Despite the hard drive drama and sundry things, it's been a good summer, replete with old friends, exciting prep for this fall's book, terrific readings, and the usual Pacific Northwest splendor.I’ve been scarce of late for two reasons:
1) My hard drive failed and so did the drive I’d been backing it up to, so the last three weeks I’ve been working on assorted laptops, an ipad, and actual, retro PEN AND PAPER. Which I actually use a lot, so that wasn’t too bad. But thanks entirely to Wayne, I’m back up on the main machine and now backing up to three locations, including off-site. Whee. Yet again I learn a life lesson in my forties that I should have absorbed two decades or more earlier.
2) Clarion West. I’ve been helping out in the classroom and coordinating some of the volunteers, which has occupied a chunk of time. A number of old friends have swung through town, including the ever wonderful Blounts and a rare Rachel Swirsky manifestation, which is always welcome. It’s also six weeks with two events each week, the reading and the subsequent party. Not that I’m complaining – last night’s was swell, and it was great to see so many people, including the passle of students, still valiantly producing stories and critting each other’s work. Next week Kelly Link and Gavin Grant will be reading, which should be FABULOUS, so I hope to see a lot of you locals there.
I am plugging away at the Clarion West Write-a-thon and got at least 2k per day done this week, which feels great! I have been very bad about mailing my sponsors so I am going to send two stories to everyone who donates in my name before the write-a-thon ends. There’s still time, and a sum as small as a dollar will net you close to 10,000 words of new Rambo wordage. 😉 Stretch goal, a la Kickstarter: If I get 20 sponsors, I will make that 15k.
Plus! ArmadilloCon at the end of this month. Yahoo!
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"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
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9 Speculative Stories for Pride Month
Happy Pride Month! I wanted to put together a list of some of my F&SF stories featuring queer characters that I particularly love.
“Every Breath a Question, Every Heartbeat an Answer” is a story that appeared this year in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, set in a hospital for war veterans, involving a lesbian centaur coming to terms with loss and the enigmatic ace paladin who seems to promise an answer to the question haunting her. Like many of my stories and the Tabat Quarter, it’s set in the world of Tabat, where intelligent magical creatures are beginning to question the roles society has allotted them.
“Hoofsore and Weary” precedes “Every Breath a Question” but features one of the previous story’s main characters, involved in the journey that will later bring her to the war hospital. It appeared in the anthology of military fantasy Shattered Shields, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt.
“Rappacini’s Crow” is set in the steampunk world of my Altered America stories and has a trans protagonist who must figure out how to escape not just a malignant crow, but its owner as well. It appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
“How Joyful the Work” appeared in Predators in Petticoats, edited by Emily Leverett and Margaret S. Mcgraw. This theme anthology of 25 original stories focused on “fearsome feminine power”. I chose the figure of Penelope from Homer’s Odyssey, because I’ve always found her an intriguing figure. In this story, told from the POV of a household maid, instead of weaving tapestries, she creates clockwork contraptions.
“Preferences’ was recently reprinted in a special cyberpunk issue of The London Reader but originally appeared in Chasing Shadows, an anthology edited by David Brin and Stephen Potts, stories based on Brin’s book The Transparent World. It’s a short piece about data privacy, and reflects some of my experience working in that industry.
“The Threadbare Magician” is urban fantasy featuring a gay magician and his attempt to evade a particular doom. Seattle denizens will recognize references to a multitude of landmarks, including the Value Village store in Redmond, and you may be surprised what a simple trailer park on the East Side can hold. It originally appeared in Genius Loci, edited by Jaym Gates; you can find the audio version on Podcastle here.
“Call and Answer, Plant and Harvest” is set in the city of Serendib, a location that has for some reason supplied a number of very short pieces set on its streets, including “The Subtler Art” and “The Owlkit, the Candymaker, the Beekeeper, and the Brewer”. This appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies; it was originally written for an anthology but the editor was anti-Chaos Mage. 😉 Luckily editor Scott Andrews was not.
“Elsewhere, Within, Elsewhen” was originally written for Beyond the Sun, an anthology edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. It features a protagonist trying to come to terms with his husband’s betrayal, on an alien world that presents him with an extraordinary way to escape it.
“Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut” originally appeared in Strange Horizons but has been reprinted in multiple anthologies. It’s my favorite of all my superhero stories.
Bigfoot, reprinted on my site here, originally appeared in a feminist fiction issue of literary magazine 13th Moon and features a newly appeared Bigfoot and the reporter covering that appearance.
Want more? My Tabat series features the charismatic Bella Kanto, a bisexual gladiator who finds herself thrust into schemes to overthrow the government — and very structure — of the city she fights for, Tabat.
With 2020’s vicissitudes, I haven’t been doing any book signings this year. I suspect 2021 will be much the same, which is one reason I’m getting book plates made for some of those upcoming books: one for the Tabat books, one for Carpe Glitter, and a very cool “Cat Rambo” one that combines some of the motifs and symbols important to me. In the meantime, I’ve picked up some simple bookplates to use.
Want to give one of my books to someone and include a special touch? Drop me an e-mail telling me who you want the bookplate made to, and which book you’re planning on putting it in, and I’ll put a signed bookplate in the mail to you. Or want it signed to you for one of the books you already have or are planning to acquire? I’m happy to do that too.
Want your own bookplates? I got mine through Bookplate Inc. I got some extra to stick in books I occasionally loan out; that way they may come back to me. I’m still trying to remember who I gave my collection of Zenna Henderson stories to.
