Ruthanna Emrys's Blog, page 3

Recent news, and saltcakes

I'm neck deep in terrifying Deep Roots edits, but wanted to share a couple of posts elsewhere:

I joined Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard for the latest episode of Cooking the Books. Also on their site: the long-awaited honeyed saltcake recipe! 

Petra Mayer interviewed me for the NPR Books blog. I may have squeed a little, because NPR.




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Wiscon Schedule

I'll be at Wiscon all weekend, but apparently extremely busy on Saturday:

From Airships to Elder Gods (Reading)

Sat 1:00 - 2:15PM       Michelangelos

Maurice Broaddus, Ruthanna Emrys, S Lynn,  & Anne M. Pillsworth

Tor.com authors and friends deconstruct steampunk, Lovecraftian monsters, and other richly deserving genre tropes. Ruthanna Emrys will read from her new novel Winter Tide. Maurice Broaddus will read from the recently released Buffalo Soldier. Anne M. Pillsworth will read from Redemption's Heir, her Neo-Lovecraftian YA series. Samantha Lynn, a Long Hidden contributor, will read from her suburban Chicago dystopia-in-progress.

 

The Alien vs the Monster         

Sat 2:30 - 3:45PM       University C

Ruthanna Emrys (moderator), T.J. Weyler, & William Paimon

 It has been said that all science fiction stories have four types of characters: the alien, those who believe in the alien, those who don't believe in the alien, and those who want to exploit the alien. If one substituted "monster" for "alien," could one say essentially the same thing about horror stories? If one looks at the elements of science fiction and horror, how is the alien similar to the monster? How does it differ? Is there that much of a difference between the genres, especially when the alien and monster may be one and the same?

 

Lovecraftian Girl Cooties Party

Sat 9:00 – 3:00AM      Room 627

This party will celebrate the release of Ruthanna Emrys's Winter Tide, and the ongoing success of Anne M. Pillsworth's Redemption's Heir series. More generally it will celebrate Neolovecraftian writing that uses the trappings of cosmic horror to deconstruct the genre's foundational bigotry. And tentacles. It's always worth celebrating tentacles! Join us for traditional Innsmouth feast food, eldritch chanting, and good times.

 

And I’ll be at the SignOut on Monday morning! 

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Ask My Characters Anything

Winter Tide comes out on Tuesday, and I should be all over book promotion. But it turns out that having a book coming out in a couple of days is no ward against cramps and fussy toddlers; my motivation has collapsed into a pile of goo.

As a proper market-y person I should remind you that you'll be able to find the book at your favorite local indie store or online megavendor, and that preorders and first-week sales are the lifeblood of debut novels. I should also let you know that I'm launching at East City Books in DC on Wednesday and reading at the Power Plant Barnes and Noble in Baltimore on Saturday, April 8th. I should definitely share a selection of quotes from reviews, or at least tell you about Paul Weimer's lovely piece on the Barnes and Noble site that praises WT's "Lovecraft Family Values."

But what I really want is to do something fun, preferably something that will get my brain into gear and help me warm up for looming edits on Deep Roots. (Having a book coming out in a couple of days is also no ward against deadlines for the next one, alas.) So I'll tell you what: it's time to play Ask My Characters Anything. Rules:

1) You don't have specify which character you're addressing, although you can if you want. No guarantees that if you ask one character a question, another won't answer. 

2) No spoilers except for character name and existence. Characters will be from the Innsmouth Legacy universe but may not actually appear in Winter Tide. (There are some extremely gregarious Outer Ones in Deep Roots, who wish everyone would stop calling them Mi-Go.)

3) Men of the air can only answer questions about the 20th century and their own reasonably accessible history; people who expect a significantly longer lifespan can answer questions well beyond that. Yith can answer questions about anything.

4) This being All Fools Day, answers may not be accurate. Especially if an accurate answer would be a spoiler, or require me to nail down events several million years in the future.





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They're Here!

 I've spent much of today sorting through e-mails, setting up filters to make the flow of suggested actions a little less overwhelming, making phone calls, and starting to get a bit overwhelmed. But look what just came in!




I have been waiting for this box since I saw Back to the Future in the theater, which is exactly as long ago as you think it was (unless you're my age, which, sorry, it was probably longer). It is a box full of books which I wrote and were printed and are now books. They are shiny and beautiful, and several of them have places they need to go that are not my house, but for now I'm an authorial dragon sitting on my hoard.

They've updated the cover quote from the ARC, because Seanan McGuire said extremely nice things:



For everyone trying to squint at that, it says: "This is Wicked for the Cthulhu Mythos: never quite contradicting, but dancing through the shadows and dredging up beautiful things out of the deep."

And it will be in stores in less than a month!

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Other Winter-Tide-Related Plans

In addition to the book launch, I've got a few more appearances scheduled:

May 26-29, Madison WI: Wiscon! I've put in for a Lovecraftian Girl Cooties party and a reading, along with Anne Pillsworth and any other posse members who come too close happen to be in the vicinity and want to join us.  

