Randy Henderson's Blog, page 8

Finn Fancy Duran Durancy

I am pleased and excited to announce that FINN FANCY NECROMANCY will also be published in the UK!!! By Titan! I will, of course, need to brush up on my UnitedKingdomish so that I can read the translation, but I am pretty dang chuffed! And I think their cover is awesome, a perfect balance to Tor’s.

Audio Book Brilliance! (And Star Trek)

One more thing to be thankful for – Finn Fancy Necromancy will be recorded by Brilliance Audio. And the voice actor? Todd Haberkorn, who has done voices on Legend of Korra, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Dragon Ball Z, and a bunch of other awesome stuff, as well as plays Spock in the amazingly cool TOS fan webseries, Star Trek Continues.

Finn Fancy ARCs and Cover Reveal

Today was a good day.

A box arrived on my doorstep, and inside was a little piece of a dream come true.  15 pieces, actually, all smelling delicious and booky.

Finn Fancy Anticipancy

Finn Fancy Happy Face

Finn Fancy Happy Dancy!

Such a captivating read!

The Cover Revealed!

Ask Me Anything – Clarion West Google Hangout Style

On July 20th, Clarion West is holding an “Ask Me Anything” online streaming hangout with me, followed by a round robin reading by other authors: https://plus.google.com/events/cbu3p5961d144cric4stpiu07vo

Although only 10 persons can actually actively participate in the hangout, anyone can watch it being streamed. I’ll be taking questions, and you can send them ahead of time to: communications@clarionwest.org with the subject line “Questions for Randy Henderson”. Ask me anything about writing, writers of the future, my forthcoming novel or my experience (to date) with getting it published, or anything really. I can answer any question (even if I don’t know the answer).

Readings and Merry-Making

Thank you to everyone who came out to my signings/ readings at Kitsap Mall Barnes & Noble, Pacific Place Barnes & Noble, and University Bookstore, including several of the Clarion West class of 2014. I truly appreciate it.

A few shout outs regarding those who attended:

Caren Gussoff Sumption has an awesome post-nano-plague novel coming out in November called THE BIRTHDAY PROBLEM. I’ve read it and worship at the feet of her skill with creating interesting characters with depth. And just to be clear, the novel is about a post-nano-plague world, I didn’t mean it will be coming out after the nano-plague in November. I know nothing of that.http://pinknarc.com/books.htm

Julie McGalliard has a dark and kick butt werewolf novel coming out later this year (with some great spins on the genre) from Per Aspera press called WAKING UP NAKED IN STRANGE PLACES. http://www.perasperapress.com/forthcoming-books-for-2014/

 

Spencer German Ellsworth has a story out in the latest The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction that is a true work of art.

Erik Scott de Bie has multiple books and a graphic novel project you should check out, especially if you like violent fantasy with imaginative magic systems:http://erikscottdebie.com/

And here’s the folks I shared my signing with at Pacific Place — not genre writers, but interesting stuff by good folks:

Jayant Swamy, “Colours in the Spectrum <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/colours-in-the-spectrum-jayant-swamy/1116779503?ean=9789382473633>”

Thelma Fayle, “Ted Grant: Sixty Years of Legendary Photojournalism <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ted-grant-thelma-fayle/1115263987?ean=9781927527344>”

John B. McIntyre, “Choices Made, Prices Paid <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/choices-made-prices-paid-john-mcintyre/1119563836?ean=2940149612642>”

Jenny Lynn Jones, “All Roads Lead to Jerusalem <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-roads-lead-to-jerusalem-jenny-lynn-jones/1119295923?ean=9780991069958>”

My Upcoming Readings and Signings – Not Just for Writers of the Future

The point of my readings and signings will not truly be to sell copies of Writers of the Future volume 30 (although that is encouraged), but to celebrate our love of the genre together.

All questions will be answered, many laughs will be had, and many words shared.

And I understand that many folks may have already bought the anthology by the time of the reading, possibly in e-form, or maybe don’t want the anthology for some strange unknowable reason (possibly involving alien probing and the suppression of human emotion through nano technology). If so, bring your copy, or buy something else! I’ll have Other Stuff to sign freely for you if you do.

