Outer Alliance Spotlight #32: Kal Cobalt April 30, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 2commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #32. Each Friday, the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. Our guest this week is Kal Cobalt, author of Robotica.
Kal is a genderqueer, pansexual, kinky switch in a stable polyamorous triad, which makes him[1] pretty familiar with non-heteronormative sexual and gender identities, even before you factor robots in. He made his first queer speculative fiction sale three years ago when “The Lift” appeared in Circlet Press’s Best Fantastic Erotica collection. Since then, his stories have also been included in Richard Labonte’s Best Gay Romance and Boys in Heat, Queerpunk, and Circlet’s upcoming Best Erotic Fantasy and Science Fiction. Robotica is his first solo story collection.
On the non-fiction side of things, Kal writes essays and articles related to alternate gender and sexual lifestyles and identities. His essay, “Gender Evolution” is included in Toward 2012: Perspectives on the next age, and he also writes for edenfantasys.com and Reality Sandwich. His hobbies include knitting, playing Wii, and attending industrial and electronica shows. In addition to his personal site, Kal maintains a Twitter feed, and shares a food blog with his best friend at foodn00bs.typepad.com/.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #31: N. K. Jemisin April 23, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #31. Each Friday, the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. Our guest this week is N. K. Jemisin, author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
N. K. Jemisin is a straight, cisgendered ally who believes that all -isms must be addressed at the same time as they intersect and support one another. To this end, she blogs about politics, racism, and feminism, and her fiction includes a diverse spectrum of characters.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the first volume of an epic fantasy series, The Inheritance Trilogy. The first three chapters are available online beginning here. Book two, The Broken Kingdoms, will be available in the fall, and N. K. is currently working on finishing book three. She’s also written several short stories, including the Hugo and Nebula nominated “Non-Zero Probabilities”, and a lesbian steampunk story, “The Effluent Engine”.
N. K. can always be found online at nkjemisin.com, but she will also make offline appearances in the near future at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, WisCon, and Readercon.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #30: Teresa Wymore April 16, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #30. Each Friday, the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. Our guest this week is author and illustrator, Teresa Wymore.
Teresa has been writing queer speculative fiction for ten years. Her work can be found in Straying from the Path (Drollerie Press), Lesbian Cowboys (Cleis Press), and Wild Nights (Bella Books). She’s also got a lesbian fantasy novel, Darklaw, due out from Drollerie Press soon. A visual artist as well as a writer, Teresa did her own cover art for Darklaw, and is working on a graphic novel prequel to that book now.
Teresa also writes erotica for Pen Flourish, and micro-erotica on Twitter. Though she’s a Hawkeye by birth, Teresa is a beach bum at heart.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #29: Spring Break Part 2 April 9, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links, submissions , add a commentWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #29. Normally, the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. This Friday, however, marks the second of a two week break from the norm. Spring is here, and your faithful correspondent is overwhelmed with travel plans, so instead of interviews, you’ll get some links to April appropriate content elsewhere on the web.
This week, our focus is on submissions!
First, Bart and Kay over at Crossed Genres have teamed up with several awesome judges to put on the Science in My Fiction contest. Submissions opened on the 1st of April, and will run until the 30th of June. They’re looking for science fiction stories inspired by recent science news.
Second, Hellebore and Rue (edited by OA members, Catherine Lundoff and JoSelle Vanderhooft) is still open for submissions of lesbian magic user stories. Submissions close May 15th.
Third, Megan Arkenberg is looking for articles, fiction and poetry exploring the ways in which speculative fiction and politics interact. Her anthology, Crimethink, has a tentative deadline of May 15th.
And finally, on a non-submissions note, the Ursa Major Awards are open for voting until the 18th of this month (that’s just over a week from now!), so if you like anthropomorphic animal stories, movies, and art, the time to express your preferences is now.
That’s all for this week. Next week will bring us back to interviews as usual. Happy Spring!
Outer Alliance Spotlight #28: Spring Break! April 2, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links , add a commentWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #28. Normally, the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. This Friday, however, marks the first of a two week break from the norm. Spring is here, and your faithful correspondent is overwhelmed with travel plans, so instead of interviews, you’ll get some links to April appropriate content elsewhere on the web.
First, Outer Alliance member Angela Korra’ti is leading a Drollerie Press Blog Tour for the month of April, all about fools and tricksters. One of the other contributors is Angelia Sparrow, too, so it’s awash in OA goodness.
Second, April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Sexual assault affects people of all orientations, and it’s all too common. If you’re interested in learning more, or helping educate others about this, check out some of the resources at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s SAAM site.
Third, to help spread awareness and raise funds for rape crisis centers, Jim C. Hines is giving away a signed advance reader copy of his book, Red Hood’s Revenge. Jim is asking for people to donate to RAINN, or a local rape crisis center, but donations are not required in order to enter his drawing.
Support rape crisis centers and enter to win an Advance Copy of Red Hood’s Revenge, by Jim C. Hines.
That’s all for this week! The Spotlight will return next Friday with more Springtastic links, and then we’ll go back to our usual interview schedule.