K. Tempest Bradford's Blog, page 35

Dragon*Con 2011: The Late, Late Report

I'm horrible at posting timely con reports, so I've given up worrying about it. It's been a week since Dragon*Con ended, so at least with this one is up faster than my WisCon or ReaderCon reports. No, you didn't miss them… they aren't posted yet.

Onward!

This was my first Dragon*Con, and I was slightly worried about feeling overwhelmed. However, I had the chance to work for the at-con newsletter, the Daily Dragon, and that helped me feel less at sea. I had specific things to do and I spent most of my time doing them. Those specific things involved copyediting, being on call in the DD office, covering panels, and interviewing people. Being a journalist is a bunch of fun.

I had a great time talking to Ann and Jeff Vandermeer about steampunk and Alethea Kontis and Leanna Renee Hieber about being pro guests who are also fans. But the absolute highlight of my con was getting to interview Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek: Voyager's Captain Janeway. I also got to interview Brent Spiner of The Next Generation.

For Kate Mulgrew, I had to chase down her agent, then come sit at her signings three times before he found time in her schedule. William Shatner had just denied a couple of my colleagues an interview, so I was nervous. But Ms. Mulgrew wasn't as ALL DONE THIS as Bill (and I don't blame him, he did three solo panels and signed 4 times) so she granted me five minutes.

I've met her just once before, and she was just as warm and funny as before. She has this commanding attitude that I adore. It's not obnoxious — more like a very forceful matriarch. If she tells you to do something, you do it because obviously she thinks it's best. Plus, you don't say no to Captain Janeway. Read the interview (Kate says so.)

Talking to her about how there needs to be more women leaders in the Star Trek franchise, I had this awesome idea for a panel at Dragon*Con about female leadership in SF. My dream panel would be Kate Mulgrew, Nana Visitor, Mary McDonnell, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Gina Torres. I also think that would make an excellent pop essay book, with the volume split between TV/Movie properties and SF novels. As things ramp up for next year's D*Con, I'll see if the panel is possible.

I was in the autographing room on Monday waiting for Brent Spiner to have time when I noticed that Robert Duncan McNeil (Tom Paris, Voyager) had a life-size cutout of himself in character sitting on top of his table. Not next to, on top of. I went over and asked, "How much to take a picture with the cutout?" because pictures with him were $10 and that's just not my thing. Thankfully he has an excellent sense of humor and joked with me about it and, when I came back to actually take a picture with the cutout in my absolute silliness, decided he needed to be in the pic, too. I let him. You know, to make him feel better.

I also had one other mission during the con, which was to sell fans and raise money for Con or Bust when possible. I didn't sell many fans, but my roommate, Mary Robinette Kowal, sold TONS. She's a sales machine and earned Con or Bust a lot of money.

In addition to selling fans, I also asked some actors of color to sign one so we can auction them off. When I get home I'll post pics. Edward James Olmos (BSG) and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim, Voyager) both signed readily and were very sweet about it. In fact, Garrett misunderstood my request (I'd asked him the night before in the green room) and had a picture he'd planned to give me of Robert Beltran, Robert Picardo and himself in character, signed by all three. It's really adorbs. I gave him a fan in exchange for the picture and we'll auction that off, too.

Sidenote: Garrett Wang is awesome. He runs the Trek Track at D*Con and does a fantastic job, does funny as hell spots for Dragon*Con TV, and spends hours and hours in the autograph room so everyone who wants to see him gets a chance. Plus, he's super sweet, like I said.

That was pretty much my Dragon*Con. I met many awesome fans, hang out with the fabulous Daily Dragon staff, saw fantastic costumes, got to go to panels, met one of my heroines, and had conversations with a host of fabulous people. I'm looking forward to going back next year.

Dragon*Con 2011: The Late, Late Report is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

As Always, My Thoughts On 9/11

Are best expressed in fiction.

Others have also raised concerns over the ongoing nature of the haitai ritual. Though performing it after the first or second anniversary isn't unheard of, most clerics don't recommend it. Wassirian cleric Anes Mshai is an outspoken opponent of further Red Seteshday haitai.

"Bringing closure and allowing family members to say goodbye is healthy. Especially in the case of such a massive disaster. But reliving and recreating the event over and over again every year may be keeping them from moving on."

Until Forgiveness Comes at Strange Horizons

As Always, My Thoughts On 9/11 is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Intra-Community Behavior – How Do We Address Problems Constructively?

