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We've got another one folks. Matthew Shean has a PhD in developmental biology and spent twenty years trying to understand why newts can regenerate arms when humans can’t. He’s a graduate of the 2016 Odyssey Writing Workshop, and he likes pie. Find him online at matthewshean.com.
His story, "Sylvia and Larry" was recently published in Lazarus Rising, a science fiction anthology that wrestles with questions of human life beyond our current limitations and the consequences of immortality. You can by the paperbacks at Bundoran Press or the ebooks on Amazon. Give them a good review at Goodreads! By Austin H. WilliamsAustin H. Williams is a raconteur and rockenroller who can, to some extent, be observed at Twitter.com/austinhearswhos The Lurking Anthologist |
Tickets not sold at the door. |
Please ask a question along with your RSVP, or e-mail questions for Ellen to Bsfwriters@gmail.com, Attn: Ellen Datlow.
For those who don't know:
Ellen Datlow has been editing sf/f/h short fiction for over thirty-five years. She was fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and SCIFICTION and currently acquires and edits stories for Tor.com. She has edited almost one hundred anthologies and won multiple awards for her work, including the 2012 II Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre"; has been honored with the Life Achievement Award given by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award for 2014, which is presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field.
She lives in New York.
For added fun, you can listen to “Squeeze” in Episode 7 of the Kaleidocast, performed by the indelible Jon Hoche.
When Brad first came up with the idea for a BSFW produced podcast, we kind of had an idea of how ambitious an idea it was...but not really. But after 5 years with BSFW, one thing had become clear: this group has got some seriously talented writers and people should hear their stories.
Also, the producers, Brad Parks, Sam Schreiber, Tanya Ireland McLean, and I had made some life long friends in the speculative fiction writing community at KGB Fantastic Fiction readings, the New York Review of Science Fiction, Riverside, and, of course, Readercon. The Kaleidocast is BSFW's attempt to honor both groups of writers by creating a new venue for them to publish and a new speculative world to play with: Meta Brooklyn.
Our Meta-Brooklyn exists in a parallel universe where stories from the real world percolate, project, and propagate in weird, wonderful, and often lethal ways. Then again, who's to say whose reality is more real...er? We invite you to join our characters, both academics and story hunters, as they delve into the mystery that is the Kaleidocast.
Stick around, we've got a lot of story to tell.
-Cameron Roberson, aka Rob Cameron, aka Spidercam, aka that guy who does dragon boat and drank all your hard cider.
Erik Amundsen, Max Gladstone, Daniel José Older, and moderator Josh Jasper, led a discussion on the dangers of authors telling stories where the characters comport with and therefore contort themselves into a vestigial form of masculinity where the hero is emotionally restricted (except for anger), invulnerable, has misogynistic relationships, and is driven to succeed by having a greater (and often secret) capacity for violence.
The series of James Bond movies was one very clear example given by Max, though apparently the movie Bond is an allergically toxic reaction to the more complex novels, which often happens when a story is retold for mainstream audiences. But, the conversation really started at last year’s Readercon when Josh had noted how the WB horror drama “Supernatural” was a prime example of a narrative where the main characters were caught in a cycle of death fueled by blatantly stupid toxic masculinity.
We subconsciously live out the stories we associate with. Through his work as a community organizer and paramedic, Daniel has seen the literal “blood and guts” consequences of toxic masculinity gone untreated in all walks of life, from Wall Street execs to gang members. And, he said, young people who are steeped in this narrative are eager for, even “starving for” this conversation. Speculative fiction is an excellent tool with which to conduct it.
But as far as Supernatural goes...in addition to the show's abysmal track record when it comes to women, the show has also never shown much respect for the enormous female population of shippers who comprise the majority of its fanbase.
The urban fantasy noir series is well written, complex, descriptive, and more self-aware than "Supernatural." But Dresden always wins (even when he dies), by having a greater capacity for violence. Emotions beyond anger are as rare as minorities in his version of Chicago, and as Daniel pointed out, perpetuating the belief that happy endings always come after you’ve obliterated the "bad" people is dangerous. Both "Supernatural" and "The Dresden Files" are mainstreamed speculative fiction and need to do a better job of breaking down the “mythologies of gender” we all live with.
