Cheryl Morgan's Blog

My World Fantasy Schedule

The final programme for World Fantasy has now been published. You can find it here.

I have one program item (that is fairly standard for World Fantasy which has way too many professionals in the membership to give people more than one slot). It is as follows:

Friday Oct. 30th, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – Edinburgh Room

Fantasy and Horror in Translation: Fantasy and Horror stories are written all over the world. Our panel discusses works that have been translated into English, how those translations have been received and what more can be done to bring the rich narratives of the world to greater audiences.

Cheryl Morgan (chair) with Eliza Claudia F, Liliana Carstea & K.A.Teryna

I don’t know my panelists, but I’m pretty sure I know what we’ll end up talking about.

In addition there will be this.

Saturday Nov. 1st, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Balmoral Room

Launch: Wizard’s Tower Press: Wizard’s Tower Press are launching: The Green Man’s Holiday by Juliet E. McKenna, Of the Emperor’s Kindness by Chaz Brenchley and Wiz Duo Book 3 by Ruthana Emrys & Andrew Knighton.

Chaz can’t be there, but he will be ably represented by his agent, John Jarrold. Roz and Jo will be there as editors of the Wiz Duos series. And I’m hoping that EM Fauds and Juliet Kemp will be there too in case anyone doesn’t have a copy of Wiz Duo #2 yet.

There will be wine, obviously. And because it is an afternoon event there will be tea, cofffe and cake. Jo will be baking. I might too if I have time, but if I do it will have to be something like bara brith because I’m not going home after BristolCon.

I’ve done a little promo video:

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A Kickstarter Campaign

So, here we go again. I’m trying to fund a new anthology with a Kickstarter campaign. There’s a good reason why I am doing this. I want to be able to offer authors a good rate for their stories. I can’t put the money up myself because the chances of getting it back are not good. Fight Like A Girl #2 has done incredibly well award-wise, but it has sold fewer then 150 copies. That’s a measure of how hard things are for a small press these days. Using crowdfunding will hopefully mean we sell more copies, and that we can pay the authors something closer to professional rates.

Of course running a Kickstarter campaign isn’t easy. A lot of them fail to meet their targets. And as soon as one goes live you are absolutely deluged with emails from scammers trying to sell you their expertise. Many of them claim to be associated with Kickstarter. They are not. One offered me a $30,000 investment if I paid him $300. I’m only trying to raise £5,500. It is bizarre.

However, the scammers will get victims because doing a successful Kickstarter campaign is hard. It was difficult enough when Twitter was useful, but now that the social media environment is so fragmented, and so many people are terrified about the rise of Facism, it is massively more so. I don’t expect to succeed without effort.

But there is a plan. Because the anthology will be about Welsh history and legend, we will be running regular updates showcasing how weird that stuff is. Most days I will post an update, either written by me or by someone else associated with the campaign, about some person or creature that might feature in a story in the book. I am hoping that these updates will draw people to the campaign page just to read them, and that some of those people will decide to pledge.

That’s the plan, anyway. But I will also be begging people to pledge on a fairly regular basis, because that is absolutely necessary. You can do so here.

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Queer Lit Quarterly

The lovely Pete from Gayberystwyth Books runs a quarterly literary event for queer writers at Aberystwyth University. This quarter I am one of the guest authors. (Yes, I know, I will mostly be talking about the queer people I publish, but I might read something too.)

The chances are that most of you will not be able to be in Aberystwyth next week, but I do know a couple of people who teach at the university, so a blog post is in order.

Full details of the event are available here.

And yes, that is the 10th, which is the day before Octocon. This month is a bit crazy.

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My Octocon Schedule

October is very convention-heavy, and the programme assignments are starting to come in. On Sunday 12th I will be attending Octocon (virtually). Here’s what I will be up to:

11:30 – Historical Myths and How to (Not) Use Them

When writing a story based on a myth or legend or on ‘true’ history, how do you resist the temptation to pull it forward to the current day in the hope of making it new and fresh? And when you do want to set your story in its original time period, how do you make it your own while keeping it relevant and interesting for a modern audience, at the same time as staying true to the source?

With Jean Bürlesk (moderator), Finn McLellan and Gillian Polack

16:00 – Small Press, Big Books!

Often the most beloved and most surprising works come from small press publishers. These are the folks who bring forth unique books in some of the hardest to find subgenres. Join us as we celebrate the tiny mighty publishers of the world.

With Francesca T Barbini, Catherine Sharp (moderator), Khan Wong and Jo Zebedee

Online memberships for Octocon are still available at a mere €20. Full details here.

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Two New Books

I’m not going to be at Worldcon. Frankly it wouldn’t be safe for me to travel to the USA these days, even if I was allowed to. However, had I been able to be there, I would have had two new books available. Instead I have been targeting Carmarthen Pride, where I will have a small stall. Not quite the same audience, but hopefully I will sell a few books (and it costs me a lot less to be there).

What new books?, you may be asking. Well, if you haven’t been following the social media, here’s a quick introduction to The Jicker Man and The Sea-Stone Sword, both of which are currently on pre-order.

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Speculative Insight Seeking Pitches

Alex Pierce has been in touch to let me know that, in September, Speculative Insight will be open to pitches from authors of Indigenous, Asian, Maori, Pacific Islander, Latinx and Black heritage. Any essays purchased will be published from March 2026 onwards.

Alex says:

How to pitch

Between 1 and 30 September, email editor[at]speculativeinsight.com with:

the subject line “Pitch for Speculative Insight;”your name;a 150-200 word pitch, explaining your essay’s focus;a brief explanation for why your idea is a fit for Speculative Insight (see this page for further details about the journal); anda statement confirming that writing your pitch did not involve the use of LLM / AI, and that if accepted your essay will likewise not use LLM / AI.