This was a very long comment on the post from yesterday. However, in writing it I realized that this discussion is separate but related, so I broke it out into its own post. This comment addresses some stuff across multiple comments over there plus some things from this discussion on the anon community.

Just to clarify: For me, my worries over the doubts I had about Kynn and the way I pushed them aside isn't about whether I should have known she would rape someone. It's totally separate from that. It's more about how I shouldn't have accepted that behavior from a person who very clearly wanted to be allied with my community and me personally. I don't look back and regret my errors because of what happened to jack specifically. Wanted to clear that up.

While on one hand I agree with the anon that points out that within social justice communities if someone doesn't speak up and say "hey, I don't agree with the actions this person is taking" then people may assume that we endorse or, at least, don't find the behavior problematic. And that can be a problem both within and outside of the community.

On the other hand, I very much agree with Cheryl that I don't then want us to turn the tone argument on each other or start deciding whose anger is more valid. Plus, I get the feeling that what some critics of social justice want in that instance is a public "I DON'T AGREE" in big letters. I'm not always comfortable with that.

Intra-community discussions of appropriate actions and words should stay inside unless the community decides to open it up to wider discussion.

Examples of this include the recent flare-up surrounding Ashley Judd's condemnation of hip-hop as sexist. Women in the hip-hop and POC community have been dealing with this issue a lot longer, and many did not appreciate someone from outside the community swanning in to give her ill-formed and unwanted opinion on the matter.

Within a feminist context, women outside of mainstream white western culture are forever dealing with well-meaning feminists trying to tell them how their cultures are evil and should be abandoned. Whereas women inside those cultures and communities are constantly saying "Back off, we got this, we're working on it from our own cultural framework."

Those are big picture examples. Those are also more straightforward than what we're dealing with here.

The dilemma I see is this: how does a community or an individual within a community approach another individual to say I/We think you're crossing a line? That's a tough conversation to have. I've found myself reluctant to have it the few times it's come up. And, as I said yesterday, I am not the behavior police nor do I feel I have the right to be.

Still, this situation is making me realize how important it is to discuss this and come up with strategies not only to ensure the mental health of the community at large, but also to achieve our common goals.

As before, thoughts are very much appreciated. And to the anonymice out there — I allow anon comments here, but reserve the right to moderate as I see fit. (Generally: deleting abusive ones.)

Intra-Community Behavior – How Do We Address Problems Constructively? is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Community, Trust, Responsibility, Consequences

This post may be triggering for some as it contains discussions of rape, sexual assault, and community responses to such.

I promised to write this post last week, but unfortunately preparations for BlogHer took up more spoons than I anticipated. Plus, I've been dealing with a lot of intense emotions around the issue and it kept me from posting publicly for a while. But I feel it's important for several reasons, all of which you will understand by the end of this post. I'm placing the bulk of it under a cut, just in case.

Part the First

First thing (and this is the shortest section of this post, so feel free to scroll past), I want to state unequivocally that I believe Jack, who says that Kynn raped him. I believe this not only because I've read both Jack and Alexandra's version of events, but also because I read Kynn's version of the events. I've seen her post, which has now been removed, and I've seen some emails sent to Jack which were shared online.

In the post defending herself, Kynn posted chat transcripts that showed she apologized for what she did and stated that she did them unintentionally. Okay. But then at the close of her post she says she didn't rape Jack because what she did wasn't intentional and also Jack and Alexandra must have something against her to bring up these charges now. That makes no sense. No matter how unintentional, she did what she did. And what she did was rape.

Part the Second

Ever since this first came out, there has been much discussion about it and some side-taking, as one would expect in this kind of situation. Apart from that, I find myself further saddened by the impact it's had on our community, of which Kynn was part. I'm talking about the group of people tied together by our mutual love and appreciation for SF/F genre (i.e. fandom) who also discuss, deconstruct, and fight against bigotry and prejudice, both within our community and in our lives in general.

Kynn has acted as an ally in discussions and activist endeavors. She self-identifies as a feminist. On the face of it, not the kind of person you'd expect to act in the way she did.

Which is why the impact on our community has rubbed people raw. And I am both angry and heartbroken because the net result is that some of us are yanking back on the reigns of our trust for others in the community. I saw at least two people on my Flist talk about the need to unfriend/separate from anyone they knew connected to Kynn no matter what they've said in support of Jack or of Kynn because they don't feel safe staying connected to Kynn-connected folks. I don't condemn that feeling, I understand that feeling, but it makes me sad to see it.

