My LJ, Let Me Show You It
1. This LJ is a mirror for my main journal. I don't plan to make any LJ-only posts anymore and probably won't make many f-locked posts. So if you'd rather read my journal through your feedreader, you won't miss out on anything here.
2. My friend policy is simple: if you want to friend me, you may do so without asking. I enjoy new friends. I friend many people back, but not all. If that's cool with you, yay! If we've actually met in person or otherwise "know" each other, please introduce yourself on this post. This will help me filter you on my reading lists and also help me remember who you are when your LJ handle comes up again later.
That's all! Enjoy.
- My full Readercon schedule can be found here. I don’t know that I will actually be reading at the Interfictions 2 reading… or maybe we’re doing the thing where we each read for 2 minutes. I now have something to do on each day. When I’m not on a panel or attending one I’ll probably be hanging around the Prime Books table. There you will find copies of Sybil’s Garage and Electric Velocipede as well as Federations (and whatever else that doesn’t matter to me ;) ).
- My Week 2 story was complete in the early hours of Sunday morning. But it has no name, so I can’t send it anywhere. Boo! I hate titles.
- Today is the last full day I have to spend with my nieces here in Virginia. We went to Barnes & Noble and I bought them a TON of books. I tried desperately to interest my older niece in good stuff like Delia’s Changeling and Neil’s Graveyard Book but she wanted American Girls books. Save me. I did get her to buy Harry Potter, so that’s a start. I got a thrill when I saw Carol’s Graphic Universe books on the shelves. No Twisted Journeys, though. So I’ll have to send them to her. I have some age-appropriate Tiptree submissions I’ll send, too. I’m turning into the aunt that sends books. Hrm. (I also have a small friend in Texas who is getting some books soon, too.)
- Don’t forget that tomorrow is the Federations NYRSF reading. Click the link for deets and location and such.
Authors… what the hell is going on? I would say that Twitter has made you insane, but I know some of you have been bringing the foolishness for a while, so obviously it’s not new media that is causing you to act out like a 10-year-old on too much sugar.
Alice Hoffman, get your butt off the internet before you embarrass yourself any further! Posting a critic’s phone number on Twitter? NO. *smacks on nose with paper* Bad author!
Ayelet Waldman, stop damning your critics to hell. It doesn’t reflect well on you. See above about 10-year-olds.
Again, I know that criticism hurts. And hey, complain about your critics all you like… in private to your friends. That’s what I do. That’s what most sensible people do. Your friends will tell you that the critic is an ass and you’ll feel better. But telling it to the world? Just makes you look like an ass.
I’ll be attending Readercon in a couple of weekends and this time I’m on a bit of programming. If you’d like to find/stalk me, here’s the deets:
Friday, 3PM — VT: Interfictions 2 Group Reading
Delia Sherman (host) with Amelia Beamer, K. Tempest Bradford, Matthew Cheney, F. Brett Cox, Michael DeLuca, Jeffrey Ford, Theodora Goss, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Shira Lipkin, Rachel Pollack, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine
Readings from Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing, edited by host Sherman and Christopher Barzak and forthcoming in the fall from Small Beer Press under the auspices of the Interstitial Arts Foundation.
Friday, 5PM — Salon E: Off Color
K. Tempest Bradford, David Anthony Durham (L), Eileen Gunn, Anil Menon, Cecilia Tan
At various sf conventions, we’ve been to more than one panel during which the panelists try to figure out why there seem to be so few writers of color in the field. As an alternative, we have invited several panelists to discuss what an sf field more enticing to writers of color might look like.
Friday, 8PM — ME/ CT: Annual Interstitial Arts (IAF) Town Meeting
Ellen Kushner with discussion by Liz Gorinsky, Theodora Goss, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Shira Lipkin, Delia Sherman, John Shirley, Sarah Smith, Catherynne M. Valente
Note: I’m not officially on this but will be there talking about the auction and salons and such.