What we are looking for:

essays that focus on science fiction and/ or fantasy;essays about specific books, authors, or themes across a number of books;thoughtful, rigorous, and analytical essays (footnotes not compulsory but welcomed);including a personal response is welcomed, within an analytical framework

We are not looking for:

essays about television, films or comics;an essay entirely about your own work.

Other vital information:

finished essays will be 2000-3000 words in length;payment is AUD 5c/word up to AUD$150, via PayPal;deadlines are negotiable;we aim to respond within a month of receiving a pitch.The post Speculative Insight Seeking Pitches first appeared on Cheryl's Mewsings.

An Academic Paper

I have been attending quite a few academic confderences this year. Several of them have been queer history events, at which I have been talking about a project I have been undertaking in collaboration with my friend Professor Margarita Vaysman who is a lecturer in Russian Literature at Oxford. The work concerns the life of the 19th Century Russian trans man, Aleksandr Aleksandrov. Last year I wrote about some amazing third party accounts of Aleksandrov’s life which make his self-identification as a man abundantly clear. English translations of those accounts were published on the queer history blog, Notches.

I am pleased to report that those tranlsations have now found their way into the first ever issue of a new Academic Journal, Slavic Queer Studies. It is an open-access journal, and you can find the article, plus links to the rest of the issue, here.

While Notches is peer-reviewed, it tends to get a little less academic respect than actual journals, so I am very pleased to this actual publication to my name.

Assuming all goes well (and who knows what craziness the Tangerine Tyrant will come up with next), Margarita and I will also have a paper in Trans Studies Quarterly in January.

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Gender Stories in Bristol

Bristol Museum is currently running an exhibition called Gender Stories. The blurb says:

Challenging rigid definitions and binary narratives, Gender Stories dives deep into the intricate connections between sex, gender, sexuality, and identity. Discover how these fluid, and multifaceted ideas have been mythologised, stereotyped, expressed – and sometimes concealed – through art, history, politics, and daily life over time.

The exhibition includes work by David Hockney, Rene Matic, Zanele Muholi, Catherine Opie, Grayson Perry, and Del LaGrace Volcano.

In addition the fabulous Jack Shoulder is hosting LGBTQIAP+ tours of the museum. Jack and Mark Small are the team behind the wonderful Museum Bums book, so you can be guaranteed an entertaining tour. Dates are listed here.

And why am I telling you all this? Because on September 24th I will be appearing on a panel associated with the exhibition. The panel is titled ‘Gender, Identity, Culture, and Future – a frank panel discussion’. Appearing with me will be Sid Boyner (artist), Sacha Acheson (former England women rugby player), Ben Akers (CEO of a men’s mental health charity) and Dr Sarah Jones (historian of sexuality and gender, University of Bristol). Tickets are a mere £5, and you can buy them here.

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The Doctor Thing

Yesterday Kevin and I spent the day at the University of Exeter where I was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws. Obviously I have known about this for some time, but the university asked me to keep it very much under wraps until the award had actually been made. I’m sure you can understand why.

The staff at the university took incredibly good care of us, including first class rail travel from London to Exeter, and then Exeter to Swansea. This made Kevin very happy. We had the Sunday in Exeter to relax, and then a day of being fêted. The graduation ceremony itself is a little mediaeval, in that everyone gets dressed up in academic robes, but other than that isn’t much different from an award ceremony. I did have to make a speech. It seemed to go down well.

I must admit that, when I first got notification of the award, I assumed that they had got the wrong person. But they insisted that they did mean me. I do have a few friends who are professors at Exeter whom I have worked with, and this may have had some influence on the decision.

I do know that there are many people in the trans community who deserve such recognition far more than I do. However, much of my trans activism has been done in an academic environment, which I guess is how I got noticed. Hopefully other folks will get recognised too in due course.

Somewhat to my disappointment, you do not get your own sonic screwdriver, or a second heart, just for becoming a Doctor. You do get a fancy certificate, and some letters after your name. I won’t be using my title much, except at academic conferences and when harranguing government over trans rights issues.

Anyway, my huge thanks to everyone at Exeter for what was an amazing day. I’m not sure if it has entirely sunk in yet, but I guess I will get used to it.

If you want to see what they said about me, I have a mention in this year’s Graduation Brochure (alongside Caroline Lucas, whom I got to meet again yesterday). And if you really want to see the ceremony itself you can find it here. My bit starts at about 79 minutes in.

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My Archipelacon 2 Programme

The programme for Archipelacon 2 is now online. Here’s what I am doing.

Thursday 26, 17:00 – Main Auditorium
On Writing – I am chairing a discussion on the craft of writing with Guests of Honour Emmi Itäranta, Jeff VanderMeer & Mats Strandberg

Friday 27, 10:00 – Ramso
Strange Women Lying in Ponds – my contribution to the Fafnir Anniversary Symposium, an expanded version of my talk on lake ladies from the AWWE conference earlier this year.

Friday 27, 13:00 – Rysso
Worldbuilding with Queer Animals – a new and revised version of my talk on queerness in nature, and how it can be used to inform our worldbuilding.

Friday 27, 14:00 – Kapten
Indie Publishers Unite – a discussion on publishing translated works through small presses, with J.S. Meresmaa & Saara Henriksson

Saturday 28, 15:00 – Small Auditorium
Myths & Marvels: Scandinavian Influences in Fantasy and Sci-Fi – a panel with Saga Bolund, Rimma Erkko, Ada Palmer and special guest star, Fenris Puppy

Sunday 29, 10:00 – Small Auditorium
Ann VanderMeer Publishing Q&A – Ann and I talk about being a small press publisher and how to get published.

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