R.B. Lemberg's Blog, page 49

At long last, the universe smiles

(1) ACADEMIA. So, I have written this 10k sociolinguistics article about language/power
The latest version, the clean version with about 6k of finalized text, was not there. The latest version I had was from December 2010.

I realized I must have saved the latest file exclusively to the USB, since I wrote while I was traveling. The USB was gone.

I keep meticulous backups of my academic work. I back up every day, and I have automatic backup set up by mozy. But in the frantic whirlwind of the academic event I referenced above, it was lost.

I've been so depressed by this that I haven't written an academic word since March 3rd.

You guys! I just found it! It was in the suitcase, which I looked through 100000 times before.

No wonder I was so upset and unable to work. This is a beautiful chunk of text - I am proud of what I've done there - and now I can finally finish it and send it off and BREATHE.
(2) FICTION. I finished revising the epic novelette (now at 14k!), and pending comments from two readers, I will send it off soonish. I feel good about this one.

(3) POETRY. Yet more good news landed in my inbox this morning - I have successfully pitched a specpo reprint anthology to Aqueduct press. More about this soon!

The Whimsy issue is here - and ST needs your help!

Crossposted to  stonetellingmag  

The Whimsy issue is here! It is fantastic, if I do say so myself - this might be our strongest issue yet!

Don't miss the roundtable discussion led by Julia Rios ( skogkatt  ) and the nonfiction articles by Deborah Brannon ( talkstowolves  ) and Nin Harris ( exsilii  ) - and, of course, the poetry by Jo Walton ( bluejo  ), Catherynne Valente ( yuki_onna  ), Emily Jiang ( emily_jiang  ), Eliza Victoria ( blissery  ), Sonya Taaffe ( sovay  ), Michael R. Fosburg ( sevenravens  ), Sara Saab, Susan Rooke, William Doreski, Benjamin Cartwright, and Mary Turzillo.

Many cheers to all contributors for their fabulous work!






And now, to slightly less whimsical matters. You will have noticed that this issue only has two non-fiction columns instead of the usual three. This is because, since the initial helpful tipping back in September 2010, we received very few donations - three (3) to be precise. I am committed to providing payment for poetry, but I will not be able to continue to publish non-fiction unless the community wants to pitch in. The content is fabulous, and every 5$ makes a difference. I have added a tipping jar at the bottom of the table of contents. If you enjoy this issue, I hope you will consider donating!

New and exciting announcements about ST5 and ST6 coming your way soon!

Happy reading :)

Science fiction novels with poets?

 Hello everyone, 

I am looking to make a list of science fiction novels that feature poets as protagonists. I came up with this:

Samuel Delaney. Dhalgren.
David Zindell. Neverness.
Stanislaw Lem. The Cyberiad (this is a stretch, but still).

Please comment if you know any more. Note that I am only looking for science fiction, not fantasy.

(there IS a good reason I am asking this question! All will be revealed).

Books

So today I passed by our dying Borders and purchased a hardcover copy of Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death, and a hardcover copy of Charles Yu's Living Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. I spend money very very carefully, but in view of some recent developments in my life I feel like pampering myself, even if it is financially unwise. I did not, unfortunately, find a copy of Jo Walton's Among Others. I love this book, which I purchased for the Kindle last month (the Kindle was bought by my department).

Now, I've been eager to try out the Kindle, and it is really great for flights. I fly for work (conferences, invited talks) some 3-4 times a year, so it's awesome. However, in terms of my long-term investment in books, it's a waste of my very limited financial resources. I get all my books from the library (except when I am about to fly somewhere). Then, if I love them, I hunt for them on sale and eventually hopefully buy them in hardcover - this is because I don't care to reread most books, but yet others I want reread constantly. This happened with Who Fears Death, which I already checked out twice from the library.

However, I already bought a kindle copy of Among Others, and now I want to reread it. I do most of my rereading on Shabbes. You see the problem? Cannot use a Kindle on Shabbes. So what do I do now? Shell another 17$ for a hardcover copy is the only answer, but considering my financial constraints, that's not very easy to do.  I wish Amazon allowed exchanges (Kindle edition for hardcover).

