Laura Anne Gilman's Blog, page 77

rant rant rant rant

I'm sorry, everyone, but an otherwise peaceful Monday has been interrupted by asshattery, and I need to rant (without giving specifics, so if you don't already know what set this off, you probably won't care...).

How fucking difficult is it to comprehend what 'freedom of speech" means, and what the First Amendment protects - and what it doesn't?

Hint: it doesn't restrict a private organization's right to say "we won't publish sexist, racist, or ableist material, as we do not feel that those things reflect well on who we are or the face we wish to show to the public."

(leaving aside the related but separate questions of "why do you think our professional publication should allow insulting-to-other-member comments go unreviewed?"  and "how do otherwise intelligent people not understand the word "censor" and "infringe?"  Because refusing-to-publish in one venue does not mean you can't take your words elsewhere.  It just means your words are not appropriate to that forum, thanks for submitting. Big writer panties time, kids. Pull 'em up.)

Looking at the names of the people who signed that petition, even assuming they never saw the original draft that's now circulating - it makes me sad.

Your Daily Reminder (2nd of 5 in a series)

And so, we're in the final days and still a bit short of the goal... I'll be blunt: I love these stories and I want to keep writing them. But the only way I can realistically carve out enough time to write two novellas these days is to know that the bills will be paid that month. So if we want to see more Sylvan Investigations this year, this is the way it can happen.  We're so close....

(unless a patron wants to swoop in and offer me $4,000 off the bat? Yeah, I didn't think so)

So, if you enjoyed the urban fantasy of the Cosa Nostradamus, this is how to keep it alive. Also, the opportunity to dedicate the books to yourself (or a loved one) is still available as a backer bonus!

Need another, genre-positive reason to support this series? This is a series with two minority characters as the leads [Danny's mixed race, Ellen is black], as befits the cultural jumble that is NYC....

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/980297055/sylvan-investigations-work-of-hunters-an-interrupt

Addendum before the fact for The Devil's West...

For them curious about the new book deal announced on Friday, there are two stories already bought-and-paid-for in this universe, although they are not connected directly with most of the characters in the novels.

First, there's "Crossroads."  You can find that here, via Fantasy Magazine (there's also a podcast option there).  You can also pick it up in 2012's Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, edited by Paula Guran.

Oh look, and here's an interview they did with me, somewhat about that...

For me, the lone lawman facing down outlaws at noon reminded me of the western film “High Noon.” What are your favorite westerns?

I’m actually not a huge fan of Westerns; I’d get distracted watching the horses, not the actors (this happens whenever there are horses on-screen, actually). I saw Unforgiven and Silverado a bunch of times, and does Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid count as a Western? What I love is reading nonfiction about the American West and other frontiers; the sort of mentality it took to abandon everything known and to then deal with what you found past the known, especially when it didn’t match with what you had been expecting/told to believe. Every sort of personality comes out to play, when you get beyond “civilization.” And then, to see what sort of civilization they recreate, in their own image …

Second, there's "The Devil's Jack," which you'll find in DEAD MAN'S HAND, coming in May 2014.
Amazon / B&N / Indiebound / Audiobook


(note: if you buy via the Indiebound click, that kicks back a few pennies to me, that goes into the year-end food bank donation fund.  Just FYI)

Your Daily Reminder (first of 5 in a series)

And so, we're in the final days and still a bit short of the goal... I'll be blunt: I love these stories and I want to keep writing them. But the only way I can realistically carve out enough time to write a novella these days is to know that the bills will be paid that month. So if we want to see more Sylvan Investigations this year, this is the way it can happen.  We're so close....

(unless a patron wants to swoop in and offer me $4,000 off the bat? Yeah, I didn't think so)

So, if you enjoyed the urban fantasy of the Cosa Nostradamus, this is how to keep it alive. Also, the opportunity to dedicate the books to yourself (or a loved one) is still available as a backer bonus!

Need another, genre-positive reason to support this series? This is a series with two minority characters as the leads [Danny's mixed race, Ellen is black], as befits the cultural jumble that is NYC....

