tag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:/blogs/blog?p=2Blog2022-05-24T13:19:46-04:00Sarah Pinskerfalsetag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/69786672022-05-24T13:19:46-04:002024-02-12T02:34:45-05:00"Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather" won the Nebula! <p>On Saturday night, my story “<a contents="Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/where-oaken-hearts-do-gather/">Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” </a>won the Nebula Award for best short story. This was my fourth Nebula win —and my third consecutive, in three different categories!— but my first for short story. The ceremony and the conference were online, also for the third year in a row. The Nebula is given by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association— my fellow writers, and the <a contents="ballots" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://nebulas.sfwa.org/sfwa-announces-nebula-award-finalists/">ballot</a> is always full of wonderful work. </p>
<p>As someone who has now accepted three Nebulas and a Hugo (the Hugos were in person, but I had an asymptomatic positive Covid test that week and stayed home) from this chair in my library, I can say there’s something weird about accepting an award live online. I’m a performer; I know how to channel energy. And yet, when they say my name, and the adrenaline hits while I’m trying to find the buttons to hit “accept promotion to speaker” and also remember to turn on my camera and mic, and also try to keep the dogs from barking as they feed off my excitement, there’s nowhere for the excitement to go. I can’t see other faces, so my excitement bounces off the computer and hits me square, telling me I should speed up instead of take a breath. </p>
<p>This time there were three people in the next room, and the delay was only a few seconds, so they heard me whoop and came running. They stopped in the doorway, tried to shush the dogs, and tried not to make any noise while I gave my hurried and overexcited speech. When I finished, they whooped before the feed had cut off, and I whipped my head around, and apparently the result on the award’s YouTube feed sounded like I had been murdered by a cat. I don’t have a cat. </p>
<p>And also, of course, the truth is, I was excited. It’s an honor, and not something I will ever get used to. I have the very first Nebula anthology on my shelf, where Damon Knight explains the founding of SFWA and the choice of the award, based on a sketch by Kate Wilhelm. “Each consists of a spiral nebula made of metallic glitter, and a specimen of rock crystal, both embedded in a block of clear Lucite.”</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/382d2904683cf446d442ff53b29dbf98b5bbb275/original/antho1965.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="Cover of 1965 Nebula anthology edited by Damon Knight, with a swirl and an iceberg type design in a green rectangle" /></p>
<p>There are now three of those beautiful things on my shelf, each one different, and a fourth on its way. They are external validation in a world where that is sometimes a hard thing to get. We write these things, and edit them, and send them out into the world hoping that someone will read them, but we don't always get to know when that's the case. I know how lucky I am. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/6c41500a949f6dcf4011288f12aa77ceefcbaadc/original/nebs.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="Three Nebula awards (blocks of lucite with a glitter galaxy swirl, and various planets made of different colored rock" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>And the thing is, I grew up reading those Nebula anthologies, and other SF anthologies and collections, and even though I am now ten years into this career, there is still a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming quality to this for me. To be on a list forever linked with stories like “Love is the Plan the Plan is Death” and “The Day Before the Revolution,” as someone who grew up reading those stories, is an impossible honor. </p>
<p>A couple of people have asked me for the text and the list I gave in my speech, so here it is, in its more coherent and less breathless form, without me cutting parts as I went. It starts with thank yous to SFWA members, Zu, my family, my Sparklepony critique group, my agent Kim-Mei Kirtland, Uncanny Magazine, and the other finalists, Jose Pablo Iriarte, Alix Harrow, Suzan Palumbo, John Wiswell, Sam Miller, for their excellent stories – I always assume I will not win, because I know the quality of the rest of the ballot. </p>
<p>Winning the Nebula for short story is really special to me because, at heart, I love short stories. Since I’m sitting here in my library accepting this award, I can demonstrate that. Those shelves over there? First of all, they’re doubled up with books behind the books. Those are the anthologies. You can see all of the Dozois Years’ Bests, and Strahan, and Horton, and John Joseph Adams, and Datlow and Windling, and Guran. You can see anthologies edited by Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell and Judith Merrill and those VanderMeer Big Books of. Lisa Yazsek, Cramer & Hartwell. Best of F & SFs, Twelve Tomorrows, Women of Wonder. Not pictured? Countless copies of F & SF and Asimov’s and other magazines. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/7afec60fd0e7fad673bb4cd8d7e8899f871ee616/original/anthoshelves.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="Bookshelves full of books" /></p>
<p>These books behind me? A lot of these are collections too, containing stories both famous and near-forgotten. That shelf there? That’s all Le Guin. Here’s Delany’s Driftglass and Distant Stars. And Nino Cipri and Jeff Ford and Ted Chiang and Molly Gloss and Sheree Renee Thomas and Kij Johnson and Alaya Dawn Johnson and Tenea D. Johnson and Shirley Jackson and Isabel Yap and NK Jemisin and Michael Bishop and Connie Willis and Andy Duncan and Ken Liu and Richard Butner and Caroline Yoachim and Tina Connolly and Charlie Jane Anders and Karen Joy Fowler and Kelly Link and Christopher Rowe and Kit Reed and Cordwainer Smith and Theodore Sturgeon and Tiptree and Elwin Cotman and AC Wise and Kiini Ibura Salaam and Miriam Allen De Ford and John Crowley and Jonathan Carroll and Malka Older and Sam Miller and Jane Yolen and Kay Chronister and if I’m reading these off a list, I made that list off the top of my head even though I could point to them, because I know exactly where they are on the shelf, because these are the things I pull out when I want to challenge myself again to push myself to my limits: the quick hit of a brilliant short story will never cease to inspire me. </p>
<p>And you? I look forward to reading your work too. </p>
<p> I love short stories. Thank you for this honor.</p>Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/68293392021-12-03T15:23:33-05:002022-03-23T14:49:29-04:00My 2021 in Fiction And Music <p><span class="font_large"><strong>My 2021 in Fiction and Music</strong> </span></p>
<p>So I think 2021 happened? March 2020 was a year long, and 2021 felt like a month, but it must have been longer, because somewhere in that month time expanded to allow a book, a couple of stories, and an album to happen. And my third Nebula, for my 2020 story "<a contents="Two Truths And A Lie" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.tor.com/2020/06/17/two-truths-and-a-lie-sarah-pinsker/">Two Truths And A Lie</a>," which also brought my first Stoker nomination, as well as Hugo and Locus nominations. Also a puppy. If you want to know what happened to my productivity, all my focus went into keeping a tiny rescue puppy alive. He's not so tiny now. The same weight as Sprocket and six inches taller, and we have no idea what he's going to be, but he's a good guy, so I figure it was time well spent. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/1d7ec3560016c5a5c687a7c8528a54537d4aa469/original/zimtable.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.png" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="A terrier puppy standing on a bench peering out from under a low table." /></p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><strong>2021 STORIES (This doubles as an eligibility post): </strong> </span></p>
<p>I only had two short stories out this year, but I'm super proud of both of them. The first was <a contents='"Where Oaken Hearts do Gather,"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://uncannymagazine.com/article/where-oaken-hearts-do-gather/">"<strong>Where Oaken Hearts do Gather,"</strong></a> which appeared in Uncanny Magazine's March/April issue. It's a dark fantasy story told in comments on a lyrics website. The characters are trying to figure out the meaning behind a ballad that may or may not have a basis in truth. It was tremendous fun to write this one because I had to write the song in order to write the story. There's even a recording hidden in the story. As you might know, I love writing fiction about music, and this is one of those stories that just felt great to write from the first word to the last. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/1a74abe61de5b4af9a0d442f0c838132716e17d4/original/screen-shot-2021-12-03-at-3-08-42-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="a black and white image of a man in a suit knocked off his feet as he is shot through with an arrow of undecipherable words with a hint of color" />art by Ashley Mackenzie for A Better Way of Saying</p>
<p>My other original story this year was <strong><a contents='"A Better Way of Saying,"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.tor.com/2021/11/10/a-better-way-of-saying/">"A Better Way of Saying,"</a></strong> which came out November 10 at Tor.com. This one deserves a blog post of its own, but the short explanation is that it's historical fantasy set in the early days of film, recounting a particular movie magic. It features Lower East Side movie shouters (a real thing!) and a real life incident of the kind that begs to be fictionalized. If I've been writing too much creepy stuff for you, this might be more your jam. </p>
<p><strong>NOVEL: </strong> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/eaf4bbdfb14c10a0241336ca4c08ca2051fbddc6/original/wearesatellites-ljshare-v1.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="Book cover depicting a silhouette of a woman holding hands with a child against a starry sky." /></p>
<p>My second novel, <a contents="We Are Satellites," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802606?aff=penguinrandom"><strong>We Are Satellites,</strong></a> was published in May, after ten years in my brain. It came out in beautiful US and UK editions. The tagline "one family and the technology that divides them" was a pretty good summation. It brought my first New York Times review (“Taut and elegant, carefully introspected and thoughtfully explored.”) And some nice reviews elsewhere as well! <br> <br>“Pinsker’s newest is a carefully crafted sci-fi web stretched over an intensely human core.” <br>—Booklist (starred review) </p>
<p>“A graceful exploration of what one seemingly small change means for one family…Capturing the universal in the down-to-earth and specific is one of Pinsker’s gifts, and here it’s on remarkable display.” <br>—Tor.com </p>
<p>The year ended with a great review in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction by Charles de Lint saying "Pinsker has a rather small body of work so far, but for this reader she's one of the brightest lights to emerge from the field in recent years. She's thoughtful, inclusive, not afraid to step up and shine a light into the darkness, but also not afraid to allow emoticons to play as large a part in her stories as the logic that underpins them. Like everything else she has written to date, We Are Satellites is highly recommended." </p>
<p><strong>MUSIC</strong></p>
<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/89a99972b9c8c01a4b8c2a90495b558316ecadd5/original/somethingtoholdphoto.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="Album cover depicting aerialists catching someone in mid-flight." /></strong></p>
<p>My last new thing for the year was my fourth album, more than a decade in the making. You can read more about it <a contents="here." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sarahpinsker.com/blog/blog/new-album-surprise">here.</a> I called it <strong><a contents="Something to Hold" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sarahpinsker.bandcamp.com/album/something-to-hold"><em>Something to Hold</em></a> </strong>for a few reasons. It's a lyric from my song "Tomorrow People," a dustbowl song inspired by Timothy Egan's book <em>The Worst Hard Time</em>. The term comes from the people who would say "tomorrow things will be better" and stayed put rather than leaving. </p>
<p>Daniel, when we put down roots here I swear they dug in deep <br>these days it’s just the stubborn ones like us <br>still scrambling for something to hold </p>
<p>We came drawn by a blanket of grass </p>
<p>tucked in at the corners of the sky </p>
<p>You'd think that such a precious thing </p>
<p>would have put up more of a fight </p>
<p>The album in general has a lot of songs about people trying to figure things out: where they are, what they're supposed to be doing, how long to stay in a situation, what's worth holding on to and what's worth fighting for. The cover alludes to the song "I Am Out Here," but also to that moment of letting go and trusting you'll be caught again and held. I figured it was a good name for something that I had talked about for so long that I wasn't sure if I'd ever see it in its concrete form. And then I was also thinking about the changes in music in recent years, and thought there was something fun and ironic in naming an album "Something to Hold" when my presumption is that most people will buy it in an ephemeral format online. That said, there are also CDs for those who, like me, still have the choice of CD or terrestrial radio in their car. It's available everywhere, but <a contents="bandcamp" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sarahpinsker.bandcamp.com/album/something-to-hold">bandcamp</a> is best for me, if you want to check it out.</p>
<p>So anyway, yeah, 2021. Another hard year for artists, so if you're of a mind to, consider doing something to support your local artistic ecosystem if you can. Buy an album on Bandcamp, talk up a local band, put a few bucks in an artist's tip jar, buy books from your local bookstore, request your favorite authors in your local library, write a review, buy a calendar or a t-shirt from an artist you love. I still believe we're all in this together. </p>
<p>Much love--Sarah</p>Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/67024292021-07-30T13:58:43-04:002021-12-03T14:53:31-05:00New album! Surprise! <p>I have a non-book-related surprise:</p>
<p>MY MYTHICAL FOURTH ALBUM! </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/89a99972b9c8c01a4b8c2a90495b558316ecadd5/original/somethingtoholdphoto.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsImxhcmdlIl1d.png" class="size_l justify_center border_none" alt="Album cover in muted blues and greens. It says "Something to Hold" above a tightrope, and "Sarah Pinsker" above it. On the left side, an acrobat catches an aerialist, arms outstretched, while others wait on the right platform." /></p>
<p>I have wanted this to exist in the wild for so long, and there were so many things that stood in the way. I think we recorded the first track for this in 2009, and the rest over several years after that. There were several times when I thought I was almost there, and something got in the way. I finally said okay, if I want this out there, I just have to do it. </p>
<p>It's called <a contents="Something to Hold" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sarahpinsker.bandcamp.com/album/something-to-hold">Something to Hold</a>. My longtime collaborate/producer/friend John M. Seay and I made it with a bunch of amazing musicians, including SONiA <a contents="disappear fear" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.soniadisappearfear.com">disappear fear</a> <a contents="Laura Cerulli " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://mamasblacksheep.com/bio">Laura Cerulli </a><a contents="Dave Hadley" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.davehadley.com">Dave Hadley</a>, Claudia SanSoucie and Kate Maguire of <a contents="Beggar's Ride" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://beggarsride.bandcamp.com">Beggar's Ride</a>, <a contents="Seth Kibel " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sethkibel.com">Seth Kibel </a>Michael Redding, Tony Bonta Rebecca Pickard, Rosie Shipley, Dave Abe, Julie Mays, and my wonderful late friend and drummer Tony Calato. They sang and played fiddle and pedal steel and clarinet and guitar and mandolin and banjo and drums, in various combinations. </p>
<p>Jennifer Smith of <a contents="Naked Blue" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.nakedblue.com/music">Naked Blue</a> did the design work. </p>
<p>It has a bunch of songs you've possibly heard me play solo or with the Stalking Horses in another form, like Waterwings, Josephine, Powder River, and the Dylan cover "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)" and a few you probably haven't heard before. </p>
<p>You might have heard me say that fiction and songwriting both stem from the same storytelling place in my heart. "Fanny's Letter" stems from a letter between my great-great-aunt in Munich just before the Holocaust and my great-aunt in the US, and I view it as a collaboration across time. "Tomorrow People" was inspired by Timothy Egan's dustbowl history The Worst Hard Time, which also inspired Ken Burns' dustbowl documentary. "I Am Out Here" is the story of a circus sideshow's "living doll," in love with an aerialist. "Josephine" is the strange dream or reality of a soldier in the Great War. "Powder River" is about a farmer who takes matters into his own hands after the government claims oil rights on his land. There are love songs here, and unrequited love songs, and stories about figuring yourself out and figuring other people out and whatever else you like songs about. </p>
<p>It should be available on all the major platforms, though <a contents="Bandcamp" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sarahpinsker.bandcamp.com/album/something-to-hold">Bandcamp</a> is my preference. </p>
<p>Now here comes the fine print: I had declared today as my I-swear-it's-coming-out-no-matter-what, but the CDs aren't back yet, and may be a couple more weeks, and I was sick of postponing. I'm not putting the link up yet, because I don't want to be the person who can't deliver merchandise. </p>
<p>So if you're a digital download person, here it is, complete and ready. If you want a CD, they'll be on bandcamp in a few weeks. I had wanted to surprise John with a case of them at his door today, but hopefully he'll be okay with this surprise and the promise of a case in a couple of weeks. I'll be sending copies to everyone on it too, of course. </p>
<p>I love this album, and I hope you do too.</p>
<p>--Sarah</p>
<p> </p>Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/66216192021-05-04T19:30:30-04:002021-05-04T19:30:30-04:00New novel! New news! <p>I have so much to tell you, and I'm full of exclamation points and news, both book and music related! </p>
<p>And now I'm back to tell you that I have a new novel coming out next week. It's called <a contents="We Are Satellites" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802606">We Are Satellites</a> and it's a story about one family and the near-future tech fad that divides them. The reviews so far have been pretty great, but I'm excited to get it in the hands of readers after it's been in my head for so long. It's being published by Penguin Random House's Berkley imprint in the US and Canada, and by Head of Zeus in the UK and a bunch of other countries. </p>
<p>I've got two free online launch events to celebrate it. <br>Tuesday, May 11 at 7 PM Eastern hosted online by the Ivy Bookshop, I'll be chatting with the amazing novelist and science journalist Annalee Newitz. <a contents="https://www.theivybookshop.com/upcomingevent/23574 " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.theivybookshop.com/upcomingevent/23574">https://www.theivybookshop.com/upcomingevent/23574 </a></p>
<p>Thursday, May 13 at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific hosted online by the University Bookstore in Seattle, I get to have a conversation with the brilliant short story writer Ted Chiang. <a contents="https://www.eventbrite.com/.../sarah-pinsker-in..." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sarah-pinsker-in-conversation-with-ted-chiang-tickets-142603632303?fbclid=IwAR2AhJsg0b0e5hLsCJTxdee4oPNGoUkljhZJB8_tz6xzDb3wlehy8fVLVo8">https://www.eventbrite.com/.../sarah-pinsker-in...</a> </p>
<p>I'll sign the Ivy's stock in person, so I can personalize those books, and I'm supposed to be signing bookplates for the University Bookstore. I'll also try to get to as many other Maryland bookstores as I can, including Atomic Books, Greedy Reads, and Caprichos Books, until I can travel to other places. </p>
<p>Ordering ahead of time tells stores (and my publisher) that people want to read my book! If you want to buy from an indie bookstore, Indiebound can help you find one: <a contents="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802606&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802606">https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802606 </a><br>Bookshop.org is also a great way to shop if you don't have a favorite local:<a contents="&nbsp;https://bookshop.org/books/we-are-satellites/9781984802606&nbsp;" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bookshop.org/books/we-are-satellites/9781984802606"> https://bookshop.org/books/we-are-satellites/9781984802606 </a><br>There'll also be an ebook available everywhere and an <a contents="audiobook" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780593347232-we-are-satellites?fbclid=IwAR0nHHf2hoI7tTnm1dEy7k-y7bAT8pVHcPioMxqBGC3ncfmOJ6TDXbbmeCs">audiobook</a>. </p>
<p>Reserving it at the library is great too! You don't need to buy to make a difference in an author's life. Library reserves and online reviews help spread the word too. </p>
<p>In music news, I am trying to actually finally make the next album happen in the next couple of months, and I'll let you know when it does. <br>In sort-of-kind-of music news, I have a weird story called <a contents='"Where Oaken Hearts do Gather"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://uncannymagazine.com/article/where-oaken-hearts-do-gather/?fbclid=IwAR3YtXb9fL_IlkscvY5ICbwzFO7sr93enfKrm4yE05kTfcJ3fSVp_w5srRc">"Where Oaken Hearts do Gather"</a> in Uncanny Magazine that might amuse those of you who have ever poked around the websites where people try to figure out lyric meanings. It's a story about an old ballad, as told through the lyrics and attempts to explain them... and because I couldn't resist, I recorded a version of the ballad. A link to the song on youtube is hidden in the story. It was a quick and messy recording, but it'll have to tide you over until I finally get this album out the door in late June. </p>
<p>But first, a book! </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/eaf4bbdfb14c10a0241336ca4c08ca2051fbddc6/original/wearesatellites-ljshare-v1.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />I hope you love Val, Julie, David, and Sophie as much as I do.</p>Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/65009282020-12-16T14:32:04-05:002021-12-07T18:27:48-05:00My 2020 Year in Fiction<p>My 2020 year in fiction </p>
<p>(Skip to the bottom if you just want the eligibility post, like a recipe; the beginning is reflection) </p>
<p>Well, I just looked back at what I wrote last year, and my 2019 summation post ended with "My wish for all of us is to have as good a year in 2020 as this dog did in 2019." Ha. Haha. Sob. In fact, for another year in a row, I don't think any of us had it as good as Sprocket did. This time, he didn't even have to deal with me leaving to travel. I'm still on the tank of gas I bought in July, which was the only one I bought after March.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/8bca028c7650dd9c5f525c31c9aed0db792761a4/original/1608145853052-2.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="white terrier with black and brown head standing in front of a green door with a rubber ring in his mouth and his tail straight up." /></p>
<p>Parts of my novel came true, and more parts are coming true every day. Just yesterday I read about an artist who did an online concert in a virtual recreation of a club that doesn't exist anymore. I find that my decision to concentrate on the Before and After while skipping the During results in an odd sense of discovery that I can pass off as premonition. It's very weird to watch what was absolutely supposed to be fiction become nonfiction. I spent a lot of time explaining that Luce isn't anti-social distancing, and her club came years later, and she wouldn't advocate for secret underground shows in the middle of a pandemic; music is community, and infecting those around you with a deadly virus is not punk. I wish I'd anticipated masks. </p>
<p>It's hard to reflect on a year in fiction divorced from the larger circumstance. The fact that I only had a handful of stories come out this year has nothing to do with the pandemic, and everything to do with a) having two books come out last year, with all attendant promotion, and b) the most overbooked spring of my entire life, pandemic notwithstanding. It turns out that teaching, editing a novel, and trying to get state legislation passed all eat up a lot of time, and writing is the thing that was most easily pushed back. </p>
<p>If I have fewer stories out next year, that will be the more direct result of this year's panicked brain fog. I've managed to write more since August, at least, including a handful of stories I'm really happy with, and a good start on a new novel. I've learned my limits this year, in a few different ways. I'm hoping this is a lesson that will stick. </p>
<p>Some good things came out of this year for me personally. <a contents="A Song For A New Day" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bookshop.org/books/a-song-for-a-new-day/9781984802583">A Song For A New Day</a> won the <a contents="Nebula Award for Best Novel," data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://nebulas.sfwa.org/nominated-work/a-song-for-a-new-day/">Nebula Award for Best Novel,</a> and <a contents="Sooner or Later Everything Fell Into the Sea" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bookshop.org/books/sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea-stories/9781618731555">Sooner or Later Everything Fell Into the Sea</a> won the Philip K. Dick Award, and those books and my novelette "The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye" got variously nominated for the Hugo, Locus, Compton Crook, and World Fantasy Award, which they lost to other wonderful works. I watched a lot of Zoom award ceremonies and got to celebrate everyone's wins in new and interesting ways. </p>
<p>We sold translation rights in a bunch of other languages, and I'm excited to see those released. There are beautiful UK hardcovers of both books now from <a contents="Head of Zeus" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://headofzeus.com/books/9781800243866">Head of Zeus</a>. </p>
<p>I taught my first college semester. I had a blast working with brilliant, motivated young writers, and I'm looking forward to doing it again this coming spring. I taught a super fun fiction camp for teenagers, and a bunch of one-off workshops.</p>
