The fabulous Writing the Other folks have master class series starting soon, each independent class dives deeply into a specific topics! There’s the Sentient Squid Scholarship (<3 anonymous benefactors and the I Should Be Writing and Ditch Diggers podcasts) you can apply for if you need a hand.
One of the most epic night of nights. The Eunuchs of the Forbidden City worked hard to make Emperor Stardust proud. Now I must go renew my SFWA membership ;-)
I recently interviewed the fabulous Merc Rustad for Lightspeed, then saw them looking totally swank at the Nebulas, but alas had no time to chat in person! Next time gadget!
In the meantime, here is their interview, full of a vision and a mission for more joy and happy endings for queer characters.
Finding Home is a great part of that mission, you can read it for free online and purchase it if you want to support folks to keep bringing the awesome to the world of spec fic. Go check it out!
Uncanny Magazine is raising funds for Year Three! They’ve done so much in two short years and I gotta say I really love working with them. Their whole editorial team is pretty fab to say the least. Watching the video gave me little happy shivers to see so many creators I like waving and supporting the UNICORN DANCE PARTY!
Supporting Uncanny this year also creates the opportunity for the Things to continue hanging out with Uncanny and stretch themselves into new ways of imagining. It’s always such an interesting challenge, reading all the stories and essays, picking one (or several) and fitting them into the mind and world of the Things.
Increase Uncanny Blogging! Keep Liz Argall’s Things Without Arms And Things Without Legs reaction comic per issue, and add the new Max and Amal Go to the Moviescolumn, PLUS new columns by Michael Damian Thomas and Michi Trota!
I shall aim to entertain, ask rad questions, and give interesting answers. Photo by Richard Man Photography
Hello! I will be in Portland next weekend (4th of July weekend) for Westercon. I’d love to see you there. If you come to my Kaffeeklatsch I’ll draw a free sketch for you! Please come to my Kaffeeklatch, it’s on Friday.
Small group discussions with authors, artists, and other interesting personalities (referred to as “hosts”). Sessions are limited to the host and a small group of attendees, so book in advance to either avoid disappointment, or to assure your person that someone will indeed come and drink beverages with them.
Everybody knows that science fiction has inspired legions of young people to grow up and become scientists; half of NASA was weaned on Star Trek. But does SF’s influence with these people end with their choice of career? Might science fiction actually serve as a legitimate means of transmitting scientific ideas between working scientists in different disciplines? Might it, in certain circumstances, be more effective than the usual technical publications?
Workshops and critique groups can be helpful and change your writing for the better. But they can also hinder an author and we can get stuck in a cycle of repeating things we may not fully understand ourselves. Chat with pros on what areas to watch out for when taking part in any sort of workshop or crit session.
From book to comic to the screen, how is written work adapted to different formats? What gets cut, what stays, and why? The panels discuss the methods involved in transforming a novel to comics and other mediums.
Is feminism anti-geek? Are geeks anti-feminist? (Spoiler: no). Come discuss the joyful harmony of promoting geek power and gender equality side-by-side, and learn about the unique challenges facing humans with geek traits, female-categorized traits, or both!
Whether your motivation is global warming, the terrifying decimation of the bee population, or being up too late at night reading dystopian futures, have you wondered: if it really all went down, how you could know whom to rely on, and how much you could fend for yourself? Have you tried being proactive now: learning how to create networks, growing, raising, or gleaning your own food sources, bartering goods and services, building your own mobile shelters, passing local legislation supporting local food sustainability and rain catchment, etc.? Folks involved in such proactive individual, family, and community endeavors facilitate a discussion, ideally with avid audience participation, towards innovating ideas and sharing what works.
Head over to Uncanny Magazine to check out a brand new Things Respond to Fiction….and win a sweet prize if you can be the first to answer their question!
The Things want everyone to be happy and healthy, to know love, safety, and security.
That’s why they are truly honored to be part of Rachel Swirsky’s bottomly fundraiser, raising funds for Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services. Lyon-Martin focuses on caring for the LGBTQIAA community, especially low-income lesbian, bisexual, and trans people. Any Patreon money she receives this month will go directly to Lyon-Martin. She currently has over $400 pledged, if she gets to $500 the THINGS will do a comic about bottoms – tricky when they have don’t have legs!
At $500, cartoonist Liz Argall — creator of the Things Without Arms and Without Legs — will do an original comic on the topic of butts. Check out her work here: http://www.thingswithout.com/
At $600, Rachel Swirsky and several AWESOME authors will write a short story together about dinosaurs.
At $700, puppeteer, audio book narrator, and all around awesome person Mary Robinette Kowal will record the audio version of “If You Were a Butt, My Butt” in her professional studio–and she will be amazing. Here she is reading some tweets by John Scalzi. Erotically.
