WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following blog post mentions a deceased Aboriginal icon by name.
I’m honored to be part of the Cranky Ladies of History anthology from Fablecroft coming out in March 2015
Over at the THINGS I’m trying to share snippets of my adventures in DC land and World Fantasy Con in comic form. It’s a little bit experimental and whimsical & you can tell drawings were done at crazy times of night or morning, but it’s fun to challenge myself.
It’s an interview bonanza from this gal! This time I’ve interviewed Kat Howard about “A Flock of Grief.” I recommend you read the story first.
“The Return of Things Without Arms and Without Legs, a hug for your pocket” was delightfully received at World Fantasy Con and now you will be able to get them at the Rat City Roller Girls Artsplosion on Thursday night. There will be art from all sorts of folks (derby and non-derby). It’s a Thursday night, so I’ll be training during the art opening… so if you get your time right I can say helloooo to you after practice and give you REALLY sweaty hugs!
And Rat City’s Debutant Brawl will be on Saturday. I think I’ll pay for a ticket and watch it! You can do that! Not volunteer, not skate, not officiate, just watch!!! Kinda trippy, should be a fun night. Do you want to be in my derby watching posse?
My reading at World Fantasy Con has been popped forward by half an hour!
I’m excited. I’m heading out to Washington DC today and I’m excited about that too. My parents lived there in the 70s and I’ve wanted to visit the Vietnam War Memorial ever since I saw a documentary about the architect , Maya Lin. She’s why I want to go to Montgomery, Alabama and see the Civil Rights Memorial.
In other news two more of my spotlight interviews are up online.
I love World Fantasy Con.
I have a reading on the first day at World Fantasy Con – 11:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Thursday 6 November in the Arlington Room. Please come along. I think I might read Augustus Clementine. It’s an Oscar Wilde inspired fairytale about a roller skate and will be coming out in XIII in winter 2015. I’m also tempted to read from a short story that took me a very long time to write and will be appearing in a Table of Contents soon!
In other exciting news my Spotlight Interview with Nalo Hopkinson about her story The Glass Bottle Trick (read it free online) has gone live at Fantasy Magazine. I particularly love how Nalo speaks about colonialism and beauty… and listening to Nalo is often like a really nice hug. ^_^
First I write about my body parts, scroll down to see a comprehensive list of ways you can help Rat City.
As you may have noticed roller derby has become something of a consuming passion for me. It’s challenged me and rewarded me in ways I never thought possible. Our derby sisters in Portland, the magnificent Wheels of Justice have done the best job I’ve seen of evoking what derby means to me.
We are the Wheels of Justice from Allyson Woodard on Vimeo.
2013 was the year of the calves. The year I learned to skate my calves grew so fast that I’d wake up in the night with growing pains. My increased muscle and good PT shrank my feet and cured my plantar faschitis within 6 months of coming down with it (turns out repeatedly carrying 40 pound bags up hills can create scar tissue & inflammation if your feet don’t have muscle to support it).
2014 was the year of thighs. I love how they’ve grown, and hamstrings to match. I look down or look in the mirror and think “I look like Wonder Woman!” I grew in my strength, challenged myself, grew in terms of what I can hold physically and emotionally. It’s been blood sweat and tears. It’s been teamwork, incredible highs and lows and frustration and being a part of a community that pushes itself and pushes each other. I grin from ear to ear every scrimmage night.
I want 2015 to be the year of the back. I can already feel my mid and lower traps growing. I want it to be the year I bust out chinups and find new depth to my practice. I want it to be full of lateral leaps and figuring out how to juke at long last. I want to hit people and send them flying. I want to give my opponents high fives after they utterly blow me up. I want to slam sideways through tight walls. I want to sit on people, frustrate the heck out of them and have them curse my arse.
Here’s the thing though, there won’t be a 2015 without support. When Rat City moved to our new amazing practice space in Shoreline we bit off more than we could chew. We’ve restructured, gone to all volunteer, got more tenants in, but we need help to get through the restructuring process. I think we’ll make it. I know we’ll make it. But we need help. Fortunately there are lots of options and they can be accessed by people around the world.
You are of course welcome and encouraged to pursue more than one option ;-)
Donate at Gofundme.
Come to as many of our events as you can! Fundraising and fantastic training opportunities.
Momentum is an important thing. Joy and creativity are important things. The more people who hear about our call to arms the more people are likely to come helps us. Please help us spread the word and put cool images into the world.
Thank you for any help, be it a bandaid, words of love, sharing the word or much needed cashmonies. I send you virtual love beams. Thank you.
New month, new folks have been found and added to the list. As always, please let me know if there’s something I’m missing or links have changed.
E. Jay O’Connell & Michael Belfiore wrote about their Clarion West 1994 experience.
And a collection of posts by Carmen Maria Machado – Clarion 2012
Wohoo! Rat Lab will be playing the Port Scandalous Strait Shooters on Saturday 25 October. If you happen to be in (or feel like heading over to) Sequim come and see us play. Doors open at 6pm. Tickets are $10 in advance $12 at the door. I’m excited.
If you’d like to read one of my love letters to Oscar Wilde’s fairytales now is a great time to head over to Apex Magazine and read Soft Feather Dance for free.
This month brings lots of new content over on the Clarion resource page. Blog posts by Harry Markov, Kayla Whaley, Martin Cahill, A.J. Fitzwater, Marian Womack and Vida Cruz.
The game on Saturday went really well. We lost by a whole lot of points, but we played every jam like it was a new game and fought the whole way through. It was a lot of fun, I learned a bunch and enjoyed working with my team. Rat Lab and the Outcasts also KILLED it at the after party, Karaoke ftw!
Eric Lyons took some cool B&W photos
and I heard that Geoff Vlcek was there as well (fingers crossed photos up soon!!)
Folks told me that I took some big hits! I got hit out and down, but I didn’t register them as big. I think all the Aikido practice has really helped – one would hope so given I spend hours every week falling down and getting up again at the dojo! I’m more bruised from practices leading up to the game!