Wrapping Up the Year

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I’m finally catching up, post-Wormhole Workshop in Girona, Spain, and pronounce it a success! We had a great time, and the students wrote their tails off, producing amazing, sometimes location-flavored, stories, such as “We Have Always Been Going to the Castle,” and “Murder at the Castell de la Cava.” Being in a 10th century castle was an evocative space for our first effort, and a number of moments, including my 60th birthday celebration, will live in my memory for the rest of my life. This newsletter is illustrated with sunrises and sunsets from the stay.

So many thanks to my partner in the effort, Janet K. Smith and her indefatigable husband Geoff. We learned a lot for the 2024 Wormhole, which will be a fully accessible location inside the United States. Look for a formal announcement mid-February but the scheduling will again be for November.

If you want access to the recordings from the workshop in Spain, featuring Tobias Buckell, Ann Leckie, Sarah Pinsker, and myself, they are available individually or as a group – and best of all, we implemented sliding scale so more people can afford it. Please check out what’s available and spread the word if you know people who might be interested. Find out more here.

Some Wayward Gift Ideas

Want to give your favorite writer a gift from the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers? Here’s some possibilities:

A subscription to the community ($50 for a year)
A class credit ($75, good for any two hour class)
A coaching session ($50, 30 minute consultation via Zoom)
A story edit ($50 for up to 5000 words)
One of these stickers or cool zippered pouches for their pens

For any of the virtual gifts, mail me at cat@kittywumpus.net. You will receive a .pdf that can be mailed to the recipient or printed out to give them physically.

What I’m Working On

The year is passing away with fierce quickness and I’m trying to wrap up the draft of Wings of Tabat in order to get that in before the end of the end. I’m planning changes for next year’s Rambo Academy classes and events – if you’re a community member, please weigh in on the post asking for feedback on what you’d like to see!

Lotsa Links

Cat-Related Links

The anthology Jennifer Brozek and I edited for Arc Manor is out! Find the Reinvented Detective on Amazon (ebook, audiobook, print edition), Barnes & Noble, and Powells.
The Reinvented Detective anthology got a shout out in Gizmodo.
Arley Song of Clarkesworld Magazine interviewed Jenn and I about the book and how we edit together on the Reinvented Anthology series.
In a recent episode of If This Goes On (Don’t Panic), Alan and Cat talk to Sam J. Miller about their favorite horror movies, politics in horror, racism, the history of whaling in Hudson, queer relationships in fiction, and much more.
Many of Cat’s stories are available for free as part of this Smashwords promotion! Please check it out and spread the word.
Current list of available class videos.