$800 – ??? whatever it will be it will be amazing
Click here to donate, it lists everything as a monthly option, because it is a Patreon page, but it’s easy peasy to cancel after initial payment if you want to donate to Lyon-Martin only (Rachel totally supports folks doing that :-)
The Nebula Awards Conference was wonderful! So many great people, great programming, my only sadness was that I didn’t get to spend more time with ALL THE PEOPLE, and I really should have organized having meals with people a little bit better. I ended up not eating very much, but hospitality’s delicious ham and frozen fruit kept me going.
I made a strong decision to use the Nebula Awards Conference as a place to run some experiments and challenge myself. For the authors’ signing I printed magnets with Things on them, and wrote letters for people. I wanted to do something a little bit different, there’s something so magical about getting a letter in the mail. It was a fun experiment to conduct in a small, non threatening window of time.
Using the signing this way allowed me to figure out the logistics of sketches and taking live commissions. There are lots of niggling details that you don’t realize you need to sort out until you’re in the heat of the moment. There’s nothing like opportunities to practice, play, and run experiments. I wonder what experiments I’ll conduct next year, SFWAns might be my favorite lab rats! They’re so smart and enthusiastic, and you can have good meta conversations about pricing, marketing and workflow.
Magnets are a bit tricky to sign, but envelopes hold ink quite well and keep the magnets safe.
Sometimes love is grabbing a magnet for each of your besties! <3
Examples of letters the Things sent ^_^. There is so much joy writing notes of love to special folks. Wish I’d photographed more of them before I sent them into the wild.
This experiment was so useful, and when the signing was done I didn’t want to finish! I had so much more to learn and explore… and still needed to do one octopoidal love letter. Up in the SFWA hospitality suite I was inspired by Mary Robinette Kowal doing a practice run for something exciting (I’m sure there will be announcements soon). Inspired by her practice run (practice makes such a difference) I asked people to give me a prompt, or pretend I was an artist at a comics convention, and challenge me to draw something. After I drew them a sketch they could choose to donate money to the SFWA Emergency Medical Fund. The idea of working for money adding that little extra layer of responsibility, service, and fear!
Spending time with my drawings… it’s sometimes like listening to recordings of my own voice. It’s a little hard on the ego until you acclimatize! But rollerderby taught me that nothing helps craft like footage review (well, that and practice practice practice). I’m pleased with how I learned more about my own pens and what work for me in a loose sketching environment. I fear I shall purchase more copic brush pens in the future, there is something that brings out a different, more spontaneous line!
Mmm, Chicago pizza, I would love you for your tomato sauce alone.
EJ, of course, asked me to draw an anthropomorphic artillery shell!
Drawing an actual person is always a bit scary! But Marko was a good sport, and I was told he saved Christmas!
This is what happens when you ask me to draw a waterfall!
Off you go little letters! I hope your recipients enjoy you. The designs on the stamps are in honor Martin Ramirez, who was one of the great self-taught artists of the 20th century. I love buying stamps and discovering interesting human beings. Thank you post offices around the world for giving us all these gems.
Saturday meant OMG the actual awards! John Hodgman did a great job as Toastmaster, HILARIOUS! I’m so pleased he came and slummed with us prose folks ;-)
The awards night started with a performance from Emperor Stardust and the Eunuchs of the Forbidden City. Henry Lien did a great job as composer, singer and choreographer. I was honored to be the tall lass in suspenders on the right. Keep your eyes peeled for the video of the fab dance number, I’ll post it as soon as I get it!
Photo thanks to @clarkesworld
And then… a great honor happened. I had been asked to accept the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation on George Miller’s behalf, as he was a wee bit busy at the Cannes Film Festival, should Mad Max: Fury Road win! Getting to rep for Australia made my heart grow a few sizes, and as an Australian who hasn’t been home for over five years holding that trophy was a little bit like hugging home.
The head of this marvelous award is a typewriter ball! Five pounds of love for dry rugged landscapes, strength in many forms, and go hard or go home.
Rob Wilkins accepting for Sir Terry Pratchett, OBE and Liz Argall for George Miller, AO
Sir Terry Pratchett received the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award this year, in recognition of his “significant impact on the science fiction or fantasy landscape, and is particularly intended for those who have consistently made a major, positive difference within the speculative fiction field.”
Rob and I were the only people accepting for other people, and it was a delight to chat for a moment. It makes me happy knowing that Sir Terry had such thoroughly kind and decent people like Rob around during the increasing vulnerability of the embuggerance. It still makes my heart smile, thinking about good people taking care of our Terry, in physicality and in spirit.
And that is a tiny snippet of an amazing weekend. I almost bought shoes at Fleuvog’s. I kinda want to start a band with some fellow authors (even if I have to learn bass). I gazed at nominations in awe wondering how it was possible that I knew and or cared about so many on the list. I reconnected with people I care about, met wonderful new people, and now desperately want to figure out how to travel further. I wish I’d attended more panels and taken advantage of the amazing Ask an Expert sessions, but hopefully next time… I’ve already purchased my ticket.
This conference was put together with so much care and concern, organizers were like the best hosts, facilitating the awesome, listening, attending, connecting, and creating a love filled experience. Thanks SFWA and the army of volunteers that made it happen. See you in Pittsburgh :-)
