R.B. Lemberg's Blog, page 42

MoC entry restored!

And now the wonderful Anne from Livejournal Support has restored the  Moment of Change ToC entry  that somehow got deleted yesterday. Nobody knows how exactly it happened, but it is back, and the links to itwork again, including the link from Publishers Weekly (thank you so much, rosefox !)!
Phew. 

Yom Kippur is coming, and I'm going to fast, as usual. I'll see you on the other side and will respond to comments then!

Wordpress woes

So, I was updating the Wordpress entry about the MoC Table of Contents- successfully, but as a result of this, the Livejournal entry now appears to be gone.

Did anyone encounter this problem before, and what do you do?!

(and i thought this day couldn't get any worse...)

ETA: And now Wordpress doesn't let me crosspost it again. I'm getting an error message.

All of the comments are gone. The link to the entry isn't working.

Please, help?

Speculative poetry Thursday

For what I'm doing and why, see this entry.

I'm not a reviewer; this is not a review series. I am not going to judge the formal qualities of the poems I discuss, but talk solely about why and how they moved me.

Going through the poetry archives of Strange Horizons sometime in June, I came across Pam McNew's poem "Rural Blessings." I kept returning to it, because I like rereading poems that strike my fancy in some way. It wasn't right for MoC, but I'm glad to have a chance to highlight it here. 

     Rural Blessings
     by Pam McNew

If angels were to roost upon the rafters

of Grandfather Elijah's cattle barn,

their pale feathers littering the hayloft,

like whispered messages from the Holy Ghost,

the government-imposed ceiling of a harvest of feed corn,

or the product of fifteen acres of prime soybeans,

might rise to a level

where a profit could be had.

     (read more)

What I liked about this poem: the fact that it is about real poverty. Not a perspective I see a lot in specpo. It was timely in 2004, when it was nominated for the Rhysling, and I guess it is timely now for even more people. I also loved what I felt was a genuine religious feeling of this poem, and the quietness of it. This is not a poem that rushes to go places. The end was a surprise, in a good way. Ending a poem just right is an art in itself, and Pam McNew nails it here.

(comments are very welcome; please don't hesitate to say anything at all. This is a very low-key thing).

Speculative poetry [weekdays]

I've read a LOT of published material for the Moment of Change, some of it quite astounding (and much that I wasn't able to include). So it occurs to me that I could potentially start a "reading club", where every week I would recommend one poem, which we could discuss or just read together in a kind of a poetry club. I'm not a reviewer, but I could say something small about why the poem caught my eye. The work will not by any ways limited to feminist pieces, just anything at all that I like. Would you be interested?

We would start w. online venues; and perhaps we could later on negotiate w. some editors of print magazines for "samples" (poems I could repost for discussion here).


ETA: Let's try this. Look for the tag "Speculative Poetry Thursdays."

Table of Contents for the Moment of Change

I'm very proud of this. Putting this book together has been quite a journey. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love these poems.  You can get a glimpse from the ToC as to how diverse the contents/contributors are, but you cannot truly see it just from the ToC, but trust me:  this is both tremendous and diverse.

And I couldn't have done this alone. Thank you so much to everyone who gave advice and held my hand through this process  (I'm looking at you, Team Stone Telling!). Special thanks to Sonya Taaffe for suggesting poems, and Shweta Narayan, Jennifer Smith, and Sharon Mock for help w. ordering the ToC. And of course, many thanks to the contributors.

Congratulations to everyone!

People who want to know about preordering: not yet, but I will let you know as soon as I can.

The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry

Rose Lemberg. Introduction.

POETRY:

Ursula K. Le Guin, Werewomen

Nicole Kornher-Stace, Harvest Season

Eliza Victoria, Prayer

Shweta Narayan, Cave-smell

Theodora Goss, The Witch

Amal El-Mohtar, On the Division of Labour

J.C. Runolfson, The Birth of Science Fiction

Kristine Ong Muslim, Resurrection of a Pin Doll

Lawrence Schimel, Kristallnacht

Cassandra Phillips-Sears, The Last Yangtze River Dolphin

Peg Duthie, The Stepsister

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl with Two Skins

Theodora Goss, Binnorie

Nandini Dhar, Learning to Locate Colors in Grey: Kiran Talks About Her Brothers

Rachel Manija Brown, River of Silk

JoSelle Vanderhooft, The King's Daughters

Lisa Bradley, The Haunted Girl

Mary Alexandra Agner, Tertiary

Sara Amis, Owling

Athena Andreadis, Spacetime Geodesics

Lisa Bradley, In Defiance Of Sleek-Armed androids

Sofía Rhei, Cinderella

Alex Dally MacFarlane, Beautifully Mutilated, Instantly Antiquated

Shweta Narayan, Epiphyte

Elizabeth R. McClellan, Down Cycles

H.E.L Gurney, She Was

Kelly Pflug-Back, My Bones' Cracked Abacus

Kat Dixon, Nucleometry

N. A'Yara Stein, It's All In The Translation

Sally Rosen Kindred, Sabrina, Borne

Adrienne J. Odasso, The Hyacinth Girl

Delia Sherman, Snow White to the Prince

Phyllis Gotlieb, The Robot's Daughter

Vandana Singh, Syllables of Old Lore

Greer Gilman, She Undoes

Emily Jiang, Self-Portrait

Ki Russel, The Antlered Woman Responds

Catherynne M. Valente, The Oracle at Miami

Athena Andreadis, Night Patrol

Koel Mukherjee, Sita Reflects

Lorraine Schoen, Hypatia/Divided

Sharon Mock, Machine Dancer

C.W. Johnson, Towards a Feminist Algebra

Jo Walton, Blood Poem IV

Meena Kandasamy, Six Hours of Chastity

Samantha Henderson, Berry Cobbler

Sofía Rhei, Bluebeard Possibilities

Sheree Renee Thomas, Old Scratch poem featuring River

Elizabeth R. McClellan, The Sea Witch Talks Show Business

Ranjani Murali, Chants for Type: Skull-Cap Donner at Center-One Mall

Sonya Taaffe, Madonna of the Cave

Jeannelle Ferreira, Anniversaries

Rebecca Korvo, Handwork

Patricia Monaghan, Journey To The Mountains Of The Hag

Ari Berk, Pazerik Burial on the Ukok Plateau

Neile Graham, Dsonoqua Daughters

Sonya Taaffe, Matlacihuatl's Gift

Ellen Wehle, Once I No Longer Lived Here

Yoon Ha Lee, Art Lessons

JT Stewart, Say My Name

Amal El-Mohtar, Pieces

Sofia Samatar, The Year of Disasters

C. S. E. Cooney, The Last Crone on the Moon

Minal Hajratwala, Archaeology of the Present

Jennifer McGowan, Mara Speaks

JT Stewart, Ceremony

April Grant, Trenchcoat

Tara Barnett, Star Reservation

Mary Alexandra Agner, Old Enough

Nisi Shawl, Transbluency: An Antiprojection Chant

 

Originally published at RoseLemberg.net. You can comment here or there.

Con questions

Ok, so I am going to WFC. Am I going to WFC? Gevalt! Gevalt! Questions:

1) Can you pitch an unfinished book? I *will* finish it. Just not in time for WFC. If the book were finished, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pitch it, as a chunk / first PoV  / novelette is coming out from BCS on Oct. 20th in timely fashion for WFC. But the book is not finished. It will be very finished by the next year's WFC; I want to have a full draft in early 2012 and a revised draft by March or April, this taking into account unforeseen illnesses, etc.

2) If your answer to 1) is yes, how do you pitch a book? I don't know if I can do a good elevator pitch - this thing is very complex - multi-PoV, secondary world, new system of magic, multicultural, multiple conflicts, etc - in short, epic fantasy (YA) in all its gory glory. But I can try. If I do try for a pitch, should I mention secondary-world Jews even though Sureh is only one of six protagonists and her PoV is only one sixth of the book?

3) If I am to pitch the novel, or even talk about it, any advice on how to overcome the dreadful "Oh it's so queer and so weird it wouldn't possibly sell, I have no idea why Scott Andrews liked it... I'm a lousy writer" crap that will spill from my mouth with extreme conviction... YES, I can simultaneously love my novel and think it extremely cool and hate my novel and think I'm full of guano, which doesn't reflect on the actual quality of the piece, only on my convoluted brain.

4) Shall I make business cards? How many? What should be on them? Am I allowed to do crazy things like quotes from my poems and stories? How many people will actually care that I edit Stone Telling and MoC?

5) Is there any way to ask people not to take pictures of me at WFC or at least not post them online, kind of like they do at Wiscon?

6) Gevalt?

Today is my birthday. I am 35 years old. The obligatory s...

Today is my birthday. I am 35 years old. The obligatory self-flaggelatory post will appear f-locked later today.

Meanwhile, here's my present for you (crossposted from stonetellingmag ):




Stone Telling 5 is up - and it is glorious. I love this issue. There is so much awesome in here, I am not going to enumerate anything, or I'll sound like the ToC. This also happens to be our FIRST ANNIVERSARY ISSUE (omg).

I loved working with Shweta, and I wanted to say a big big thank you to Jenn ( dormouse_in_tea ), who tirelessly digitized and proofread the issue.



Without further ado - I hope you enjoy, and happy reading!

Sunday

This was a really bad flu. It's getting slowly better , but I spent the weekend in bed. 

Mati is off to a research project at the university for two hours (they're basically measuring the best ways to teach children with autism). I'm sitting on my front porch, enjoying the sudden onset of autumn and the first brown leaves spinning down from the pin oaks.

Last month I got a lovely pair of modernist metal chairs and a table from a garage sale for the total 20$, only to discover later that they are of Italian origin and are quite pricey. They're a bit beaten up, but undefeated (like me?).  It's rather wonderful to sit here. I have raw honey in the house, and should get a cup of tea.

Hm. I'll be back.

And voila! View of the street from my front yard, the pin oak straight ahead, and its brother is to the left (the trunk is invisible, but you can see some of the branches).