Interstitial Art falls in the interstices of recognized genres. The Interstitial Arts Foundation is a group of “Artists Without Borders” fighting the Balkanization of art. They celebrate work that crosses or straddles the borders between media, the borders between genres, the borders between “high art” and popular culture. They are not opposed to mainstream fiction or genre fiction, nor are they seeking to create a new category. They are just particularly excited by border-crossing fiction (and music and art), and want to support the creation of such works and to establish better ways of engaging with them. The IAF has had a presence at Readercon from its beginning. In 2007, in cooperation with Small Beer Press, the IAF published Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, and in fall 2009 they will present Interfictions 2, edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak. They are also doing a lot with visual arts. Interstitial Arts is an idea, a conversation, not a hard-and-fast definition-and it’s a conversation you are invited to join.
Saturday, Noon — VT: Federations Group Reading
John Joseph Adams (host) with K. Tempest Bradford, Robert J. Sawyer, Allen Steele, Catherynne M. Valente,
Genevieve Valentine
Sunday, 11AM, Maine/Connecticut: The Future of Magazines, Part 2 (Online) — (part 1 is at 10AM)
K. Tempest Bradford, Neil Clarke, Robert Killheffer, Mary Robinette Kowal (L), Matthew Kressel, Sean Wallace
Are print magazines doomed? (Heck, if newspapers can’t make it …) Or will they survive in their tiny niches? Are there ways to make them more viable? Is that even worth the bother? After all, online magazines are now easy and relatively inexpensive to start — are they the answer?
Got a heads up on a new online workshop for genre writers run by F&SF. It’s got a limited membership right now to work out the kinks, but should be open to everyone soon. According to Gordon van Gelder, Gardner Dozois is going to be “running the show”, which I assume means he’s going to provide professional crits of some or all stories. Additionally, Gardner will choose 3 stories every year to be pubbed in F&SF. So if you’re dying to be in the pages of that magazine and also dying to get your story critted by the likes of Dozois, then the F&SF workshop may be for you.
However, it’s not free.
Nor would I expect it to be. However, some have raised the question of whether this is pay to play. You give the workshop money and then Gardner gets you into F&SF. Well, three of you a year.
Mind, the workshop guarantees nothing. Also, you’re free to submit stories from the workshop in the regular way. So I wouldn’t say that pay to play directly applies. But I can understand why people would find the concept a mite shady.
Thoughts?
Sorry this update is so late. Had sporadic Internet for the past few days, so I spent what little time I had doing mostly work stuff.
Week 1 went well. I revised a very short story (and made it longer in the process) and have now sent it off to Clarkesworld. It’s called Embodied and is actually one of my newest stories. This week I’m working on the water aliens story, which technically dates back to Clarion West. Something old, something new.
That’s pretty much it :)
Once again it is time to get up at ass o’clock in the morning to sit in line for tickets to one of the best free Shakespeare productions in the city. The first play this summer is Twelfth Night, and you know I’m excited since it’s my very favorite play. I’m not real down with Anne Hathaway, but Audra MacDonald is enough to erase all doubts and hesitations.
I’m going to be in line on Wednesday July 8th at 5am with Nora. If you want to join me, you’ll have maybe a 30 minute grace period before people would complain about you joining us. Please do, though! Sitting in line is never tiresome if you have friends around, picnic food, and music! (also a chair… and an umbrella. I’m an old hand.)
If you think you’ll come, comment! I’ll email you my cell #.
Charles Tan has a short review of SG6 wherein he mentions my story as one of his favorites:
“Elan Vital” by K. Tempest Bradford manages to cram a lot in this relatively short piece. While the science fiction aspects and ramifications might appeal to genre readers, what drew me to this story is how Bradford attaches a human component to the narrative and everything else grows out of that. Her protagonist is not only sympathetic but her unique situation could only have been pulled off in the medium of prose. For example, if this were a comic or a TV episode, part of the tension would have been tipped off too early, and a pivotal scene would have lost much of its momentum. But as it is, the chronology is just right, and Bradford crafts a story with emotional resonance.
Fantasy Magazine also gave us an awesome review!