<p>I turned in final drafts of We Are Satellites, which is <a contents="available for pre-order " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802606">available for pre-order </a>now before its May release, and which I'm excited for you to read. Tor.com posted a cover reveal and excerpt <a contents="here." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.tor.com/2020/09/16/cover-reveal-and-excerpt-we-are-satellites-by-sarah-pinsker/">here.</a></p>
<p>I learned how to slow down a bit, to not say yes to every online event, to take extra dog walks instead. More than ever, I recognize my neighbors by their dogs, since their faces are masked, but we're all friendlier than ever, from across the street. I learned the names of my neighborhood's trees and the exact date at which each plant flowers. I developed new reward systems. Some of the old ones still work too. Most of them are food. </p>
<p>I bought a lot of music and books, but had to remind myself how to read for pleasure, since that disappeared briefly in the spring. I read in different genres than I usually do. I tried to keep all my favorite restaurants, coffeeshops, bookstores, clubs, musicians, and farmers in business. I watched everyone pivot to new ways of doing things. I discovered how much of my writing habits depended on coffeeshops, and worked on new habits. I know exactly how lucky I am that I have a job I can do from home, and I'm thankful for all those whose work allowed me to do so. I found new appreciation on top of my already bounding appreciation for nurses, doctors, researchers, journalists, teachers, postal workers, sanitation engineers, store clerks, delivery people, and everyone who helps keep our society running.</p>
<p>I found new ways to connect with family and friends and colleagues, while missing the old ways. I got to read to my niece over the internet, at the exact age when she has enough attention span for remote reading, and in the exact moment when her online capacity wasn't yet overfilled with school. I meet up with friends to write and chat online. </p>
<p>I did have a few stories come out, and I got to work with three of my favorite anthology editors for the first time, which leads to this eligibility post: </p>
<p>NOVELETTE: </p>
<p><a contents='"Two Truths And A Lie," ' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.tor.com/2020/06/17/two-truths-and-a-lie-sarah-pinsker/">"Two Truths And A Lie," </a>Tor.com, June 2020. Edited by Ellen Datlow. 11000 words I think? Dark fantasy/horror. I’m very proud of this creepy piece. </p>
<p>SHORT STORY: </p>
<p><a contents='"La Mer Donne,"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.avatars.inc/future_ideas/2033">"La Mer Donne,"</a> Avatars Inc. anthology edited by Ann VanderMeer, March 2020. SF. There's a cat. Check out the super cool website and anthology.</p>
<p><a contents='"Bigger Fish,"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781781087879">"Bigger Fish,"</a> Made to Order anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan, March 2020. SF/mystery. </p>
<p><a contents='"Notice,' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://csi.asu.edu/story/sarah-pinsker-uif/">"Notice,</a>" Us in Flux online project, June 2020. SF. This was a really cool project, and you should check out the other stories and conversations in the series. </p>
<p>UK EDITIONS</p>
<p>Did I mention that A Song For A New Day and Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea both got gorgeous <a contents="UK hardcover editions" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://headofzeus.com/books/9781800243835">UK hardcover editions</a>? </p>
<p>Still forthcoming: There's one more lighter-side near future SF story that'll hit right at the close of the year from Escape Pod. </p>
<p>So yes, 2020 happened. Here's truly hoping for a better 2021 for all of us. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/ef4f1bfb765d67f5daa5c7e905c03112fbcfbd54/original/roseinsnow.jpg/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsInNtYWxsIl1d.jpg" class="size_s justify_center border_none" alt="Orange and pink rose bud in snow" /></p>
<p>ps It's snowing right now, huge flakes that don't even look real. It was sixty degrees this weekend and the roses haven't stopped blooming all year.</p>
<p> </p>Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470592019-12-05T19:00:00-05:002020-09-11T12:03:49-04:00My 2019 Year in Fiction
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/9d8fa833a83cf89d755a66355fe91a76d0897770/original/sprocketnbooks.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6Mzc1eDUwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Rat terrier, and two Sarah Pinsker books: A Song For A New Day and Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea" height="500" width="375" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>(If you're just here for my list of original fiction for 2019, just scroll to the bottom)</p>
<p>2019 has been one interesting year for me personally. For starters, when our Bo dog died in October 2018 at 17 years old, we swore we wouldn't get another dog for at least a year. It seemed like it would be a lot to deal with in a year where my first two books were scheduled to come out, but we only made it to the first week of February before we adopted Sprocket. Bo was a character and a half, and I still miss him, but he wasn't the most affectionate dog. Sprocket, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to be with us, or preferably on us. He has tons of terrier energy and walks me a lot.</p>
<p>I started the year with a very eventful trip to South Africa with Zu. Eventful for the air travel shenanigans, but while we were in one of the parks, we also got to see giraffes fight, spotted lions crossing the road after a meal (check out the full belly on the cub!), had to shoo a baboon out of the kitchen, and rescued a hornbill who got a foot caught in the car hood while trying to eat the windshield wipers.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/4052625774518ddd330d242566ba6afc454f7246/original/giraffes.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTg4eDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="giraffes fighting" height="250" width="188" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/f2225a70e5cc8e6232c5231f290e2b56af18c875/original/elephants.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzMzeDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="elephants crossing the road" height="250" width="333" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/6fc01f46c87ee5e4b19ea08545e72e2dd9fc9448/original/lions.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzMzeDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="lions crossing the road" height="250" width="333" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/3e5870a34793e131fc5476444e999c5216c622cd/original/hornbill.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTg4eDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="hornbill bird on the car windshield" height="250" width="188" /></p>
<p>Worldcon was in Dublin, so I got to go to Dublin in August. In between my panels at the convention, I rode an adorable Irish horse who I would happily have taken home with me and got to see the stunning Trinity College library. My 2018 story "The Court Magician" lost the Hugo while I was there. It was also a finalist for the Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award, both of which it also lost. In all cases, the finalist lists were fantastic and I was honored to be among them. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/c743ecb22361a9f28a0f0e5d676d4e2155bca00b/original/trinity.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTg4eDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Trinity library" height="250" width="188" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/037bfd6e9825e54ebd3f2f30b7471841dbd916ad/original/pony.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTE4eDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="me and a nice Irish horse" height="250" width="118" /></p>
<p>With two books out this year, I got to do some touring, including readings and signings in Orlando, Nashville, Los Angeles, Asheville, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, Baltimore, and New York, among other places, at amazing events that wouldn't be possible without indie booksellers like Parnassus Books, Scuppernong, Caprichos, East City, Skylight, Flyleaf, Malaprop's, Bluestockings, and Atomic Books. I braved New York Comic Con and BookCon (so many people!). I had two wonderful book release parties, one at the <a href="https://theivybookshop.d7.indiebound.com" data-imported="1">Ivy </a> and one at Bird in Hand. Both release parties were attended by friends and family and curious strangers from near and far, and I'm so grateful to everyone who made them joyous events.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/b5d63c64be431c56687655307583b7592c052e23/original/cake.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzMzeDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="A Song For A New Day cake" height="250" width="333" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/300d7ef5288cd8492591f2d0fbdc56c031c24391/original/cookies.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzMzeDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea cookies" height="250" width="333" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/413048e05f03176019ee690347e5e406dbd9e0de/original/ivy.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTg4eDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Ivy book release crowd in March" height="250" width="188" /> </p>
<p>So yeah, the books. I didn't know how exhausting it would be to have two books come out in the same year while also writing another one. When I put it into words like that, it kinda makes sense. The two experiences, small press collection and big press novel, were different in some ways, but both were a joy to work with. It's all about the people, and the people at both publishers -- from editors to publicists to cover artists -- did an amazing job taking my stories and turning them into my very own books.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/1f0d4155e8cf238e43a50b59e0bd1ebdb170e99b/original/sooner-or-later-pinsker.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTYxeDI1MCJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="cover of Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea" height="250" width="161" /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781618731555?aff=kirkus_reviews" data-imported="1">Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</a> came out in March from <a href="https://smallbeerpress.com/books/2019/03/19/sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea/" data-imported="1">Small Beer Press</a>. It contains a bunch of my previously published stories and one original novelette, "The Narwhal." (Hence the narwhal cookie on the cookie tray above, and a whole bunch of awesome narwhal gifts people have given me, including books, puzzles, beers, and an epic crochet.) Recorded Books also produced an amazing audio version. The collection got a whole bunch of <a href="/fiction-press-reviews" data-imported="1" data-link-type="page">starred reviews</a> and the wonderful Charles de Lint wrote of it "We're only a handful of months into the new year, but I'm pretty sure that Sarah Pinsker's collection <em>Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</em> will be the best book I read in 2019. If I'm wrong, I've got something really special to look forward to, because the quality of these stories is simply stellar...I love the sense of hope that permeates even the most hopeless of situations. I love the way the characters, their problems, and the settings they move through stay with me beyond the confines of the book's pages. I love every damn thing about these stories. When I got to the last page I was already looking forward to rereading them."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802583" data-imported="1"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/8c6827d5035885e60d7c8b7581272b5e1534516b/original/cover-asfand.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTY5eDI1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="cover of A Song For A New Day" height="250" width="169" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984802583?aff=penguinrandom" data-imported="1">A Song For A New Day</a> came out from Berkley (Penguin Random House) in September. It was edited by the wonderful Rebecca Brewer. It got<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/598452/a-song-for-a-new-day-by-sarah-pinsker/9781984802583/" data-imported="1"> blurbs </a>from some of my favorite writers, including Elizabeth Hand, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, Kelly Link, Ann Leckie, and more, and starred <a href="/fiction-press-reviews" data-imported="1" data-link-type="page">reviews</a> from Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and more. The wonderful music writer Jason Heller named it his favorite book of 2019, and it made it into the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/03/784553294/its-back-npr-unveils-2019-book-concierge" data-imported="1">2019 NPR Book Concierge</a>, which was definitely a square on my writer bingo card. PRH did an excellent audio version with two talented actors narrating the alternating points of view.</p>
<p>(Another bingo card item: <a href="https://locusmag.com/2019/10/sarah-pinsker-personal-collisions/" data-imported="1">Locus Magazine </a>interviewed me for a cover story!)</p>
<p>I am so proud of both my collection and my novel, both of which are beautiful books that represent me as well as anything could.</p>
<p>Despite touring two books and writing another during this year, I also managed to get a few stories out the door. </p>
<p>My 2019 original fiction:</p>
<ul>
<li>"That Our Flag Was Still There" is a science fiction short story that appeared in the Parvus Press anthology <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780999784211" data-imported="1">If This Goes On</a>, edited by Cat Rambo.</li>
<li>"The Narwhal" is a novelette that appeared in my collection <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781618731555" data-imported="1">Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</a>. It features a very cool art car and a very tense road trip.</li>
<li>"Everything is Closed Today" is a science fiction short story that appeared in the Apex Books anthology <a href="https://www.apexbookcompany.com/products/do-not-go-quietly-an-anthology-of-victory-in-defiance?variant=9537378222132" data-imported="1">Do Not Go Quietly.</a> (It's also related to A Song For A New Day!)<a href="https://www.apexbookcompany.com/products/do-not-go-quietly-an-anthology-of-victory-in-defiance?variant=9537378222132" data-imported="1"><br></a>
</li>
<li>"The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye" is a dark fantasy novelette that is available free online in <a href="https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-blur-in-the-corner-of-your-eye/" data-imported="1">Uncanny Magazine</a>. Erika Ensign read it for their podcast as well, and did a terrific job.</li>
<li>A Song For A New Day, MY OWN FIRST NOVEL!!!</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>So yeah, that was my year in fiction, plus some bonus animals. I spent most of the year drafting another novel, so now I'm looking forward to everything I missed reading this year. Feel free to tell me all your favorite books and stories and dogs of 2019 in the comments!</p>
<p>My wish for all of us is to have as good a year in 2020 as this dog did in 2019.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/62dc574931707b1e62531d3991d9e8152c58ae36/original/sprock.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDAweDMwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="sprocket sleeping" height="300" width="400" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470582018-12-12T19:00:00-05:002020-12-16T13:46:54-05:00My 2018: Books, Stories, & Muppets, Oh, My
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/6589411da121307eaf9ca69b3b6ba4aef8b5ea1c/original/telly.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjAweDU5NyJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Telly Monster" height="597" width="600" /></p>
<p>What a year. I find it harder and harder to write these year's end wrap-ups because it's hard to talk about what's happened in my life without the larger context. Many American writers I know are still looking for ways to be productive while our own government inflicts trauma after trauma; for others, it was always like that. When I make this list of my own accomplishments, I'm conscious of the ways I'm still struggling, the ways I'm lucky, and the ways luck and hard work combine.</p>
<p>This was the year I sold three books. The first, <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781618731555?aff=kirkus_reviews" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</a>, will be released by Small Beer Press on March 19<sup>th</sup>. It's available for pre-order now! Working with Small Beer has been a joy, and this collection is exactly what I wanted it to be, in every way. I'm so happy that the early reviews are positive. Here's the <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sarah-pinsker/sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Kirkus</a> review ("Pinsker has delivered a sturdy collection in the speculative tradition of Ursula K. Le Guin or Kelly Link but with her own indomitable voice front and center.) (!!!), and here's the <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61873-155-5" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Publishers Weekly</a> starred review.</p>
<p> My first novel, <em>A Song For A New Day</em>, will be released by the Penguin/Random House subsidiary Berkley in September. It's been fascinating learning the different rhythms of the novel/big five world. My editor, Rebecca Brewer, gets the work and pushes me in all the best ways. My agent, Kim-Mei Kirtland, has been there to answer all my questions; I have a lot of questions. </p>
<p>This was the year my novelette Wind Will Rove was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus and Asimov's Readers' Poll Award. </p>
<p>This was the year my novella "And Then There Were (N-One)" was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and Eugie Foster Memorial Award. </p>
<p>Thank you to everyone who read and nominated those two stories, both of which I'm exceedingly proud of. </p>
<p>I went to several wonderful conventions, including: the Nebulas, where I got to meet Telly Monster and be a muppet; Worldcon, where I saw Pixar and the Winchester Mystery House and hung out with giant disco Predators; and World Fantasy Convention, where I got to play guitar with some of my favorite author-musicians. </p>
<p> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/32104b69bcf0958fc9fb60303ed1bf13cfefc3a3/original/nemesis.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MTA4MHg5MTkiXQ%3D%3D.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Me, Disco Predator, and Caroline M. Yoachim" height="919" width="1080" /></p>
<p>I didn't get to write as many short stories as usual this year, as a result of all the book edits. That'll probably reflect in next year as well. I miss short fiction, and I'm hoping to carve time to write some stories I've been sitting on. </p>
<p>I think I had four new stories and a novelette out this year? Also an essay in Clarkesworld, I<a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/another_word_10_18/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">n Praise of Taking it Slow</a>, which may contribute to another reason why my stories are few and far between right now.</p>
<p>Novelette: Escape From Caring Seasons appeared in <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/twelve-tomorrows" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Twelve Tomorrows</a>. I was honored to write for that esteemed MIT project. Near future. </p>
<p>Short stories:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-court-magician/" data-imported="1">The Court Magician </a>– fantasy – Lightspeed Magazine, January 2018 (also podcast)</p>
<p>D<a href="http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/do-as-i-do-sing-as-i-sing/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">o As I Do, Sing As I Sing</a> - science fantasy – Beneath Ceaseless Skies #246, March 2018</p>
<p><a href="https://uncannymagazine.com/article/frequently-hear-music-heart-noise/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">I Frequently Hear Music in the Heart of Noise</a> – fantasy – Uncanny Magazine #21, March/April 2018 (also podcast)</p>
<p>Lost & Found - <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/911331" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><em>Whose Future Is It? Cellarius Stories, Volume I</em></a>– December 2018 </p>
<p> Plus reprints in Neil Clarke and Rich Horton's Year's Best anthologies and the very cool <a href="https://rosarium.bookstore.ipgbook.com/sunspot-jungle-products-9780998705972.php" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Sunspot Jungle</a>, among others, and a monthlong serialization of And Then There Were (N-One) at <a href="http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=11789.0" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Escape Pod.</a></p>
<p> I'm grateful to all of you who read and talk about my stories, and everyone who reads and talks about fiction in general. </p>
<p>Looking forward to a great (and busy) 2019!</p>
<p> </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470572017-12-09T19:00:00-05:002024-02-12T02:34:45-05:00My 2017 Fiction
<p>Hi folks,</p>
<p>It's been a ridiculous year, hasn't it? I usually put together a summary of what I've done over the year, but looking back at this one feels strange. I edited a novel that you won't see for a while, put together a collection that you won't see for a while, wrote a few stories, played shows and went to some great cons and readings. Still, it's all kind of hazy, with highlights trapped between the traumas of phone calls and marches and rallies begging the government not to take our health insurance, not to enact travel bans, not to deport DREAMers, etc. If you joined in on any of that, thank you. If you wrote or read anything at all this year, thank you for that too. </p>
<p>That said, the fiction I read this year was a constant buoy, and I feel like the stories I put out this year were possibly the best I've ever written, particularly these first two. </p>
<p><strong>Novella:</strong></p>
<p>My first novella, "And Then There Were (N - One)," appeared in <a href="http://uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Uncanny Issue 15,</a> March/April 2017. You can read the whole thing at that link. </p>
<p><strong>Novelette:</strong></p>
<p>"Wind Will Rove," was the cover story of Asimov's #500, September/October 2017. It's set on a generation ship, and features old-time fiddles and a lot of questions about history. I was honored to be part of Asimov's 40th anniversary, both at the party in New York last spring and in this issue. I'm putting the story online for a little while. You can read a PDF h<a href="http://www.sarahpinsker.com/wind_will_rove" data-imported="1">ere</a> until I take it down.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="https://i1.wp.com/larquepress.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/asimov_9_2017.jpg?resize=207%2C300" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Short stories: </p>
<p>"Remember This For Me," <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1608905146/catalysts-explorers-and-secret-keepers-women-of-sf" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Explorers, Catalysts, and Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction</a> anthology, December 2017</p>
<p> "The Smoke Means Its Working," <a href="http://meerkatpress.com/submissions-open-for-a-superhero-anthology/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Behind the Mask </a>anthology</p>
<p>"The Ones Who Know Where They Are Going," Asimov's, March/April 2017</p>
<p>That list feels shorter than the last few years, but I really love the stories.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And now I can't wait to catch up on all the incredible work that came out this year.</p>
<p>Have a wonderful winter, and thanks for reading!</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470562017-01-18T19:00:00-05:002017-01-19T07:55:09-05:00Toward Better Futures
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/d131d6f1791236adb10e7a69800cff3a04ab4598/original/earth-and-future-ruins.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NjQ5eDQ3NiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="476" width="649" /></p>
<p>I am a science fiction writer. I can name planets. I can invent futures. I can sound the warning bells, in the best traditions of the genre.</p>
<p>I'm a singer-songwriter, raised in folk and punk. I know the power of three chords and the truth.</p>
<p>I'm also a person living in this moment, a moment when hope has crumbled into terror and anger and hatred and disgust. A moment where the party that has been handed the reins is full of individuals who say "my heart goes out to you" but mean "I will work toward your extinction while expressing love."</p>
<p>I'm a queer person whose life was directly made better by the Obama administration. I'm a woman watching the government reshape itself into a hammer to put me in my place. I'm a Jew witnessing the things I was promised "never again" come to pass. I'm an aunt grateful that my niece lives in Canada. I'm a person with healthcare through the ACA, holding my breath as my ability to afford insurance is put in the hands of ghouls wearing human faces.</p>
<p>I have friends who are Muslims and people of color and people with disabilities and friends who embody every letter of the LGBTQIA acronym and more, and friends who live at intersections of some or all of the above, who are all watching the same events through different lenses, with similar fears.</p>
<p>I can't separate the fiction and the fact. Maybe sometime soon I'll find a way. I'm a science fiction writer for better tomorrows, for grand tomorrows, for any tomorrows, living in a present that only promises a bleak one.</p>
<p>So today I'll edit my near-future novel. Today I'll call my congressional reps again. I'll work on a new story. I'll find ways to make my voice heard. I'll retweet to amplify other voices. Saturday I'll go to the March.</p>
<p>And tomorrow? Here's the plan:</p>
<p>Pick up a friend who is coming into town for the March.</p>
<p>Set my DVR to record BBC America's Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon, because it's a better vision of humanity than the one showing on all the network and news channels at that time.</p>
<p>Set a reminder to unfollow the POTUS and FLOTUS feeds at noon.</p>
<p>Turn on Ava Duvernay's amazing documentary "13<sup>th</sup>" so Netflix can count me.</p>
<p>Go play with my friend's two year old.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I'm not posting or retweeting anything to do with the day's festivities other than perhaps acts of protest.</p>
<p>Tomorrow starting at 11:30 AM EST I'm filling my feeds with works I love: fiction, music, art, acts of resistance. Join me, if you'd like. Let's blot out the hate and pettiness with #WorksILove</p>
<p>And then let's get back to working on better futures, fiction and fact.</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470552016-12-18T19:00:00-05:002020-01-22T13:30:25-05:00Year End Post
