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!
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 #22: Elizabeth Bear February 19, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , 3commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #22. 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 Campbell, Hugo, and Spectrum Award winning author, Elizabeth Bear.
Elizabeth Bear won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005, and has since written several award winning novels and stories. Bear’s novels often include queer content, and her long trail of award nominations reflects this. Carnival was nominated for the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Lambda Literary Award in 2006 and shortlisted for the Gaylactic Spectrum Award in 2007. New Ansterdam, Dust, and Whiskey and Water were shortlisted for the Spectrum in 2008, while A Companion to Wolves (co-written with Sarah Monette) also received Spectrum and Lambda nominations that year. In 2009, All the Windwracked Stars, Ink and Steel, and Hell and Earth received Spectrum nominations, and the latter two (treated as two volumes of a long novel, The Stratford Man) won.
Bear’s success is not limited to novels, though. She’s had stories reprinted in several Year’s Best anthologies, and two of her shorter pieces have won Hugo Awards: “Tideline” for Best Short Story in 2008, and “Shoggoths in Bloom” for Best Novelette in 2009. She also writes for a fictional television show called Shadow Unit with a team of other authors including Emma Bull, Sarah Monette, and Amanda Downum.
In addition to her website, Bear maintains a LiveJournal and a Twitter feed. Her new novel, Chill, is coming out on the 23rd, and a novella, Bone and Jewel Creatures will be available in March.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #13: Shaun Duke December 11, 2009
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, queer-friendly publishers , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #13. 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 reviewer and editor, Shaun Duke.
Shaun is a straight ally with a gay mom, who believes that people of all orientations should be able to tell the stories they want to tell. He reviews and discusses speculative fiction on his blog, The World in the Satin Bag, and he is the co-owner of the Young Writers Online forum and workshop website. He recently released the first issue of Survival By Storytelling, an online magazine that publishes young writers.
Though originally from the West Coast of the United States, Shaun currently lives in Gainesville, Florida with nine leopard geckos. He is working towards an MA in English at the University of Florida, specializing in science fiction, post-colonialism, and fantasy.