Continuing in the tradition of wild unicorn-ness, I’m doing a reading and discussion in NYC at Bluestockings bookstore with Linda Addision, N. K. Jemisin, and Alaya Dawn Johnson all about POC and SFF. In case you’re not aware, all of us are some fabulous black women who write spec fic. The reading will last an hour, the discussion will last as long as there’s something to discuss, and then those of us who don’t have jobs will go out and eat afterwards. There will also be books and zines with our writing for sale, if you enjoy such things. If you’re in the area, please join us! Deets:
What: Diaspora of the Fantastic: Black Women Writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror - Reading & Discussion
When: July 30th, 7PM
Where: Bluestockings Books, 172 Allen Street (1 block south of Houston), NYC
In Our Darkest Hour
In My Deepest Despair
Will You Still Care?
Will You Be There?
In My Trials
And My Tribulations
Through Our Doubts
And Frustrations
In My Violence
In My Turbulence
Through My Fear
And My Confessions
In My Anguish And My Pain
Through My Joy And My Sorrow
And The Promise Of Another Tomorrow
I’ll Never Let You Part
For You’re Always In My Heart.
I have some things to say about Michael over on the ABW, so check it out if you’re interested in another remembrance. If not, here’s another take on things: It’s not even been 24 hours and I am already sick to death of people saying things like, “Instead of everyone mourning Michael Jackson they should worry about Iran/blood diamonds/starving children in Africa/whatever other something that is important.”
Now, I certainly feel that the latest antics of celebrities does not merit 24 hour news coverage; but people, someone died. And whether you were a fan or not, liked him or not, recognize that he was an important person and therefore his death means something. Plus, it’s not as if everyone has forgotten everything that’s going down in the world, it’s just that this particular news story is going to take precedence for a bit.
So, chill the fuck out people who are worried about Iran/blood diamonds/starving children, or a host of other important issues, some of which most people ignore all the time. The news cycle s a 24 hour one, and they can’t fill all 24 hours with MJ. Iran will get covered, especially if something impotant happens, other stories will get covered if something important happens. Being nasty about someone’s death doesn’t make you a saint, it just makes you kind of an ass.
I know I mentioned the Interfictions Auction here a while ago but there have been some new developments which allow me to mention it again. I’m tricksy.
First thing is to remind people that, though this auction is mainly to benefit Interfictions 2, we’re accepting creations based on stories from the first anthology, too. We’re not offering to send free stories, but you can always buy it (tricksy!). If you’re interested, let us know here.
Second thing is that we have a separate but related initiative: The Interfictions Music Project. Since auctioning music doesn’t make much sense, we’re going to sell music, instead. Same deal as with the auction: musicians can base songs or mixes on any story from Interfictions 1 or 2 (they can request an advance story from IF2). We’ll sell the music as downloads during the auction. If we get enough, we’ll create an EP or LP. More details and sign-up form is here.
Click and pass it on!
USB drives are the keychains of the 21st century. As in: any cute plastic mold or toy they can make small and shove some flash memory in will be snatched up by lovers of cute plastic stuff. Including myself. I was a keychain addict as a kid, too.
These appeal to my inner child: Transformers USB drive, hub and optical mouse.
Found here. Aren’t they awesome? I’m especially partial to the one that transforms into Ravage.
In terms of USB drives, 2GB is too little for me to bother with, no matter how cute the idea is. I could be persuaded into buying the hub, though.
Crossposted from Chic(k)Tech
Beginning #1:
The Write-a-thon officially began yesterday. I was on a train heading home to Ohio, thus could not post about it. I did get started on my revision process: read crits of the story I chose for this week and made notes. Tonight I’ll start attempting to fix some of the issues.
Beginning #2:
Back in March I was unfortunately laid off from my job that I loved, which was depressing. However, I was very aware that my being laid off was a financial issue only — my boss and co-workers liked me as much as I did them. In fact, since then I’ve been in contact via IM and such and my boss never lost an opportunity to say how much he missed me.