<p>I always drag my heels at writing a year's end/eligibility post. It's awkward to write something that amounts to "and now, here's me talking about me." This year, it felt particularly small in the face of everything that's going on in the world. On the other hand, it can be a great way to reflect on personal progress and milestones.</p>
<p>2016, majorly horrible under just about any lens (David Bowie AND Leonard Cohen AND Sharon Jones, 2016?) (Trump, 2016?) was fairly good to me from a writing and publishing perspective. I didn't have as many new stories out as the year before, but I'm very proud of the stories I put out. I won the <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker/status/733410828637114368" data-imported="1">Nebula for Best Novelette</a>, made the Sturgeon ballot again, only missed the Hugo ballot because of vote manipulation, got to go to George RR Martin's Hugo Losers party, ate dragon egg cake with awesome people. Got to workshop with an amazing group of people at Sycamore Hill. I took an amazing trip to China, where I talked science fiction and music at three different events, tried VR for the first time, and stood in the most amazingly science fictional landscape I've ever seen.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/d131d6f1791236adb10e7a69800cff3a04ab4598/original/earth-and-future-ruins.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6OTI5eDY4MiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="682" width="929" /></p>
<p>I had my first Guest of Honor gig, at Chessiecon. I'm doing my first reading at the wonderful <a href="http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/2016/12/05/livia-llewellyn-sarah-pinsker-december-21st/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">KGB Fantastic Fiction</a> series in New York this Wednesday. And I wrote some stories I am very, very happy with, some of which came out this year and some of which will come out next year.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>My 2016 published fiction included:</p>
<p><strong>Novelette:</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</a> – Lightspeed, February (near future SF) (also in audio)</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em> The rock star washed ashore at high tide.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Short Story:</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-mountains-his-crown/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Mountains His Crown</a>, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March (secondary world fantasy) (also audio)</p>
<p><em> The Royal Surveyors drove their machine through my fields at midday; it took six hours to put all the fires out.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/left-the-century-to-sit-unmoved/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Left the Century to Sit Unmoved</a>, Strange Horizons, May (contemporary fantasy) (also audio)</p>
<p><em> The pond only looks bottomless.</em></p>
<p>Clearance, Asimov's, June (SF)</p>
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<p> <em>On the Clearance Shelf at a Beachside Souvenir Shop, </em><em>Orchid Beach, New Jersey </em></p>
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<p>Down Beneath the Bridge As Yet Unbuilt, <a href="http://www.shatteredprism.com/issue--2.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Shattered Prism</a>, August (historical fantasy, YAish)</p>
<p><em> One thousand five hundred and ninety five feet, six inches. That was the first number Pat ever had trouble visualizing, though she memorized numbers the way other people memorized scripture or songs. </em></p>
<p>Talking to Dead People - F & SF, September/October (near future SF)</p>
<p><em> Yes, I was the one who came up with the name “House of Whacks,” as in “Lizzie Borden took an ax . . .” Like I was someone who could joke about that kind of thing. </em></p>
<p><a href="http://uncannymagazine.com/article/under-one-roof/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Under One Roof </a>– <a href="http://uncannymagazine.com/article/under-one-roof/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Uncanny Magazine</a>, September (fantasy) </p>
<p class="p1"><em> First came the murmurs. Then footsteps above our bedroom, where no feet should have been.</em></p>
<p>(reprint) <a href="http://www.hexpublishers.com/words_pay-attention.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Pay Attention</a> – Words, November (near future SF) - originally published in Accessing the Future anthology, 2015</p>
<p><em> In the beginning, there is noise.</em></p>
<p>A Song Transmuted – <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30365447-cyber-world" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Cyber World anthology</a>, November (near future SF) </p>
<p><em> I was a fussy baby. The only thing that quieted me was my great-grandfather's piano. They placed my bassinet directly on the piano, with noise-cancelling headphones to keep from damaging my ears. His chords came up through the instrument, up through my bones. </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>So anyway, that was my publishing year. I hope to make a list of my favorite stories and novels by others in the upcoming weeks, but I'm still playing a bit of catch-up on short fiction.</p>
<p>I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who came out to a reading or a show, and everyone who took the time to read my work, and everyone I can call friend and colleague and mentor. I'm grateful for all of you. </p>
<p>Here's to 2017 being better than we expect? In the meantime, I'll be over here, writing about hope and resilience in dark times. </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470542016-12-01T19:00:00-05:002020-01-22T13:30:25-05:00Ring the Bells That Still Can Ring: On Optimistic SF in Dystopian Times
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/d131d6f1791236adb10e7a69800cff3a04ab4598/original/earth-and-future-ruins.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6OTI5eDY4MiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="682" width="929" /></p>
<p>Last week I was Guest of Honor at Chessiecon, a small SFF convention in Maryland. The GoH experience was lovely. The staff and volunteers and congoers all made me feel welcome. I had a reading, a concert, an on-stage interview, a signing, and several panels. They made me into a playing card in a con-wide Concardia tournament, which I had to put onto my author bingo card in order to check it off.</p>
<p>Sunday morning, I had an interesting back-to-back pairing of panels: "Who's Writing Optimistic SF?" and "The Handmaid's Tale in the Real World." I'll talk about them in reverse order, since the main point of this post is to pass along the list of optimistic SF. </p>
<p>"The Handmaid's Tale in the Real World" was a great idea for a panel. At the time the panels were generated, months and months and months ago, nobody foresaw the results of this election. In my notes to myself where I said, "Don't forget to talk about Purvi Patel" I didn't imagine that the architect of the Indiana law that jailed her would actually make it to DC, or that Ohio and Texas would ram obscene new abortion bans through their legislatures. </p>
<p>"The Handmaid's Tale," like "Parable of the Sower," wasn't meant to be predictive. Those books are explorations of possible futures, possible futures with big warning signs posted all over the fence. The fact that these dystopic visions feel more real this month should be chilling all of us.</p>
<p>I started the panel by reading the paragraph I keep coming back to:</p>
<p>“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”</p>
<p>Panels with "…in the Real World" and "____ After the Apocalypse" are great intellectual exercises as long as the threat of the title is theoretical too. Once the threat feels imminent, as it does now, the thought exercise drifts into the possible. I look at the paragraph above and it carries the weight of truth. I'm not sure that's a truth I can face in fiction right now, when it's pervading the rest of my life. </p>
<p>That doesn't mean we have to abandon those books or those exercises, but we have to approach them in a different way. We have to acknowledge that the topics we are playing with are serious and real. That "over there" has the potential to become "over here." That every hypothetical we toss out might be something a real person has to actually face. That involves approaching the topic with greater empathy: toward the audience, toward the other panelists, toward ourselves.</p>
<p>On the Handmaid's Tale panel, we acknowledged all of that. We read the paragraph above, then we left the Handmaid's Tale behind. We talked about how to prevent that, how to fight it, in the real world. The audience went there with us. They gave concrete suggestions. We discussed methodology and safety, vigilance and action.</p>
<p>We're not supposed to read these books and despair; we're supposed to read them and react. We're supposed to open our eyes and keep them open. We're supposed to stand up and say, "What can <strong>I</strong> do to keep this from happening?"</p>
<p>I hope that conrunners and programming chairs don't shy away from these books or topics in the future, but I hope they approach them with sensitivity and care. Framed poorly, they amplify fear and further marginalize. Framed well, they give strength.</p>
<p>Which leads me to my other Sunday morning panel, "Who's Writing Optimistic SF?" We started with a discussion of optimism vs. hope, and optimistic characters vs. optimistic situations. Then we started throwing out names and titles. The audience joined in. I also asked the same question on Twitter a few days before and got some great answers. I'll include those below as well.</p>
<p>We need both of these kinds of fiction. The dystopic still serves a purpose, but hopeful visions become even more important in dark times. Faith in human goodness, in small acts, in the positive outcomes that can come from human persistence? Those are all things that feel like they're in short supply right now. I don't want or need them to be the only things I read, but even the smallest positives feel important and necessary right now.</p>
<p>I haven't read or vetted all of these, but here are some of the books and authors discussed by the panel:</p>
<p><a href="http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/book/hieroglyph/" data-imported="1">Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future</a> (anthology featuring stories by Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Bear, Vandana Singh, Neal Stephenson, more…)</p>
<p><a href="https://shineanthology.wordpress.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Shine anthology</a> (edited by Jetse de Vries)</p>
<p><a href="https://sunvaultantho.wordpress.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Sunvault </a>anthology and other solarpunk </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ursulavernon.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Ursula Vernon</a>'s short fiction</p>
<p> Ann Leckie's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/113751-imperial-radch" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Ancillary </a>/Radch trilogy</p>
<p>John Scalzi (works mentioned included Lock In, Redshirts)</p>
<p>Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan books)</p>
<p>Jo Walton's<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22055276-the-just-city?from_search=true" target="_blank" data-imported="1"> Thessaly</a> series </p>
<p>Martha Wells (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9461562-the-cloud-roads?from_search=true" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Raksura</a>, specifically)</p>
<p>Katherine Addison's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Goblin-Emperor-Katherine-Addison/dp/076532699X" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Goblin Emperor</a></p>
<p>Theodore Sturgeon's "The Widget, the Wadget, & Boff"</p>
<p>Becky Chambers' <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet-becky-chambers/1119952314" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.czerneda.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Julie Czerneda</a></p>
<p><a href="https://amalelmohtar.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Amal El-Mohtar</a></p>
<p>Janet Kagan's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mirabile-Janet-Kagan/dp/0812509935" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Mirabile</a></p>
<p>TV shows "Man Seeking Woman," "Supergirl," "The Good Place."</p>
<p>And the tweets:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> I don't know if she'd agree, but I think <a href="https://twitter.com/tithenai" data-imported="1">@tithenai</a> does.</p>
— Didi Chanoch (@didic) <a href="https://twitter.com/didic/status/802959968404049920" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a>, well, most days, I like to think I am.</p>
— Lawrence M. Schoen (@klingonguy) <a href="https://twitter.com/klingonguy/status/802710475893047296" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> I think a lot fit this definition, but my personal go-tos for comfort optimism are <a href="https://twitter.com/effies" data-imported="1">@effies</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/zenaldehyde" data-imported="1">@zenaldehyde</a> :)</p>
— SL Huang 黄士芬 (@sl_huang) <a href="https://twitter.com/sl_huang/status/802992294689325056" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Some more hopeful (and diverse/inclusive) faves - DAYBREAK RISING by <a href="https://twitter.com/koliver_writes" data-imported="1">@koliver_writes</a> and VIRAL AIRWAVES by <a href="https://twitter.com/ClH2OArs" data-imported="1">@ClH2OArs</a></p>
— ✨RoAnna Sylver (@RoAnnaSylver) <a href="https://twitter.com/RoAnnaSylver/status/802990780688187392" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> ! <a href="https://twitter.com/RoAnnaSylver" data-imported="1">@RoAnnaSylver</a> is avoiding naming herself but we call CHAMELEON MOON "dys-hope-ia" so y'know. that too XD (and thanks <3)</p>
— Claudie Arseneault</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Don't see <a href="https://twitter.com/MarissaLingen" data-imported="1">@MarissaLingen</a> mentioned yet.</p>
— Andy H. (@indeed_distract) <a href="https://twitter.com/indeed_distract/status/803046150299406337" data-imported="1">November 28, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> The Second Mango by <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiraGlassman" data-imported="1">@ShiraGlassman</a> and its series is my comfort fictional world right now.</p>
— ✨RoAnna Sylver (@RoAnnaSylver) <a href="https://twitter.com/RoAnnaSylver/status/802990344056893441" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> I'd consider the Lunar Chronicles by <a href="https://twitter.com/marissa_meyer" data-imported="1">@marissa_meyer</a> optimistic. It's about war, but more about resistance and compassion.</p>
— Brittany Constable (@constablewrites) <a href="https://twitter.com/constablewrites/status/803040300818137089" data-imported="1">November 28, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> I'd consider the Lunar Chronicles by <a href="https://twitter.com/marissa_meyer" data-imported="1">@marissa_meyer</a> optimistic. It's about war, but more about resistance and compassion.</p>
— Brittany Constable (@constablewrites) <a href="https://twitter.com/constablewrites/status/803040300818137089" data-imported="1">November 28, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Jo Walton. ::swoons::<br>Ada Palmer, I think? Depending how "Seven Surrenders" goes :P</p>
— Ziv W (@QuiteVague) <a href="https://twitter.com/QuiteVague/status/802968498959945728" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Becky Chambers, Heather Rose Jones, and Rosemary Kirstein.</p>
— ULTRAGINGLE (@ULTRAGOTHA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ULTRAGOTHA/status/802987871250456576" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> :gasp: this is the term I didn't know I was looking for!! I definitely nominate <a href="https://twitter.com/beckysaysrawr" data-imported="1">@beckysaysrawr</a>.</p>
— Eileen Webb (@webmeadow) <a href="https://twitter.com/webmeadow/status/802986916568150017" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Me! But it's pretty long...</p>
— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) <a href="https://twitter.com/N_S_Dolkart/status/802900117263159301" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Should mention that <a href="https://twitter.com/joannatovaprice" data-imported="1">@joannatovaprice</a> wrote a review elaborating on which variety of optimism: <a href="https://t.co/rBOobP425l" data-imported="1">https://t.co/rBOobP425l</a></p>
— N. S. Dolkart (@N_S_Dolkart) <a href="https://twitter.com/N_S_Dolkart/status/802903934792859648" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) Ann Leckie, and Lois McMaster Bujold.</p>
— ULTRAGINGLE (@ULTRAGOTHA) <a href="https://twitter.com/ULTRAGOTHA/status/802988582814162944" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> Alastair Reynolds' Blue remembered earth was almost creepy in its optimism. I like gloom!</p>
— Jeff Rensch (@huetenan) <a href="https://twitter.com/huetenan/status/803100047239880705" data-imported="1">November 28, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> I'll add Rachel Aaron's Heartstriker series. Kindle/Audible exclusive with print on demand.</p>
— Alexandra (@thatwasodd) <a href="https://twitter.com/thatwasodd/status/802993594093047808" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/SarahPinsker" data-imported="1">@SarahPinsker</a> oddly enough, I think The Expanse qualifies, <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesSACorey" data-imported="1">@JamesSACorey</a></p>
— Jane Eisenkopf (@IronHeadJane) <a href="https://twitter.com/IronHeadJane/status/802711447230758912" data-imported="1">November 27, 2016</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Whew! Okay! And then I asked around in a few other places, and these are the responses I got:</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Ada Palmer's <a href="http://adapalmer.com/fiction-sf-fantasy/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Too Like the Lightning</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Patricia McKillip's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingfisher-Patricia-McKillip/dp/0425271765" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Kingfisher</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Joan Slonczewski's <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/121606.A_Door_Into_Ocean" target="_blank" data-imported="1">A Door Into Ocean</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Sarah Zettel's Fool's War, the Quiet Invasion, Playing God</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Elizabeth Moon, Remnant Population</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Mary Ann Mohanraj's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stars-Change-Mary-Anne-Mohanraj/dp/1613900848" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Stars Change</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Rosemary Kirstein's<a href="http://www.rosemarykirstein.com/the-books/" target="_blank" data-imported="1"> The Steerswoman</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Charlie Jane Anders' <a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Birds-Charlie-Jane-Anders-ebook/dp/B00W190RPG" target="_blank" data-imported="1">All the Birds in the Sky</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep & A Deepness int he Sky</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">Melissa Scott's <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/612226.Trouble_and_Her_Friends" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Trouble And Her Friends</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">One interesting thing in writing this list is that some of these wouldn't fit my definition of hopeful. Some of them concern end-of-the-world type concerns. Someone mentioned NK Jemisin's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Season-Broken-Earth/dp/0316229296" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Fifth Season/Broken Earth trilogy</a>, which I'd consider dystopic, but they pointed out an optimism in the way characters move forward. That made sense to me. I consider my own fiction to be pretty optimistic, in that even when I'm writing about bad times I tend to focus on the resilience of the human spirit. See <a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</a> for a recent example.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">I guess all of that is to say, research, decide where your limits are, and read at your own risk. I know I discovered a whole bunch of new books in asking this question, and I'm looking forward to exploring them.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">If you have more that I missed, feel free to add them in comments. I moderate but I'll let them out of the queue as fast as I can. Bring on the optimistic SF!</blockquote>
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Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470532016-11-16T19:00:00-05:002022-04-21T01:30:30-04:00Chessiecon
<p>Next weekend, I'm the guest of honor at <a href="http://chessiecon.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Chessiecon</a>, a small con in the Baltimore suburbs. I was so honored when they asked me, and I've been looking forward to it all year. Even right now, feeling as down and angry and scared of the future as I've ever felt, I'm still looking forward to it. Over the course of the year, I've seen the care they've put in to getting it right. Interesting panel topics, thoughtful programming. Some of it is sadly more relevant than it was when they planned it, I'm pretty sure. The panel on Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and its real life applications certainly feels timely right now.</p>
<p>So why go to a con on Thanksgiving weekend instead of lying on the couch watching parades or football or Star Wars marathons? When done right, cons are community. There are books to discover and places to buy them, movies to watch, concerts, readings, panels. Funny panels, game show panels, thought-provoking panels. The Girl Scouts are selling cookies in the lobby.</p>
<p>I plan on hanging out in the lobby or the bar as much as I can when I'm not on programming. If you're at the con, feel free to come chat at any of those times. If I'm in those public places - the lobby, the bar, programming spaces, consider me open for conversation. I'm there as a guest of Chessiecon and I will do my best to be present and available for the members of Chessiecon as much as possible. I look forward to spending time with you all.</p>
<p>My schedule:</p>
<p><br><strong>Friday</strong><br>04:15 PM - 04:45 PM Reading<br><br>06:45 PM - 07:45 PM Concert<br><br>09:15 PM - 10:15 PM Slash: The Card Game<br>Slash: Romance Without Boundaries is a game all about matching romantic partners from across the canons of pop culture, literature and history. Our panelists pick their favorite characters and pitch their love stories to a matchmaker in search of the ultimate One True Pairing. <br>Nicole "Nickie" Jamison, Sarah Pinsker, Nobilis Reed, Elizabeth Schechter, KM Szpara<br><br><strong>Saturday</strong><br>11:15 AM - 12:15 PM Silent Symphonies: Incorporating Music into Literature<br>Music is an important part of many stories, but writing about it presents an innate paradox: music is sound, while the page of a book is silent. How do you capture song through words alone? This panel will discuss the role of music in various works of literature and the methods writers have used to tackle this challenge.<br>Marc Drexler, Mary Fan, Heather Rose Jones, Sarah Pinsker, Don Sakers (M)<br><br>03:00 PM - 04:00 PM GoH Interview<br>Join KM Szpara while he attempts to crack Guest of Honor Sarah Pinsker's plan for world domination, which he suspects involves music, science fiction, and murder houses.<br>Sarah Pinsker, KM Szpara<br><br>06:45 PM - 08:00 PM Group Book / Art / CD Signing<br>Authors, artists, and musicians gather in one room for signing/book-selling/chatting with fans.<br><br><strong>Sunday</strong><br>11:15 AM - 12:15 PM Who's Writing Optimistic Science Fiction?<br>Some of the most famous SF/F stories are about dystopias, post-apocalyptic societies, and imminent destruction. Who is writing on the other side of the spectrum? Where is the hopeful future, The Federation, worlds working together for the common good? Are these even opposites, or is there some inherent optimism in stories of people facing disaster?<br>Jeff Gritman, Cristin Kist, Meg Nicholas, Sarah Pinsker, Don Sakers (M)<br><br>12:30 PM - 01:30 PM The Handmaid's Tale in the Real World<br>Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Shannon Stoker's The Registry both presented plausible dystopias which developed out of contemporary American culture. Are we sliding towards such societies, and if so, how far along the slippery slope are we? How do we stop?<br>Mary Fan (M), C.S. Friedman, Cristin Kist, Sarah Pinsker, KM Szpara</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470522016-11-02T20:00:00-04:002021-05-04T19:31:22-04:00China
<p>I've been trying to write a post about my amazing trip to China for almost two months now. Part of what's taken me so long has been sifting through 400 photos to decide what to include here. The other delay was all the deadlines I extended so I could take the trip.</p>
<p>Anyhow, here goes: </p>
<p>I was invited to China by three different organizations: the promoters of the MTA Festival (YEMA Live), the FAA (Future Affairs Administration), and Science Fiction World magazine. The MTA Festival was supposed to be a combination of South by Southwest and Coachella, but the art installations elevated it to something else entirely (more on that in a bit).</p>
<p>I arrived in Beijing bleary-eyed, having decided that the best course of action was to stay up through the entire flight and trick my body into exhaustion. It worked! Morning in Baltimore, evening in Beijing, and I was a wreck. I've touched down in new-to-me countries in that state before, and it brings a certain degree of surreality.</p>
<p>My volunteer guide from the festival, Gracia, managed to find me in the airport after a bit of triangulation, and I fought to stay awake through the ride into the city. Gracia helped me check into my hotel and find my room. We got into the middle of the room and the lights promptly went out. I didn’t know you were supposed to put your room card into a little slot by the entrance in order for the lights to work. I collapsed onto the bed the second she left.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/73a9b46cc73a56626df17414bca40b384b362b6a/original/first-morning.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE2MiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="First morning in Beijing" height="162" width="200" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;" align="center">Fourteen hours later, I met her downstairs for a day of sightseeing. First she took me to buy a Chinese SIM card for my phone, which made communication with everybody much easier. We had lunch at the delicious Bǎihé vegetarian restaurant, in a hutong near the Lama Temple, where I had the best vegetarian sausage dish I've ever had, sautéed with green beans. </p>
