Kassandra Jo Tomaras's Blog, page 5

2016 in Review

Good grief, what a year.

Ordinarily I am not very much invested in celebrity culture. But from the tears that came unexpectedly to eye when a local DJ played "Blackstar" recently, it has become clear to me that I never properly, fully mourned David Bowie. He directly and indirectly (through his influences on Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Joy Division, and so many more artists) formed much of my aesthetic sensibility, not only in terms of his primary genre--the music I listen to--but in the sense o...

Cuba after 57 Years of Fidel: Socialist Barbarism at Its Best (So Far)

The Marxist hypothesis (as distinct from Alain Badiou's Communist Hypothesis, which upon closer examination turns out to be neither communist nor hypothetical, but Neo-Platonist) was grounded in material reality and therefore potentially falsifiable. The most concise statement of it in Marx's own words can be found in his 1852 letter to Joseph Weydemeyer:

that the existence of classes is only bound up with particular historical phases in the development of productionthat the class struggle nec...

Red Cat, Green Bag

I guess the cat is out of the bag, or at least, the cat has stuck its head out of the bag and started meowing. A quick summary is that the Maine Green Independent Party (to date, the only minor party registered with the State of Maine, though it looks like the Libertarians will start winning their appeals soon) is now pissing itself in public. The only Green candidate in the entire state who braved Maine's ballot access requirements--more restrictive for minor parties than for unregistered in...

A Pocket Update

I have a new story knocking on my brainpan, and ideas for political essays and polemics hanging on the vine, but work and family life leave just enough time and energy for self-promotion, or rather, promotion of others who like my shit:If you are the sort of person who uses Apple-branded electronic devices for reading, you may wish to download the Great Jones Street app. As advertised, it will put short stories in your pocket. Right now, that includes a lot of stories by Ken Liu, which is rea...

Libidinal Economies & Dialogic Functions

My flash fiction "The Libidinal Economy of the Suburbs" is now available to be read on the FLAPPERHOUSE website.

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has posted an interview with me about "Caribou: Documentary Fragments". My answer to the first question may become my standard answer to any question in the form "tell us a bit about," but it does get more informative and, I hope, interesting after that.

Oversized Rock

My wife is in a discussion group for parents of gifted children, and the topic of Simon's Rock College came up. Since I attended SRC, she asked if I wanted to chime in. The result is too long for the venue in which the discussion is being held, so I am posting it on my blog so that it can be linked to. My wife asked if it wasn't a bit too self-revealing for sharing with strangers, and I reminded her that I am a writer. Even if the things I publish are nominally "fiction," I am in the business...

Big News (2 pieces)

To the left is the cover of the forthcoming May/June 2016 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which, it has been confirmed to me, will include my short story "Caribou: Documentary Fragments". And thus begins my career of being one of the "and others". Though it is an honor to be one of the "others" in an issue that features a story by the legendary Ted Chiang.

In other news, you may want to check out the website of the Socialist Caucus of Maine. Yes, there are socialists in Mai...

2015 Nebula Award Ballot

For the first time as a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, I am about to cast a ballot for the Nebula Awards. Here it goes:

Novel: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

None of the books I nominated made it to the final ballot in this category. Of the books that did, Jemisin's The Fifth Season is by far my favorite. My main complaint about it was that it did not seem to have enough, in its 450-ish pages, to justify that length. My fear is that one novel's worth of character...

Meta-Anthology 2015

This year's Meta-Anthology is derived from Pushcart Prize XL, The Best American Short Stories 2015, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, and The Best American Mystery Stories 2015. I also bought a copy of The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015, but I noticed when I checked the copyright information for the stories that they had mostly been published in 2013, whereas the other collections contained stories from 2014, so to maintain some consistency I will not be including stories from...

Hugo Nominations Ballot

I am about to submit my Hugo Award nominations ballot. It is very similar to my tentative Nebula Award nominations ballot, so this post will summarize the differences rather than walk through every category.

Best Novel

Unlike the Nebula, the Hugo uses ranked choice voting, so the order of works on your ballot actually matters. I put Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan in the 4-spot, bumping Slade House down to 5 and knocking Laurus off the list.Best Short Story

Another difference between the Hugo...