Josh recommended Ken Liu’s “Grace of Kings.” It does a very good job of contrasting the lives of a hyper toxic masculine man character with one who saw vulnerability as a strength and feminine as integrated with masculine rather than opposed to it. Josh also recommended Daniel Abram’s stories including the “Dagger and Coin” series.
Erik recommended Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix, though more for the villain Kingpin, than the super hero. The show takes a more balanced approach: Daredevil is endowed with a super power that makes him more aware of others (so kind of cheating), yet hides his own true nature from those he loves. But then he wins because he’s simply more bad ass and more angry than Kingpin. Kingpin's journey is much more clearly defined as he learned to draw strength from vulnerability, healed (relatively speaking) from early childhood trauma, and survived those who tried to hold him to his more toxic, stunted self. It's a very curious case of projection.
Finally, Daniel Jose Elder’s “Half-Resurrection Blues” urban fantasy noir, a kind of answer to the "Dresden Files," writes very convincingly about the consequences of power over rather than power with and introduces you to different flavors of masculinity that bare more resemblance to real world people.
You still run the risk of audience backlash, like what happened with "Neo Genesis," but ultimately I take a historical view on this. Many Victorian era fairy tales were written by women challenging the limitations put upon them. Samuel Delany’s generation in the twentieth century pushed the envelope of what was considered taboo sexuality. 21st century America is right now having a conversation about gender. Re-imagining masculinity is a task whose time has come. Pick up your pen.
-Rob Cameron
The biggest takeaway for me was recognizing that a certain amount of similarity between an alien character and the human reader is necessary for there to be insight into the human condition. An alien who is too different becomes more like scenery or environment. Among the aliens who straddle the line gracefully, the panelists frequently made mention of China Mieville’s Embassytown, in which the aliens think so differently from humans, the mere presence of human settlers on their planet creates problems with their language and therefore their thinking.
Another important point made by the panelists was how important it was to make the physiology, philosophy, politics, and behavior of your aliens matter to the plot. If some aspect of your aliens’ design doesn’t serve the plot, it is like an extraneous character.
For my own writing, I realized that as exhaustively as I tend to plot out my alien worlds, there is still a lot of stuff missing when you consider all the niches that, for example, life on Earth exploits. And in that process of filling out my world, I have to stop going for easy analogs like viruses, insects, squirrels, dogs, and, of course, humans.
by Mark Salzwedel
Readercon 2015, Marcy Arlin Reporting: KaffeeKlatches. Coffee clutches. Gathering over coffee.
9/14/2015
Where, at Readercon, you get to have about an hour–long chat with a writer, along with about fourteen other people. Sit on a high chair at a square table on the 8th floor of the Burlington Marriott. Get some coffee from coffee boxes (abomination!). Ask questions. Listen to stories. Discuss life and writing.
Sometimes the writer asks your name, sometimes a bit about you. If you’re a fan, it is more than cool. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to gaze with awe, love, and admiration. Maybe they’ll remember you. If an editor, maybe they’ll publish you.
I KaKl’ed with Daniel José Older, Sheila Williams, and Samuel Delaney .
Daniel José Older
Daniel writes urban fantasy mysteries and has just reached a tipping point, getting fabulous reviews in the NY Times Book Review for Shadowshaper. His work is set in Brooklyn where I live. Where he lives. With Latino and Latina characters, with language that reflects the New York Hispanic culture. He paints a rich, cultural landscape where bizarre things happen and even more bizarre people live. He deserves all the success in the world.
Daniel is a Santeria priest. He told us! This lends him, for us Anglos in the room, a flavor of exoticism, as well as a sense of danger, ignorant as we are for the most part, about the religion. He admits to sacrificing chickens, though I’m not sure he is not goofing on us. I’m not a fan of sacrificing animals for religious purposes, and personally I believe amazing things can be done without animal murder. I get the blood thing. But still.
But aside from the sensational, Daniel is a warm, outgoing guy who is totally dedicated to his writing (after also working as an EMT in the Bronx.). He is also dedicated to bringing Latino/a characters into speculative fiction and supports many causes and people on this account (apparently he has a hugely popular Twitter account). i.e. Get rid of Lovecraft as the image for the statue for the World Fantasy Awards. The guy, according to Daniel, and to me, was a total racist, anti-semitic, misogynistic loonie tune, who wrote brilliantly creepy stuff. But come on, folks, Get over him.