Rambo Academy Community Links

Richard S. Crawford’s short story “The Apocalypses of Cheryl Dean” is published in Inner Worlds, Sarah Jackson’s new ‘zine https://sarah-i-jackson.ghost.io/inner-worlds-1-the-apocalypses-richard-s-crawford/
Risa Wolf’s short story “The View” is also published in Inner Worlds https://sarah-i-jackson.ghost.io/inner-worlds-1-the-view-risa-wolf/ Here’s a link to this free ‘zine: https://sarah-i-jackson.ghost.io/tag/inner-worlds-issue-1/ and the general link: http://www.inner-worlds.org/
Wendy Bolm has her short story “The Freedom to Decide” in Factor Four Magazine https://factorfourmag.com/the-freedom-to-decide-by-w-l-bolm/
Louise Hughes has her short story “The King’s Ending” in Hexagon Magazine https://hexagonmagazine.ca/issue-15-winter-2023/
Richard S. Crawford has two new blog posts – https://underpope.com/bloginomicon/2023/12/nanowrimo-2023-howd-i-do/ and https://underpope.com/bloginomicon/2023/12/being-an-ambitious-writer/
Priya Sridhar has a preview article in SUPERJUMP – “Demeo Battles is Fun, But Difficult to Master” https://www.superjumpmagazine.com/demeo-battles-is-fun-but-difficult-to-master/ And an article in Medium, “Talia’s Codebook for Mathletes Shows How To Push Back Against Casual Sexism in Middle School” https://medium.com/permanent-nerd-network/talias-codebook-for-mathletes-shows-how-to-push-back-against-casual-sexism-in-middle-school-a5fe99f8d31b
Jenn Brozek is launching a kickstarter in late March 2024 called “Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980” More information here: https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/a7b8241f-1f77-4236-afce-3c06b11f8805/landing?utm_source=social+media&utm_medium=image&utm_campaign=announcement
Rosemary Claire Smith has a Q&A in Analog Magazine about her latest story for them, and some advice for new writers https://theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/2023/12/05/qa-with-rosemary-claire-smith-2/
D.A. Straith’s first PRO sale, short story “How to Breathe Water” is available now in Augur 6.2: Fancy & Fantasy
Melinda Mitchell’s debut novel “Next of Kin” is released through Arus Entertainment https://arusentertainment.com/product/next-of-kin/
Elizabeth Kaufmann’s short story “A Proper Witch” is live in the latest issue of Haven Spec https://www.havenspec.com/a-proper-witch as well as “Always Test Your Potions Before Serving Them to Company” in Illustrated Worlds Magazine. https://www.illustratedworldsmagazine.com/shop.html#/
Karl Dandenell also has a short story, “Last Cold Beer for 50 Miles” in Haven Spec https://www.havenspec.com/last-cold-beer-for-50-miles
Ray Daley’s story, “Ghosts of My Past” audio version is now live on Creepy Podcast (starts at 35:00) https://www.creepypod.com/episodes/2023/12/3/grey-rain
Here’s the prompts we used in this week’s writing games.

Market & Related Links

This is a terrific book and you should preorder it.
Khoré? magazine is looking for volunteer First Readers
Strange Horizons – Opens Dec. 18th at 9:00 a.m. UTC http://strangehorizons.com/submit/fiction-submission-guidelines/
Augur Magazine – Augur Magazine is open to fiction and poetry submissions from everyone, everywhere from December 15th 2023 until January 31st 2024. From February 1st to February 14th 2024, Augur Magazine will be open only to submissions from creators who are BIPOC, trans, and/or disabled and Canadian citizens/permanent residents and/or those who are living within the settler-defined border of the land colonially known as Canada.
Tales & Feathers Magazine – Tales & Feathers Magazine is open to cozy fiction submissions from everyone, everywhere, from December 15th 2023 until January 31st 2024. From February 1st to February 14th 2024, Tales & Feathers Magazine will be open only to submissions from creators who are BIPOC, trans, and/or disabled from around the world.
SFWA has a Market Report for December 2023 – https://www.sfwa.org/2023/12/05/sfwa-market-report-december-2023/
Ray Daley has put together a fabulous list of places open for submission in January – https://raymondwriteswrongs.wordpress.com/2023/12/13/january-2024-submission-challenge/

Informative Links

Please read this poem by Refat Alareer.
Lots of food for thought in this thread about celebrating Christmas in the classroom.
Everybody loves a sharp dressed man.

Pictures from Life the Casa Rambo Way

This is Bruce and Clark. They are four month old brothers, who were born in a live trap in a local feral cat colony. Both are sweet and loving and adventurous. (Twitter)
Bruce is my new director of marketing. #devilsgun #catsofspaceopera (Twitter)
The marketing department has had a busy morning and is taking a little break. #spaceoperacats (Twitter)
The head of advertising feels the director of publicity has taken the better office space. (Twitter)
Guess which of my cats is more dignified. Bruce on the left, Clark on the right. (Twitter)
Bruce believes that one of his jobs is to get in the way of writing out holiday cards. He’s taking it pretty seriously. (Twitter)
Bruce being surprisingly chill for once. (Twitter)
Bruce and Clark want to share their first marketing video! (BookTok)
Bruce and Clark did a holiday video. (BookTok)
Publicity and advertising directors thrashing out the company’s social media policy. (BookTok)
Looking for Cat on social media? Here’s the full list.