<p style="text-align: left;" align="center">We then took several buses around to the entrance of the Forbidden City. For the entire afternoon we wandered in and out of palaces and courtyards. Many of the signs were bilingual, and Gracia helpfully filled in information when the signs were lacking. It's a magnificent complex. The scale of it boggled my mind. I think I liked the outer gardens best, with their serene courtyards.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/16809ce1f893fc34f7bd4819587a6d6c6d83e283/original/forbidden-city.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDI2NyJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Forbidden City" height="267" width="200" /></p>
<p>For dinner, we found another hutong restaurant, Zuo Lin You She, serving a finger-shaped fried dumpling called dalian huoshao. We had several: tofu and fennel, egg and chive. Delicious after a long day of walking.</p>
<p>The following day, we stopped at a bakery and filled a bag with pastries and then took several subway trains and buses out to the Ming tombs. The Ming tombs are spread out over a fairly large area, with several different sites. Some of them still haven't been found. I loved the Sacred Path, much less crowded than the other sites, and lined with beautiful trees and expressive sculptures.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/77e75d2b8ffc8a96f24efa18c4f5dea1a980b466/original/sacred-path.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE0OSJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Sacred Path" height="149" width="200" /></p>
<p>We bused and subwayed back into the city, then took a cab to another lovely Buddhist vegan restaurant, where we waited for the volunteer driver who was supposed to take us out to the festival site. I passed out completely in the car, after two days of sightseeing and an upside down schedule. Woke up to Gracia and the driver arguing about where we were – the GPS said we had reached my festival hotel, but we were sitting on the side of the highway next to a half-constructed building with no lights on. After waiting and triangulating, with the GPS still insisting we were there, a truck pulled in and told us to follow. We turned onto a dirt service road and went a couple more kilometers until we reached another construction site – the hotel. It was well after midnight, but Gracia found a clerk to let me into my room. The lobby was a work in progress, but my room was beautiful, and bigger than my house. I had just about enough time to notice that before I passed out again.</p>
<p>Gracia called to wake me in the morning, and to tell me there was a panel going on at the festival that I might enjoy. I packed a day bag, put on hat and sunscreen, etc. She met me outside my room and led me… upstairs! While the lobby and outside of the hotel weren't quite finished, upstairs there was a beautiful hall where the festival's tech panels were taking place. The hotel, it turned out, was also a winery. Their wines flowed freely all weekend – the white was delicious – along with strawberry moon cakes.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/e0d62a07ce9888fc6750cdd636359f998e62b024/original/winery.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE1MCJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Winery hotel - Way less scary in daytime" height="150" width="200" /></p>
<p>The first panel was an interview with Michael Lang, one of the promoters who founded Woodstock. He talked about plans for the anniversary concerts in 2019. We had an opportunity to chat in line for food later.</p>
<p> Lunch was a buffet in the hotel restaurant. Not a single thing was vegetarian – even the rice had ham in it – but the indefatigable Gracia convinced the kitchen to make me some rice with egg instead of ham and a beautiful mountain of sauteed greens. She took excellent care of me. I chatted a little with some of the artists who had installations at the festival grounds. Then we listened to a couple more tech panels, with Gracia translating for me.</p>
<p>I also did an interview for Japanese television with <a href="http://rebirth-studio.com/en/about/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Kutsuna Miwa</a>, whose art involves taking live bullets from conflict zones and transforming them into jewelry. She gave me one of her bracelets and I gave her a CD.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/f6bcf665824d27b8d353c1ee14a3ad680d2e5072/original/stage-by-day.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIyMyJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="MTA Stage by day" height="223" width="300" /></p>
<p>When the panel program concluded, we headed to the festival grounds. The festival itself took place a couple of kilometers from the hotel, at a dune-filled film site, Sky Desert (it was the location for The Mummy: Return of the Dragon Emperor, and many, many Chinese films). It was magnificent. You passed through a giant Stargate to enter. The main stage was made to look like the engine of a giant spaceship crashed into the desert. I've never seen a stage that big. Everywhere you looked there were futuristic art installations and inflatables. People sat in the shadows of UFOs to listen to the music.</p>
<p>Gracia suggested we check out the technology tent before it closed. We walked past dancing robots and a half dozen VR booths. At the center of the tent was a darkened room with another art installation, Nick Verstand's "<a href="https://vimeo.com/109796995" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Anima,</a>" a large vinyl planet that responded to movement by modulating its music and the storms on its surface in color, speed, and direction.</p>
<p>I played the cool observer until I couldn't anymore. I didn't try any of the shoot-'em-up VR games, and I don't want zombies chasing me in three dimensions, but there was a booth at the back with a demo of a VR experience based on a Liu Cixin story, created by <a href="http://sandmanvr.com/history/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Sandman VR</a>. I put on the headphones, the visor, the gloves. There ensued several minutes of pure delight as I pushed my way through a starfield to see a man putting a child to bed on the moon. It was beautiful and thrilling. I get the appeal.</p>
<p>We left the technology tent at twilight, and watched the festival grounds transform again. Art installations such as Romain Tardy's <a href="https://vimeo.com/151385179" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Future Ruins</a> lit up. Planets and sand snakes took on a stellar glow. The mainstage engines flared to life. It was breathtaking. I dragged Gracia away earlier than I would have liked (and I think earlier than she would have liked), because I had to prepare for the following day.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/d131d6f1791236adb10e7a69800cff3a04ab4598/original/earth-and-future-ruins.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE0NyJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Earth and Future Ruins" height="147" width="200" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/4ecc32e04b5aa5c535358e7b952e9e2a9abf2ed5/original/space-snake-and-future-ruins.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE1MCJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Space snake and future ruins" height="150" width="200" /><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/d0fe5ef0031683f7749f6c888c2fbd2c9336a4e5/original/mta-mainstage.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE1MCJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="MainStage by night" height="150" width="200" /></p>
<p>The following day was my first event of the trip: a panel about "How Sci-Fi can make breakthrough to the limit of humankind?" I was asked to play three songs before the panel began. The promised amp never materialized, but when I plugged my Telecaster direct into the board, a miracle happened. That beautiful high ceilinged room sounded wonderful. </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/2bbdfdd9398fee28fca2856d212809036e2b5fb2/original/2mqmta.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDMwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="Playing Too Many Questions at the MTA Festival" height="300" width="300" /></p>
<p>The panel included Stanley Chen (Chen Quifan) (read his Clarkesworld story "The Fish of Lijiang" <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chen_08_11/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">here</a>) and Tang Fei (read her Apex story Call Girl <a href="http://www.apex-magazine.com/call-girl/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">here</a>), and was moderated by Ji Shaoting. I'm a fan of both of the other writers, and it was a pleasure to chat with everyone on the stage. For the second day of panels, there were live translators working English-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-English in a booth at the back of the room, and little earpieces we could wear to understand each other. It worked very well.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/4c06830fffa267ecad6d9529097a9885af94ad8c/original/mtafullpanel.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="MTA festival panel" height="225" width="300" /></p>
<p>Afterward, we adjourned to the restaurant, where I ate another mountain of veggies and rice while everyone else went through the buffet. The other writers and the staff of the FAA sat down with me and we had a great time chatting. This time I insisted on a to-go container for my broccoli mountain, since I felt so terrible about all the wasted food.</p>
<p>That turned out to be a good plan. Partway through the afternoon panels, a huge hailstorm hit. It was cool to watch through the floor to ceiling windows of the winery. After the storm, the sky still looked ominous. I decided to sit out the second night of the festival, afraid that if I got drenched and sick I might have a miserable rest of my trip. Gracia made me promise that if I needed her I'd call her back, and went off to the festival. I had a wonderful evening reading and watching branch lightning from my window and eating my delicious leftovers. No regrets. I had one perfect night at the festival, and that was enough.</p>
<p>The next morning we made the long trip back to Beijing. I was glad I had slept through the ride up, since I found the highway a little terrifying. Gracia pointed out one of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall from the car, which was cool. She asked a whole bunch of wonderful questions that she had been holding off on in order to save my voice for my festival appearance, which was very kind of her.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/2a5bf3e4afc33b38b98ad518e89f1f3f98b6d2af/original/sfhotel3.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE1MCJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="SFnal hotel view" height="150" width="200" /></p>
<p>We arrived at my third hotel, near the university where the Galaxy Awards would take place. Near a bunch of universities and tech sites, I believe; this hotel clearly catered to an international clientele, as evidenced by their buffet, which included everything you might expect of an Indian, British, German, Chinese, or American breakfast. I dropped my stuff in my room and went off to lunch with Gracia and Jane, the FAA employee who was taking over for Gracia.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/497855efb68b9e52e390e6ef26c5065060b6058b/original/graciasarahjane.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Gracia, Sarah, Jane" height="225" width="300" />We went to an absolutely amazing restaurant, Cixiangju Vegan, not far from my third hotel. Gracia spent the meal giving Jane the Care and Feeding of a Sarah talk while I stuffed my face with sesame pancakes and vegetarian eel and pumpkin greens and barley tea and all kinds of amazing food I'd never had before. Back at the hotel, I said a tearful goodbye to Gracia, who did an excellent job of taking care of me for five exhausting days.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/f185b8023e525cfabdb1141aed71d171abb43129/original/sharksarah.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDQwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="MallShark!" height="400" width="300" />Monday night was my bookstore panel, hosted by the FAA. It took place at a famous bookstore in a mall. Jane and I went early because there was an interview I was supposed to do beforehand. After the interview, we wandered the mall for a while. I played an interesting little guitar in a music store. We took pictures with a giant fiberglass shark. I was still full from our lunch feast, but we went to a dessert café where I ate a giant bowl of chocolate coconut porridge and Jane had a grass jelly porridge. The coconut cream in my porridge swirled in a really pretty way. It looked like gases moving across a planet. Jane caught me playing with my food and recorded me, so now there is video of me playing with my food.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/2319e10151d9be8da4b5c95c9af90b01a5383311/original/sarahbookstoreposter.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDQwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Bookstore poster" height="400" width="300" />We went back to the bookstore, where there were now very professional looking human sized banners announcing the panel. The café at the back had been transformed into a listening space. Multiple media outlets were setting up cameras and mics. All this for a Monday night mall bookstore panel on women in science fiction! Very impressive. Even more impressive: the crowd that started lining up to get into the space.</p>
<p>The FAA had <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/54f70e64f0d5121d51020cfdb585a4e92dab3f80/original/bookstoreaudience.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Bookstore panel audience" height="150" width="200" />hired a live translator to make sure I understood and was understood. He had just moved back to Beijing from France, and was in fact trilingual. Also impressive.</p>
<p>This panel, like the one at the festival, was moderated by Ji Shaoting, and featured Tang Fei, Hao Jingfang (author of the Hugo-winning novelette <a href="http://uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Folding Beijing</a>) and me. I gushed at Hao Jingfang before the panel over how much I'd loved not only Folding Beijing but also her story <a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/invisible-planets/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Invisible Planets</a>, which reminded me of Le Guin's Changing Planes, a book I adore. She told me she didn't usually come out to events (she has a toddler) but she wanted to do this one to meet me. Mutual admiration society.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/18f778a7231581687b748c6fe3ffaedb69f00431/original/bookstorepanelfull.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIyNSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Bookstore panel with Tang Fei, Ji Shaoting, Hao Jingfang" height="225" width="300" />This panel also went really well. Ji Shaoting asked thought-provoking questions, and the audience asked great questions as well. I loved that the audience – about 150 people, and apparently 150 000 more online – seemed to cross all age and gender lines. At the end of the panel we sang Happy Birthday to one of the FAA employees, ate cake, and chatted with the audience. Tang Fei informed me that she had decided she was taking me out the next day.</p>
<p>The next morning, I took a cab on my own – the first time on the trip I went anywhere on my own! – to meet Tang Fei and Reika from the FAA at Beihai Park. I successfully got myself to the right park entrance (Well, Reika gave me a written address, which I gave to the hotel concierge, which the concierge explained to the taxi driver, so I didn't have all that much to do with it.)</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/2f92ece08c61cbbb011152aa78c0371390667691/original/beihai-park.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDI0NiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Beihai Park" height="246" width="200" />Beihai Park was beautiful. There were people dancing, rock formations, lakes, willows, lotus flowers. There's a white dagoba on an islet in the center of the park. From there you can see both the Forbidden City and the tallest skyscraper in Beijing – a stunning juxtaposition of old and new. Down the steps from there you descend into a temple grounds, shielded from the rest of the park. We sat in a pavilion and chatted and took pictures. Somebody below us was painting and listening to Chinese opera.</p>
<p>From there, we walked out the park's south gate and then doubled back through the hutong along the eastern wall. We arrived at the Royal Icehouse, a restaurant inside a former royal ice houses (as the name says), where massive blocks of ice were stored for imperial use in the times before refrigeration. Tang Fei told me she'd seen me eating my mountains of rice and vegetables at the music festival and determined that I would eat a real meal with her. I had yam with blueberry sauce, young bamboo (DELICIOUS), gingko nut (I was told you should never eat more than five), and I can't remember what else. It was a delicious meal. Tang Fei had been concerned that her English wouldn't be good enough to converse with me, but science fiction proved like always to be a language of its own. She and I snuck down into the basement while Reika was on the phone, and took pictures in the storage rooms.</p>
<p>After lunch, we wandered around the Houhai Lakes and over the Silver Ingot Bridge, then had coffee in a Starbucks while Reika interviewed me. I had a lovely day chatting with both of them.</p>
<p>The next day, having proven myself capable of taking a taxi on my own, I was assigned to meet Reika at the FAA office. The FAA's office turned out to be in the most science fictional building I've ever seen. After meeting with Alex about some business stuff and giving the staff the gifts I'd brought them from the American Visionary Art Museum, we went up to the swimming pool. The swimming pool was unmarked, but you could tell you were on the right floor by the chlorine smell. The swimming pool also turned out to be in a bridge between that building and the next one. The bridge included a spa and an auditorium. The view showed the building to be one of several connected by similar bridges. At the bottom, there were ponds with bizarre little sitting rooms shaped like 50s televisions, a bookstore called Kubrick's, a movie theater, a convenience store. Very cool.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/fd93986023beea218d9b97b7c976e0af962bfbd5/original/faa-hq.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDE0OSJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="FAA HQ complex" height="149" width="200" /></p>
<p>Reika and I took a taxi to the 798 Art District, a former munitions factory transformed into a modern art hub. Tang Fei met us and we ate a giant meal of assorted fake meats. I had a beautiful flowering tea (I can't remember what flower now…) and shared a beer with Tang Fei.</p>
<p>After lunch we wandered through the area, which was full of modern art galleries. We went to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, where we saw a cool installation called "The Last Vehicle" by a Hong Kong artist named Nadim Abbas. The first room you walked into was bathed in red light. A tiny remote-controlled rover wandered through a landscape of planetary dunes. The layout of the museum then took you through an exhibit of photos and architectural models of China's first Western hotels ("Accommodating Reform: International Hotels and Architecture in China, 1978-1990")– lots of Warhol photos. Eventually, if your trip is timed right (ours was) you arrive at a room where the artist behind the Mars Rover piece sat in a room meant to simulate a bunker. He wore a giant gaming helmet, pajamas, and slippers, and sat in front of a console with a joystick, a keyboard, and an array of monitors. Some had games, some had different views of the rover in the other room, which he was controlling in real time. The shelves to either side of him were filled with toilet paper and water bottles. It was a good commentary on the death of experience, especially in contrast to the very real experience of my trip. </p>
<p>After that, we wandered into an exhibit of videos by female videographers (a mix of documentaries, art films, other…) and a beautiful gallery of watercolors that mixed traditional and modern styles. We took a taxi back to the hotel. On the way, Reika got a message that Science Fiction World was requesting that I learn how to say happy birthday to Science Fiction World in Chinese for an anniversary video they were creating. I met the editors of the magazine in the hotel, where they recorded my valiant attempt at the sentence, after which I was whisked off to a soundcheck for the Galaxy Awards the next day. Then we dropped my guitar back at the hotel again and went back to the vegan restaurant from Monday, where Crystal Huff and I ate a feast with a bunch of the staff from the FAA. It was a leisurely, rollicking meal, full of laughter. We had a private room at the back of the restaurant, and stayed until they closed the place down around us. </p>
<p>The next day, I met Crystal and the women from Science Fiction World and we went for yet another vegan feast at yet another amazing vegan restaurant, this time with the Science Fiction World editors. I ate so many delicious meals. After that, we headed to the Galaxy Awards, where Crystal gave her speech about what it would take for China to make a successful bid for a Worldcon. Afterward, the other writers went out for dinner and I stayed to check my guitar again, since it had issues the night before. Then we left and came back to walk the red carpet. Yes, there was a red carpet for the Chinese science fiction celebrities attending the awards, and Crystal and I both got to walk it. I grinned, having no idea how to pout or pose. At the end of the red carpet was a big poster that we signed.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/fbaa6158c13f0d0daf670e91ccf7646dcc6a1353/original/galaxywallsigning.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Crystal Huff and I sign the Galaxy Awards wall" height="200" width="300" /></p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/aee3c142466b0a5283bfa9c182a2b9221b4a3956/original/galaxycakeeting.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDI2NyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Galaxy Awards birthday cake!" height="267" width="200" /></p>
<p>The Galaxy Awards were a very professional affair, with interstitial music, live music (it kicked off with an opera singer!), comic skits, videos. Ji Shaoting from the FAA hosted with grace and style. I sang Cavedrawing about ¾ of the way through the ceremony. I didn't even know about the starry backgrounds behind me until I saw the pictures afterward. The award ceremony also illustrated (as had the bookstore panel) exactly how popular and vibrant Chinese science fiction is. The enormous auditorium was filled with university SF clubs, authors, fans. I sat right behind the great Liu Cixin and watched him patiently sign autograph after autograph for his fans. Oh! And I got to meet one of the women who has translated my stories into Chinese, Anna Wu (Wu Shuang) , though sadly I didn't get a picture with her.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/bd67ebbe1bbb32d1550fabe1220d7fede021697d/original/galaxyflarekindaawesome.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDI2NyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Playing the Galaxy Awards" height="267" width="200" />It was a lovely nig<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/484c171d17b528d0ad1bdac04a3fb8a245802293/original/galaxyguitarspace.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MjAweDEzMyJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="Playing the Galaxy Awards" height="133" width="200" />ht, and, sadly, my last evening in China. I bid a teary goodbye to all my new friends at the FAA and Science Fiction World, regretting that I hadn't been able to arrange to stay through the rest of the Galaxy Award festivities and the Chinese Nebulas that followed later in the weekend. I also don't seem to have any pictures with Li Xin or Joanna from Science Fiction World, which I'm sad about. </p>
<p>So that was my China trip. I left so much undone, but I think I made the right choices in how to spend my limited free time. I'd love to go back and see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. I'd love to go to Chengdu and see the pandas. I'd love to go back and hang out with the wonderful people I met in my travels, but I'm glad I'll get to see more of them as more and more stories are being translated from Chinese into English for American magazines.</p>
<p>Also! If you want to read stories by all the authors I met in one place, an anthology of Chinese stories translated to English called<a href="http://kenliu.name/blog/2016/11/01/invisible-planets-launch/" target="_blank" data-imported="1"> Invisible Planets</a> came out this week. You should check it out! </p>
<p>All three of my host organizations worked together seamlessly to make sure my trip went well, and I had a great time with everyone they assigned to help me. If and when China bids again for Worldcon, they will have my support. The organizations I worked with proved they know how to put on a professional event. I'll forever be grateful for the opportunity.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/6c148974063b868c117925bfd39eb4f062f0c3c2/original/faa.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzAweDIwMCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="FAA group photo at the Galaxy Awards" height="200" width="300" /> </p>
<p>*photos with me in them were taken by Gracia, Jane, Reika, Tang Fei… apologies for the poor attribution.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470512016-05-25T20:00:00-04:002021-01-14T12:40:21-05:00Balticon 2016 Schedule
<p>Balticon is this weekend! Here's my schedule as it stands right now. Check the <a href="https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/balticon/en/b50mgmt/participants" target="_blank" data-imported="1">app</a> or the program guide for the most up to date version.</p>
<p><strong>Friday May 27, 2016</strong><br>9:30 PM<br>Solo CONCERT - Kent (6th Floor)<br>(25 minutes)<br><br><strong>Saturday May 28, 2016</strong><br>8:00 AM - 11 AM<br>Set Phasers to Stun: Writing Short Literary SF/F<br>Parlor 9059 - Workshop - Advance signup required <a href="http://balticon.org/wp50/aboutbalticon/bsfs-sponsored-awards/#Seminars" target="_blank" data-imported="1">here</a> - This is a 3 hour small-group workshop. There are still slots open. </p>
<p>5:00 PM<br>Sarah Pinsker, <a href="https://alexshvartsman.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Alex Shvartzman</a> and <a href="http://michaelrunderwood.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Michael Underwood</a> Autographing (5th Floor)<br>Autograph Table 1<br><br>8:00 PM<br>Readings: Michael Flynn, Larry Hodges, Laura Nicole, Sarah Pinsker - St. George (6th Floor)</p>
<p><br><strong>Sunday May 29, 2016</strong><br>11:00 AM<br>Dangerous Voices Variety Hour<br>Maryland Ballroom (MD Salons CD) "Main Tent" - 5th Floor<br>Special Event 1 hour 30 minutes<br>Co-hosted with Mike Underwood. Guests/victims: <a href="http://www.jowaltonbooks.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Jo Walton</a>, <a href="http://www.franwilde.net" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Fran Wilde</a>, <a href="http://www.johnpicacio.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">John Picacio</a>, Peter S. Beagle. Dangerous Voices is a quiz show/reading/interview series. Think NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" with free books for the audience.<br><br>1:30 PM<br>Getting Horses Right in Your Fiction<br>St. George</p>