Daniel also has no tolerance (yay!!) for writing that includes stereotypes of brown people from wherever, and cited the much-maligned (deservedly, I think) work of JimButcher. A minor tiff ensued with someone who supported and admired Butcher, citing his improved political stances (less homophobic, racist, by book 4), but Daniel had no tolerance for that.
Apparently he is willing to throw a book across the room if it makes him angry. Yay again.
A moving moment during this particular KaKl was when a young woman mentioned that she, being Hispanic, felt finally she could read stories about characters like her (maybe she doesn’t get to read the many many Latino/a writers out there). But it is true, that in the mostly white world of spec fiction, non-white writers and characters are rare. We see that changing (cf. DJO, Butler, Shawl, Liu, Chiang, Hopkinson, etc.), and we can reference the folks in BSFW.
Daniel is a very likable, personable, friendly, funny, and smart guy. The hour flew by.
Sheila, as the world knows, is the Editor of Asimov’s. (I had met her a couple of years ago when I attended the Short Story Workshop at the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, with Chris McKitterick and Andy Duncan, with a meeting with James Gunn. Writers: GO! They are all brilliant teachers and the critique groups are excellent.)
Anyway, I was thrilled that Sheila not only recognized me but remembered I worked in theatre. Cool! Also in attendance were my dear friends Kathy Kitts and Jean Asselin, who I met in Kansas.
Sheila talked at length about her work day. She reads hundreds of stories now, and mentioned that she is finally caught up with all the submissions. She had some thoughts and anecdotes:
The guy who had sent in 85 stories and been rejected 85 times. She guessed he was hoping that the next one would be the one Asimov’s accepted.
She does not want to read a novel in the cover letter. Unless the story is based on something in the writer’s life (i.e. about a weird circus and the writer worked in the circus), long bios aren’t really necessary. The story should say it all.
After so many years as an editor, she has a strong feeling about what makes a strong story and if it is suitable for Asimov’s.
Asimov’s is digital now, which has helped circulation. Asimov’s will be starting a podcast soon, and is looking for readers. No pay, but hey.
I got the feeling that Sheila is a generous editor and REALLY, REALLY wants a good story to come her way.
Asked if she regretted passing up a story that went on to win awards, she said that of course editors miss stuff, but generally if she passed, it meant the story was not right for Asimov’s.
Right then (at Readercon) she was working on the blurbs that precede the stories. I always wanted to know who wrote those.
For someone who is probably besieged by writers, Sheila was warm and open! I felt encouraged and sent in one of my stories the next week. She wrote back an extremely charming rejection letter, which actually included a helpful critique.
What can I say? What a character! What a nice man! What a brilliant man! What an unabashedly sexual man!
I don’t remember all of the questions, but I remember that each question prompted a long involved story about theory, practice, working, writing, sexuality, publishing, and academia. It seems Mr. Delaney, (I couldn’t bring myself to call him Samuel) has mostly been writing critique and theory articles about speculative fiction, writing, and issues of gender and identity.
I read Dhalgren in college (so long ago) and remember being very unsettled by the book for numerous reasons: an unpleasant post-apocalyptic world, sexual behavior that this then-naïve gal had never heard of, and a strong sense of alienation on the part of the protagonist. Yes, it was a time for this sort of investigation, but no one, with perhaps the exception of Ellison, Russ, and a few others were interested in unsettling the speculative fiction reader. Escape, we could not.
Seems like Mr. Delaney hasn’t mellowed at all in this respect, which is such a wonderful inspiration for writers: follow your heart, your mission, and your personal truth. Think about what society is, gives, and takes away.
Societal analysis should not be a stranger to speculative fiction, but an integral part, no matter how “out there” it may seem to be.
Delaney is an original: he wrote about sex, people of color, screwed-up society, alienation, and a whole host of other themes that are now almost standard.
And he still shows up at a Readercon and talks with everybody and anybody, telling stories, answering questions, and always asking questions.
So, should you sign up for these kaffeeklatches?
Ridiculous question, of course you should. Meet these folks. Ask a question. Have your face in the room and listen. Take notes. Get books signed. They are there because they want to meet you, too. Otherwise, why bother?
They are a nice change from the huge panels in the huge freezing rooms, or odd questions from the audience (though this was rarer this year than my first Readercon two years ago).
Would love to hear from those who went to other KaKl’s.
Marcy Arlin
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