Let’s share in a celebration of speculative fiction, and support other authors and the bookstore as well (ideally through sale of the anthology which does so much to support new writers, and is also of course a handy way to understand the market if you wish to submit to them; but if you buy any book, that is a good thing in my, er, book).

Perhaps you were wanting to buy awesome fiction from other local authors like: Forged in Fire by J.A. Pitts; or The Age of Ice by J.M. Sidorova; or Hild by Nicola Griffith; or Requiem by Ken Scholes; or The Thousand Names by Django Wexler; or the latest Greywalker Novel by Kat Richardson; or The Creative Fire by Brenda Cooper; or Reflected by Rhiannon Held; or Copper Head by Tina Connolly; or The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari.

Or you wanted to pick up some mind-expanding goodness, like: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor; or Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie; or Authority by Jeff Vandermeer; or 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami; or Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson; or We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, or Cory Doctorow’s latest, Homeland.

Or grab the latest (or first) book in a series you are interested in, be it the Dresden Files or Game of Thrones or Divergent.

Perhaps you prefer the comic stylings of Jim C Hines, John Scalzi, or Terry Pratchett, or the magic realism of Charles de Lint?

Or heck, come in and place pre-orders on books like: Hurricane Fever by Tobias S. Buckell; or The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson; or Last Plane to Heaven by Jay Lake; or Prophet of Bones by Ted Kosmatka.

But again, of course, the hope is to sell many copies of Writers of the Future Volume 30, officially called by The Critic** “The besterest volume ever.”

Hope to see you there, with (some) book or eReader or receipt in hand*.

*No purchase required to participate as a viewer. Mileage estimated based on in-city reading. See book dealer for additional details.

**That’s me. I’m The Critic. I may be biased, but I’m also completely biased.

See my Schedule page for details on upcoming readings/signings/Q&As.

Reddit “Ask Me Anything” for Writers of the Future

Want to know what goes on at the Writers and Illustrators of the Future workshop, what the awards ceremony was like, advice on how to succeed as a writer or illustrator, or my favorite flavor of milkshake?

On May 13th the writer and illustrator winners of this past year will be coming together to answer these and any other questions.  This giant question-and-answer period will take the form of an AMA (ask me anything) on the Reddit fantasy forum.

The AMA will be posted here on May 13th: http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasy/

Those participating in the AMA are:

Megan E. O’Keefe (Writer Winner and the AMA organizer) : Website | Twitter | Facebook

Randy Henderson (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter

Anaea Lay (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter 

Bernardo Mota (Illustrator Winner): Website | Facebook

Shauna O’Meara (Writer Winner): Website

Trevor Smith (Illustrator Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook

Terry Madden (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook

C. Stuart Hardwick (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook

Cassandre Bolan (Illustrator Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook

Liz Colter (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter

Oleg Kazantsev (Writer Winner): Facebook

Sarah Webb (Illustrator Winner): Tumblr | Portfolio | Facebook

Michael Talbot (Illustrator Winner): Facebook | YouTube

Paul Eckheart (Writer Winner): Website | Twitter | Facebook

Leena Likitalo (Writer Winner): Website 

Kirbi Fagan (Illustrator Winner): Website | Facebook

Vincent Coviello (Illustrator Winner): Tumblr

My Writers of the Future Award Speeches

On Sunday, April 13, 2014, I was honored to accept awards from the Writers of the Future contest both as a first place quarterly winner, and then as the Golden Pen grand prize winner. 

I’ll post more about the workshop and the experience itself, but for now, here is a link to the award ceremony.

TRANSCRIPTS of my acceptance speeches (I left out the “ums”) are included below.  

My introduction and speeches begin at 02:07:00 and at 02:46:05.

 

TRANSCRIPT FOR ACCEPTANCE OF AWARD FOR FIRST PLACE:

Note: This speech is really in two parts — my thanks, and then my comments on the power of stories, and the value of supporting diversity in our genre.

“Wow. A bit surreal. It’s an amazing set, and an amazing show. They’ve worked so hard on it. And thank you to Lady Gaga for her earrings, that’s nice.

All right.  First, I want to say thanks to Vanessa Golitz, the illustrator of my story. It’s an amazing illustration and unfortunately she can’t be here, she’s in Germany, I really wish she could share this stage with me, she really deserves some attention, some appreciation.

So, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped me get to this point.  First and foremost, Shelly, my friend, partner and muse for so many years, I would not be here without you, so thank you.

To my family, particularly my parents, who were “we don’t know what this science fiction thing is, but if you want to be a writer, we’ll support you.”

To Writers of the Future, Galaxy Press, Author Services, the judges, the instructors Tim and Dave, to everyone involved, they work so incredibly hard to make this happen, their hearts and their souls are in it, and it is truly appreciated, thank you very much.

To Clarion West, Cascade Writers, Horrific Miscue Seattle, the Kitsap Writers group, to my editor Beth Meacham and my agent Cameron McClure … that’s so Hollywood, thank you to my agent … thank you, thank you to everybody who has believed in me, supported me, and helped me just to reach this point, and I hope I don’t let you down.

I was just really inspired by what Orson Scott Card said, by what Leland [Melvin] said, and I just wanted to echo that a little bit, and share what I think is one of the most valuable lessons that I have learned as a writer.  And that is that stories truly do have power.  They have the power to shape our lives, they have the power to shape our future.

I’m sure we can all remember the stories we read growing up, or that were read to us, that shaped our perspectives of good and evil, of right and wrong, of masculine and feminine, of so many things that have shaped us, through stories.  And as Leland noted, science fiction stories have inspired the technologies that shape our lives today.

Stories have power.

And I think one of the greatest powers that stories have — well, look at your fellow audience members, and … you’re not looking … okay … and just, in your mind, pick out the person that looks least like yourself, be it age, race, gender, a haircut you would never choose, whatever the case may be, and just imagine that as we leave the theatre this evening, as you walk through that door — ZAP — your consciousness is transferred into their body and their mind.

Tonight you go home to their home.  Tomorrow, you go to their job.  You face the challenges they face, you … perhaps the prejudices they face.  You experience what they experience.  You feel what they feel.  What an amazing experience that would be.  And that sounds like the stuff of magic. That sounds like science fiction.

But that is the power that stories have right now.  That ability to allow you to actually experience someone else’s life.

That is such an amazing power.  I’m geeking out a little bit about it right now, but that is an amazing power!  And as someone once said, with great power comes great responsibility.

And so the thing I wanted to share (get to the point), was, you know, what I’ve learned as a writer is how important it is to look at the world around me with open eyes, an open mind, and compassion in my heart, and to truly see the wonder and the diversity of the world and the people around me, and to try and reflect that in my stories, not just my own experience but the experience of others.

First and foremost because it benefits me as a writer, it is a selfish reason, it makes my stories richer, more original, and potentially reaches a larger audience, so I can’t argue with that.

But I think just as importantly, there are so many people out there whose experiences, story after story, are either ignored or missed, unintentionally perhaps, or they find themselves being badly stereotyped in story after story, and I think being able to put other people’s experiences into our stories is just a very valuable and important thing, because of that power that stories have.

And finally, I would say just support diversity as readers, support a diversity of voices in what you read.  We have so many … Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, N.K. Jemisin … so many amazing, diverse voices coming up in our genre, and so many more in the wings just waiting for you to seek them out.

And I say, seek them out.  Because again, it benefits our genre.  It makes it richer, and creates a genre with so many more unique voices, and we gain in knowledge, and wisdom, and an understanding of our fellow human beings.  And again, that can’t be a bad thing.

And that is the power that stories have.  That is the power we have as writers, as readers, and the opportunity I think we all have together — to write a future, together, that has less inequality, and is just more full of wonder, equally, for everyone.

Thank you.”

 

ACCEPTANCE OF GOLDEN PEN AWARD FOR 2014

“I prepared some thoughts so I wouldn’t pull a Neil Gaiman … although I’d be lucky to be him … you know , really, all I can say is, I would not have wanted to judge this year.  Every single story in that anthology deserved first place, and every single story in that anthology deserved this award.  And of the four … well, except maybe Orson Scott Card, I think he’s doing pretty well and probably doesn’t need the extra boost.

I think of Leena [Likitalo], who taught herself English by reading Robert Jordan and J.R.R. Tolkien, and is writing in a second language and does so so beautifully.  And Megan [O’Keefe], this was her second story she’d ever written that got her first place here, and that just speaks to her scary talent.  And Terry [Madden], just this person of quiet grace, whose stories punch you in the gut.  I would not want to meet her in a literary alley.