<p>8 PM SFWA Meet & Greet - Parlor 11029 - SFWA officers discuss current and upcoming projects and answer questions. Current, past, and prospective members are welcome to attend. Meet & chat with other members of the organization.</p>
<p><strong>Monday May 30, 2016</strong><br>10:00 AM<br>Monday Gimungous Autograph Session<br>Kent (6th Floor)<br>Autographs <br><br>11:00 AM<br>How to Give and Get Critiques<br>Parlor 8029<br>Panel with Connie Willis(!), Scott Edelman, Alex Shvartsman, KM Szpara<br><br>12:00 PM<br>What's Hot Short Fiction?<br>Parlor 8029<br>Panel with Michael R Underwood, Scott Edelman, Alex Shvartsman, Jean Marie Ward<br><br>[According to Scott H. Andrews' program, in that noon hour I am also simultaneously on a Music in Fiction panel with him, which I'd also like to be on. If you have a time turner, let me know.]</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470502015-12-30T19:00:00-05:002015-12-31T11:29:42-05:002015 in Review
<p>I think I still have time for a 2015 wrap-up post! If I don't start trying to add pictures, anyway. I'm combining it with a here's-what-I-published post, with all of my 2015 stories listed toward the bottom.</p>
<p>The year treated me very well, both personally and creatively. I don't really post about the personal side much here, but this was the year that a long-standing immigration battle came to an end. That's about the most nonchalant way I can say something that more accurately translates to a big old GIF of Kermit flailing. (No pictures, Sarah. Keep writing.)</p>
<p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li> My new album is recorded and mastered. You will hear it in 2016.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I wrote a novel. I'm pretty pleased with it. I'd written a couple of trunk novels with endless middles and no endings over the years, but the last few years of work on my short fiction helped me see this as something I could actually pull off. More about that at another date. (Note to self: insert more Kermits flailing. All the flailing Kermits.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I went to my first SF writing workshop, Sycamore Hill. I was absolutely terrified to do peer to peer critiques with Karen Joy Fowler, Ted Chiang, Kelly Link, Maureen McHugh, Molly Gloss, Christopher Rowe, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Matt Kressel, Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Butner, Megan McCarron, and Gavin Grant, but I think I didn't embarrass myself. It was a wonderful week, in an absolutely gorgeous setting. (All the rest of the Muppets, too.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I read way less than usual (see novel, album, end of immigration battle), but the books and stories I read this year were wonderful. I hope to do a post about them at a later date. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I went to my first Worldcon, in Spokane. Had fabulous meals with fabulous people, nearly suffocated in the post-apocalyptic air. Shared a wonderful reading with Effie Seiberg, participated in some fun panels, including the very intimidating Ursula K Le Guin career retrospective.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I also went to the Nebulas, Readercon, Balticon, Capclave, and the Baltimore Book Festival, all of which were a ton of fun. Nick Offerman posed for a picture with me and my cousin's guitar. We got chased out of Millenium Park by cops on Segways. I didn't sink the SFWA booth at the BBF. The Outer Alliance reading at Readercon was one of the best readings I've ever participated in. Ended my SF year with the Queers Destroy Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror reading at Bluestockings in New York, which was also wonderful. I ate congee for the first time, and very fancy ice cream somewhere on the edge of Manhattan.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I was invited to be the writer Guest of Honor at <a href="http://chessiecon.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Chessiecon 2016,</a> which will also be a ton of fun.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I received my second Nebula nomination.</li>
<li>My story No Lonely Seafarer appeared on the Tiptree Award long list.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> I got to hear/see Toshi Reagon's Parable of the Sower opera-in-progress, which was the absolute music-listening highlight of my year.</li>
<li>Music-playing highlights included a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVB1hSRsoEo" target="_blank" data-imported="1">headlining gig at Edith May's Paradise</a> and the amazing songwriters' round robin at Tall Trees.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>My SFWA board tenure continued with work on the Baltimore Book Festival and the Mentorship program.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Translations of some of my stories were published in Chinese and Spanish. I had reprints in the <a href="http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/products/ebooks/years-best-ya-speculative-fiction-2014" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Year's Best YA Speculative Fiction</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nebula-Awards-Showcase-Matthew-Kressel/dp/1633880907" target="_blank" data-imported="1">the Nebula Awards Showcase 2015</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Years-Best-Weird-Fiction-Vol/dp/0993895115" target="_blank" data-imported="1">the Year's Best Weird Fiction Vol. 2</a>, among other places.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>My submission stats were way down. I just completely ran out of time to submit stories. I didn't write quite as many as the past few years either (see again: novel).</li>
</ul>
<p>25 submissions, down from 63. 10 sales (4 from 2014 submissions), 10 submissions pending still. I'm really pleased with that ratio.</p>
<p>I only brought seven stories to a submission-ready draft. There are several that still need more attention, and, hey, novel.</p>
<p><strong>The short stories:</strong></p>
<p>I had 11 new stories out, listed below. I'm not sure which of the stories would be my favorite, so I'll pick the novelette, <a href="http://sarahpinsker.com/our_lady_of_the_open_road/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">"Our Lady of the Open Road,"</a> in June's Asimov's, which carries a bigger piece of me with it than most, and received some of my favorite reviews ever.</p>
<p>"What Wags the World," <a href="http://dailysciencefiction.com/fantasy/modern-fantasy/sarah-pinsker/what-wags-the-world" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Daily Science Fiction</a>, November 16, 2015</p>
<p> <a href="http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/products/ebooks/letters-to-tiptree" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Letters to Tiptree</a>, Twelfth Planet Press (nonfiction, but I couldn't find someplace else to put it)</p>
<p>"And We Were Left Darkling," <a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/and-we-were-left-darkling/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Lightspeed</a>, August 2015 </p>
<p>"Pay Attention," <a href="http://press.futurefire.net/p/accessing-future.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Accessing the Future</a> anthology, July 2015</p>
<p>"In the Dawns Between Hours," <a href="http://www.destroysf.com/table-of-contents-queers-destroy-science-fiction/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Queers Destroy Science Fiction!</a> by Lightspeed, June 2015</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sarahpinsker.com/our_lady_of_the_open_road/" data-imported="1">"Our Lady of the Open Road,"</a> <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/asimovs-science-fiction/1030297671?ean=2940036216731" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Asimov's</a>, June 2015</p>
<p>"Today's Smarthouse in Love," <a href="https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/current.htm" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</a>, May/June 2015</p>
<p>"Remembery Day," <a href="http://www.apex-magazine.com/remembery-day/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Apex Magazine</a>, May 2015</p>
<p>"Last Thursday at Supervillain Supply Depot," <a href="http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/superhero/sarah-pinsker/last-thursday-at-supervillain-supply-depot" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Daily Science Fiction</a> April 10.5 2015</p>
<ul>
<li>Reprinted in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014OI7DT4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B014OI7DT4&linkCode=as2&tag=ufopubcom-20&linkId=7TXAZABAYCZTQROG" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Funny Science Fiction </a>anthology, September 2015</li>
</ul>
<p>"When the Circus Lights Down," <a href="http://uncannymagazine.com/article/when-the-circus-lights-down/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Uncanny Magazine</a>, March/April 2015</p>
<p>"Beauty & the Baby Beast," <a href="http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/biotech/sarah-pinsker/beauty-and-the-baby-beast" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Daily Science Fiction</a>, January 9 2015</p>
<p>"Songs in the Key of You," Asimov's, January 2015</p>
<p> So anyway, that's what I've got. Thanks for the wonderful year, and here's to 2016!</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470492015-10-08T20:00:00-04:002015-10-09T03:30:35-04:00My Capclave 2015 schedule
<p>My schedule for this weekend's <a href="http://www.capclave.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Capclave</a> in Gaithersburg, MD. I'm only going to be there for Friday evening/Saturday morning, so they've packed in a lot of programming!</p>
<p> </p>
<table border="0" frame="VOID" rules="NONE" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="LEFT" width="86" height="18">Friday</td>
<td align="LEFT" width="132">
4 PM-4:50 PM</td>
<td align="LEFT" width="325">Your Day Job As Your Muse</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="LEFT" height="18">Friday</td>
<td align="LEFT">
5 PM-5:50 PM</td>
<td align="LEFT">Getting Into Short Fiction</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="LEFT" height="18">Friday</td>
<td align="LEFT">
9 PM-9:50 PM</td>
<td align="LEFT">The Right Length For Your Story</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="LEFT" height="18">Saturday</td>
<td align="LEFT">
10 AM-10:50 AM</td>
<td align="LEFT">Tiptree Retrospective</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="LEFT" height="18">Saturday</td>
<td align="LEFT">
12:30 PM-12:55 PM</td>
<td align="LEFT">Reading - Sarah Pinsker</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Expanded below:</p>
<p><strong>Your Day Job As Your Muse</strong> (Ends at: 4:55 pm) - Salon A<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=138" data-imported="1">Barbara Krasnoff</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=65" data-imported="1">Lawrence M. Schoen</a><br>SF writers who work for NASA have it easy. What about the rest of us? How does your day job influence what you write when you are off the clock? Do you base characters on coworkers? Turn daydreams of being the corporate hero into your creative works?</p>
<p>(I'm listed as moderator, but I pointed out that I might not make it on time because of said day job.)</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Getting Into Short Fiction</strong></span> (Ends at: 5:55 pm) - Frederick<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=134" data-imported="1">Jim Freund</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=43" data-imported="1">Dina Leacock</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=222" data-imported="1">Gordon Van Gelder</a><br>What are some of the best resources for someone who wants to start reading shorter fiction? What are good habits to adopt, and expectations to foster?</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>The Right Length For Your Story</strong></span> (Ends at: 9:55 pm) - Rockville/Potomac<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=2" data-imported="1">Scott H. Andrews</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=204" data-imported="1">Sarah Avery</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=222" data-imported="1">Gordon Van Gelder</a><br>A short story is not a condensed novel. How do you know if your idea will require a story, novella, novel, or trilogy? When you edit, what makes you decide if it should be expanded or shortened? Were you ever surprised what a work took a different form? Which expansions of shorter works into novels work and which do not?</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Tiptree Retrospective</strong></span> (Ends at: 10:55 am) - Rockville/Potomac<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=20" data-imported="1">Scott Edelman</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=134" data-imported="1">Jim Freund</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=27" data-imported="1">Cathy Green</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a><br>Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Triptree Jr. was born 100 years ago. She was a complex individual who kept her true identity secret even from the many writers who communicated with her by mail. Robert Silverberg famously wrote that only a man could have written Triptree's stories. What did she have to say and what was her best work? Why is she important to the field?</p>
<table id="Reading" class="grid" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td rowspan="1">Saturday 12:30 pm</td>
<td>Frederick</td>
<td>
<span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Reading - Sarah Pinsker</strong></span> (Ends at: 12:55 pm)<br><strong>Author:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470482015-09-16T20:00:00-04:002020-01-22T13:30:12-05:00Found in Translation
<p>A lovely translation of my story "A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" has just appeared in the Chinese magazine Science Fiction World. I wanted to take a moment to introduce the two women who have been working on my Chinese translations. They previously worked on my novelette "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind," and are tackling "And We Were Left Darkling" next.</p>
<p>Translation of fiction is not an easy task. It's not word for word. If you've ever put a phrase into Google Translate, you know that we haven't found a way to automate the process well. Good translators do so much more than substitute words in one language for another. They convey moods and concepts. They convey figurative language and idiom with no corollary. Georges Perec's La Disparition is an entire French novel written without the use of the letter E; the translation to English ("A Void") has to do the same thing, but the entire color palette changes. There are verb tenses that avoid E in French that do not in English. And yet the translator still has to maintain the intent of the author. If you read Ken Liu's translation of the Chinese novel The Three Body Problem, you may have noticed his thorough footnotes. Ken footnoted passages that might hold great significance to a Chinese reader, and none to most Americans. A uniform of a certain color might resonate in one culture, while to another it might be nothing but a detail of world-building. To make the book successful with American audiences he had to make us understand the significance of every sentence. </p>
<p>Translation is a collaboration. Working with the translators on "A Stretch of Highway…" (and earlier, "In Joy…") forced me into a more intimate relationship with my own stories. I would get emails asking specific questions I had never answered for myself. I needed to clarify whether a minor character was a younger sibling or an older sibling; the word in English was the same, but they were different in Chinese. Did "worked on his truck" mean "repaired the engine" or "drove his truck"? Both are reasonable readings given the context. And then there were the figurative sentences: infections with figurative teeth, artificial pathways. It's a figurative story; there was a lot of back and forth.</p>
<p>And then of course there are all the science fictional concepts. If I coin a new word or write a concept into existence, they're responsible for making sure it works in both languages. Have you ever tried to make a pun in your second language? It's tricky business. </p>
<p>Over the months that we worked together on these stories, we got to talk about other things as well. The places we live, the things we do outside of writing, our pets and families. </p>
<p>I asked both women if I could talk about them here. I wanted to give you their biographies and a little more, since I didn't want them reduced to a simple byline after all of their hard work.</p>
<p>Wu Shuang, or Anna Wu, is a science fiction, movie, and teleplay writer. She is from Jiangsu Province. She graduated from China University of Mining and Technology, where she majored in Chinese language and literature. She has already published several short stories in Galaxy's Edge, Science Fiction World Magazine, and Arts and Literature, and has worked with Yu Youqun to translate more than two hundred thousand words of English fiction by writers including Mike Resnick, Ken Liu, and Alyssa Wong. She asked me to say that she believes that imagination could change the world, and that the beauty and charm of science fiction will last forever in the universe and galaxy. </p>
<p>Abby (Yu Youqun) was born in 1985 in Sichuan Province. She graduated from China University of Mining and Technology, and received Bachelor and Master's degrees of Arts in 2009 and 2012. Her major was English language and literature. She has been teaching college for more than three years. Collaborating with Anna, she began to do translation of science fiction works. She says they work together happily. Abby is responsible for translating the English version into Chinese and communicating with the authors. Anna makes the Chinese version more fluent when Abby has finished her work. She asked me to say, "All of our published works were worked out by our pooling of thoughts. I believe reading science fiction is an amusing enjoyment. Imagination enlarges our world and horizon, makes everything to be possible. I hope this will be helpful."</p>
<p>I'm so happy to have been able to work with these two talented translators, and I look forward to working with them again in the future. I wrote these stories, but in their careful translations, they bring them to life for a new audience. </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470472015-08-14T20:00:00-04:002015-08-18T01:48:47-04:00My Sasquan Schedule 2015
<div>
<p>I'm heading to my first Worldcon in a few days! I'm looking forward to my first big Con, and to spending time in Spokane and Seattle. My official schedule is below. See you there!</p>
<h2>The Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin</h2>
<p>Thursday 21:00 - 21:45, Bays 111B (CC)</p>
<p>Ursula Le Guin is one of the giants of the field, whose works include pivotal SF and fantasy works. The panel discusses the works and influence of Ursula Le Guin. </p>
<p>Charlie Jane Anders (m), Sarah Pinsker, Gary K. Wolfe, M. J. Locke<a href="mailto:ljm@digitalnoir.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><br></a></p>
</div>
<div>
<h2>Friday 11:00 - 11:45, Bays 111A (CC): Certainly Not For the Money: Why We Write Short Fiction</h2>
<p>Why do we put ourselves through the angst of writing short fiction? It certainly isn't the money. Why else would we do it?</p>
<p>Mark J. Ferrari (M), Mur Lafferty, Sarah Pinsker, Stefan Rudnicki, Rick Wilber</p>
<h4> </h4>
</div>
<div>
<h2>Friday 16:30 - 17:00, 301 (CC): Reading - Sarah Pinsker and Effie Sieberg</h2>
<p>Come to our reading! Effie made cardamom meringues. Then we can go to happy hour. </p>
<h4> </h4>
</div>
<div>
<h2>
<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_579873678">Saturday</span> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_579873678">13:00 - 15:00</span>, 300B (CC): SFWA Business Meeting</h2>
<p>If you're a SFWA member, come to the meeting and find out what's new in the organization right now, from model contracts to mentoring.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2>
<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_579873680">Saturday</span> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_579873681">16:00 - 16:45:</span> Hall B (CC) Autographing - Lou Antonelli, Walter H. Hunt, Nick Kanas, Sarah Pinsker, John Scalzi, Eric James Stone, Rick Wilber</h2>
<p><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_579873680"><span class="aQJ"> </span></span></p>
<p> </p>
</div>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470462015-06-27T20:00:00-04:002015-07-08T01:27:55-04:00My Readercon 2015 schedule
<p><a href="http://www.readercon.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Readercon</a> is an always excellent speculative literature-focused con. The panel topics and guest list are fantastic. Nicola Griffith, one of my favorite authors, is one of the Guests of Honor this year. Below is my schedule for the weekend. Can't promise there won't be one or two more changes, but I think this is pretty much set. See you in Burlington!</p>
<h3 class="panel_day">Friday July 10</h3>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>1:00 PM</em> G <strong>Winter Is Coming: Feminist SF and the Frozen Tundra Buddy Trek.</strong> <em>Gwendolyn Clare, Malinda Lo, Caitlyn Paxson, Sarah Pinsker (leader), Sonya Taaffe. </em>During the <em>Ancillary Justice</em> book discussion at Readercon 25, it was brought up that many favorite feminist SF novels feature pairs of characters slogging through an inhospitable landscape: Nicola Griffith's <em>Ammonite</em>, Maureen McHugh's <em>Mission Child</em>, Ann Leckie's <em>Ancillary Justice</em>, and of course Ursula K. Le Guin's <em>The Left Hand of Darkness</em>. Having a pair of characters traveling together generally leads to opportunities for trust and relationship building, but what is it about the tundra trek (or equivalent) that lends itself so well to feminist SF stories in particular?<br><em><br></em>
</div>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>4:00 PM</em> IN <strong>Accessing the Future Reading.</strong> Nicolette Barischoff, Andi Buchanan, Sarah Pinsker<em>. Group reading from the <a href="http://press.futurefire.net/p/accessing-future.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Accessing the Future</a> anthology of disability-themed SF.</em>
</div>
<div class="schedule_item"></div>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>7:00 PM</em> IN <strong>Outer Alliance Reading.</strong> Susan Jane Bigelow, CD Covington, Kelly Eskridge, <em>Nicola Griffith, Claire Humphrey, Malinda Lo, Brad Parks, Julia Rios (host) Sarah Pinsker, Jill Schultz. Celebrating QUILTBAG speculative fiction. Rapidfire readings.</em>
</div>
<div class="schedule_item"></div>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>8:00 PM</em> F <strong>Revealing the Past, Inspiring the Future.</strong> <em>Amal El-Mohtar (leader), Max Gladstone, Alena McNamara, Sarah Pinsker, Julia Rios. </em>When writing <em>Hild</em>, Nicola Griffith was aiming for historical accuracy where possible, including in her depictions of women, queer characters, people of color, and slavery in seventh-century Britain. She writes, "Readers who commit to <em>Hild</em> might see the early middle ages differently now: they see what might have been possible, instead of the old master story about the place of women and the non-existence of POC and QUILTBAG people 1400 years ago. And if it was possible then, what might be possible today and in the future?" What other books and stories expand our notion of the possible by revealing the truth of history? How can creators of future settings learn from the suppressed or hidden past?</div>
<h3 class="panel_day">Saturday July 11</h3>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>11:00 AM</em> CO <strong>Dog, Cat, Snake: Predicting Pets with Literary Taste.</strong> <em>Beth Bernobich, Stacey Friedberg, Sarah Pinsker, Rick Wilber, Navah Wolfe. </em>Let's play a game! Can you predict whether someone is a cat person or a dog person by what they read and write? Do you think dog people prefer predictability while cat people like surprises? Are horror fans more inclined to keep spiders and snakes? Panelists will discuss their literary preferences and see whether others can guess their pets.<br><em><br></em>
</div>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>12:00 PM</em> E <strong>Autographs.</strong> <em>Malinda Lo, Sarah Pinsker. </em>
</div>
<h3 class="panel_day">Sunday July 12</h3>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>10:00 AM</em> F <strong>Reading Stance and Genre.</strong> <em>Peter Dubé, Chris Gerwel, Nicola Griffith, Alex Jablokow, Sarah Pinsker. </em>In 2013, Nicola Griffith's <em>Hild</em> was nominated for the Nebula award, alongside Karen Joy Fowler's <em>We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves</em>. Under Best Novella that same year was "Wakulla Springs" by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages. Going further back, Peter Straub won a World Fantasy Award for <em>Koko</em>. By most critical definitions none of these are works of speculative fiction, but, as Gary K. Wolfe said on an episode of the Coode Street Podcast, "if you approach <em>Hild</em> with the expectations of a fantasy reader, you’ll still get most of the asethetic delights you’re looking for." He asked, "What if we approach genre not from the point of view of theoretical definitions or market categories or even the author’s intention, but from how we choose to read a particular work?" This panel will explore the many answers to that question, from many perspectives.<br><br>
</div>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>12:30 PM</em> EM <strong>Reading: Sarah Pinsker.</strong> <em>Sarah Pinsker. </em>
</div>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470452015-05-20T20:00:00-04:002015-05-21T12:39:15-04:00My Balticon Schedule
<p>I'll be at <a href="http://www.balticon.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Balticon</a> from May 22-25th. There's a ton going on. Movies and games and live podcast tapings and lots of great panels. Jo Walton, one of my favorite authors, is the guest of honor. Check out their website for all the details.</p>
<p>Here's my schedule:</p>
<p>FRIDAY MAY 22</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>9:00 PM</strong></td>
<td><strong>Dangerous Voices Variety Hour </strong></td>
<td align="right" valign="top">Salon B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">Sarah Pinsker (M), Michael Underwood (M), Alex Shvartsman</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">(50 minutes)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">Baltimore Science Fiction Society's own readings series comes to Balticon once more! The Dangerous Voices Variety Hour takes its cues from such diverse inspirations as the popular 510 reading series, NPR's quiz show: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, and Orson Welles's original War of the Worlds broadcast. The hour long, free event features readings, irreverent author interviews, trivia, prizes, and more.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>SATURDAY MAY 23</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>1:00 PM</strong></td>
<td><strong>Matrons and Crones: Older Female Characters in Fantasy and Science Fiction</strong></td>