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Pilot's Varsity Disposable Fountain-Pens

November 23, 2018

I do a good bit of writing by hand, usually in a large hardbound sketchbook, although I sometimes like the feel of a nice narrow yellow-lined pad or the sprawl of an enormous expanse of drawing paper. And to write on these, while sometimes I’ll wander over into glitter gel pens or fine-point felt tips, my favorite is the Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen.

Depending on where you’re getting it, the price varies from $3-10, with the high range of that usually appearing in fancy stores aimed at writers, which will strategically place a mug of them near that stack of leatherbound, gilt-edged journals locking with tiny moon and star clasps whose splendor will prove so intimidating to live up to that you will never actually use it. Overall, it will prove much cheaper to buy yours at an art supply store, which is where I get mine, since I go through at least a few each month.

I like writing with this pen because it never feels as though the nib and paper are dragging at each other. The nib could best be described as medium, somewhere well between broad point and narrow. The pen comes in a variety of shades and shows clearly what color it is at both the top and the bottom. For me, the availability of the color depends on how recently the store’s restocked, but the web tells me it comes in black, navy blue, red, green, pink, purple, and turquoise blue.

My only quibble with the pen is a small one that may not apply to many people’s experience. I am tough on pens. They end up jammed in purses, pockets, lost in coat linings, moved from one book bag to another. And so if your treatment of your possessions is overall gentler, which it probably is, you may not experience the same results I do, which is that about one in twenty pens ends up not exploding so much as getting a bit drippy to the point of ink-stained fingers.

You can read this review at http://thegreenmanreview.com/what-nots/making-words-flow-with-pilot-varsity-fountain-pens/

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Summing Up July 2017

August 1, 2017

Over halfway through the year, and here’s some of the happenings for July.

Online I taught workshops on Story Fundamentals, Flash Fiction, Writing Steampunk & Weird Western, Moving from Idea to Draft, and Editing 101. I’ll announce September and October classes next week. I also got a chance to teach at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference mid-month, which was terrific.

I wrote short stories “Say Yes,” “A House Alone,” and “Another Selkie Story,” all of which were posted for Patreon supporters. (You can see a pictorial version of my July Patreon here.) As always, I’ve got a crop that I’m working on: highlights include a story about a woman who buys a magical talking mask only to find she doesn’t agree with what it’s saying. I also worked on urban fantasy Brazen, about a magic-wielding post apocalyptic hellion.

Videogames I’ve been playing are Stardew Valley and Dream Daddy. Curse whoever introduced me to them. In RPG news, my Star Wars RPG game managed a session. You’ll be glad to know my prophet/conwoman continues to talk her way out of things successfully but the rest of the party didn’t want to take her suggestion of throwing a mysterious crate out a fifth-floor window in order to discover the contents.

I continue using Habitica, which I blogged about here. I have a follow-up post in the works.

SFWA work included working with the Galaktika settlement, answering a bunch of e-mails, a multiplicity of video calls, and nudging a couple of projects along.

Books I read included the following. I’ve bolded the ones I particularly enjoyed:
Karen Abott, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
R.S. Belcher, The Brotherhood of the Wheel
Mike Caro, Caro’s Book of Poker Tells
Ramsey Campbell, Demons by Daylight
Tori Curtis, Eelgrass
Laurell K. Hamilton, Crimson Blood
Elizabeth Hand, Winterlong
Georgette Heyer, The Grand Sophy
Alice Hoffman, The Probable Future
Michael M. Jones (editor), Scheherezade’s Facade
Damon Knight, The Futurians
Tanith Lee, Red as Blood
Gabriel Squalia, Viscera
Glynn Stewart, Starship’s Mage
R J Theodore, Flotsam
Kentaro Toyama – Geek Heresy

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Love's Footsteps

(fantasy, short story) At the time he did it, the wizard Moulder found the idea of removing his heart, applying a calcifying solution, and storing it in a safe place, all in the name of achieving immortality, quite reasonable.

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