Dora M. Raymaker's Blog, page 5

Interview about Hoshi on Spectrumly Speaking

Becca Lory Hector’s latest Spectrumly Speaking podcast is up, with an interview with me. We talk about my novel, Hoshi and the Red City Circuit, and related topics. Talking with Becca is always delightful! Enjoy!

Autism in Literature, with Dora Raymaker, Ph.D. | Spectrumly Speaking ep. 54

From the website: “In this episode, host Becca Lory, CAS, BCCS and guest co-host Dena Gassner welcome back Dora Raymaker, Ph.D.. As you may recall, Dora is a scientist, writer, multi-media artist, and activ...

Webcomic (re)Launch – Illustrated World History

I’ve gotten back on a drawing kick, and revived my old webcomic project–this time with (hopefully) new wisdom about how to work the medium. These stories are set about 30 years prior to Hoshi. Operators have no rights. Almost no one knows about the aliens. Also, space pirates make me happy.

read Episode 0: Introduction

Future episodes will be less panoramic and info-dumpy and more normal stories

Cassiopeia Prime, Eden with a Price

Hoshi and the Red City Circuit is set on the exoplanet Cassiopeia-Prime. The Mem’s Public Pedia has the following facts to present about it:

Star System – Cadmus

Natural Satellites – Cepheus, Phoenix

Major Settlements –

Red City (pop. 18M, Main continental plate) Big Island Interstellar Exchange (pop. 50K, Atlantis undersea plate) Phoenix Station (pop. 3M, Phoenix satellite, orbital) United Farming Territories 1 – 7 (pop. 250K, Main continental plate)

GNP – Corporate exchange (30%); Touris...

Nemeses, Frenemies, and Kinda Creepy Social Workers: the Antagonists of Daily Life

When I have frustrations I can’t resolve, and don’t know what to do with, I put them into story. In story they can be fixed, or at least examined in a cathartic way. I suspect that’s true of many story-tellers.

The antagonists in Hoshi and the Red City Circuit are less epic evils and more the irritants of daily life, which somehow feel more epic when they are happening to us. Martin Ho, Hoshi’s ex-co-worker “nemesis,” is a composite of a number of co-workers I’ve had. I feel a little bad abou...

Stella – Epic Space Music

This comes from my fascination with space sounds. The space sound samples come from NASA’s Keplar: Star KIC12268220C Light Curve Waves to Sound and Kepler: Star KIC7671081B Light Curve Waves to Sound, both available here: soundcloud.com/nasa/sets/spookyspacesounds

It also comes from my fascination with space ships possessed by alien consciousnesses. So it is also the voice of the dimensionship Stella-Maru.

Spoon Knife 3: Incursions is OUT!

Happy Equinox! Spoon Knife 3: Incursions is OUT in all senses of the word!

I am a pile of melted squee to find myself listed along with these incredible authors.

This volume contains my short story “Heat Seeking Entities,” which is set in the same universe as Hoshi and the Red City Circuit only a few decades before Integration Law passes, and on a much colder world.

SPOON KNIFE 3: INCURSIONS is now available from Autonomous Press. The third volume of the annual Spoon Knife anthology features...

Power, Allies, and Friendship in Hoshi and the Red City Circuit

Protagonists are defined as much by their interactions with other characters as they are by their own actions. Work-shopping the rough “draft zero” of Hoshi and the Red City Circuit through my writing group, a first-chapter comment went: “That Hoshi chooses to work for a police department that once owned her makes her relationship with Inspector Sorreno really complicated.”

Yes, it does. They are friends, and there is mutual respect. But Sorreno is ever in a position of power as both Police I...

Review of Hoshi by Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism

Kelly Israel provided an excellent, in-depth review of my novel, Hoshi and the Red City Circuit. In it, she breaks down a number of the disability rights themes of the book, and how the story is situated within our current reality. Also, she says, “I found myself obsessively devouring chapters to try and follow Hoshi to the next clue, eager to learn more about how the book’s impossible crime was committed.” So there’s fun stuff, too

Summer Reading: Melissa Scott, Steven King, Mercedes Lackey, me!

I went epic this summer–three “books” that were more like seven. Here are teeny reviews.

★ ★ ★ ★ Melissa Scott – Trouble and Her Friends A friend pointed me to this book because it’s feminist cyberpunk with queer characters, which is pretty much my Thing. As a gen-Xer who grew up in the counter-cultures and technologies Scott riffs off of in her book, I had enormous fun reading this–and had I picked it up back in 1994 (HOW DID I MISS IT?), it would have been an instant favorite. As a 21st cen...

Reading at Another Read Through 9/20/2018: Neurodivergent Queer Heroes

Join me at Another Read Through for a reading from my science fiction mystery novel Hoshi and the Red City Circuit, as well as conversation about my neurodivergent, disabled, and queer heroes; cool tech; systems science; and cantankerous detectives. I’ll have books available to sign and buy.

Date: 9/20/2018
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Another Read Through, 3932 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR

Here are links to the venue’s FaceBook event and event calendar.

Stop by and support a lovely local bookstor...