i had intentions of sending an issue out in january/february about being intentional (haha), but somehow i sneezed and it is now april?? so let's hit the reset button on that!
news & appearances of yours truly
so the intention for 2023 has been simply: to return. back to basics, to writing, to making things happen, to fostering connection and friendship and community. to a version of me that i feel like i have lost touch with over the last couple of years. so far it's going okay, though slower than i would like, for reasons we'll get into shortly. i am working on my superhero WIP which some of you might have heard of, some fun events coming up with spectrum, and some podcasty things too. between the day job, wedding planning, and some recent vet trouble with the kitten (she's fine!! but a little toofless now), it's been a challenge getting the balance right.
after two waiting lists and a year and a half of uncertainty, i finally just had my ADHD assessment this tuesday past! the phychiatrist i spoke to is an expect in neurodiversity and she confirmed that i do, indeed, have ADHD, which is simultaneously a relief and a huge now what?? but hey, at least i have some answers! the balance i mentioned earlier? no wonder it's been such a challenge! i will be looking into coaching and therapy options as i wait for medication, which i am a little scared of but ultimately open to. whatever works, eh?
pre-production is moving forward with my writing to music podcast, the write song. it's my dream podcast for people who, like me, are obsessed with writing music and building intricate, near-sacred playlists for their story-babies. i have a really great list of guests lined up, and now need to sort out interview dates. if you signed up to be a guest, you'll be hearing from me! (if you haven't but this sounds interesting, see this tweet and/or email writesongpodcast at gmail dot com!) i'm also commissioning some awesome 80s synthwave style intro and outro music from composer friends, which i'm so excited to share with you all soon.
i will be at conversation 2023/eastercon in birmingham next weekend, 7-10 april, with many thanks to the con’s bursary team for helping me get a leg up. i am currently scheduled to be on two panels i am super excited about:
“The Pros and Cons of Writing Groups”, Saturday at 9am, Sandringham (ex-Dukes) - expect to hear lots about Spectrum, or how being in a writing group has literally taught me more than my Actual Writing Degree (soz, Brunel)
“Writing Music for your Setting”, Monday at 10:30am, Gladstone-Churchill - i’ll be coming armed with playlists upon playlists, ways to find the right music to suit the mood of your setting, and a list of composers to kickstart your listening journey (and Write Song Podcast stickers, to build an audience early 😉)
so if those topics interest you, please come along! i’m around from friday morning till late on monday, and i’m already on the con discord server, so would love to see and talk to some familiar faces if you are also going, in person or virtually.
in podcast news, a new narration of mine is up on khōréō, and it's a lovely story set in my hometown of thessaloniki! ‘Bride of the Gulf’ by Danai Christopoulou is a modern-day soft horror piece about memory, mermaids, and Alexander the Great. available at the link above, or on your favourite podcast app. here’s a spotify link too:
since last we spoke i’ve also been on kneel before pod again, as i am wont to do (though less frequently now):
we are also beginning a complete rebuild of the Strange Horizons podcast, which you may have noticed has been a little quiet in the last year. keep an eye out for some recruitment announcements soon (we'll be needing producing and narration assistance), and if you have any questions or are interested in helping, please get in touch with me!
musings on recent sf/f news:
congratulations to the 2023 nebula nominees! the list includes authors whose work i’ve had the privilege to podcast, like natalia theodoridou (twice!) and marie vibbert.
hugo nominations are open on the chengdu website, such as it is; if you were an attending member of chicon8 or have a supporting/WSFS membership to chengdu, you can nominate. i don’t personally have anything eligible this year, but there are some wonderful stories (and nonfiction! and poetry!) at SH deserving of your attention, and the magazine is of course eligible in best semiprozine.
there have been a LOT of problems with submissions to sff magazines suddenly being inflated with garbage ChatGPT stories, leading markets such as clarkesworld to close to submissions for the first time in years while they figure out how to proceed.
has a great piece about it in here; and while many writers have been despairing over the future of publishing with AI in the mix, my thoughts align with Fifi Lamoura over on Mastodon:
the real value in art resides in the experiencing of it, be that the process of making art or looking at art, and not the object itself. Art objects are talismans that contain experiences that can only be unlocked when we interact with them. The experience, whether it's the artist's experience of making the object that is then captured within the object or that of the viewer bringing their own experiences to the object to interact with it, is everything.
tl;dr generating regurgitated writing isn’t art, and my job (if one could call it that) is probably fine. i’m personally less scared by the advent of AI when it comes to writing or art in general and more exasperated by the corner-cutters of the world (a) trying to make a quick buck and (b) assuming there’s any bucks, quick or otherwise, to be made in sf short publishing. sweet summer children, you’re wasting everyone’s time - including yours!
in more short fiction market news, amazon kindle is ending their support of magazine subscriptions, which is how i and many others read and supported mags like uncanny, clarkesworld, analog, f&sf and others. losing this revenue and distribution stream will be a big blow to all short fiction markets (most notably the ones that offer their content for free), so if your favourites have a direct subscription model or a patreon, please switch over to ensure they don’t lose vital income.
