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!

C.S.E. Cooney (newly minted Rhysling award winner!) is posting writeups on the Black Gate blog about her experience, including a mention of the Steam Powered group reading. Alas, I had to miss that one as I was frantically preparing for the Interstitial Arts Exchange Party I hosted that evening, but word around the con was that it was excellent.

The Crossed Genres Broken Slate party was hopping on Friday evening. I slipped in a for a few minutes while I was supposed to be setting up the arts party, and got to hear Camille Alexa read, which was excellent. It looked like some other OA types were in there, too, like Craig Laurance Gidney.

Steve Berman was on a panel about gender and sexuality in SF, which I also sadly missed, but I hear that was pretty great, too. I did get to snag a copy of the latest issue of Icarus from him, though.

The Readercon website has a list of con reports from attendees.

My own con report  with links to my very small amount of con photos is here. I also got to wave at Joselle Vaderhooft, share a couple of meals with Brit Mandelo (who does the lovely Queering SFF column over at Tor.com) and briefly speak with Madeleine Robins. I wish I could have spent more time with more awesome OA people, but I suppose there’s always next con.

So, where will you be? And when?

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.

Crossed Genres is accepting submissions for a new anthology. Fat Girl in a Strange Land will be a science fiction and fantasy anthology with fat female protagonists. According to the guidelines, “Fat can’t just be a passing detail of the main character’s physical description. It should have an impact on the plot and character development. Just like in real life, fat should be an asset or a liability, or even more realistically, both over time.”  And, of course, queer content is always welcome at Crossed Genres.

JoSelle Vanderhooft is now reading submissions for Femmes Fatales, a noir lesbian mystery erotica anthology. This will be published by Lethe Press in 2012, and while it is not strictly SF, speculative fiction is open for consideration .

Wednesday was World AIDS Day

Treatment, awareness, and acceptance have come a long way in the past 25 years, but AIDS is still a major problem worldwide. YA author Libba Bray posted a thoughtful essay about her own experiences losing loved ones to the disease. I’ll warn you right now that it made me tear up in a coffee shop, but it was worth the chagrin.

If you’re unfamiliar with Libba’s work, and are interested in reading YA speculative fiction with queer content, you might check out her short story, “Primate the Prom” in 21 Proms, the Gemma Doyle trilogy (which starts with A Great and Terrible Beauty), or her latest novel, Going Bovine.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards Fundraiser

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards aim to recognize the hard work and talent of translators who bring us stories we might not otherwise be able to read. They’re hoping to raise $2,000 to use as prize money. Anyone who makes a donation between now and the 14th of January will be entered into a drawing to win books and other exciting prizes.

A Few Exciting New Releases This Week

*Zombiality: a queer bent on the undead is edited by Bill Tucker, and contains a story by Angelia Sparrow.

*Crossed Genres released their first novel this week. R. J. Astruc’s A Festival of Skeletons is available in print and e-book formats.

*Monday was the release day for Aether Age: Helios, edited by Chris Fletcher and Brandon Bell. Chris is also one of the people behind the newly released 2020 Visions anthology.

Awesome Queer Content in Comics

And finally, here’s something to spark some conversation here in the comments, or over dinner tonight with your non-virtual friends. Neo_Prodigy has made a list of 25 awesome queer comics characters, which is great, but non-exhaustive. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have additional favorites? And can anyone out there think of any trans, intersex, or asexual comic book characters?

OA Members Talk About Coming Out:

Nicola Griffith shared an excerpt from her memoir, And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer’s Early Life. This is a sad, alarming, amusing, and sweet glimpse of Nicola’s teen years before she became a well-adjusted and happily out adult.

Cheryl Morgan reminded us that being out is not always simple, easy, or safe with a post examining some of the challenges trans people face.

Catherine Lundoff agrees that being out is a privilege, and asks that we consider supporting organizations which help queer youth like District 202.

New Releases:

Rigor Amortis, the anthology of zombie erotica edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt is available at amazon, and contains stories by OA members Kay Holt and Kaolin Fire.

The Little Death of Crossed Genres, edited by Chris Fletcher and Jaym Gates is available in both electronic and print formats through the Crossed Genres website.

The latest issue of Weird Tales contains Natania Barron’s three part poem about “made” women in mythology. “The Wakened Image” appears alongside pictures by Brigid Ashwood.

Calls for Submissions by Queer-friendly Publishers:

Rose Lemberg would love to see poems with LGBTQI voices for Stone Telling. The current submission window is open until the 21st of November, and at present, Rose says there hasn’t been nearly enough queer content in the submissions pile.

Port Iris Zine is accepting submissions for issue #4 until the 5th of November. See their guidelines for more details.