*grumpy*

In other news, sent out a weird little piece of flash. Wow, this happened fast.

Brief life update #2

 Still sick, although a bit better today, perhaps. Still very behind. Trying to take it easy - I worked all last week except for 1 day, and had to spend the whole weekend in bed due to extreme physical and mental exhaustion.

Service announcement

 Sick (flu) and completely spoonless. If I owe you an email, I'm sorry. I'm behind.

Poem up, and varia

1) My poem "Reap the Whirlwind" from Jabberwocky 5 is up on the new Jabberwocky website :) This makes me rather happy!

2) time_shark   will post a short interview with me over at the Interstitial Arts Foundation blog... sometime soon.

3) I talk about positioning and trolls over at jimhines   blog. I cannot quite shut up, and I cannot quite say anything meaningful. Hm.

Sale

 I am happy to report that "A Mother Goes Between," an odd story of mine that had a complicated history (including a complete rewrite), sold to the new online Jabberwocky edited by Sean Wallace and Erzebet Yellowboy. It will appear in the first issue.

I am very happy about this. This is the second mother-PoV story I placed (first was Imperfect Verse in GUD magazine). Both stories sold to excellent - and risk-taking - semi-pro venues. This should hardly be surprising. I am happy that I am sending stuff to semi-pro venues again this year. I wish I could say I don't care about payment - I do - I use my sales to fund ST. But I care even more about selling to venues that are doing great work. Some pros are doing it, but not everyone. And some semi-pros are doing it. So yes, I am very very happy about this, and welcome, online Jabberwocky! (for which I was waiting regardless).

Speaking of the online Jabberwocky, there's some lovely work from Jabberwocky 5 uploaded, including work by  shweta_narayan   and  selfavowedgeek  .

OMG you guys the Nebula nominees. I don't remember ...

 OMG you guys the Nebula nominees. I don't remember when I last was as happy with a Nebula list. Probably never.

Shweta Narayan ( shweta_narayan  ) is on it with one of my favorite stories novelettes ever: Pishaach is a snakey bride story from The Beastly Bride. The title always made me happy - it means "witch", but to my Russian-speaking ear it sounds like Russian pischat' 'to squeal' - which is oddly appropriate, because I squealed when I first read it, I squealed when it sold, I squealed when it came out...and now, once again with feeling, SQUEEEEEEE for Shweta Narayan!

And the other people on this list? Amal El-Mohtar ( tithenai  ), Christopher Kastensmidt ( ckastens  ), J. K. Cheney ( j_cheney  ), Rachel Swirsky ( rachel_swirsky  ) - congratulations, guys!!! Well done, well done!

Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death is on the list as well. I cannot be more thrilled. This was by far the best book I read in 2010. I have already reread it twice, and it has not lost its power for me.  If I could compose an ode to this book, I would. People, I want to write love poetry for this book. I wish I could write something more substantial about it, but I finally made peace with the fact that I'm not a reviewer type of person; all I can do is squee.  So here: SQUEEEEE.

Privilege and Postal Submissions

 Over at Absolute Write, James A. Richie, someone established and, if I understand correctly, well-published, has been saying that e-subs are bad for the new writer. Why? Because magazines would be overwhelmed by junk e-subs, and thus editors would be forced to reject submissions much quicker, and give individual writers less attention:

 paper slush piles [...] take longer not because they're paper, but because you spend more time with each story. Less slush and actual paper in your hands mean you read more of the story, give it a better chance, that you do with large e-slush.
 I pointed out to him that e-subs increase diversity, since people who are not middle class and/or people from overseas can more easily submit work with the e-subs system. 

He responded with the following:

Not living in the U.S. I agree with, but the cost of snail mail within the U.S. is minimal. Dirt cheap, in fact. My average story, with cost of paper, ink, envelopes, and stamps all counted, costs about three bucks to get into submission.

