The 2011 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Have Been Announced! November 30, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, links, news , 3commentsThe Gaylactic Spectrum Awards for best novel (for works published in 2010) have just been announced! This year had a fantastic list of nominees, so I don’t envy the judges having to narrow it down to a short list and overall winner. The Outer Alliance would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to all the nominees!
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!
Stories! Free for your enjoyment! November 25, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : links, publications, queer-friendly publishers , 5commentsIn the United States, today is commercially known as Black Friday. It’s a day when people are urged to buy All The Things. Ads on television, in newspapers, and on billboards pester us for weeks in anticipation of this day. Stores plan giant sales. Some of them open at midnight, others at four or five in the morning. All the messages tell us that we should be embracing our national identity as consumers, and that Christmas (one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year for the culturally Christian among us) is officially coming.
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!
Outer Alliance Spotlight #93: KV Taylor November 18, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #93. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction.Our guest today is KV Taylor, author of Scripped.
KV Taylor is an avid reader and writer of urban fantasy and dark speculative fiction, even though the only degree she holds is in the history of art. (Or, possibly, because the only degree she holds is in the history of art.) Originally from the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia, she currently lives in the D.C. Metro Area with her husband and mutant cat. In her spare time she enjoys comic books, Himalayan Buddhist art, loud music, her Epiphone, and Black Bush. She lives at kvtaylor.com, edits for Morrigan Books, and collects The Red Penny Papers in her dining room.
*** (more…)
Outer Alliance Podcast #13 November 8, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, links, news, Outer Alliance Podcast, queer-friendly publishers , 1 comment so farIt’s the first anniversary of the Outer Alliance Podcast! Because I love ghost stories, I decided to run with that as our Birthday Podcast Theme, and to make the month extra exciting, we’re giving away books!
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!