For those of you who missed all of the excitement on social media on Friday, this year’s Locus Recommended Reading List is out. There are some fabulous books on there, and I am proud to have been involved in the creation of the list. You can find the full list here. And don’t forget to vote in the Locus Poll (once they fix the IT issue which is still ongoing as I type).
Author: Cheryl
Clarkesworld Does Translated Books
As you may know, Clarkesworld magazine has been publishing translated fiction as a regular part of the magazine for some time. Neil has now decided to ramp that up by publishing printed books of translated fiction. The first of those will be A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight, a short fiction collection from the wonderful Xia Jia. There is a Kickstarter campaign running to fund the book. I’m definitely signing up for this one, and I hope that it leads to many more books of translated fiction in the future.
The 2019 #LGBTHM Tour
February is almost upon us. Here’s what I think is my final(-ish) schedule.
Friday 1st: Flag raising at City Hall in Bristol, followed by a reception in the Lord Mayor’s Chapel. All welcome.
Saturday 2nd: An event at the library in Taunton. I will be talking about Spartans. The OutStories Bristol traveling exhibition is on display, and my colleague Robert Howes is speaking as well.
Wednesday 6th: I’ll be doing Women’s Outlook on Ujima. It will be an LGBTHM special and will feature former local MP, Stephen Williams, talking about being gay in Parliament. I’m also doing a talk about Michael Dillon for some civil servants in the afternoon.
Thursday 7th: I’m doing a talk about Hadrian and his time at Bristol University. Not sure if this one is open or not. Update: yes it is. Also via Eventbrite.
Saturday 9th: I will be at the LGBTHM event at the Senedd Building in Cardiff, talking about Amazons.
Thursday 14th: I will be at Queens University, Belfast talking about trans people in ancient Mesopotamia. (And for potential Worldcon attendees, I’m traveling via Dublin and the Enterprise.)
Saturday 16th: The LGBTHM event at M Shed in Bristol. Full line-up here. I will be talking to performance storyteller, Rachel Rose Reid, about the Romance of Silence, a mediaeval Arthurian tale featuring a non-binary protagonist. If all goes well, Rachel will be performing part of the story in Bristol that evening.
Thursday 28th: I’ll be attending a book launch at Exeter University. The book in question is Sculpture, Sexuality and History, edited by my ear friends Jana Funke and Jen Grove. There’s also a mini academic conference that includes Mara Gold talking about actual Lesbians (as in ancient Greeks from Lesbos).
In amongst all of this I’m also attending Farah’s Historical Fiction Research Network conference in Manchester where I’m talking about steampunk.
I’d like to say that I will be spending March lying down, but LGBTHM has a habit of scope creep and I’m definitely planning to be in Belfast on the final weekend for the Outing the Past academic conference, always assuming that the country isn’t under martial law at the time, which is starting to look increasingly likely.
Story Sale
This one appears to be official now. At least one of my fellow authors has written about it. So I guess I can celebrate too. I am delighted that I will be having a story in Rainbow Bouquet, an anthology of queer love stories to be published on Valentine’s Day. The editor is Farah Mendlesohn, and one of my fellow authors is Sarah Ash, so I’m in excellent company already. Here’s the full ToC:
- The Man of My Dreams by Harry Roberts
- Proof of Evil by Ed Ahern
- A Hatred of Wednesdays by Victoria-Melita Zammit
- Ubytok — umu pribytok by Erin Horáková
- The Poet’s Daughter by Cheryl Morgan
- Duet for Piano, Four Hands by Sarah Ash
- Stronger Than Death by Kathleen Jowitt
- More than Starlight, More than Rain by Sean R. Robinson
- O’Canada by Garrick Jones
- Firebrand by MJ Logue
I can tell you that my story is not trans-themed. I also note that the publishers, Manifold Press, specialise in queer historical fantasy. No more clues.
Fringe Tomorrow: Mark Lewis & Peter F Hamilton
I will be hosting BristolCon Fringe again tomorrow night. The readers will be Mark Lewis, an experienced short story writer, and Peter F Hamilton, who needs absolutely no introduction.
