few of those, honestly).

Have you got any favorite examples of well-written trans characters to recommend? I’d love to hear about them!