Even with resubmitting rejected stories, and flooding the market as much as I can, my total shot story snail mail costs for an entire year seldom go above four hundred dollars, or about eight bucks per week. You don't have to be middle class to afford eight bucks per week. If you can afford a computer and an Internet connection, you can find eight bucks per week. [emphasis mine-RL]

 Now, at the beginning of this year I swore to avoid fails as much as possible. But readers, I responded to him, and I am posting this here, because I think it is a crucial issue to bring to your attention. Here's what I said in response to James A. Ritchie:
 
Let me venture a guess that you are not poor, have never been poor, have never been disabled, and/or have never been a caregiver to a disabled person.

Eight dollars a week are eight packs of ramen noodles. About five packages of pasta. They might even stretch to eight packages of pasta if you know where to go. Four packages of pasta and four cans of tomato sauce, again if you know where to go. Three pairs of underwear at a discount store. Shall I go on? If you've never made these calculations, you've never been poor. Congratulations on your privilege!
When you are poor, you do not always own a printer. A computer, yes, but not a printer. Because you cannot afford paper and ink. Or maybe you owned a printer, but it broke down.

When you are poor,and caring for a disabled person, you often cannot go to the post office. You cannot leave your disabled person. Maybe you do not own a car. Or you own a car, but you cannot afford gas. Maybe you can afford gas, but it's a clunker, and in wintertime you are afraid to drive. Maybe you are disabled yourself. It is a hardship to get out of the house.

Let me repeat that - when you are disabled, it is often a hardship to get out of the house.

When you are poor, your chances of becoming disabled are greater, because you are less likely to have medical insurance.

Which is why, when you are poor, or disabled, or caring for a disabled person, e-subs are a godsend.

Editors who care about diversity increasingly recognize this. It is a good thing, IMHO. 
I have no idea how James A. Ritchie will respond to this, nor do I, honestly, care. I care about what you guys think, because I know that many, many of you are interested in diversity. In my humble opinion, paper submissions limit diversity in a magazine's slush. Paper submissions limit an editor's pool to - mostly -middle-class able-bodied people in North America. They also limit the age of your submitters. Try to send paper submissions while a college student living in dorms. I am not sure how race figures into this beyond the obvious and tired class mappings; it is nuanced, so I will not make pronouncements, but I will be very interested to hear what you have to say. Sure, paper submissions will probably also on average be better formatted, written, etc. A good Western education is also a privilege.

E-subs open the door to diversity. Sure, some of this diversity will come from people who cannot, for whatever reason, produce a submission you will want to buy. Others will amaze you.

Let me tell you about my first ever submission. I was an undergraduate student in Israel at the time. I wrote a poem in English. People told me it was a good piece, and that I should send it out.

Nobody knew exactly where. This was in the early days of the internet. We went to the library and found Poetry Magazine.

At that time I, a daughter of impoverished immigrants, was paying my way through college and subsisted on much less than 8$ a week. I took a translating gig (on which I worked at night, as I already had two jobs), and rented out a P.O.Box, because there was no guaranteed mail delivery to the dorms. Then I printed out my submission, purchased stamps for international shipping and international SASE, attached a cover letter, and sent it out to Poetry Magazine. Some 120 days later I received a form rejection, also on paper.

Next time I submitted anything was exactly ten years later. It was an e-sub. This is not a surprise.

E-subs encourage diversity. Diversity means "all kinds of things from all kinds of people." Poor people, rich people, white people, brown people, every-color-of-the rainbow people; disabled people, able people, able parents of disabled children; Americans, non-Americans; professors, college students, teens, elderly, people with no formal education at all; people who think they are geniuses and people who suffer from anxiety so bad they cannot stand to print out a paper submission because they will only destroy it, but an e-sub is easier; these and these people will send you works that are amazing, works that are not amazing, and everything in-between.

Don't take e-subs and you maybe simplify your life as an editor, but lose much of that. 
I care about diversity, and that's why I think electronic submissions are the way to go.
What do you think?


[Edited to add: health foo has been bad this week, so responses might be slow.]