As ususal the event will be at the Gryphon pub (in the event space upstairs) on Colston Street. People will start gathering from around 7:00pm and the event is due to start at 7:30pm. Full details here. I hope to see some of you there.
Gaming for Mermaids
As many of you will know, I am a big fan of an organisation called Mermaids. They are a support network for trans kids and their families. Just the sort of thing I wish had existed when I was young and struggling with my identity.
Over the past few months they have come under intense attack from anti-trans extremists who have tried to paint them as a cult that is pushing children to transition. They have also been horribly misrepresented in the media. Recently the Daily Malice was actually forced to apologise because they had edited a comment from Mermaids. The original said that waiting times for medication caused distress to young people, but the Malice ran it as saying that it was the medication that caused distress. That was so blatantly dishonest that even the normally tame and toothless media regulator, IPSO, called for a retraction.
Before the Holidays news broke that Mermaids had been awarded £500,000 by the Big Lottery Fund. This was met with outrage by anti-trans extremists who organised a campaign to bombard the Fund with complaints, as a result of which the grant has been suspended pending investiation. I don’t hold out much hope because if there’s one thing that bureaucrats hate it is negative publicity. I suspect that it will be almost impossible from now on for a UK-based charity to get a grant for work with trans people.
The problem is, of course, that anything the anti-trans side does will be front page news in the national media and discussed in pearl-clutching tones on the BBC, whereas anything trans folks do, even if it has massively more support, will be ignored. But we do have support, and that was proved this weekend.
A wonderful young man who goes by the name of Hbomberguy has been playing Donkey Kong non-stop on the gamer streaming service, Twitch. I think he’s done his bit now, but the fundraiser he set up for it is still going. Thus far he has raised over $160,000. That’s incredible. Mostly it has come in small donations from thousands of people.
While the money is hugely welcome and will be put to very good use by Mermaids, the campaign is also enormously valuable for the morale boost it has given the trans community. We’ve taken an incredible battering over the past year. The Times and Sunday Times alone averaged almost one anti-trans article a day in 2018. The toll this has taken on trans people’s mental health has been very obvious. To wake up this morning to parents of trans kids saying how happy what Hbomberguy has done has made their children has been hugely heartwarming.
The campaign on Twitch is still running and will be open for several more days if you want to contribute. Alternatively you can donate direct to Mermaids here. And of course there may be trans groups local to you who are desperate for funds.
Article on Vector Blog
It being that time of year, I was asked to write a review of 2018 thing for Vector, the British Science Fiction Association’s journal. Being me, I chose to have a feminist focus for it. There are lots of books that I loved mentioned, and you can find it here. Enjoy!
Trans Bare All Anniversary Book
The lovely people at Trans Bare All are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. Normally I would just point you at their website, but they are dealing with a little malware issue at the moment so I have just linked to their Twitter so you can see who they are. This is what I wanted you to read:
We want to mark the occasion by creating a book of art and writing that reflects some of what TBA is all about, and, as it is all about our community, that means we need you.
We are welcoming submissions of original writing and art on the theme of TBA and gender (perhaps what TBA means to you), or on gender alone, and we actively encourage not only those of you who regularly write or create art, but also those who might need a little encouragement.
You can write in any form you wish (poetry, prose fiction, life writing non-fiction etc) and, if your submission is accepted, you will have the chance to work with an editor to polish your piece for publication in the book. We are also welcoming submissions of visual art that explore the themes above – please see below for image specifications.
The workshop plan below will guide you step by step towards a piece of life writing with a creative approach, and you can also use these workshop exercises to generate ideas for a visual art piece.