<td align="right" valign="top">Derby</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">Gail Z. Martin (M), Karen Burnham, Paula S Jordan, Sarah Pinsker, Virginia DeMarce</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">(50 minutes)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">All too often, older women in fiction are included only to provide background for the protagonist. How can we make sure that they're actual characters with their own roles to play?</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>SUNDAY MAY 24</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>4:00 PM</strong></td>
<td><strong>Readings: Sarah Avery, Katie Bryski, Sarah Pinsker</strong></td>
<td align="right" valign="top">Chesapeake</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">Sarah Pinsker, Katie Bryski, Sarah Avery</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">(50 minutes)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>5:00 PM</strong></td>
<td><strong>Autograph - Sunday - 17:00</strong></td>
<td align="right" valign="top">Autograph Table</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">Maria V Snyder, Sarah Pinsker</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">(50 minutes)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>MONDAY MAY 25</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>11:00 AM</strong></td>
<td><strong>SF/F Mysteries</strong></td>
<td align="right" valign="top">Chase</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">Sarah Pinsker (M), Andrew Fox, John L French</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">(50 minutes)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td align="left" valign="top">From Bester's The Demolished Man to Jo Walton's Farthing and Chris Moriarty's Spin State. Robot detectives and vampire detectives and android detectives. Parlor mysteries and space station mysteries. The tools of the trade in the past (Sherlock Holmes' very Victorian method of deduction) and the future (AI, bugs, drones).</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>See you there!</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470442014-12-30T19:00:00-05:002015-01-02T07:35:40-05:002014 by the numbers with bonus velociraptor
<p>I started out to do a 2014-by-the-numbers thread to match <a href="http://www.sarahpinsker.com/blog/my_writing_year_2013/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">last year's</a>, but a couple of the awesome things that happened in my writing life this year aren't really quantifiable.</p>
<ul>
<li>I got my first Nebula nomination, and a fancy Nebula pin, and a chance to go to San Jose for the awards and see beautiful flowering trees and amazing mechanical musical instruments that played when you put in buffalo nickels and meet all kinds of cool people (pictured here with John Joseph Adams and Henry Lien.)</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/d5253a370554739bc7763c05c3a94adf83b2e853/original/screen-shot-2014-12-31-at-3-41-28-pm.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTc5eDY5NiJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="696" width="579" /></p>
<ul>
<li>I won the <a href="http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/sturgeon.htm" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award</a>! I got to hang out with more awesome people in Kansas, and take part in the Campbell Conference, and give a speech about crowd-sourced hurricane repairs. (I was looking at someone else when this photo was taken.)</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/5a526be39237566b64bc6a44e5245371f90e2668/original/sturgeon.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTI3eDcwMSJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="701" width="527" /></p>
<ul>
<li>I had my first print-magazine stories come out. Also my first anthologies. I went from having nothing to sign at signings to having eight signable things in one year.</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/694326735a1cfa8adf20f4a4be00ce9e6e6f7e65/original/screen-shot-2014-12-31-at-3-40-36-pm.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NTI5eDcwNyJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="707" width="529" /></p>
<ul>
<li>I got a bunch of invitations to be on programming at various cons, and to do standalone readings.</li>
<li>I got to be part of three projects I really wanted to be part of: the Long Hidden and Fierce Family anthologies from Crossed Genres, and the Women Destroy Science Fiction! issue of Lightspeed. </li>
<li>I outpaced the year before in sales, publications, and money earned from stories. </li>
<li>I was elected to office with the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.</li>
<li>I had my name on the cover of Asimov's! Twice!</li>
<li>On the music front, tracking and mixing for my new album are finally finished, which means it WILL come out in 2015.</li>
</ul>
<p>My list of stories published this year is <a href="http://www.sarahpinsker.com/blog/my_award_eligible_stories_for_2014/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">here</a> and my list of favorite books read this year is forthcoming.</p>
<p>And in case I haven't mentioned the people already, I have met and dined and drank and critiqued and paneled and conversed and roomed with so many wonderful human beings this year. I think the best thing I've gotten out of this last couple of years is all of you. Thanks to the editors and the readers and the writers and the cheerleaders and the pep-talkers and the critiquers and the narrators and the bloggers and the reviewers and the friends and future friends among you. I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>2014 by the numbers (some of which may be a little off, but close enough):</p>
<p>Submissions outstanding as of Dec. 29, 2014: 12 (9 reprints, 3 original)</p>
<p>Total submissions 2014: 60 (22 reprints/translations & 37 originals)</p>
<p>Acceptances: 22 (9 reprint/podcast, 1 translation, 12 original) to 17 markets</p>
<p>Pro-rates: 11</p>
<p>First sales to: Escape Pod, Apex, Uncanny, Unlikely Story, UFO, PULP, How To Live On Other Planets, Spark, Toasted Cake</p>
<p>Sales to: Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction</p>
<p>print magazine:6</p>
<p>print anthology:2</p>
<p>e-zine:8</p>
<p>podcast:3</p>
<p>Originals: 1 sale on 10th submission of the story, 3 on 2<sup>nd</sup> submission, 5 on a first submission, the rest in the 3-6 submission range.</p>
<p>Stories completed in 2014: 11 ( a bunch more are close but not quite right)</p>
<p>Stories written in 2014/sold in 2014:10</p>
<p>Stories published in 2014/sold in 2013: 8</p>
<p>Stories written earlier, revised and sold for the first time in 2014: 2</p>
<p>Stories awaiting rewrite: 7ish?</p>
<p>Stories started but unfinished: 3</p>
<p>Stories that appeared for the first time this year regardless of date of sale: 11</p>
<p>Stories podcast in 2014: 3</p>
<p>Novels written: 0</p>
<p>Stories translated and sold: 1</p>
<p>Translations sold in: Galician</p>
<p>Year's Best anthologies: 0 as of this writing</p>
<p>Readings: 9 (Balticon, Readercon, Darkover, World Fantasy, Baltimore Book Festival, Capclave, Campbell Conference, Writers & Words, Starts Here)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>2013 for comparison</p>
<p>Total stories written: 12</p>
<p>Total submissions (includes reprints):69</p>
<p>Total acceptances (includes reprints):12</p>
<p>Readings: 4</p>
<p> </p>
<p>2015 (based on existing acceptances)</p>
<p>Total original stories already sold for presumed 2015 publication:8</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So that was my outstanding year. Tell me about your writing year or your writing goals here or on Twitter!</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/1078c01b33fdbc9aa0fd5cfc5cef48b1b120cfbb/original/screen-shot-2014-12-31-at-3-42-34-pm.png/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6NDg1eDY1MyJd.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="653" width="485" /></p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470432014-12-01T19:00:00-05:002021-05-04T19:31:50-04:00My Award Eligible Stories for 2014
<p>I've had another amazing writing year, thanks to all you editors, readers, reviewers, bloggers, writers, and all-around good human beings. </p>
<p>As other people have been doing, I'm going to collect my stories from 2014 here for the convenience of those who are nominating and voting for awards this year. I'm also going to do a separate post listing some of my favorite things I've read this year, but I'm still playing a little catch up, so I don't want to send that one out prematurely. </p>
<p>These are all short stories. In my opinion, the strongest three are: </p>
<p><strong>1) "A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide," <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Science-Fiction-Exclusive-Digest/dp/B004ZFZCKY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393688341&sr=8-1&keywords=the+magazine+of+fantasy+%26+science+fiction" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</a>, March/April 2014 (SF)</strong></p>
<p>with reviews including Sam Tomaino of SFRevu writing, "Brilliantly done and on my Hugo short story short list for 2014."</p>
<p>and Lois Tilton of Locus writing, "Very well done story of character. Andy is deeply real, and readers will feel his pain even if they don’t quite understand it. The SFnal problem remains in part a mystery, but the conclusion is emotionally fulfilling.<strong><em>–RECOMMENDED"</em></strong></p>
<p><em>I'm happy to send a copy of this story on request to anyone who is voting or nominating.</em></p>
<p> <strong>2) "<a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/lonely-seafarer/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">No Lonely Seafarer</a>," Lightspeed, September 2014 (Fantasy)</strong></p>
<p>Available for free online to read and <a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/podcasts/podcast_179-No_Lonely_Seafarer-Sarah_Pinsker.mp3" target="_blank" data-imported="1">in this great podcast</a>.</p>
<p>Sam Tomaino of SFRevu wrote, "Good conclusion in this fine fantasy story." </p>
<p><strong>3) "<a href="http://escapepod.org/2014/11/29/ep470-transdimensional-horsemaster-rabbis-mpumalanga-province/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Transdimensional Horsemaster Rabbis of Mpumalanga Province</a>," Asimov's, February 2014 (SF)</strong></p>
<p>Available in the February issue of Asimov's, or for free online to read and listen, thanks to Escape Pod (link on the story name). </p>
<p>Lois Tilton called it "A thought-provoking work."</p>
<p>Sam Tomaino wrote, "Quite a surprising story and quite a good one."</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>My other stories for the year were:</strong></p>
<p>"Notes To My Past And/Or Alternate Selves," <a href="http://www.kingsgames.com/#!online-store/c1xw2/!/Unidentified-Funny-Objects-3-e-book/p/36959135/category=8816592" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Unidentified Funny Objects 3 anthology</a>, October 2014 </p>
<p>"How A Map Works," <a href="http://www.unlikely-story.com/current-issue/issue-9-june-2014" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Journal of Unlikely Cartography</a>, June 2014 </p>
<p>"The Low Hum of Her," <a href="http://www.asimovs.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Asimov's</a>, August 2014 (on sale June 17 2014) </p>
<p>"The Sewell Home for the Temporally Displaced," <a href="http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-sewell-home-for-the-temporally-displaced/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Women Destroy Science Fiction</a> (pub. by Lightspeed) . </p>
<p>"There Will Be One Vacant Chair," <a href="http://www.longhidden.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Long Hidden</a> anthology, May 2014. The Long Hidden anthology is eligible for the Hugo under "Best Related Work."</p>
<p>"Headlong," <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JMPIHAO" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The Future Embodied Anthology</a>, April 2014 </p>
<p>"They Sent Runners Out," <a href="http://firesidefictioncompany.com/issue10/" target="fireside" data-imported="1">Fireside Magazine</a> February, 2014</p>
<p>"Monsters, Beneath the Bed and Otherwise," <a href="http://crossedgenres.com/titles/fierce-family/" target="monster" data-imported="1">Fierce Family Anthology</a> from Crossed Genres, January 2014</p>
<p>I'm really proud of all these stories, but those first three got the best reception. </p>
<p>Thanks for your consideration!</p>
<p> </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470422014-11-04T19:00:00-05:002021-01-14T12:40:49-05:00My World Fantasy Convention schedule
<p> </p>
<p>Everybody is only allowed one official panel or reading, but I'll be making appearances here and there:</p>
<div class="item description">
<p>Friday Nov 7th at 11:00 AM - Regency E</p>
<p>EVERYBODY WAS THERE: </p>
<ul class="pod-list">
<li class="pod-item">
<div class="media-story">Sarah Pinsker <label class="subtitle">Moderator</label>
</div>
</li>
<li class="pod-item">
<div class="media-story">Kit Reed<label class="subtitle"></label>
</div>
</li>
<li class="pod-item">
<div class="media-story">Mary Anne Mohanraj<label class="subtitle"></label>
</div>
</li>
<li class="pod-item">
<div class="media-story">S. M. Stirling<label class="subtitle"></label>
</div>
</li>
<li class="pod-item">
<div class="media-story">K. Ceres Wright</div>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Fantasy has had characters of many races, some human and others beyond. Whether it’s the young soldier woman in <em>Deeds of Paksenarrion</em> being asked whether she minds sharing a dining hall with “elder races” (elves and dwarves), or the alternate orientations of characters in Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover series or Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series, or the beauty of a foreign culture, such as that depicted in <em>Bridge of Birds</em>, fantasy authors have bravely gone where others feared to tread. How has diversity of race, ability, gender, sexual orientation, or belief system in fantastic literature changed over time?</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Nov 7th at 8 PM - Independence</p>
<p>Mass Autograph Signing</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Saturday November 8th 8:30 AM: SFWA General Meeting</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Saturday November 8th 2PM - 4PM</p>
<p>Regency Suite 1, Room 1850</p>
<p>Rapid-Fire reading and party with Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Sarah Avery, Carol Berg, C.D. Covington, Randee Dawn, Julia Dvorin,</p>
<p>Sally Wiener Grotta, Elektra Hammond, Laurell Anne Hill, Elaine Isaak (E.C. Ambrose), L. Jagi Lamplighter,Gail Z. Martin, Heather McDougal, Sherry Peters, Sarah Pinsker, Kathy Sullivan and Jean Marie Ward</p>
</div>
<div class="attachment-pod">
<h3>I'm bringing a 1kg bar of Belgian chocolate. Just sayin'. </h3>
</div>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470412014-09-29T20:00:00-04:002014-09-30T15:00:35-04:00My Capclave Schedule
<p>I'll be at <a href="http://www.capclave.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Capclave</a> October 11th and 12th (not Friday, when I will be special guesting at Lea's CD release at the Creative Alliance.)</p>
<table class="grid" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Saturday 10:00 am: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Alternative Sexualities in SF/F</strong></span> (Ends at: 10:55 am)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=197" data-imported="1">Shira Lipkin</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=168" data-imported="1">Emmie Mears</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=196" data-imported="1">A.C. Wise</a><br>How well are alternative sexualities (or sexuality of any kind) portrayed in science fiction and fantasy?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Saturday 3:00 pm: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Best Short Fiction of 2014</strong></span> (Ends at: 3:55 pm)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=2" data-imported="1">Scott H. Andrews</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=23" data-imported="1">D. Douglas Fratz</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=156" data-imported="1">Norm Sherman</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=196" data-imported="1">A.C. Wise</a><br>Which novellas, novelettes, and short stories published this year were your favorites? Which do you think deserve to be nominated for the Hugo/Nebula/Tiptree/World Fantasy etc? Which short fiction pieces deserve to be nominated but won't and why not?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Saturday 4:30 pm: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Reading (Pinsker)</strong></span> (Ends at: 4:55 pm)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Saturday 7:30 pm: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Mass Signing</strong></span> (Ends at: 8:25 pm)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=1" data-imported="1">Danielle Ackley-McPhail</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=204" data-imported="1">Sarah Avery</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=200" data-imported="1">Paolo Bacigalupi</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=201" data-imported="1">Holly Black</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=7" data-imported="1">Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=13" data-imported="1">Neil Clarke</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=17" data-imported="1">Tom Doyle</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=185" data-imported="1">Andy Duncan</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=20" data-imported="1">Scott Edelman</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=134" data-imported="1">Jim Freund</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=24" data-imported="1">Charles E. Gannon</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=203" data-imported="1">Max Gladstone</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=30" data-imported="1">David G. Hartwell</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=137" data-imported="1">Alma Katsu</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=169" data-imported="1">Pamela K. Kinney</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=138" data-imported="1">Barbara Krasnoff</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=43" data-imported="1">Dina Leacock</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=100" data-imported="1">James Maxey</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=195" data-imported="1">Will McIntosh</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=52" data-imported="1">Mike McPhail</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=194" data-imported="1">Sunny Moraine</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=54" data-imported="1">James Morrow</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=186" data-imported="1">Benjamin Rosenbaum</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=65" data-imported="1">Lawrence M. Schoen</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=67" data-imported="1">Darrell Schweitzer</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=160" data-imported="1">Alex Shvartsman</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=135" data-imported="1">Jon Skovron</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=70" data-imported="1">Alan Smale</a>,<a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=71" data-imported="1">Bud Sparhawk</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=136" data-imported="1">Janine Spendlove</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=202" data-imported="1">Genevieve Valentine</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=158" data-imported="1">Michael A. Ventrella</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=81" data-imported="1">Lawrence Watt-Evans</a><br>The Saturday evening mass autographing session.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Saturday 11:00 pm: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Eye of Argon</strong></span> (Ends at: 11:55 pm)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=35" data-imported="1">Walter H. Hunt</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=73" data-imported="1">Ian Randal Strock</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=158" data-imported="1">Michael A. Ventrella</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=80" data-imported="1">Jean Marie Ward</a><br>Our panelists read the worst fantasy story ever written, mistakes and all, and if they laugh or read it incorrectly, they are forced to act out the story. Just try not to fall over laughing! At some point, volunteers from the audience can participate and discover firsthand the author's contentious relationship with spelling, capitalization and punctuation.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sunday 10:00 am: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Writing Realistic Teen and Child Characters</strong></span> (Ends at: 10:55 am)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=201" data-imported="1">Holly Black</a> (M), <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=154" data-imported="1">Annette Klause</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=186" data-imported="1">Benjamin Rosenbaum</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=135" data-imported="1">Jon Skovron</a><br>Unlike in television and movies, there are no work rules and laws that result in teen characters in written fiction being played by twenty somethings, so how best to make sure that your characters actually act like teenagers and children? What age do you want your non-adult protagonist to be? Does the plot dictate the age of the character? Mindy Klasky has said that she made the protagonist of her Glasswright series older than she originally intended because she didn't think a younger child would be able to survive and cope with the events of the novels.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sunday 11:00 am: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Writing on the Job</strong></span> (Ends at: 11:55 am)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=163" data-imported="1">Carolyn Ives Gilman</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=138" data-imported="1">Barbara Krasnoff</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=202" data-imported="1">Genevieve Valentine</a><br>Is it better for a writer to have a non-writing job to save his/her writing energies for fiction or to use writing skills to make a nonfiction living on the idea that any writing improves fiction writing? And when should you quit your day job? Hear writers discuss the relationship between their day job and their writing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sunday 1:00 pm: <span style="text-decoration:underline"><strong>Nonbinary Gender in SF/F</strong></span> (Ends at: 1:55 pm)<br><strong>Panelists:</strong> <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=197" data-imported="1">Shira Lipkin</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=168" data-imported="1">Emmie Mears</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=193" data-imported="1">Sarah Pinsker</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=186" data-imported="1">Benjamin Rosenbaum</a>, <a href="http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave14/individual_schedule.php?pid=196" data-imported="1">A.C. Wise</a> (M)<br>Alex Dally McFarland's post-binary gender series at Tor.com has caused the occasional bit of controversy. However, there is no reason why science fiction and fantasy should have characters that don't conveniently split into male and female, especially when dealing with alien life forms.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470402014-09-24T20:00:00-04:002014-09-25T12:07:37-04:00My Baltimore Book Festival Schedule
<p> </p>
<p>This weekend is my favorite event in my city, the <a href="https://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Baltimore Book Festival</a>! They have great guests, great vendors, and all kinds of goings on. Because of construction around the monument, the festival has been moved from Mount Vernon to the Inner Harbor this year – Rash Field, at the foot of Federal Hill, to be precise.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>My schedule is as follows, all at the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) tent:</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Saturday, September 27<sup>th</sup></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>12 noon to 2 PM:</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Dangerous Voices Variety Hour with Marissa Meyer and Charles Gannon</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Dangerous Voices Variety Hour takes its cues from NPR's “Wait, Wait Don’T Tell Me” quiz show and Orson Welles' original War of the Worlds broadcast. It features readings, trivia, great prizes, irreverent author interviews, and more fun than you thought you could have at a reading. A co-production of SFWA and the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Participants: Marissa Meyer and Charles Gannon. Co-hosted by Sarah Pinsker and Michael Underwood.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>2 PM Saturday – signing at the SFWA tent.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>5:30 – 7 PM:</p>
<p> </p>
<h4>Reception and Meet & Greet with authors, music, and food</h4>
<p> </p>
<p>Join the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at our reception, autographing session, and Meet and Greet with our program participants at the Baltimore Book Festival.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeanne Adams, Jill Archer, Catherine Asaro, Jack Clemons, Brenda Clough, Scott Edelman, Charles Gannon, Ronald Garner, Em Garner, Herb Gilliland, Anne K Gray, Elektra Hammond, Harry Heckel, Alma Katsu, Cheryl Klam, L. Jagi Lamplighter, John Maclay, Marrisa Meyer, Sunny Moraine, Christine Norris, Sarah Pinsker, Don Sakers, Peggy Rae Sapienza, Rori Shay, Alex Shvartsman, Dawnyell Snyder, Bud Sparhawk, John Tilden, Mike Underwood, Jean Marie Ward, Fran Wilde, Karlo Yeager</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>SUNDAY September 28<sup>th</sup></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>2 PM-3 PM</p>
<p> </p>
<h4>Science Fiction and Fantasy Mysteries</h4>
<p> </p>
<p>Mysteries in science fiction are one of the trendiest new subgenres. What happens when you add "What if?" to "Whodonnit?" Join our panelists to discuss detectives, procedure, body disposal in the past, present and future, and more. They will talk about how you can extrapolate all that into the future for science fiction mysteries.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Panelists: Jeanne Adams, Scott Edelman, Miguelina Perez, Don Sakers; moderated by Sarah Pinsker</p>
<p> </p>
<p>4-6 PM</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Reading –</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There are a bunch of great authors reading between four and six pm. I don't know my exact slot, but maybe it's better that way. Will report back. </p>
<p>Check out the whole <a href="https://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/schedule/location/11/Science-Fiction-and-Fantasy-Writers-of-America" data-imported="1">SFWA booth schedule here </a>for more on the great stuff planned.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/schedule/location/11/Science-Fiction-and-Fantasy-Writers-of-America" data-imported="1"> </a></p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470392014-07-02T20:00:00-04:002014-07-03T01:07:48-04:00My Readercon schedule!