July 13: Pandemonium Books in Boston.

July 13-16, Boston: Readercon

August 17-20, Providence: Necronomicon. My cover artist, John Jude Palencar, is also going to be there, along with Anne and several other Tor.com Neolovecraftians. What happens when our schedules align, no one can say.

Still working out a couple of other possible book store appearances, and figuring out cons for the Fall. Also to do before April 4th: Hand in Deep Roots, write about a million guest blog posts, get proper Enochian pronunciations to my audiobook reader, check with the Yith to see if they'll loan me a time turner.

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Winter Tide Launch

Winter Tide comes out April 4th!  I'm so excited to share it, and also feel a bit like hiding under the bed.

If you're in the DC area, I'll be holding a launch party at East City Books the night of April 5th. There will be a reading, traditional Innsmouth feast food, and an assortment of knitted and stuffed eldritch abominations. If I'm nervous you may catch me hugging a shoggoth.




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Rogue One (spoilers by implication)

That was definitely the movie I needed to see at the beginning of 2017.

I needed to see a movie about people sacrificing everything for a thin sliver of hope. I needed even more to see this knowing, in context, that the sacrifice would be meaningful.  

They also played their connections with the rest of the long-running universe well, and deeply: there were references that only mattered if you know and love the radio play, characters pulled from the animated series, etc. Star Wars may not be able to make its worldbuilding hang together in a single movie, but they love their continuity. And I love the Disney people for loving it beyond the movies themselves, and particularly for making Leia the active, political, Leia of the radio play, the one who set everything in motion and isn't a prize for anyone but herself. The final scene was a gift in more ways than one. 

The movie has problems. I would have liked more women in the central party than Jyn alone, for a start. But it was the thing I needed to see, and I'm very glad I saw it.

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Dreamwidth mirroring: test post

 This is a test of what happens when I post at Dreamwidth and attempt to crosspost on Livejournal. If you are able, please comment on one or both so I can test that functionality as well.

I am not leaving LJ. However, recent events suggest that back-up and redundancy are good.

ETA: Okay, what happens if I update? And will the link to the original post appear now?

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Arisia Schedule

I'll be at Arisia in two weeks. I'm excited to go--it's my first time since college at one of my favorite cons, and my first time paneling there. I'll be on:


Judaism's Influence on SF/F - Adams    -  Sat 1:00 PM                      

Jewish theology and culture permeates science fiction across all mediums. What effect has Judaism had on the development of SF/F and fandom in general?

Michael A. Burstein (mod), Ruthanna Emrys, A Joseph Ross, Danny Miller, Ariela Housman


How to Be a Fan of Problematic Things – Alcott - Sun 4:00 PM

*Lord of the Rings*. *Stranger in a Strange Land*. *Scott Pilgrim vs. the World*. Many of us like things that are deeply problematic! Liking these works doesn’t (necessarily) make you a jerk. How can we like problematic things and not only be decent people, but good, social justice activists? How does one's background matter? How does one address the problems? This panel will discuss how to own up to the problematic things in the media you like, particularly when you feel strongly about them.

Gwendolyn Grace (mod), Chris Brathwaite, Ruthanna Emrys, Mink Rose, Jared Walske


Grounding Your Audience in a Sensory World – Douglas - Sun 7:00 PM                    

The five senses are appallingly underrepresented in modern fiction. Without sensory information, it's difficult to grab your audience and drag them into your protagonist's body. How do you portray senses other than sight? Can you use it to portray emotion? Where can you scrounge up alternatives for the words see, hear, feel, taste and smell, or 'sixth sense' (psychic intuition)? Come learn how to describe your world in all of its glorious, sensory detail.

Ken Schneyer, Keffy R.M. Kehril, Ruthanna Emrys, Greer Gilman, Sonya Taaffe


Routing Around Cognitive Biases – Alcott - Mon 10:00 AM   

Most of us have a friend who always plays the same lottery numbers, refuses to travel by airplane "because they're not safe," and thinks music was better when they were a kid. Your friend - indeed, most people - suffers from multiple cognitive biases. How do you make people aware of the flaws in their thinking so that they have the critical tools to avoid such biases in the future? What about the more difficult task of identifying your own biases?

Heather Urbanski (mod), Ruthanna Emrys, David G. Shaw, Stephen R Balzac, Andrea Hairston


Aside from that, I'll be wandering around the con taking advantage of their child care, trying not to spend all my money on dealer's row, and giving away "Lovecraftian Girl Cooties Posse" badge ribbons. And catching up with all my friends who very sensibly live in Boston--who's going to be there?

Solstice ARC Giveaway

For Deep Ones, darkness is safety and comfort, the longest night a time of revelation. Honoring the hope of safety, comfort, & revelation, I’m giving away an ARC of Winter Tide for Winter Tide. Share your favorite made-up holiday tradition by 9PM on the 22nd, & I'll pick an entry at random (from here and from Twitter) to get a Winter Tide ARC.

There may also be Deep One recipes tucked into the package, because it's dark and cold & people need feeding.