Submission eligibility:
- Following the TBA age limit, you must be 18 years or older by the submissions deadline
- You do not have to have attended a TBA retreat or party before
- You do not have to live in the UK
Submission guidelines:
- Please submit your original work to book@transbareall.co.uk
- You must include the following in your covering email, as it helps us understand our community better and make our work more accessible:
- the name you want your piece published under
- your gender
- your ethnicity
- if you consider yourself to have a disability (no need to state what it is)
- your age on the submissions deadline
- Deadline for submissions is 11.59pm Friday 8th February 2019
For writing:
- submit your piece as a fully compatible Word document, or .txt if .doc is not possible
- 2000 word limit for prose (fiction and non-fiction)
- 80 line limit for poems (including stanza breaks), with maximum 60 characters per line (including spaces)
For visual art:
- Submit your piece as a high quality JPEG or TIFF file that is
- Sized for A5 publication, so 154mm x 216mm portrait, with no important images within 15mm of each edge as these may be trimmed off in print
- 300dpi (dots per inch) so it is at print-quality
- If text is incorporated into your piece, please ensure that it is legible at A5 size
- Please contact us if you need more detail about image requirements
FAQ:
- You can submit more than one piece of writing or art or both, and, if selected, our editors will choose their favourite piece for the book
- Submission does not guarantee that your piece will be included
- All submissions will be notified of our selection decision within eight weeks of the deadline. Please be patient – we are volunteers!
- if you want your piece attributed to ‘anonymous’ then please state this clearly in your covering email
- All accepted submissions will undergo an editorial process with our editors and designer
- All submissions must be free from publishing restrictions for the next two years. If your piece is currently published or under consideration elsewhere, please contact us to discuss.
- As we are an unfunded volunteer-run organisation, unfortunately we cannot offer a fee for accepted submissions; however, all contributors will receive a copy of the finished book!
There you go. Obviously a charity project, but hopefully some of you will take an interest. Good luck if you do.
Awards Eligibility Post
As you may have noticed, the Hugo Award nominating period has opened for this year. Consequently everyone is making eligibility posts. I wasn’t too fussed about that until I discovered that Jim Fitzpatrick is designing this year’s trophy base. As he is one of my favorite artists, I can’t wait to see what it looks like. And obviously I would love to have one.
Unfortunately I haven’t done much award-worthy in the past year. I have been too busy doing trans stuff. Technically I am eligible for Fan Writer, but I have done so little that it would be wrong to nominate me. And anyway, I have one of those already.
I do have one published short story from last year. It is called “A Piece of the Puzzle” and it appeared in the anthology, The Hotwells Horror, which a bunch of us put together to celebrate the life of the late David J Rodger. The story is set in Prohibition-era New York and features a young woman called Sonia Greene who has ambitions to be a writer. All of the profits from the sale of the book go to the mental health charity, MIND, so you would be doing a good thing by buying a copy.
It also occurs to me that my keynote speech from Worlding SF is a Related Work of sorts. You can watch the whole thing for free here.
Most importantly, however, The Green Man’s Heir is an eligible novel. Competition in the Hugos is fierce, but I would love to see Juliet appear in the also-ran list. And if you happen to be a member of the British Fantasy Society, you know what you need to do.
This Week on Ujima – It’s All Books
It is ridiculously hard to get people into the studio in the first week of January, because most of them won’t even look at their email until that Monday. So I was happy to have a bunch of interviews pre-recorded that I could run for this week’s radio show. It was good for Ben too because we have moved studios. While the new desk has all of the same controls, they are in different places, and that takes a bit of getting used to. It is like switching from a left-hand-drive to a right-hand-drive car.
The first hour of the show had an interview with Tade Thompson that I recorded at FantasyCon, and one with Joy Francis from an organisation called Words of Colour, which was recorded when she was in Bristol to give a talk in December.
In the second hour I have the interview I did with Maria Dahvana Headley when she was in Oxford. This is pretty much solid feminist ranting from both of us. And finally there is an interview with Joanne Harris that I recorded at FantasyCon.
The show is available through the Ujima Listen Again service here. The raw interviews were all longer than I had time for in the show, particularly the one with Maria. I’m planning to post longer versions on Salon Futura once the Listen Again links have expired.
The play list for this week’s show was:
- Janelle Monáe – I’m Afraid
- Ang̩lique Kidjo РOnce in a Lifetime
- Des’ree – You gotta be
- The O Jays – Love Train
- Janelle Monáe – Heroes
- Bruce Springsteen – Badlands
- Bat for Lashes – Seal Jubilee
- Camel – La Princess Perdue
The February show will, of course, be an LGBT History Month special.