<h3 class="panel_day">I'll be on programming at <a href="http://www.readercon.org" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Readercon</a> this year! </h3>
<p>Readercon is an annual conference or convention devoted to "imaginative literature" — literary science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the unclassifiable works often called "slipstream." I've gone as an attendee for the last few years and loved it, and I'm excited to be participating on panels this year.</p>
<h3 class="panel_day">Friday July 11</h3>
<div class="schedule_item">
<em>3<strong>:00 PM</strong></em><strong> EM</strong> <strong><em>Long Hidden</em> Group Reading.</strong> <em>Rose Fox (leader), Claire Humphrey, Michael Janairo, Ken Liu, Sunny Moraine, Daniel José Older, Sarah Pinsker, Sofia Samatar, Sabrina Vourvoulias. </em><em>Long Hidden</em> (edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older) is an anthology of speculative stories from the margins of history. Our participants will read from their stories, which dive deep into the hidden truths of marginalized people throughout history and around the world.</div>
<div class="schedule_item"></div>
<div class="schedule_item">
<strong><em>3:00 PM</em> F Can Heroes Be Happy?.</strong> <em>E.C. Ambrose, K. Tempest Bradford (leader), Cecil Castellucci, Adam Lipkin, Sarah Pinsker. </em>In defense of DC Comics's policy that superheroes can't get married, Dan DiDio says, "Heroes shouldn't have happy personal lives. They are committed to being that person and committed to defending others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests.... It's wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it's equally important that they set them aside." In response, at The Mary Sue, Susana Polo wrote, "[Gay] kids need heroes who do the things that their environment tells them are impossible. They need gay heroes who grow up to be loved by the men and women that they love, in stable, healthy, and, yes, legally sanctioned relationships. They need heroes, as well as real people, to show them that it gets better. That. Is what heroes. Are for." Let's use this as a jumping-off point for discussing different concepts of heroes and heroism.<br><em><br></em>
</div>
<h3 class="panel_day">Saturday July 12</h3>
<h3 class="panel_day"><em> </em></h3>
<div class="schedule_item"><em><em>10:00 AM</em> CL <strong>Kaffeeklatsch.</strong> <em>Ken Liu, Sarah Pinsker. (Ken and I are teaming up to form a super kaffeeklatsch. Come chat!)</em></em></div>
<div class="schedule_item"></div>
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<em>6:00 PM</em> IN <strong>Reading: Women Destroy Science Fiction.</strong> <em>Liz Argall, Amal El-Mohtar, Gemma Files, Kameron Hurley, Livia Llewellyn, Sarah Pinsker, Holly Schofield.</em>
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<h3 class="panel_day">Sunday July 13</h3>
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<em>11:00 AM</em> ENL <strong>Readercon Recent Fiction Bookclub: <em>Ancillary Justice</em>.</strong> <em>Francesca Forrest, Adam Lipkin, Natalie Luhrs, Sarah Pinsker (leader), Sonya Taaffe. </em>Ann Leckie's <em>Ancillary Justice</em> is gender-bending space opera with a thriller pace and sensibility. Critics are hailing Leckie's worldbuilding in the story of Breq, the remaining ancillary consciousness of a formerly great warship. We'll explore Leckie's themes of humanity and justice, as well as the way the book's use of nearly exclusively female pronouns shakes up or affirms our notions of a gender binary. <br><em><br></em>
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<em>1:00 PM</em> G <strong>Unlikely Cartography.</strong> <em>Carrie Cuinn, Shira Lipkin, Sarah Pinsker. </em>This summer, Unlikely Story will publish their Unlikely Cartography issue, featuring stories by Shira Lipkin, Kat Howard, Sarah Pinsker, Carrie Cuinn, and others. Together with editor A.C. Wise, these authors will discuss their stories, and other authors (historical and modern) who similarly explored the cartography of the fantastic. Influences and discussion topics may include Calvino's<em>Invisible Cities</em>, Eco's <em>Legendary Lands</em>, Post's <em>Atlas of Fantasy</em>, Mieville's <em>The City and the City</em>, and more.</div>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470382014-05-20T20:00:00-04:002014-05-21T14:55:36-04:00Balticon schedule
<p>Here's my Balticon 2014 schedule! If you're attending Balticon, check the final schedule to make sure the rooms are correct. More info at <a href="http://www.balticon.org" data-imported="1">Balticon's website</a>:</p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Concert: Sarah Pinsker Fri 21:00 - 21:30, Salon C (Hunt Valley Inn)</li>
<li>Autographing: Sarah Pinsker, Alex Shvartsman, Michelle Stengel (Other) (Participant), Sat 10:00 - 11:00, Maryland Foyer (Hunt Valley Inn)</li>
<li>Expressions of Disability in SF (Panel) (Moderator), Sat 12:00 - 12:50, Parlor 1041 (Hunt Valley Inn)
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<p>It feels somewhat problematic to lump physical, developmental, and mental diag- noses together, but the commonality is in their perception as Other. It’s a vast un- charted territory of “write what you know” since it touches so many lives but rela- tively few writers incorporate it into their fiction. Panelists discuss the Possibilities. </p>
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<li>Dangerous Voices Variety Hour (Panel) (Moderator), Sun 11:00 - 11:50, Salon A (Hunt Valley Inn)
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<p>11:00 AM-SALON A-Dangerous Voices Variety Hour-<br> Dangerous Voices Variety Hour takes its cues from such diverse inspirations as the popular Baltimore 510 reading series, NPR’s quiz show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Orson Welles’ original War of the Worlds broadcast. It features readings, irreverent author interviews, trivia, prizes, and more. </p>
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<li>They Play in Other Sandboxes (Panel) (Participant), Sun 16:00 - 16:50, Salon B (Hunt Valley Inn)
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<p>Panelists discuss successful and well-known SF writers who write in other genres and recommend some examples we might want to read.<br> </p>
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<li>Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading Sunday (Panel) (Participant), Sun 17:00 - 17:50, Pimlico (Hunt Valley Inn)
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<p>Rapid Fire readings from some amazing women/authors. </p>
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<li>Tales from the Recording Studio (Panel) (Participant), Sun 19:00 - 20:00, Salon C (Hunt Valley Inn)
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<p>Our panelists explore their adventures in recording, from finding studio time to herding fellow band members to working through the inevitable false starts, out- takes and other recording mishaps.<br> </p>
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Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470372014-04-20T20:00:00-04:002014-04-22T01:43:36-04:00How Patti Smith Saved My Teeth
<p>On Twitter on Friday, the wonderful writer <a href="http://www.elizabethhand.com/" data-imported="1">Elizabeth Hand</a> posted <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/hear-patti-smith-read-12-poems-from-seventh-heaven.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">this link</a> to Patti Smith reading her poetry, in honor of National Poetry Month. I responded that I adored Patti Smith and she saved my teeth, and Ms. Hand suggested I write about it. And she's right, because it really is a story worth telling. Maybe I can save somebody else's teeth by passing it along.</p>
<center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/88/PattiSmithHorses.jpg/220px-PattiSmithHorses.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></center>
<p>First I'll say I'm a longtime fan of Patti Smith. A friend gave me copies of <em>Easter</em> and <em>Horses</em> when I turned thirteen, and I wore out the grooves on both records before replacing them on cassette, then CD. I've seen her rip the strings off her guitar one at a time on stage, one of the punkest moves I've ever witnessed. I've seen her turn mellow crowds riotous, and vice versa. So when my band, the Stalking Horses, was chosen to showcase at the final Rockrgrl Conference in Seattle, and it was announced that the speakers would include Johnette Napolitano, Bonnie Raitt, Ann Wilson, June Millington from Fanny, AND Patti (on the 30th anniversary of <em>Horses</em>), I was over the moon.</p>
<p>The dialogue between Bonnie Raitt & Ann Wilson was excellent, but Patti's speech could have been written just for me. Here are the things she said that day:</p>
<p><strong>1) You only get one set of teeth. Brush, floss, and go to the dentist, or you'll regret it later. (I think she had just had some massive dentistry.)</strong></p>
<p><strong>2) You do not need to starve to be an artist. There is no shame in a day job.</strong></p>
<p>She said other stuff, like how we should all watch Carnivale, and write to HBO and beg them to keep it on the air, and, y'know, some stuff about art and music and her life, but those other items are the ones I remember most clearly.</p>
<p>(To my parents: if you're reading this, kindly stop now)</p>
<p>At the time of this conference, I was still trying to make full time music work. I was making enough money to pay my bills, barely, with nothing to put aside. My second album had just been released. I had toured all over the country, mostly playing colleges and festivals. I made some decent money on tour, but then things happened, like when my van broke down in northernmost Wisconsin, clearly in shock over the sixty degree temperature difference between Dallas and Superior, and all of the profits went into fixing it.</p>
<p>I was living on a street namechecked in the first episode of The Wire. I had emergency health insurance, but it didn't cover dental, and I hadn't been to a dentist in seven or eight years. I brushed and flossed religiously, but I couldn't justify the cost of a dental visit, and really my teeth had to be alright, because they didn't hurt, and anyway a dentist would only yell at me for not having gone in so long, and I wasn't in a mood to be shamed, and what if there was a cavity? My childhood relationship with dentists was a bad one, filled with extractions and frenectomies and braces and braces again. Dentists HURT, and really my teeth were fine. Except for that one spot where I would hit the ceiling if my toothbrush touched it wrong, but other than that…</p>
<p>I don't know why Patti's permission was the thing that worked, the thing that got me back in a dentist's chair, where I discovered that they have new techniques that hurt less, and they didn't shame me, and the sore spot was a place where my gum had receded, but they could patch it. </p>
<p>Her second piece of advice was related. She said it anecdotally. I paraphrase: "Young people always come to me and say, 'Patti, I've applied for every grant and been turned down. I don't have enough money to feed myself or pay my rent.' And I say, 'Get a job.' There is no shame in a day job. It won't make you less of an artist. It may even make you a better artist, because you'll be able to concentrate better on your art instead of how to pay for your next meal."</p>
<p>Both of those things translate into the need to take care of yourself, body and mind. She was right that we only get one set of teeth. We only get one body too, which is easy to neglect when you're young and desperate and determined to survive on art or music or writing. I remember an entire northeast tour with a lower respiratory infection, burning with fever, breath rattling between the lines of the songs. I went into a pharmacy in Northampton and begged for something to sooth my throat. They gave me Echinacea drops and a natural cough syrup chunky with chopped up cherries and I think maybe bees, but what I needed was antibiotics. I didn't get them until the end of the tour, and only then because the head of my label begged her own doctor to see me for free and load me up with antibiotic samples. That was how it worked over and over: I would think I was getting ahead, and then something would happen to put me behind again. It wore on me.</p>
<p> </p>
<center>
<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/394670/feb60f3fc83ea0342844fba69ee6e9efa5c0c371/original/cgptown3.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6Mjg1eDI0OSJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="I swear the cough syrup had chopped up bees it hurt so bad." height="249" width="285" /> <br><em>I was so sick, Meghan Cary and Brenda White were actually singing half my songs for me.</em>
</center>
<p> </p>
<p>Not long after the Rockrgrl conference, a friend of mine told me she had started a job at an agency that worked with people with disabilities, "and there are thirteen people in bands on the first floor alone." She said they were good people to work for, and that they did good, worthwhile work. She was right, and I'm still working there. It's a job I love and I believe in. It's a job where I can live in a house I love, and repair my car when it needs work, and go to the doctor and the dentist, all of which are things that I am very grateful for and appreciate even more for having gone without them (by choice – I recognize my privilege) for so long. I should also note that I know not every day job is a job to love. My point (and hers, I think) is that if you are ignoring your health and denying legitimate needs for the sake of being able to say you are a full time artist/writer/musician, you may find, as I did, that there is great relief in acknowledging that a job is not a defeat.</p>
<p>I was very proud to be able to say I was a full time musician. I miss that sometimes. But now I don't have to supplement the gigs I love with the gigs I hated, where cappuccino machines went off every time I opened my mouth to sing. I can play the shows I want to play. I can take my time with making my fourth album (almost done), and take time from music to concentrate on my fiction now that it's going so well. I am a happier, healthier, less anxious person.</p>
<p>Much later on the night of Patti's speech, after a day of panels and a long night of showcases, I found myself alone in the hotel elevator with her. I wanted to say something to her, about how I adored her music and her speech had been good, but she looked ragged, exhausted, unreachable. I didn't want to intrude. And really, I hadn't yet internalized the things she had said that day. I hadn't quite made either decision, dentist or day job, hadn't quite acknowledged she was right.</p>
<p>So now I acknowledge:</p>
<p>Dear Patti Smith,</p>
<p>Thank you for the wise things you said that day, and for the difference they've made in my life. I am a musician, a fiction writer, an advocate for people with epilepsy. It's okay to be all those things. I pass your advice along, often: there's no shame in a day job. Take care of your teeth. You can do those things and still make art. </p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470362014-01-16T19:00:00-05:002022-04-07T01:15:10-04:00Under My Skin: A Response to Gene O' Neill's "Pale Skin, Grey Eyes"
<h1>Under My Skin: A Response to Gene O' Neill's "Pale Skin, Grey Eyes"</h1>
<p><em>[Note 1/18/14: It looks like the story has been cleaned up by a copyeditor, so some of the line-level issues detailed below no longer apply.]</em></p>
<p>I don't tear apart another author's work lightly. I've never done it before. I just don't think this should have made it out of the slush pile. I found the use of race and disability in this work to be irresponsible and poorly managed, and there isn't any area of story, from worldbuilding to language, that fared much better. I don't know Mr. O'Neill, and I wish him no ill will. I'm attacking the story, not the author.</p>
<p>Gene O'Neill's<a href="http://www.apex-magazine.com/pale-skin-gray-eyes/" target="_blank" data-imported="1"> "Pale Skin, Grey Eyes,"</a> was published in Apex Magazine's January issue, out now. It was one of two new stories in the issue, alongside Ursula Vernon's lovely "Jackalope Wives."</p>
<p>I read this story on Monday. My gut reaction was sadness. How could the magazine that had published my favorite story of 2013 (Rachel Swirsky's sublime <a href="http://www.apex-magazine.com/if-you-were-a-dinosaur-my-love/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">"If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love,"</a> which I am nominating for the Nebula) also publish this piece?</p>
<p>On my first read I thought it was hideously off-base in its treatment of race, gender, and disability. I couldn't dismiss it. It stayed with me all day, but not in a productive way. A friend and I read it out loud to each other that evening, analyzing it line by line, trying to figure out what the author and the editor were thinking. I contacted a friend at Apex to ask whether this piece had been bought by the new editor, Sigrid Ellis, or by the outgoing editors. She put Sigrid in touch with me.</p>
<p>Sigrid's response was gracious. I don't know her personally, but I respect her willingness to engage me on this story. An editor has no responsibility to explain her reasoning, and yet she took the time to share her perspective on the story. She also encouraged me to blog my response and to share her response.</p>
<p> She wrote "That story made me uncomfortable. I read it over at over, wondering whether it was a story worth publishing or not. In the end, clearly I decided it was a discomfort that I found to be worth exploring, and I published it."</p>
<p>To me, this story did not generate productive discomfort. There was no payoff that showed the author had any awareness of the power of the words he used.</p>
<p>In my first letter to her, I focused on the two aspects I found most problematic: the story's treatment of race and of disability. I decided to leave out the other problems I saw in the story: problems of gender, of writing mechanics, of worldbuilding, of storytelling.</p>
<h1>First letter to Apex:</h1>
<p>Dear Sigrid,</p>
<p>Thank you for reaching out to me. Let me first say that I think Apex is a wonderful magazine, and I look forward to your tenure there. All of this is said in what I hope is a constructive manner. I realize that it has already been published, but I appreciate this chance for dialogue. </p>
<p>The first of my two main areas of concern with this story regards its treatment of race. "A <em>Brownskin,</em> who had somehow slipped past the perimeter guards and illegally entered the village. This caused quite a stir in the people, because the few <em>Brownskin </em>immigrants accepted into <em>Blueskin </em>coastal villages as common laborers had caused nothing but problems — a constant strain on social services, our true religion clashing with their strange heathen beliefs, too many incidents of violent confrontations between them and villagers, and, perhaps most important, the ugly <em>Brownskin</em> males were sexually aggressive toward <em>Blueskin</em> women. There had been a number of reported savage rapes."</p>
<p>Looking at the words used to describe brownskins, they are dwarfish (in an earlier description) immigrants, common laborers, nothing but problems, a strain on social services, heathen, violent, ugly, sexually aggressive rapists. Is there any one word among those descriptors that hasn't been used to describe brown people in America? If this were a story about race, I would want to see how the author turned expectations around after using those descriptors, or showed the individuality within the group. This isn't about race, though, and that's all the characterization we get of all the brownskin people. They are a group without exception, because they aren't even in this story other than in these two chunks of history. They exist in this story only as a generic unsavory type. We don't even learn why the blueskin people sided with them against the white skins in the war. Were they not as savage then? They don't exist except as boogeymen that never appear on scene. </p>
<p>On to the blueskins. Our narrator's first description of her kind is "We were all short, dark people." In the wartime exposition, she describes the Brownskins as dwarfish. Are the Brownskins dwarfish in comparison to the giant Whiteskins? Or in comparison to the "short" Blueskins? More importantly, what ethnic group refers to itself by a single hue? The arguments over the Redskins football team are just one example of hundreds of tribes being lumped together with a single epithet. Cherokees don't have the same skin tone as Mohawks. Igbo Nigerians don't have the same skin tone as Yoruba Nigerians. More to my point, one Igbo person might not have the same skin tone as his brother. I have one sister who can tan, and another who is as white as porcelain. </p>
<p>The narrator is twelve. She has heard stories of a long ago war -- so long ago it is referred to as ancient and legendary. She has seen some pictures in books and on vids of other peoples. No stranger has appeared in town for over thirty years, so she has never seen one. Why, then, are all of her descriptions of her own group, the only group she has ever known, descriptions of her own group in relation to others? 'We are short.' But surely we are not uniform in size. Is a child smaller than an adult? There was at least one warrior mentioned as tall. 'We are dark people.' Are all of them the same hue? After thirty years of complete isolation, would they think about themselves in those terms? Usually 'we' simply are. Then others are defined in relation to us. </p>
<p>The reductive nature of these groupings makes what could be a long history of differing cultures into a story about skin tone. Why was the war fought? We don't know. Hatred based on skin tone is nothing new, but if you're going to present a story about it, it has to reveal something new. This doesn't. </p>
<p>Now, on to disability. </p>
<p>Here's how L'Voli's story arc reads to my eyes.</p>
<p>L'Voli has a physical disability. His mind is intact. A series of seizure-like contortions (a phrase that rings odd but I'll leave it) confined him to a wheelchair permanently. Is he paralyzed? Does he have use of his hands? His disability has a name, but in practice it seems to be "wheelchair."</p>
<p>Paraphrase of the opening lines: "You can't go. It won't be a safe place for children, especially you, disabled son, because you are disabled."</p>
<p>Mother then whispers in Tem's ear in front of L'Voli, about L'Voli. Take him away, occupy him, keep him quiet. He is allowed to get away with being impertinent because of his disability. All of this is tremendously condescending.</p>
<p>L'Voli is wheeled up to the roof to watch the meteor shower. He is up there for hours while everyone else goes to bed. The family has taken a child with no apparent ability to move his own wheelchair up to a roof and left him there for the night. This is child abuse.</p>
<p>He tells them his theories. They grin, chuckle, shake their heads, laugh dismissively. Tem doesn't crack a smile, but only because she doesn't know what to believe, not because she believes him. Even though "I knew that L’Voli <em>often</em> had an uncanny intuitive, almost precognitive, grasp of other people’s future actions, and, especially the outcomes of unusual events of this nature." (Side note: I thought there had never been any unusual events of this nature in his lifetime.)</p>
<p>L'Voli never once uses this magic power in the rest of the story. There is no explanation for its existence, and no demonstration of it beyond this telling. He is now a Magical Disabled Boy for no reason other than the convenience of this moment.</p>
<p>"I found a protected viewing spot under a blue oak for L’Voli in his wheelchair, reminded by First Mother that today my major responsibility was my brother’s well being. I locked his wheels in place with his back up against the tree trunk, making sure he had ample water. Then, I climbed back and helped both my mothers" I tied the puppy to a tree, and left it a bowl of water. (Can he use his hands? He can't wheel his own wheelchair. Can he lift water to his mouth?) Again, abuse.</p>
<p>They watch the proceedings.</p>
<p>L'Voli demonstrates understanding of the situation, maybe because he is Magical Disabled Boy. The mob turns to flee. Tem stands behind the wheelchair, holding on to the handles, while people crash into her brother in the wheelchair. Would she not protect him better from any side but behind? There's a tree protecting them from the back, but some people crash into him anyway.</p>
<p>Then, because he is in so much pain from having some people bump into him that he can't bear to live any more, he decides to die. He expresses admiration for the person that is slaughtering the only people he has ever known. (Okay, if my family treated me like that, maybe I would too.)</p>
<p>For the first time in the story, because it is convenient to the narrative, he wishes he could leave his crippled body. He suggests that his sister leave him and run away to find the secret gate out of the city that she never found in all of their previous years of searching. </p>
<p>Tem thinks about how her mother told her to take care of her brother. She decides that the best way to do that is to release the brake on his wheelchair and actively push him down the hill. To me, the most likely result of this would be the wheelchair tipping halfway down, spilling L'Voli out on the ground and leaving him to die one of several horrible deaths, injured and abandoned. She flees. </p>
<p>What has L'Voli accomplished in this story? He has been ignored and abused by his family. He's made some predictions that may or may not have come true. He has asked to die. He is left to his death. He has no agency whatsoever.</p>
<p>How does he feel when they are treating him poorly? We never get a hint of his interior beyond his magical predictions. We don't know his hopes, his dreams, his opinions. </p>
<p> Tem is a semi-omniscient, neutral, opinion-less narrator. L'Voli is a plot device that she pushes around. At no point does either of them tackle any of the big issues by making choices. </p>