you may have heard about the unhinged sanderson article on wired, which was some of the worst interview/profile writing i have ever seen in my life and which apparently took 5 months to put together (?!)—well, sanderson wrote the most sweet and kind reply ever on his subreddit, urging people not to hate the guy who clearly took pains to write a very bad faith piece about him and his writing. i’m not even a sanderson fan and i was absolutely gobsmacked at the horrendous journalism! on the complete reverse, here’s a solid profile of sanderson on esquire, focusing on his obscenely successful kickstarter and his dreams to reinvent publishing (h/t
)this just in: Diverse Voices Inc, the company behind the very successful #DVPit event on twitter, is due to dissolve, citing not enough resources to keep the organisation going. they had previously hosted a virtual con (panels from which you can still find on their youtube channel), a mentorship scheme, and more—but as with all such endeavours, it takes real work to build something from the ground up, and without meaningful support (money, to be blunt), it's very difficult to keep it going. i'm really sorry to hear this, and i know the decision couldn't have been easy, but also i absolutely and completely get why they had to do it. i hope something else will spring forth in its place, and of course #DVPit isn't going anywhere (though twitter probably is!)
speaking of the desolate desert that is twitter, boy it's been a strange place lately! according to the latest updates, the legacy blue checkmarks are going away as of this weekend, and the new tiktok-y ‘for you’ page will become the default browsing experience, to be populated exclusively by tweets from paying members of twitter blue. i cringe thinking about it. just as a reminder, you can find me on mastodon and instagram.
links to explore
also via
, this great article about a c.s. lewis tour of oxford has made me want to retrace those steps again someday soon when the weather is nicer; most of my visits to oxford have been either tolkien or pullman inspired (yes, i too did the pilgrimage to the oxford botanical gardens, for reasons), but i haven’t actually been with the intention to honour narnia, which has a special place in my heart. one to plan for!related, the last time i was in oxford was to attend the annual j.r.r. tolkien lecture on fantasy literature by the fantastic
. you can (and should) watch the lecture here:dave goodman’s writing routine breakdown is an interesting read, full of tips i’m intending to implement to mine to see what works.
this clarkesworld interview with friends of HTB gideon marcus and janice l. newman of galactic journey, the unique fanzine that blogs about stuff in sf/f 55 years ago.
the glasgow 2024 worldcon has been busy putting on online events and building up momentum for the first UK-based worldcon in 10 years. you can find past events linked on their youtube channel, including a couple featuring some spectrum members!
spectrum member sarah i. jackson is running an online workshop about writing fiction from trauma and effective self-care methods to help you while you do it. variable prices from £12-35, on zoom on the 7th may (3pm BST). book here!
what i’ve been loving recently
i am overjoyed to declare that dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves is fantastic, especially if you’ve ever played DnD. the film feels like you are watching the mind’s eye view of a party experiencing a pretty solid one-shot session, or maybe an abbreviated campaign; it’s a fun mix of action and story, featuring locales i remember from playing the game but never thought i’d see on the big screen, like the icewind dales or the underdark. the cast does a great job all around, and the mood is light with occasional drama, mixed in just the right amounts.
hearing chris pine sing is always a delight (remember his turn in into the woods?), but tbh the runaway winner of the whole affair is michelle rodriguez as the fighter of the party with a penchant for eating potatoes and eyeing up halfling men. regé-jean page is also great in his role as the paladin with a stick up his backside, aka that guy who says he wants to join your party but only comes along to one afternoon session and spends the whole time taking the roleplaying wayyy too seriously, only to never show up again.
while the visuals can occasionally be a little janky (the unfortunate sign of an overworked industry), it’s just so fun that the odd shortcoming here and there doesn’t get too glaring. honestly the film is just vibes for DnD players; it stirred up memories of so much fun with my friends from back home, of fighting baddies with spells and bows and arrows, of writing down the session’s recaps and drawing art of everyone’s characters. if you haven’t played DnD before, the film might feel a tad meandering to you—but trust me when i say that’s absolutely 100% reflective of the DnD experience, and the best thing to do is to just go in there with an open mind and have fun! who knows, it might even inspire you to pick up a player’s handbook ;)
some quickfire recs:
anime: the latest season of my hero academia just wrapped, and it was an absolute blast. it’s the first season not to feature a low stakes school arc, just high octane action and drama for 25 episodes straight. things are amping up and i couldn’t get enough—hoping the break till season 7 won’t be too long!
i’ve also been highkey obsessed with the score for suzume, the new makoto shinkai movie which is finally coming out in the UK on the 14th april. radwimps have once again been enlisted with the soundtrack duties and oh boy, the theme is just a banger on its own! taking the film’s upcoming release as an excellent excuse to watch your name and weathering with you in preparation :)
tv: party down is back with a short season 3, on the extremely unnecessary streaming service known as lionsgate+. it’s every bit as caustic and chaotic as the previous two, with some zinger scriptwriting that i was honestly surprised by. it’s a bummer lizzie kaplan couldn’t be in it, but jennifer garner is great as the new romantic interest for adam scott’s henry. the biggest surprise is just how well the show has adapted to the very different landscape of entertainment, and what it means to be someone trying to make it in holywood now as opposed to 15 years ago.
almost coincidentally, i’ve been rewatching veronica mars in my downtime, which i used to be super into when i was in uni, more than *checks notes* a decade ago. where the older seasons of party down are pretty timeless in their tearing down of the holywood grind, vmars is extremely 2000s, written in the pre-youtube, chunky phone era, with all the teen drama and snarky tone that was the style at the time, and it’s just been really interesting to see how both these rob thomas shows have aged.
aaaand that’s it for this mishmash edition of honest to blog!
how have the last three months been for you? did you set any intentions or goals, and how's that going? let me know in the comments or by hitting reply.
until next time, stay creative!
xK
I think I'm behind of My Hero Academia since I'm watching the dub but, yeah, this season's been so intense and I am here for it.