New Writing & Gender Course
This is quick heads up that Cat Rambo and I will once again be offering the Writing & Gender course this spring. It is one of many fabulous courses that Cat has scheduled, but it is the only one with me co-teaching it, which is why I am mentioning it here. The course will take place on April 28th. I’ll remind you again nearer the time, but if you want to be sure of a place book now. A full list of all Cat’s courses (some co-taught by amazing people such as Seanan McGuire and Rachel Swirsky) is available here.
Coming Soon: #LGBTHM 2019
Yes, no sooner have I got the New Year out of the way than it is time to think about February. And in the UK February means LGBT History Month. As usual, OutStories Bristol will be partnering with M Shed to put on a day of talks. It is on Saturday, Feb. 16th. There’s more information about that here. The full list of talks will be available soon. I’m very excited about some of them. Especially the one about the non-binary character in a mediaeval romance.
Meanwhile my calendar is filling up with other engagements. On February 2nd I will be at Taunton Library talking about the Spartans. And then there’s this:
Yes, the Amazon Horde is back in the saddle for 2019, and we are going to Cardiff. I get to give a talk in the Senedd Building. It’s the first thing I have done in my life that I wish my mum and dad could be there to see.
Other dates are currently being negotiated.
Not exactly LGBT History, but on Feb. 22/23 I will be in Manchester for the Historical Fiction Research Network conference where I am giving a paper on steampunk.
And finally at the end of March I will be in Belfast for the Outing the Past conference where I will be going into some detail on some of the research that came out of the Amazons paper. Actual Latin analysis! Thank goodness for Liz Gloyn who is so much better at this stuff than I am. And Margaux Spruyt who understands horses.
Marlon James to give Tolkien Lecture
One of the most eagerly awaited fantasy novels of the year is Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Written by Booker Prize winner, Jamaican Marlon James, it comes with an effusive blurb from Neil Gaiman. Gary Wolfe waxes lyrical about it in the most recent Coode Street episode. Both men say that it is unlike any epic fantasy they have read.
It is very exciting, therefore, to discover that James will be giving this year’s J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Pembroke College in Oxford. The date is February 26th, which is just a couple of days before the book is officially launched in the UK. Full details are available here.
I have an ARC of the book, and I have rarely seen such care put into a review copy. It looks gorgeous. And given what my friends are saying, I can’t wait to read it. I will also be at the lecture. If you are interested in fantasy fiction and can get there easily, I suggest you book a ticket now. Last year’s lecture with VE Schwab sold out in days.
Tales of Einarinn 20th Anniversary
Doesn’t time fly! It was 20 years ago this month that Juliet McKenna burst onto the fantasy scene with The Thief’s Gamble. Given the auspicious anniversary, Juliet and I thought that it would be a good idea to have presents, for you folks.
From now until the end of January, the five volumes of the original Tales of Einarinn are on sale. The prices are US$2.99, £2.35 and €2.99. Apologies to European readers, but Amazon won’t let us sell for less than that at their standard royalty rate. I see that Google are already discounting the price of some of the books, so you might try them.
But that’s not all. You can also buy a fabulous onmibus edition that contains all five novels and the short story collection, A Few Further Tales of Einarinn. And until the end of January it is priced at just $9.99/£7.99. That’s live in Barnes & Noble and Kobo now. Google will doubtless catch up at some point. It is not on Amazon, because their website kept crashing when I tried to upload the file (insert rant about the bloated nature of the Kindle file format here). But if you need a Kindle version you can buy it from the Wizard’s Tower Bookstore.
Yes, the bookstore has re-opened after a couple of years stuck in limbo due to VAT issues. Thankfully that’s all sorted now, although it we do end up with a No Deal Brexit, which is looking increasingly likely, it will have to close again.
Of course I’d like you to buy everything from the Wizard’s Tower bookstore, because Juliet gets more money that way, but I appreciate that you may need to pay in your local currency.