Community is often built around trust. Definitely activist communities. We come together so we can share and support and bolster and feel less like the voices telling us we're wrong might be right. When that trust breaks, it hurts.

More than anything else, I want to do what I can to help us all as a group continue to have a strong, trusting community. I want to have a conversation around this because I certainly don't have the answers.

Part the Third

I'm feeling less sure about including this part of the post because it's more personal, but it relates to community and who we choose to let in the circle of trust. A lot of this is my feelings, though, and not some grand statement from the President of the Black Mafia, okay?

I've known Kynn online for several years, at first through commenting on LiveJournal and other blogs then more via IM/chat. Like I said, Kynn presented herself as an ally and activist and had my back through multiple situations. I always appreciated that. And because of these actions, I ignored some stuff I shouldn't have.

I ignored the way Kynn sometimes went after people who disagreed with her, sometimes because I felt the people she went after needed going after. There's a line between not letting up on calling a person on their racist actions/words and unconstructive verbal battery — there were times Kynn crossed that line.

And honestly? I'm not anyone's mother. There is no presidency of the Black Mafia. There is no fail fandom and I am not the behavior police. I didn't feel it was my place to tell Kynn how to go about doing what she did, and I am always reluctant to go chiding allies in public because the people who need straightening out would just use it as ammunition (as they've done already surrounding this issue). But I will say that I should have followed my instinct to at least express my discomfort with some of Kynn's actions in private.

On a more personal level, I also often felt that Kynn was very eager to have a closer relationship with me than our acquaintance warranted. Not an intimate relationship, but something that would move toward being BFFs. That kind of closeness has to develop organically — it can't be forced, even if you share a common belief with a person. Kynn's efforts to become a close friend always bothered me. That and a few other aspects of our conversations. Still, I pushed my own doubts away on several occasions. I worried about being too judgmental or stuck up or just selfish.

However, given the people speaking up to illuminate aspects of Kynn's personality and manipulations, I'm now convinced that the doubts that I had were justified after all. I've come around to thinking that part of the reason she wanted to be close to me is that I'm part of the "in crowd" in social justice fandom, and that this relationship would allow her greater access to the group and to legitimacy within the group.

I will always continue to fight against being judgmental, selfish and stuck up because it's always a good thing to check yourself. But I will also listen more to my instincts and not simply accept that any person's actions are for the good or their friendly overtures are sincere simply because we share a cause or activism.

Part the Fourth

One final admission: for several days I hesitated to say more in public about this situation because I saw more than one blog post or comment chiding the community for "turning on" Kynn. Most, if not all, of these comments came from people outside the community or those hostile to it, anyway. I let those comments get to me when I should have ignored them just like I ignore the other claptrap certain people spew.

The community owes no loyalty to a person who does things that specifically goes against the tenets of that community. And given that both Kynn and Jack have taken the opportunity to tell their sides of the story, individuals in the community have every right to weigh those words against what they know of the individuals and against their own morals. Most of the people I have on my Flist believe Jack. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate for the community to "turn against" someone who we believe raped her partner.

The fact that within our own ranks there hasn't been a huge split with equal amounts taking sides (as far as I've seen) is telling. Things might have been different if Kynn was a person we all inherently trusted and had no doubts about. That's not the case.

And Now: The Discussion

All right, it's taken me a really long time to put this together and I need to stop now. I am keeping comments open and public at this time. However, there are ground rules.

If I feel the conversation is going south or if I need to be away from my computer for extended times, I will switch to auto-moderation and screen all comments. First time commenters will have their first comment screened, but after I approve one you should be able to comment with no restrictions. Anonymous comments are allowed, but will be screened.

The thing I want to discuss here is the impact this situation has on communities, on trust metrics and how we, as a group, can tweak those. This is not the place to discuss your theories on rape, what rape is, whether what Kynn did really constitutes rape, or similar topics. If you really want that discussion, have it in your own space.

Community, Trust, Responsibility, Consequences is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Gender Imbalance, Again. Mansplaining, Again. Bleh.

The latest entry in the Gender Imbalance Hall of Fame appears to be Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction edited by Ian Whates. Of the 21 contributors there are 4 women[1].

You may facepalm now.