Recently there was a possible opening at the magazine, which I was made aware of, so I made it known that I was definitely interested in being considered for it. Last week I talked with the Managing Editor and Editor-in-chief about the details of the position and they offered and I accepted. So when I return from visiting family I’ll start back at Laptop (this time in Editorial, not the web team).
I cannot convey how super-excited I am about this. I’m in a state of mild shock, because this is one of the best possible outcomes. Not only do I get to go back to a workplace I love, but I didn’t have to go through the job-hunting process again, which I hate. A lot. Plus, heathcare. Oh how I’ve missed you, healthcare.
This new development should derail my Write-a-thon goals, though. I’ll just have to make time on the evenings and weekends for writing. Since I no longer have access to the TV this won’t be too hard.
This summer is shaping up to be an auspicious one!
Speaking of Federations! The antho has been getting some pretty good reviews. Most don’t mention my story, probably because it’s very short or it just didn’t ping the reviewers particularly (this is not a surprise given how strong this antho is), but a couple have.
On Tor.com Arachne Jericho said:
There are also smaller but no less important niches to be filled in such a treatment—like humorous moments (would you believe that Harry Turtledove wrote a humorous story about space-faring hamsters?), psychological horror (Robert Silverberg, I will never ever believe in your sweet innocence ever EVER again), and a variety of contemplative and thoughtful pauses (the offbeat waiting-for-Godot style “Carthago Delenda Est” by Genevieve Valentine, the beautiful settings and character interaction of Yoon Ha Lee’s “Swanwatch,” and the most frank treatment of the “alien civilizations are likely not homogenous” I’ve seen or read, K. Tempest Bradford’s “Different Day”).
And BSCreview said:
One of the shortest stories of the anthology and as the editor puts it in the foreword, something of an anti-science fiction story. In just over two pages, Bradford takes a shot at a number of common but fairly illogical themes in science fiction (movies and television in particular). Why do aliens always end up in the US for instance? Why are they so often seen as not only technologically but also morally superior? In itself it’s probably not a brilliant story, or perhaps that is just me, I always have problems appreciating a story this short, but the way Adams slips it in here forces the reader to consider another perspective on the anthology as a whole.
More as I happen upon them.
NYRSF Federations Reading July 7th
Exciting news! We’re doing a Federations reading next month! It’ll be a special NYRSF reading — slightly outside of their usual season. Jim Freund likes us like that.
I’m reading along with Genevieve Valentine and Allen Steele (I know! So Fancy.) and our editor, John Joseph Adams, is curating. Here are some more deets:
When: Tuesday, July 7th — Doors open 6:30 PM
Where: South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street, 4th Floor
How… much does it cost?: $5 suggested donation
Even more detailed deets can be found here.
If you’re in NYC I hope you can come. I’ll be fresh off of a train from Virginia!
Since I’m obviously going to have to come up with a bio on my own (hinthint), here’s something else the masses may be able to help me with: what to write (besides my signature) when autographing my stories in anthos or zines? I feel like writing “To Danny, keep on reading!” or something similar is too much like banal yearbook writing. “Have a great summer, Ken!” Even when it’s someone I know, I find it hard to figure out what to say. For Black Feather I often wrote “12 ravens, 7 swans, 1 chance to fly” which kind of worked but seemed a bit pretentious. I don’t even know what to write for the Federations story.
I can’t draw, so I can’t emulate Ben Rosenbaum or Neil Gaiman, and I am obviously not pithy. What should I do, instead?
I am a huge bag-a-holic. HUGE. Other women who share this label with me often have an addiction to purses, mostly designer and cute. I have no use for such things. Give me a messenger or backpack any day. I even love luggage. It’s seriously a hardship for me to walk by any bag section that contains these items without stopping to peruse even though I really do not need any more bags. No really. Take a look at this roundup of laptop bags for women I did a few years ago, and then this roundup of luggage. With few exceptions, every one of those bags arrived at my apartment so that I could test them. Unlike with tech samples you get to keep fashion samples. At one point I had something like 37 laptop bags in my possession, 95% of them free samples, co-existing with the few backpacks and other assorted bags I also had (and were also mostly free). I won’t even go into the luggage-pocolypse.