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/980297055/sylvan-investigations-work-of-hunters-an-interrupt

Exhales, inhales, lets out the news...

So, remember a while back I was talking about that thing that made me Very Happy, but I couldn't talk about it?

I can talk about it now.

Laura Anne Gilman's SILVER ON THE ROAD, launching The Devil's West series, the story of a sixteen-year-old growing up in the Devil's Territory, west of the newly-formed United States, who makes a fateful decision when she signs a contract with the Master of the Territory, and is sent, unprepared, with only a stranger as her companion, into a land where natives and newcomers have an uneasy truce, demons and magicians battle in the crossroads, and only the most desperate settlers try to make a home, to Joe Monti at Saga Press/Simon & Schuster, in a three-book deal, for publication in Fall 2015, by Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary(World English).

(via Publishers' Lunch)

Yes, this is the project I talked about here.

And yes, for those of you who attended the Pacific Northwest SFWA Reading Sessions, this is what I read from, then.  And don't think your positive responses then weren't appreciated, and brought out to cuddle with on the long, cold days when we were waiting to hear back from publishers...

*cues up the dancing cats and champagne*

Feline Update

Mixed news...

Most of the tests (blood and urine sugar) came back elevated but manageable, but his fructosamine levels are still way too high. And that - because this is our life and nothing's ever easy - could indicate kidney disease.

So we're keeping his dosage where it is, and changing his diet around again (thankfully he's not a picky eater), and we'll see what happens in a month.

And, since Castiel's almost a year old now, I'm going to be giving them both the same food (when he was still having mad growth spurts, I didn't want him on prescription-specific food). This will ease MY dinnertime stress, if not theirs...

In possibly related news, I have now had a low-level but very persistent migraine for 48 hours. I would like the option of removing my grey matter, now.

Ugh.

Entering Day 2 of this low-level but annoying headache, despite painkillers, sleep, fresh (cold) air, and enough caffeine/food. The biosuit is displeasing me this week.

(then again, compared to the migraines I used to suffer in my 20's and early 30's, this is a cakewalk. So not complaining so much as muttering under my breath as I head into the mines for the day).

It's a funny thing, physical pain. I mean, funny-hah-hah and funny-weird.  Not only does everyone have a different scale of "what hurts," but it changes based on what we've experienced. It's almost like it's...trying to teach us something?

The Occasional But Useful-to-You Shilling Post

Cat of Size went in to the vet yesterday, to have his blood glucose levels checked (and a few other things while he was on the lift).  Huh. I've already paid more in vet bills this year than I did in human and feline medical bills in 2013. S'pose I should shill the books some more...?

First and foremost:

The Kickstarter: we're trying to fund two more novellas featuring Danny Hendrickson, a half-faun ex-cop PI who specializes in helping those who get caught in the dangerous cracks between the magical world and the Nulls.  He works/trains a young human Talent named Ellen, who spent most of her life being told magic wasn't real/she was insane.  If you like urban fantasy, if you like PI fantasy, if you want to see more minority characters in fantasy, you might want to check it out.  But quickly - there are only 9 days left to make this happen!

Sylvan Investigations : The first two novellas introducing Danny and Ellen.  You can get them in DRM-free digital (or with DRM from Amazon, B&N or Kobo), the omnibus print edition, or audio.

Dragon Virus :  interconnected stories following the path of humanity as it - slowly, often painfully, sometimes beautifully - evolves.  Not my first foray into SF, but the one I'm most proud of.  You can find it in DRM-free digital, limited edition hardcover, or audio.

“Stunningly successful…(DRAGON VIRUS is) a potent ride through a changing future, exploring themes and ideas that resonate as much in the modern day as in her darkly evolving future.”  - SF Signal

The Portals Duology :  what happens when I'm challenged to write urban fantasy without a mystery.  You get nasty elves, easily-irritated werewolves, self-aware homicidal kelpies, and two mortals in over their heads and doing their damndest to learn how to swim before they drown....  oh, and me once agin subverting the romance tropes.  Because apparently that's what I do...