<p>I read <a href="http://www.apex-magazine.com/interview-with-gene-oneill-2/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">the Apex interview with Mr. O' Neill</a> after reading the story, and was struck by a couple of sentences "taught adaptive P.E. back in my youth, came in contact with a number of *disabled* people. I found many of them to be inspiring and often the people around them were awesome. " and "of course there are always people that seem to rise up against the bigotry of their times and society. And like I mentioned above, I’d met a number of *heroes* in my work in adaptive P.E." </p>
<p>Clearly, Mr. O'Neill has good intentions, but his insistence on treating people with disabilities as inspiring heroes (and the people around them as uniformly awesome) does not have the desired effect. People with disabilities are just as complicated as those without them. The same person can be an Olympic hero and an abusive murderer. </p>
<p>L'Voli exists to have a disability. He isn't presented with any interests or any personality. We never see his reactions to anything. Is he a hero for being in a wheelchair? Is he by default an inspiring person? Is his family automatically inspiring for putting up with him? People with disabilities do not exist simply to be inspiring. In my opinion, this is condescending at best and dehumanizing at worst. </p>
<p>In fiction, people of color and people with disabilities should always be living, breathing humans to their writers and readers first and foremost. Their skin color, culture and abilities are pieces of who they are but should never be the whole thing. To present blank stereotypes of characters and races dehumanizes them and reinforces the preconceived stereotypes society already has about them. </p>
<p>It is important to continue having conversations about disability and race and gender and all of the other weighty issues that make up human existence. I love seeing them through the prism of speculative fiction when it is done carefully and thoughtfully, and with full awareness of the choices made by the narrative. There is baggage and weight that comes with every decision. This story strikes me as a woefully misguided attempt to tackle big issues. </p>
<p>Thank you again for writing, and I look forward to our continuing conversation.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Sarah </p>
<p> </p>
<hr>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<h1>Editor's response:</h1>
<p>Oh, thank you so much for emailing! I do appreciate it.</p>
<p>What I find absolutely fascinating about your impression of the story is that I completely agree with you in your assessment of the text. I find the treatment of L'Voli in the story to be *horrifying*. "Pale Skin, Grey Eyes," was my horror genre selection for the issue. I was appalled. I remember covering my mouth and wincing when I reached the last paragraphs.</p>
<p>What I found interesting, and worthy of publication, however, was that I, personally, took the presentation of race and disability in the story, and the death of L'Voli at the end, to be a ringing indictment of the Blueskin culture and people. I took the story to be a not-very-coded condemnation of self-righteous insular cultures who presume themselves to be right in all things.</p>
<p>Moreover, I took the *Whiteskin's* portrayal to *also* be an indictment of close-minded, blind cultures who judge everyone by their own internal standards. I think the Whiteskin is just as wrong as everyone else. I thought *every* culture in the story was blind, blind, pig-headedly and maliciously blind to anyone different, anyone outside.</p>
<p>Now. I cannot and do not speak for the author. I am speaking to you as a fellow reader. There is quite obviously room for your experience and interpretation to exist alongside mine. No story lives until it meets the reader, and then it takes on life of its own.</p>
<p>I would really love it if you blogged about your reading of the text. If you do, please feel free to quote my email, if-and-only-if you so desire. I think your take on the story is important.</p>
<p>Thanks again,</p>
<div>
<p>Sigrid</p>
</div>
<p> </p>
<hr>
<p> </p>
<p>And my response. She has not answered this one yet, but again, she has no obligation to do so. She expressed herself well in the above letter.</p>
<h1> My Second Letter to Apex</h1>
<p>Hi Sigrid,</p>
<p>Thanks for responding. I'll definitely blog this. Do you have time to continue through one further exchange? It's interesting to see your thought process, and that we have the same assessment of certain aspects but arrive at different conclusions about the story. I see where we diverged. </p>
<p>As a writer, I've always been taught that you make a pact with your readers in the early paragraphs. If you want them to believe you have written a mystery, you give them a crime. If you want to convey that they are reading science fiction, you give them something scientific or futuristic, however small, near the beginning. "It was all a dream" cheats a reader who has bought a bill of goods, which is why "it was all a dream" is frowned upon. Granted, Apex is a magazine of horror and dark fantasy, and O'Neill is a horror writer, so I should have attempted to view it through that filter.</p>
<p>I didn't approach this as a horror story for two reasons. One is because the early paragraphs sold me other things: a low-tech society, possibly on our earth, possibly elsewhere. More importantly, I was sold a story with characters introduced in the first paragraph, and I expected them to be characters the whole way through, with motivations and story arcs and some moment of agency. If I'm to go with your explanation that this is an exaggeration of societal faults, then I have to accept their transformation into symbols. If they are all symbols and exaggerations, acting with the best of intentions, then the boy in a wheelchair who sees things for what they are is still a horrible caricature of the noble cripple. The brownskins are still savage rapists with no place of their own in the story to prove or disprove that characterization.</p>
<p> Secondly, in order to believe this as a deft skewering of closed society, I would have had to trust the writer. This story did not establish my trust because it got so many story-level things wrong. The words "consul" and "counsel" are used interchangeably multiple times, when "council" would have been the most appropriate homonym. "Fierce-some" is not a word. "Respectively" is used in place of "respectfully." "Incredulously" is used in place of "Incredibly." The capitalized Permit and Petition are dangled in front of us through most of the story, but they're more or less redundant terms and they don't add anything in the end since there is no such thing as a denied petition. The village is coastal; does the wall end at the sea? Do they grow anything other than sweeteners? Do they eat all the sweetener themselves, since they don't trade? There is a small, secret tunnel, approved by a petition, the whereabouts of which are a mystery to Tem, but it was used by an entire guild for several weeks every year until only five years before. That's an awful lot of people knowing its location very recently. Were none of the sweetwood tappers in the crowd? Was that where they were all running? These are all little things, but the bottom line is that I would never have read any condemnation of the society presented into the story because the author did not show me he had the control to do so.</p>
<p>As you said, we can only respond as readers interpreting the author's intent. I agree that it's not very coded, but to me, if it was meant to be a condemnation, it missed that mark. You say every culture in the story was blind, but there are no cultures in this story. The only characterization we get of the brownskins is their savagery. The Whiteskin we meet may not be a Whiteskin at all. Just because the whiteskins are also bad doesn't mean that the particular language used to discuss the superfluous brownskins isn't loaded. Blueskin culture isn't a culture either. We get little glimpse of anything beyond a hodgepodge of law and religion.</p>
<p>The treatment of L'Voli is horrifying, indeed. His sister's casual violence would have definitely made this a horror story if we had any view of her interior or L'Voli's. Unfortunately, even if I take this to be a condemnation of Blueskin culture and the way even a young girl can get swept up in a misguided idea of what's right, then L'Voli is still used as a boy-shaped prop in a wheelchair. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.apex-magazine.com/interview-with-incoming-editor-in-chief-sigrid-ellis/" target="_blank" data-imported="1">interview with you</a> about your hopes for the magazine, you wrote, "if most genre fiction is written by straight white dudes featuring straight white dudes about the difficulties of being a straight white dude, the rest of the world is not being represented." Tem reads to me like a white man wearing the skin of a blue girl.</p>
<p>So here she is, a twelve year old, about to turn thirteen in a month, in a culture where at thirteen women put on masks. She never once makes any sort of remark about that upcoming milestone. Is she excited? Scared? Resigned? She has two mothers, but First Mother is the only one who is given even a title. Why is there a second mother? What is her role? How is she secondary? Whose mother is she? Do the mothers do anything other than make food and chide their children? Tem never shows any interest in the things that her society's women do, even though she is about to become one.</p>
<p>Father, on the other hand, gets a whole paragraph. A whole history of his working career. His job, his respect, his prestige. Not in a proud-of-daddy way. It's a dispassionate telling, in a narrator-needs-to-convey-this-information-for-the-sake-of-plot way, as if she has been assigned the task of talking about a famous man because the plot needs him. If she's meant to be identifying with the women, she should be interested in their goings-on. If she's an outlier and wants a career like her father's, or if she wants out altogether, she should express that. If she's excited about opting in, or neutral about it, we still need to hear it. Even if the author is trying to show that so-called women's work is lesser in this society, a woman would see its importance – or emphasize its unimportance in the greater picture.</p>
<p>(Further digression on women: as a friend points out, the removal of the stranger's hood instantly outs her as female. The villagers gasp and recognize her as female instantly. How is a head female? Especially for a group of people of an entirely different culture/species/etc? If by definition a woman is a mask-wearer, wouldn't their first thought be that this is a man's face?)</p>
<p>Back to the main characters. L'Voli reads to me like a well-intentioned non-disabled person's idea of a guy in a wheelchair: never complaining until he needs to complain at the end. Never doing anything for himself. Show how he eats, if he's a real boy. Show his frustration, even once. Is he expected to work one day? Does he want to? Does he enjoy being treated like an invalid? Does he get sick of being pushed around? If his well-intentioned sister left him with water under the tree, how does he drink it: is it a straw from a backpack? A cup in his fist? A glass set thoughtlessly out of reach? How is he even alive at all to reach this point when his family has the habit of leaving him out on the roof all night? He is magically precognitive when it is needed, in a society that otherwise has no other magic that we see. Does he use that for himself? Does he see his own future? The only things he expresses are sympathy for a murderer and a desire to die.</p>
<p>If he is meant to be the moral compass when he looks around and sympathizes with the killer because his society is bad, he needs to have shown some moral compass action before that. Having your characters develop their first opinions in the moment before their death is not character development. Having a character decide to sacrifice himself and then having his sister choose the terms of that sacrifice, without consulting him, is a final act of dehumanization by the one person who might have understood him.</p>
<p> Even if this is a condemnation of self-righteous cultures and self-righteous individuals, as you said in that interview, "When you are writing your story, have sympathy for all your characters. All of them. All of your characters have to have comprehensible motivations. Mysterious, sure, but the sort of thing you can imagine your neighbor contemplating. If you find yourself writing a moment, and you have a character do something terrible, ask yourself why they are doing that thing. I’m not talking about your protagonist, I’m talking about the side characters and villains."</p>
<p>Where are the parents when the mob starts to flee? Do they really abandon their twins? That's pretty terrible. They haven't shown any love for L'Voli, but what about Tem?</p>
<p>We know why they are xenophobic, but why are the other family members cruel to L'Voli? Why is Tem the only one who is unfailingly solicitous toward him? How does she feel about that? How does he feel about her, or about any of them?</p>
<p>Why does the Whiteskin allow herself to be imprisoned before starting the bloodbath, if she had the power to kill them all along?</p>
<p>Why does nobody frisk her or remove her cloak before her imprisonment?</p>
<p>What are the town drunk and the town harlot doing besides being props beside the stranger?</p>
<p>Nobody in this story has motivation.</p>
<p>When I read your response, I tried to go back and read the story as a modern update on "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," or "The Lottery," as a cautionary tale. I tried the angle of "this author is purposefully hitting every button, trying to exaggerate a xenophobic, sexist, ableist society to mythic proportions." But that's too many isms for one story to bear. The beauty of speculative fiction is its ability to remove something from our own society and place it in an elsewhere or an elsewhen, the better to examine it from a distance. I'm not sure I've ever read a story that successfully examined/condemned this many of our faults and failures at once.</p>
<p>In order for that to succeed, I think one character would have to be honest. Not better than his or her society, or outside of it. Just honest and opinionated. We would have needed Tem to be a part of her society, interacting with it as a 12-year-old girl would. We would have needed her to hate taking care of her brother, or else love it. She would have needed to form an opinion on masks – looking forward to wearing her lacy, filigreed (is this lingerie?) mask, or else dreading it. She would have needed to believe her brother, or disbelieve him.</p>
<p> L'voli would have needed to express pain earlier, not just at the end. He would have been disappointed when his sister didn't believe him, or happy when one person in his family believed him. He would have said, "don't talk about me as if I'm not here." Even if the society was terrible to him and that was the point, we needed his reaction to that. L'Voli would have needed to be a living, breathing character. And the story would have needed to be more than a series of clichés about race and gender and ability.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I appreciate your taking the time to correspond with me. I do understand your motivation for publishing the story now, even if I still don't see the merits of the story. I'm going to blog my analysis, as you suggested, and your responses. Even if we disagree about the merits of the story, I hope we can agree that something positive can come out of this conversation. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<div>
<p>Sarah</p>
<hr>
<p> </p>
</div>
<p>So that's where we're at. If she responds again and grants permission, I'll post her response here. In the meantime, I've had a few other thoughts, and some others from friends that I'll also put here.</p>
<p> I was in a critique group several years ago with a gifted writer of literary fiction. Her prose was truly beautiful, but her stories were frustrating. We had numerous fights over the icons in the story. I remember in particular that an "old man on a broken-hearted donkey" made his way down from the mountains and toward the truck, just to gaze into the eyes of the narrator. </p>
<p>"He's a Christ figure," the writer said.</p>
<p>"He can be a symbol later," I said. "He needs to be a character first."</p>
<p> Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" works because there is a post office and a postmaster and a coal company and a barn, because women laugh softly together, and children choose the best stones, and people run late because they can't leave the dishes in the sink, and then they do something unspeakably horrible. There are over thirty named characters. It's a community. "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" works because we are introduced to a place of incomparable beauty, vividly described, and the prose itself slowly gets uglier, and the main character - that brilliant, uncompromising 'you' - is forced to make the choice. </p>
<p>My friend Donna points out that "if a character is not also a person there had better be a damn good reason. I was thinking about [James Tiptree Jr.'s] "The Women Men Don't See," in this context. Ruth isn't a symbol but for most of the story she's also not a full person because we see her through Don's eyes and <strong>he</strong> can't see her as a person. So her lack of personhood is his failure and is exploded when it's revealed that he has understood nothing of what is going on. Now there's a reason for a character to be flat - a reason that is integral to and makes thematic sense within the story."</p>
<p>My friend and I argued over this again and again, but I stand by my statement. The characters in a story need to be characters. It has to work on a story level before other meanings can be attached. It's okay to build up layers of symbolism afterward, but if they don't step off the page as people, the story will fail. The Apex interview with Sigrid shows she understands that. We have different views of its effectiveness in this story. </p>
<p>I think in the end this question of character is the reason this story bothered me so much it ate my entire week. This story robs everyone of personhood, but it doesn't do so in a way that gives me confidence that was the author's intent. We are told so much in this story and shown so little. The characterizations of race are irresponsible. Why choose brown and use those particular descriptors when you could choose any color in the rainbow? How can you write (or publish) a story reducing the differences between groups to skin color and then characterize them so broadly? See </p>
<p>The choices made for the main characters are no better. L'Voli is the heart of the story, the character with whom we spend every moment of the present action. Making a point about dehumanization would only work if he had started out as human.</p>
<p> I wish both Sigrid and Apex the best, and I appreciate this opportunity to examine how an author's choices affect a reader's experience, especially when tackling topics of identity. A successful story would have gotten under my skin by showing me a society gone awry; this got under my skin by showing me clichés layered on clichés without any payoff. From my perspective, this is probably the most wrongheaded story I've ever read in a professional magazine. It punched me in the gut for all the wrong reasons. </p>
<p>I'm going to close with a link to <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieljoseolder/fundamentals-of-writing-the-other" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Daniel Jose Older's Buzzfeed article </a> on Writing the Other. He gives 12 concise steps to avoid some of the problems that arise in this story. </p>
<p>I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story.</p>
<p>Comments on my site require moderator approval and I'll be traveling this weekend. I will let through any comments that contribute to the conversation, but I don't have patience for trolls.</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470352013-12-26T19:00:00-05:002021-05-04T19:32:41-04:00My Writing Year 2013
<p>Well, I just wrote and lost a much more articulate version of this post. The gods of the internet colluded to teach me a lesson in humility. Second version is more condensed. </p>
<p>The sum of it was: This was a phenomenal, bust-em'-up, banner year for me. My two year musical writing block came to an end. I wrote the songs that will complete my fourth album. I've even put down scratch tracks. They exist outside my head. </p>
<p>My writing year was even better. I made my third through ninth professional-rate story sales. I sold my first reprints, first podcasts, first stories to print magazines and print anthologies. I sold stories to magazines I've been reading my whole life.</p>
<p>Part of my success this year is effort: I wrote when I wanted to watch television, when I wanted to hang out. Every day. I ignored rejections, I aimed for deadlines, I used contests and challenges and critique deadlines for inspiration and motivation. I can honestly say that I worked harder and more consistently on this than I have on any other creative endeavor in my entire life.</p>
<p>I know that I'm lucky to have the time and energy to set aside for writing every day. I also have the good fortune to be writing stories that editors want to read. That's a changeable thing, but this year it worked for me. </p>
<p>2013 by the numbers:<br><br>Submissions outstanding as of Dec. 26, 2013: 7 (4 reprints, 3 original)<br>Total submissions 2013: 69 (reprints & originals) to 43 markets<br>Acceptances: 12 (1 reprint/podcast, 11 original) to 11 markets<br>Pro-rates: 7<br>Sales to: Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fireside, Lightspeed, the Long Hidden anthology, among others.<br>print magazine:3<br>print anthology:3<br>e-zine:5<br>podcast:1<br>1 sale on 10th submission of the story, 1 sale on 9th submission, 2 on 5th, and the rest on 1st or 2nd submission. </p>
<p>Average: sale on 4th submission</p>
<p>Mode: sale on 1st submission </p>
<p>Stories completed in 2013: 12<br>Stories written in 2013/sold in 2013: 8<br>Stories written earlier, revised and sold in 2013: 3<br>Stories awaiting rewrite: 4<br>Stories started but unfinished:4<br>Reprints published: 1<br>Stories that appeared for the first time this year regardless of date of sale: 4<br>Stories podcast: 2<br>Novels written: .5<br>Rewrites requested: 1 (still need to finish this)<br>Readings: 4 (Balticon, Readercon, Philcon, Darkover)<br><br><br>2012 for comparison<br>Total stories written: 7<br>Total submissions (includes reprints):61<br>Total acceptances (includes reprints):5<br>Total original stories published:4 (one appeared in 2013)<br>Total reprints published:0<br><br>2014 (based on existing acceptances)<br>Total original stories sold for 2014 publication:8</p>
<p>So that was my outstanding year. Tell me about your writing year or your writing goals here or on Twitter!</p>
Sarah Pinskertag:sarahpinsker.com,2005:Post/61470342013-07-08T20:00:00-04:002021-05-04T19:33:05-04:00That's My Story
<p>I've decided I'm going to start the blog on this new site. I'll try to alternate between writing and music posts and whatever else makes sense to put on here.</p>
<p>Tonight I'm listening to Anaea Lay's lovely <a href="http://www.strangehorizons.com/2013/20130701/xpodcast-f.shtml" target="_blank" data-imported="1">podcast</a> of my novelette "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind" in <a href="http://www.strangehorizons.com/2013/20130701/injoy-f.shtml" data-imported="1">Strange Horizons</a>. This is the first time one of my stories has been podcast, and the first time I've ever heard someone other than myself read my fiction. Listening to Anaea read my story is like listening to a cover version of one of my songs. I recognize that I wrote the words, but the interpretation lends a new flavor. I like new flavors. I like realizing that a line I always heard one way could also be read another way. And her voice is well suited to the main character.</p>
<p>And now, here are some of the amazing tree houses that inspired the one in my story:</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/06/11/world_s_largest_treehouse_built_by_divine_inspiration_in_crossville_tennessee/3169916544_d96f8470ee_b.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="crossville" height="200" /> <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/06/11/world_s_largest_treehouse_built_by_divine_inspiration_in_crossville_tennessee.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">The World's Largest Treehouse, Crossville, TN</a></p>
<p><img src="http://st.houzz.com/simgs/3341772f014fd3c1_8-0673/eclectic-kids.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="grandparents" height="200" /> Steve and Jeri Wakefield's architect-designed treehouse for their grandchildren</p>
<p><img src="http://www.fastcodesign.com/multisite_files/codesign/imagecache/slideshow-large/slideshow/2013/01/1671583-slide-va-tree-houses-04.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="ufo" height="200" />UFO treehouse hotel, Sweden</p>
<p><img src="http://www.fastcodesign.com/multisite_files/codesign/imagecache/slideshow-large/slideshow/2013/01/1671583-slide-va-tree-houses-07.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="nz" height="200" />Hapuku Lodge, New Zealand</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...and my family's one trip to Disney World when I was seven. I loved that Swiss Family Robinson treehouse SO MUCH. </p>
<p>The story actually originally started with a paragraph that is now buried well into the second half, about television architects. I had just seen some new movie that featured male romantic lead as architect (<a href="http://www.archdaily.com/33366/fictional-architects-in-movies/" data-imported="1">here are some more</a>), and I was thinking about how "architect" is often Hollywood shorthand for honest hardworking family man. Then I decided to subvert that a little with a guy who tried to fit that role but had lost the plot along the way. Add a little Roswell, my dream treehouse, and a main character who took over because she had her own version of events.</p>
<p>So yeah, that's my story. </p>
<p>And suddenly I find myself at the end of an actual post. Whohoo! Thanks for reading.</p>
Sarah Pinsker