But, you see, the editor totally knows that this whole gender imbalance thing is a probem. This is why his other anthologies have more women in them! And that makes this all okay.

The thing is, as an editor, it's almost inevitable (given the aforementioned imbalance) that you're going to fall foul of somebody's opinion somewhere. I've just released the TOC for Solaris Rising, an anthology I've been commissioned to produce for (you guessed it) Solaris. … Already the book has attracted a drearily predictable comment of "How's that mistressworks thing goin'?" from Nick Mamatas. It's strange, but last year when I released the anthology The Bitten Word (ten female authors, seven male), nobody accused me of being a feminist. Nor was gender commented on that June when I released Anniversaries (seven female authors, two male). I suspect that next month, when I release a new collection of stories by Liz Williams – A Glass of Shadow – with an intro by Tanith Lee and cover art by Anne Sudworth, no comment will be made then either, nor when I release the next NewCon Press anthology Dark Currents in 2012 – which looks set to once again feature more female contributors than male. The detractors are very selective, it seems.

Shorter Ian Whates: WHERE ARE MAH COOKIES?!!

Someone call the wahmbulance and pick this mansplaier off the ground before he hurts himself.

Footnotes

Oh look, Paul DiFilippo is in it, too! That's a sure sign of quality… /sarcasm

Gender Imbalance, Again. Mansplaining, Again. Bleh. is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

The Unblinking Eye [Part 1, rough]

The cold open of my TNG/Doctor Who fanfic is done, so I thought I would share it with you all. I also came up with a tentative title. It will likely change.

Okay kids, keep in mind that this is a first draft. Like a really, really first draft. Have fun.

The Unblinking Eye

Captain's Log, Stardate 46389.2. We've just entered the Davien system and commander LaForge informs me that the test of the new subspace field generator will commence within the hour. If successful, the new engine will increase dilithium efficiency three-fold.

"All right, Data. Activate the field." Goerdi LaForge swept his rolling chair between consoles, keeping track of half a dozen monitors at once. This first test was going to be tricky, and he didn't want to give the engineering core back at Starfleet Headquarters any reasons to shut him down before he could prove this new engine scheme would work.

"Subspace field activated." Data stood at Engineering's central console while the rest of the crew moved between the warp vestibule and their consoles, keeping almost as diligent an eye on the outputs as their boss.

All signs were good, and Geordi was about to give the order to go to warp 1 when a sharp, rushing sound interrupted the normal thrumthrum of the room. It lasted only seconds, hardly enough time for panic to well up in his chest at what might be going wrong. And when it was over a body lay sprawled on the floor.

"What–"

"Intruder alert," the computer announced in her faux alarmed tone. 

"Picard to Engineering."

"Data, shut down the warp core, now!" Geordi ordered as he rushed forward, wondering which of his crew was hurt. It wasn't until Data grabbed his arm that the 'intruder' warning finally sunk in, reinforced by his friend suggesting that he wait.

"That is not an Enterprise crewmember," Data stated. At this, several people trained phasers on the unmoving person, per protocol. But something had pinged Geordi as familiar about the person, and it was still his instinct to try and help.

"Well, who?"

"Engineering, what's going on?" The captain's voice cut through the warring priorities in Geordi's head.

"Captain, an intruder just beamed into the room, but she appears unconscious." Critically low heartbeat, barely any breathing, and circulation not anywhere near where it should be. "We need a medic and Security right away."

"Mister Worf is already on his way. Picard to SickBay, medical personnel to Engineering."

Without warning, the woman's vitals jumped and she gasped in air, only to cough it out again so hard he was afraid she'd die right there.

"Geordi?" her voice was very weak, but definitely familiar. "Commander… Data?"

"Ensign Ro?" Data answered.

As soon as he said it, Geordi knew it was true. No wonder she looked familiar. He pulled away from Data and went to her side, though the phasers were still trained on her. If this was Ensign Ro, something had gone very wrong since she'd left the ship two weeks ago. She looked decades older, like a woman at the end of her life. It didn't make sense.

"Ro, is that you?"

Data helped her sit up just as Worf arrived with two security officers.

"Commander." Worf's voice was both a question and a warning, but Geordi's focus was on the ensign.

"Is this the Enterprise?" Ro asked.

"Yes. Where did you come from?"

She smiled, her breaths coming much harder now. But she made the effort to turn and look right at him. "The weeping angels. Don't blink. Do you blink?"