“[Readers] will be seduced and enthralled by Gilman’s metaphysical thriller about wicked elves, shape-shifting supernaturals and portals to another dimension….melds magic with mayhem for a tale of bravery, friendship and devotion.” – Publishers Weekly

The Cosa Nostradamus backlist, including the entire Retrievers series (6 books) and the Paranormal Scene Investigations (4 books).

The Vineart War : My epic fantasy trilogy, with (no false modesty) a particularly unique magic system, a multinational cast of characters, and an epic battle without armies.  Oh, and a dragon. Because dragons.

and if you're in the mood for something different, check out L.A. Kornetsky's mystery series , set in Seattle, featuring two hapless humans and their slightly more with-it companions...

You're all busy folk I won't take up much more of your time...

Favorite, and very telling bit of dialogue from the rough-in of WORK OF HUNTERS... (yes, I'm drafting it even though we haven't funded yet and I have no spare time, shut up, I LOVE this story, okay?)

“The Cosa is all about discrimination, Ellen. Never think it's not. You're at the top of the pole right now and I'm not. Think about that."

(Danny is a faun/human half-breed.  Ellen is human, Talent, and a Seer.  She is also black.  This is making for some...interesting scenes, considering the plot)

Also, a new dead body has appeared, who hadn't been in the outline.  Should I add it to the "make yourself die horribly" bonus level?

For those keeping track, we're at $5,300, with ten days to go. If you think that isn't given me indigestion, you don't know me very well.  C;mon, guys, let's get another thousand into the pot this week....!

It's Monday so hey...let's talk about the deeper, boozier stuff!

It is the day after the Superbowl, which means I am slightly tired in the "I had a few drinks and a lot of rich food, spent a lot of time in the company of other people and therefore my resources are drained, and like a good classic social introvert I now need to spend a day or two alone."

(where "alone" means either alone, or in the company of individuals who do not drain me. Not-people, as an ex of mine once termed them.)

It was a good party, though, cumulating in the now-almost-traditional inebriated argument with David Silverman (president of the American Atheists organization), about his repeated attempts to co-opt me [and others] under the umbrella of "atheists' even though that is not how I self-identify. The argument is always in good fun, but there are times when I just want to drop an anvil on his head (Me: "you know who redefines terms in the middle of an argument, David?" Republicans!" David, recoiling in horror: "Low blow!")

For the record, although I do not consider myself particularly religious, I do believe in something greater than the individual, a spark (for lack of any more specific and accessible term) that connects all living things (and possibly non-living things too). I can describe it via faith and I can describe it via science, but the base result is that I do not require any proof or verification of that greater spark, but accept it as a thing that exists because hey look, Life and Self-Awareness!  Yes, I suppose that this spark could be seen by others as a deity (I neither accept nor refuse that term but find it useless, since we all are part of the spark and therefore we would all be god). But I do not see it as being 'conscious' in the way we've oft-portrayed a deity.  Then again, our idea of "conscious" is limited by our own current awareness, which may or may not encompass all that exists.  So why must we assume godhead is a conscious entity?   Wheee.

(I also reject the use of "supernatural" in this instance (which atheism arguments seem fond of) because if it exists in and of itself, rather than by fabrication, it is by definition "natural." )

No, David, I'm not an atheist. You don't get to claim me. I'm not a theist, either, unless you expand the term to the broadest possible definition. It's possible I'm a reconstructionist* deist**?

(It's worth noting that the conversation started to break up in laughter when I told David "of course we're both Jewish! Listen to how we're arguing over this!")



*for those unfamiliar with the term, Reconstructionst Judaism sees the collective body of Jewish laws, customs and traditions not as binding, but as a valuable cultural remnant that should be upheld unless there is reason for the contrary.

**and while the Authorities often decried deists as atheists, they were using it as an insult, along with 'heretic,' rather than an accurate description.