That’s today’s Wizard’s Tower news. There will be more later in the month.
Update: Corrected to 20th anniversary. Guess who can’t count.
The Graz Armoury
One of the highlights of my visit to Graz — indeed the one thing I desperately wanted to do before getting there — was visiting the Armoury. They have an incredible amount of mediaeval and early modern armour and weaponry on show. There’s enough kit, I was assured, to outfit an army of 5,000 men.
Quite a bit of it is unused. The large collection of infantry sabres in one of the pictures below was ordered for the Napoleonic Wars, but Napoleon conquered Austria so quickly that the blacksmith hadn’t finished them by the time the war was over.
The prize item in the collection is the horse armour. It was sold to the museum for two pints of beer by a nobleman who had no more use for it. Decades later it is worth millions.
If you want to visit the Armoury, it is best to go in summer. In the winter it is open only for tours on a select few days. I happened to get lucky in not only picking the right day, but also getting a personal guided tour. Thanks Cristoph, that was awesome!
Kunsthistorisches Museum Photos
My main interest in Vienna was the Kunsthistorisches Museum. I only had a few hours and of course I spent most of my time looking at ancient stuff. Frankly there was so much bling on show in the Hapsburg displays that it was rather overwhelming. I loved the automata though, and kudos to the museum for having tablet computers with film of each one working available.
Anyway, here are some photos. If you share my obsession with ancient history you’ll enjoy some of these. The gallery plugin I am using doesn’t allow for much descriptive text so do ask if you are interested in anything.
At UVic: Trans Speculative Fiction in Independent Media
When Kevin and I were in Canada for the Moving Trans History Forward conference this year, one of the people we met was Charles Ledbetter. It used to be the case that I was pretty much the only person talking about trans characters in speculative fiction, but now there are at least three people doing PhDs in the subject, all of them trans identified. Charles is one of them.
A unique feature of Charles’ research is that they are looking, not at works that get wide distribution (which up until recently meant works written by cis people, for cis people), but at works published by independent presses, in fanzines, and self-pubished material. Charles rightly surmised that they would find much earlier examples of trans-authored works this way. Consequently, even though they are based at the University of Tübingen in Germany, Charles is spending time in Victoria going through the archives looking for material.
If you happen to know of anything that would fit the type of work Charles is looking for, I’m sure they would love to know. Bogi Takács and I have both been corresponding with Charles, and Kevin has suggested a bunch of webcomics, but there’s bound to be more out there.
In November, to mark Trans Day of Remembrance, the folks at UVic asked Charles to give a public lecture. I have finally found time to watch it, and it is good stuff. (And I don’t just say that because I get cited.) I was particularly pleased to see the Transvengers comic mentioned. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting too.
Graz Photos
Here are some more photos from my trip to Austria. These are all from the city of Graz, where the conference took place. They include the Schlossberg, the precipitous, fortified hill in the middle of the city.
Graz is 2 hours by train south of Vienna. Part of the reason for the time is that the railway has to wind through the foothills of the Alps. It is not far from the Slovenian border, and only a few hours from Zagreb by road. A lot of the big buildings in the city were built by Italian architects, which gives the city something of a Mediterranean feel. The courtyards are a particular feature of the old town.
Hutton on Fairies
Bristol University has many fine academics on its staff, but undoubtledly one of the best is Professor Ronald Hutton. Here he is giving a lecture on the origins and purposes of fairy stories.
In the Q&A I discoverd that “trow” is an Orkney/Shetland word for “troll”. Local opinion has it that the town where I live was originally called Tree-bridge (treow-brycg in Old English), or True-bridge. From now on I am going to assume it is actually Trollbridge, because that’s much more cool.
Thanks to John Reppion for the link to the lecture.
Vienna Photos
Today is St. Stephen’s Day, and therefore the perfect day to put up some of my pictures of Vienna, given that their main cathedral is named after him. Google has comprehensively broken their photo system, which means that the system I used to work for displaying photos here no longer works. I’m testing a new system. Fingers crossed.