And the tea! The little teapot is for zavarka, courtesy of my mother. The cup is also courtesy of my mother. The little white dish is a part of my golem dish set.

Slavic music mini-series - bonus (Nezmaři)

Well, sovay said she'd like another by Nezmaři. The first one is here, posted late last night , so most of you probably overlooked it. In that video you also can see how the singers look; this one only has music.


Dedicated to sovay  and rachelmanija (who might or might not like it). Nevertheless.





Text




Když ti nohy už nějak neslouží musíš jít jít dál
a když občas šlápneš do louží musíš jít jít dál
když nemáš střechu nad hlavou a jenom kapsu děravou
musíš jít jít cíl tvůj je ze dne na den blíž

Když tě přítel tvůj někdy oklamal musíš jít, jít dál
jenom rukou mávni čert to vzal musíš jít, jít dál
jenom na sebe se spoléhej, štěstí u druhých nehledej
musíš jít jít cíl tvůj je ze dne na den blíž


Když boj svůj předem prohráváš musíš jít, jít dál
když ruce do klína pokládáš musíš jít, jít dál
jen nevěš hlavu to chce klid, uvidíš zas bude líp
musíš jít jít cíl tvůj je ze dne na den blíž


Když tě smůla někdy provází musíš jít, jít dál
a když máš spoustu nesnází musíš jít, jít dál
jen lidem zlým se vyhýbej, názor svůj si uhlídej
musíš jít jít cíl tvůj je ze dne na den blíž


Když ti nohy už nějak neslouží musíš jít jít dál
a když občas šlápneš do louží musíš jít jít dál
když nemáš střechu nad hlavou a jenom kapsu děravou
musíš jít jít cíl tvůj je ze dne na den blíž



Translation



When your feet refuse to serve you, you have to go, you have to go on
When sometimes you crash into a puddle, you have to go on,
When you don't have a roof over your head, and only a pocket full of holes,
You have to go on, your goal is closer day to day.

When your friend deceived you, you have to go on,
Just wave your hand - devil take this - you have to go on,
You must rely only on yourself, don't seek happiness in others,
You have to go on, your goal is closer day to day.


If you have lost your battle, you have to go on,
When you want to put your hands in your lap and give up, you have to go on,
Don't hang your head, take it easy, you'll see - it will work out,
You have to go on, your goal is closer day to day.


When bad luck sometimes accompanies you, you have to go on,
And when you've got trouble, you have to go on,
Just stay away from evil people and stick to your vision,
You have to go on, your goal is closer day to day.


When your feet refuse to serve you, you have to go on
When sometimes you crash into a puddle, you have to go on,
When you don't have a roof over your head, and only a pocket full of holes,
You have to go on, your goal is closer day to day.

Slavic music mini-series #7

I promised you guys seven entries in the Slavic music mini-serious, and I planned this to be the last entry, but life interfered - and then I didn't feel like this song. I do now.



Nezmaři are a Czech musical group that was founded in 1978 and is still working. I love them very much. I listened to them a lot in college when a Czech friend made me a mixed tape of their best songs; during one of the endless moves it got lost, and I didn't remember the name of the group. Eventually my brother discovered them, and thanks to him I rediscovered the group. So many wonderful songs, but youtube has only a few. Here is one. My favorites of theirs are Dokud svíčka hoří ("While the candle is burning") and Hledám drahokam ("I'm looking for a precious stone").

Hej, člověče Boží, zahodil jsi boty,
jakpak bez nich půjdeš dál, touhletou dobou sněží,
nehřeje tě slunce, mám o tebe strach.
Hej, člověče Boží, zahodil jsi kabát,
jakpak bez něj půjdeš dál pár dní před Vánoci,
nehřeje tě slunce, mám o tebe strach.
Hej, člověče Boží, zahodils' peníze,
jakpak bez nich půjdeš dál, nekoupíš si chleba,
nedají ti najíst, mám o tebe strach.
Hej, člověče Boží, zahodil jsi dřevo,
jakpak chceš v tý zimě spát, čas je o Vánocích,
světnici máš prázdnou, mám o tebe strach.
Hej, člověče Boží, koho jsi to vedeš,
dívka zatoulaná bez halíře v kapse,
cizí dítě porodí, mám o tebe strach.

Boží člověk - Man of God - it's kind of a Slavic standard expression for good person, I guess. But I'll keep "Man of God" in the translation.

Hey, Man of God, you threw away your shoes,
How will you go on without them, it's snowing out there,
the sun doesn't warm you, I'm worried about you.

Hey, Man of God, you threw out your coat,
How will you go on without it a couple of days before Christmas,
the sun doesn't warm you, I'm worried about you.

Hey, Man of God, you threw away your money,
How will you go on without it, you won't be able to buy bread,
They won't give you something to eat, I am worried about you.

Hey, Man of God, you threw away the wood,
How do you plan to sleep in winter, it's Christmas time,
Your room is empty, I'm worried about you.

Hey, Man of God, whom are you leading,
a stray girl without a penny in her pocket,
she'll give birth to somebody else's child, I'm worried about you.

If you like this, let me know, because I may want to translate one more of their songs, Musíš jít dál ("you have to go on").