Karen Romanko is looking for Halloween themed stories for her next anthology, Jack-o’-Spec.

That’s all for this time. Join us again next week, and please share any news you might have here in the comments, on the Outer Alliance google group, or via Twitter (mention either @omgjulia, or @outeralliance)

This week:

Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project took off on YouTube. The It Gets Better Project is a quest to collect videos from LGBTQI adults who want to let high schoolers know that life does really get better after high school. There are, unfortunately, a lot of queer teen suicides, and this project exists to give teens who might be thinking about that a tangible reason to hope for a better future. Dan and his partner Terry made the first video for the project. They talk about their high school experiences, how they met, and how great their life is now. If you want to participate, there are instructions on the It Gets Better Project YouTube Channel. Please also tell us if you make a video for this, and we’ll link to it in a future Spotlight!

Sandra McDonald‘s novel, The Stars Blue Yonder, came out in paperback this week. To celebrate, Sandra made an amusing video tribute to Australia (where the book is set).

And, Bart Leib announced that the queer issue of Crossed Genres is going away at the end of this month. It’s been up for eleven months now, and expires after twelve. If you haven’t read it, now’s the time!

That’s all for this time. Join us again next week, and please share any news you might have (or links to your It Gets Better videos!) here in the comments, on the Outer Alliance google group, or via Twitter (mention either @omgjulia, or @outeralliance).

First, congratulations to all the Hugo winners! Lots of awesome stuff up there, including plenty of things by LGBTQI friendly people. Congratulations, too, to all the nominees who didn’t end up taking home a rocket ship of their very own. It was a great crowd this year. Special thanks and congratulations to Cheryl Morgan, who provided live coverage of the awards (alongside podcast superstar, Mur Lafferty), and shared the Best Semiprozine win with Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace of Clarkesworld.

Second, Congratulations to Outer Alliance founder, Natania Barron, for a few things! Aside from being in on the groud floor of the new Geek Mom blog, our fearless leader has a story in the new Dark Futures anthology. She’s in great company as the anthology is full of stories by excellent writers, including two who’ve been interviewed here before: Sara Harvey and Michele Lee.

But that’s not all Natania’s been up to! She’s also agreed to take on editorial responsibilities (along with OA member, Jaym Gates) at Crossed Genres starting next year. Bart Leib and K.T. Holt will still be the publishers, but they’re handing over the editorial reins so that they can focus on putting together anthologies, and managing the Science In My Fiction site, which they started last March. The best part? Science In My Fiction will be publishing short stories each month, which means there’s yet another LGBTQI friendly SF market in the world (here are the submissions guidelines). Hurray!

Next is something not speculative fiction related, but noteworthy all the same: the fine folks at Lambda Literary have posted a call for submissions to a Mothers of Trans Children Project. This will be published by Cleis Press and edited by Rachel Pepper, co-author of The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals.

And finally, here’s a thoughtful guest post about bisexuality and gender-bending in paranormal romance by Cecilia Tan on the GLBT Reading blog.

That’s it for this week. If you have any Spotlight-worthy notes, news, links, etc., please let us know in the comments, on the OA google group, or by telling me on Twitter. You can address me directly, or use the Twitter tag #oaspotlight to let me know what’s new. I look forward to hearing from you!

K.T. (Kay) and Bart are married, and both of them are bisexual. They started Crossed Genres together in 2008, and decided in the first couple of months that they wanted to do an extra large LGBTQ themed issue for the magazine’s first anniversary. The idea for Crossed Genres, which features stories that combine SF/F and another genre, grew out of Bart’s Genre Challenge community. Genre Challenge (which prompts members to write in a new genre each month) is still going, but has a new moderator now that Crossed Genres has taken off.

Kay’s love of speculative fiction runs deep. She wrote her first story (about a talking dolphin and his pet boy) at the age of six, and later got into college because of an essay on worldbuilding. Bart started writing poetry when he was in 8th grade, and took up prose fiction the next year. His non-fiction piece, “The Successful Hero’s List”, appeared in the April 2009 issue of Fantasy Magazine.

Bart and Kay live in Somerville, Massachusetts with their 3-year-old son, Bastian, and two cats named Romeo and Scout. In addition to writing and editing, both Kay and Bart take a keen interest in science. Kay works a day job in medical research administration, and is appalled at how little money brilliant researchers make. Bart’s particular scientific area of interest is sustainability, and people who use minimal resources to do amazing things. Kay and Bart encourage anyone with an interest in the future to blog about their favorite science news stories, and to fund research if possible.

What’s the story behind Crossed Genres? How did you come up with that particular idea for a magazine, and how do you choose the theme for each issue?

K: Bart tells this story better than I do.

B: I do? News to me!