These days I have fewer bags. Many of the laptop bags I received did not fit my 17″ laptop, so I sold or gave them away. And even I don’t need more than 3 pieces of luggage at a time.
I have a very clear idea about what makes a perfect bag for different occasions. Before I got my netbook, my bag needs were covered. Before.
You see where this is going.
Many of my existing bags were just fine for carrying around the netbook and it’s accessories. But I found that though I had plenty of bigger bags and a few good small bags (this one from Waterfield is my favorite) I had no medium bag. One that comfortably carried all of the accessories without tempting me to carry a bunch of stuff and thus weigh myself down. I am ruled by how much space I have,I admit. And the small bag was really too small since I could barely fit my netbook, Cool Lift, mobile, keys, wallet and power cord in it without the zipper complaining. I also much prefer messengers to backpacks when the load is light — that way I have ready access to keys, wallet, etc. So I went in search of the perfect medium-sized bag.
Other than a good size, many compartments and a padded laptop area, I didn’t have too many requirements. But you can’t imagine how hard it was for me to find the right bag. I went to a bunch of stores, sighed over this LeSportsac bag and this Crumpler bag (both of which are stupidly expensive) and finally resigned to looking on eBags. I like eBags in general, but it’s hard to tell whether a bag is too big or too small by pictures — I have to touch it.
I bit the bullet and bought the ful Parkway, which is designed for 13″ laptops. I figured it wouldn’t be too big or too small. If it wasn’t right, I could always return it. Plus, it wasn’t too expensive. Coupled with a gift certificate I got for my birthday I only had to pay $10 + shipping. It’s $40 on eBags today, $50 otherwise. It’s also on Amazon.
I haven’t had the bag for long, obviously, but I’m deeming it perfect. It fits everything I’d want to carry with me on a daily basis with room for a few extra things but not enough room for a bunch of crap I don’t need. The strap is long enough to wear messenger-style and it has a lot of pockets, nooks and crannies. I enjoy compartmentalizing.
I know there are some other bag-a-holics out there. Guys, your addiction counts, too! You know you love some messengers. Have you found the perfect bag or are you still looking? Can you beat my record of 37 at one time? And if you have a netbook, what do you carry it in?
Crossposted from Chic(k)Tech
But more and more lately I need a bio, either short or long, to give to someone. The one on my bio page is boring and stilted. This will not do. Help me out here — point to some awesome author bios that you really like. Or, rewrite my bio to make it more exciting! Or make up a fictional bio for yourself and post it in the comments.
Since I am once again on the hunt for a new job or gig, I promised myself that I would start posting every day. This also entails getting back to reading my favorite tech blogs (which was frowned upon at my non-tech job — oh for the days when it was a requirement!) and blogging about my gadgets and accessories. So here’s a quick post.
Right now my favorite thing in the world is my Cool Lift notebook pad. It’s just a small bit of foam with some raised bits to tilt my netbook up at a small angle — not too different from this Lapworks model, my other favorite. I bought the Cool Lift because I like writing during my subway commute but have never been able to type comfortably with my netbook on my lap. Putting it on top of my bag worked out all right some of the time, but sometimes there was still unfortunate downward sloping and the bottom would get really hot. I considered getting another Lapworks lapdesk, but it seemed overkill for my tiny netbook.
In my search for better alternatives I found the Cool Lift, which has almost the same dimensions as my Sammy. It also weighs next to nothing yet has shown no signs of collapse.
I sometimes use the Cool Lift on tables at cafes, but not as much — on a flat surface my netbook remains relatively cool. Just not when it’s on top of my canvas bag, the fabric blocking all the vents and such.
This accessory gets high scores on all the points that matter. It’s small, lightweight and portable, so I don’t mind carrying it around all day, it perfectly fulfills the function I bought it for, and it doesn’t cost a lot ($10 at Amazon).
Crossposted from Chic(k)Tech
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ktempest- K Tempest Bradford
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