I feel completely honored, and I truly appreciate this, and thank you Author Services and Galaxy Press, and I hope to pay it forward.  And thank you, just thank you so much. “

Kitsap Herald Interview

I was interviewed for the North Kitsap Herald about winning the Writers of the Future, my novel, and general writing advice.

http://www.northkitsapherald.com/life...

 

What’s My American Culture and Traditions?

Today is St. Patrick’s day.  I have Irish ancestry (as well as French and German), but my cultural upbringing has been Working Class White American* Consumer.  So what does that mean for me today?

First, let me offer you this list of Irish authors to read: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Now let me wax contemplative:

Given that I have not participated in or promoted Irish politics, culture or progress, I have not learned Gaelic or Irish step dancing or Irish cooking or anything else decidedly Irish, I’d feel like a bit of a fraud “celebrating” my Irish ancestry today. Yet, it makes me wonder, as holidays frequently do, what are MY cultural traditions and heritage as an American?

Traditions are meant to give us a sense of belonging, of kinship, of continuity in a constantly changing world. They give us something to look forward to, and shining moments to remember.

But in America, land of independence, of life in the fast lane and disposable instant trends, where our home-grown holidays are just a chance to have a day off and usually to party, what traditions long survive the American nuclear family as it grows and splits into individual units?  What are the deeper cultural values and traditions we share?  

We are divided politically and are not supposed to have a national religion (and though Christianity dominates, it has a thousand varieties).  We are a nation built of multiple races, ethnicities, and ancestral roots, each possessing its own equally valid and rich identity and heritage, not all equally represented or influential but we are ideally moving in a direction where they are, rather than a direction where we become homogeneous under a single dominant one. We no longer even all watch the same few television channels, listen to the same few radio stations, or read the same handful of books to create a shared pop-cultural identity, let alone cultural identity. 

My grandmother used to make clam chowder every Christmas Eve, for example, and the family would all gather. But as family members were added, lost or moved, as the children grew to have children of their own and had other places to be on Christmas Eve, this tradition fell by the wayside.

Growing up observing the families of recent immigrants, or those who had held onto their “old world” culture, I envied them. “Family” meant 30 or more people gathering and celebrating their culture, their traditions, their personal histories and each other with special foods, music, dances, rituals, games, objects, toasts and more.

Yet, even these families fall prey to the stripping down of tradition and culture as the younger generations raised in America move on to live their own very American lives.

So clearly, traditions and a sense of culture cannot themselves be used as a simple means of creating a sense of belonging or family. And for many, family bonds are simply not something that can be magically created or mended out of dysfunction or absence.

And yet, when you dig down deep, the bond between people is so much of what traditions are really meant to celebrate and strengthen.

Therefore, it is our relationships that must be nurtured outside of the occasional holiday, birthday or wedding for traditions to have real strength, whether with our blood family, our wedded family or our family of friends.

And today’s traditions must be flexible and special enough to achieve this in the realities of the nuclear family, of geographic dispersal, of divorces, of single parents and chosen families; of multiple diverse heritages, orientations, genders and viewpoints.

Perhaps the best we can hope for as Americans, then, are traditions that we celebrate with a few select others (chosen for their importance or relation to us, not their similarity), knowing that these “traditions” are for ourselves, meant to bring us closer in that moment to those we celebrate with, and these “traditions” may not survive us.

So I won’t dress up like a leprechaun today and spill beer across the tee-shirt declaring myself to be Irish, nor celebrate the man who first spread Christianity among the pagan Irish.

But I will perhaps catch up a bit on Irish news, maybe practice a greeting or two in Gaelic, and contemplate the ways in which my Irish ancestry is important to me and perhaps even subtly shapes me.  I will spend the day contemplating what St. Patrick’s Day means to me.  Whatever I learn, I will invite friends and family to celebrate that with me next year.

And most importantly, I will try to spend today, and every day, celebrating my family and friends.  I know I will sometimes fail, being swept up in daily routines and demands, but I will try.

 

 

*I am using the term “American” in the common short-hand to mean one living in the United States.  Native American tribes, and nations other than the U.S. that are on the American continents, each have their own traditions and values that are equally valid and important.