It started with the Genre Challenge, which was something I came up with to help myself as a writer: each month I picked a new genre and had to write a story of at least 1000 words in that genre (without mixing it with genres that I found easier, like SFF). I’d originally intended to only do it myself, and spontaneously decided at the last minute to open the idea up to others. Now the Livejournal community has 250-plus members. See how I failed at that?

We’d talked about the idea of converting Genre Challenge into a magazine, but felt it wouldn’t work for a variety of reasons. Kay was the one who came up with the idea of having each month combine a new genre with SFF. Some conversations we had at Denvention III (WorldCon 2008 in Denver, CO) solidified the idea, and we decided to go for it very shortly after.

How we choose the genres varies. We want to encourage as much diversity in submissions as possible, and from all over the world, so we try not to pick any genre that’s too narrow. We never want to have any that are too similar too close to each other. We also really like pushing the boundaries of what defines a “genre”, which is how we’ve ended up with themes like Child Fiction (September 2009) and Antihero (accepting submissions in February (2010). We’ve got some real doozies on our list but we’re saving the really tough ones for further down the road.

In the current LGBTQ themed issue, how varied is the queer content? Did the submissions trend toward any particular part of the LGBTQ spectrum? Were there any types of characters you would have liked to see more of?

B: I think it’s not surprising that we received a lot of stories about transsexual and transgender characters – SFF has a long history of playing with the definition of gender. But for the same reason, I was pretty surprised at the lack of genderless or intersex characters. Still, overall I was very pleased with the diversity of submissions we got.

One other thing I was surprised at was how few stories we received that had human/alien pairings. But in retrospect I can see how that type of story might be seen as drawing a parallel (however unintentionally) between queer relationships and something literally alien.

How is it working as a husband and wife editing team?

K: Well, I think it’s more relevant that we’re best friends than that we’re married. First and foremost, we have fun running CG together. The fact of our marriage just means that we can run it from our living room. Spending this much time together is certainly good for our marriage, but I doubt that would be so if we didn’t both enjoy the work so much.

B: If we didn’t love doing it then we’d have quit long ago, married or not. But one of the biggest things that brought us together as a couple in the first place was a shared love of literature, fandom and geekery. Crossed Genres is essentially an extension of our shared passions, which makes it so easy to enjoy together.

Bart, you gave Kay an amazing birthday surprise at WorldCon this year. How did you manage to pull that off? And Kay, just how excellent and unexpected was it? Have you been getting a lot of use out of your CINTIQ in the past couple of months?

B: Rather than try to condense what happened, I think it would be easier if people read my after-the-fact blog post. It’s long but worth the read.

Pulling it off was… well read the post to see just how tricky it was. But it’s the first time I ever spent 5 solid months on a birthday surprise, I’ll tell you that. (And another HUGE thank you to all the wonderful conspirators!)

K: Completely unexpected. It was good enough for me that I was attending WorldCon for the second birthday in a row!

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Cintiq, though of course I wish I had more time to spend making art. Soon after I started playing around with the Cintiq, I was honored with an invitation to do a guest comic for The Apple of Discord. And since then I’ve been posting the occasional doodle to my DeviantArt gallery, not counting the still-secret art gigs I’ve been doing for very patient friends.

Crossed Genres is a year old, and it’s still going strong. Do you have any advice or resources for other people who might want to start zines of their own?

K: The learning curve is steep; if you’re honest about the mistakes you make and learn from them, most people will understand. You don’t have to pander to the masses; it’s okay to start small and stay small. Don’t quit your day job. And get some sleep, for goodness sake!

B: Remember that you won’t make money – if you do it, you’re doing it because you love it. If you don’t love it, don’t start, because it won’t last. Set deadlines and stick to them, because the second one thing falls behind, everything will. Plan as far in advance as possible – in fact, set aside time just for planning ahead. And I’ll second what Kay said about starting and staying small. If that’s what you love, it’s what you should do. Don’t allow your zine to be forced to be something you don’t enjoy yourself. Keep it yours.

***

Thanks, Bart and Kay! Join us next Friday for another Spotlight, and in the meantime, go check out the LGBTQ issue of Crossed Genres!

President Obama has added gay, lesbian, transgender and disabled people to those protected by US hate crimes law; other promises about gay rights remain in progress or outstanding.

Religious settler comes to aid of gay Palestinian: a young Palestinian man who lives with his partner in Israel visited his parents in West Bank and was subsequently not allowed back into Israel. For fear of his life he couldn’t return to his own village, but a religious Jewish settler agreed to shelter him in his settlement.

Crash director Paul Haggis quits Church of Scientology after 35 years as a member, in protest against its opposition to gay marriage.

Crossed Genres has released their LGBTQ issue (Issue #12)

If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks“.