Dr. Crusher arrived just as her eyes closed and her heart fluttered, then stopped.

"Ro? Ro!"

Beverly took over, running the tricorder over her before calling for emergency transport to sickbay. They were gone within seconds, but Geordi kept staring at the space where Ro had appeared.

"Did that make any sense to you?" he asked Data. The android shook his head.

"Her words would appear to have been nonsense."

Of that Geordi wasn't at all sure.

More acts as I write them.

The Unblinking Eye [Part 1, rough] is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Happily Ever After Is Now Out

The Happily Ever After anthology is now on bookstore shelves (both virtual and physical). You should certainly go pick up a copy if you're a fan of fairy tales, subversion of fairy tales, mythpunk, and other related things, as this book is FULL of such wonderful nonsense. The table of contents alone is enough to tempt people, and that cover is to die for. Here, I shall make it easy for you:

Amazon | Kindle | B&N / Nook | IndieBound

Happily Ever After Is Now Out is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

2011 Write-a-Thon Begins!

All right, everyone, no more begging for sponsors from me. The Write-a-thon has officially begun and I am hard at work on my stuff. I started writing the fanfic for week 6 even though LeVar Burton did not tweet about us. That's okay, I know there is plenty of fan love to sustain me.

Also, I am happy to report that I met my goal and then some late last night! Hooray :) I still need to update the sidebar with the total, which I will do when I get home this evening. Thank you to everyone who sponsored, your support means the world to me.

I'll be keeping everyone updated here on the blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Tumblr.

2011 Write-a-Thon Begins! is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

My Final Sponsorship Plea

The Write-a-thon begins tomorrow. After that, I will stop begging for sponsors and get down to writing. Of course, if someone comes along and wants to sponsor me after that, yay! But I shan't ask.

So, here's my final word on this: Right now I have $403 in pledges. My goal is $600. I need around $200 more. That's actually not much when you break it down.

10 people pledging $20 flat.
7 people pledging $5/week
11 people pledging $6 flat + 3 people pledging $4/week + 1 person willing to give $62

Or some combination thereof.

Even if you can only pledge a small amount, all small amounts help! Click here to do so.

My Final Sponsorship Plea is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

My 2011 Write-a-thon Goals and Challenges

The Clarion West Write-a-thon begins this weekend, but you still have time to sponsor me and to spread the word about my need for sponsors or to look at the fabulous list of writers and sponsor one of them or to join in the fun and become a Write-a-thon participant. So many choices! Anyway, I promised that I would tell you about my goals for the next 6 weeks so you can get all excited about them (or something).

My overall, basic goal is to write between 100 and 500 words every week. The wordcount goal will change each week based on the goals and challenges listed below.

Week 1: I'm going to use a random number generator to pick my wordcount. Then I'll roll a 6-sided die and divide the overall wordcount by the number that comes up. I'll take this number (rounded to the nearest whole number), go to the book I'm currently reading, turn to that page, and choose a word on the page to inspire the fiction I write.

Week 2: I will use Wordle to create word clouds from three Twitter accounts, then take the top 2 most interesting words from each account and write a story using them in some way.

Week 3: Sponsor challenge. I'll give each of my sponsors a chance to pick some aspect of the story: wordcount, character names, location, first line, last line, etc. Depending on how many sponsors/responses I get, this could be split into two stories and be week 4′s challenge as well.

Week 4: TBD

Week 5: TBD

Week 6: Crossover fic. Here's the deal. LeVar Burton tweeted this picture of he and Alex Kingston together and said she was one of his favorite actresses. I saw that and thought: a Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover starring Geordi and River Song would be so awesome! And Tumblr concurred. Then I thought: It would be even more awesome if I could get LeVar to tweet about the Write-a-thon to get more sponsors for me and everyone else. So here's my challenge to you, friends and readers: LeVar is aware of my devious plan, but he has not yet tweeted details of the Write-a-thon to his followers. Encourage him (politely!!) via Twitter to do so and I will write this beautiful crossover fic of win. It will be short, yes, but longer than 500 words. Maybe even written in teleplay format. We'll see.

So that's my plan for the next 6 weeks. As weeks 4 and 5 approach, I will make decisions about what I'll write then.

To recap: Please sponsor me! Please sponsor other participants! Please participate! TNG/Doctor Who crossover! LeVar Burton! That is all.

 

My 2011 Write-a-thon Goals and Challenges is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford