Skye Allen's Blog, page 8

Queer YA Speculative Fiction reading

I am privileged to be reading at Folio Books in San Francisco on their Queer Words series in the supreme company ofAndrew DemcakandTim Floreen. We’llall read from our LGBTQ+ YA science fiction/fantasy books anddo a Q&A after.

Tuesday 6/21, 7pm
Folio Books
3957 24th St
San Francisco 94114
Free
Refreshments & door prizes

Facebook event

Pretty Peg giveaway

It has been 2 years since Pretty Peg came out! To celebrate the birthday of my first published novel, I’m offeringan e-copytoa lucky reader for free.

Pretty Peg is the story of 17-year-old Josy, a queer plus-sized girl who investigates the murder of her sister — a journeythat takes her from her home in Oakland to the Faerie Realm by way ofsome veryenchantingmusic venues. More about the story here.

To enter: Reply in the comments with a note about your favorite Bay Area band or musician. The w...

BayCon 2016: serious panel, saucy twang

BayCon is coming! Here’s my schedule:

Sunday, May 29

1:00 p.m.

I will be on the panel “Facing the Darkness” with Bret Sweet and moderator Maria Nieto. The description is: “The space to deal with hard subjects (ex. human trafficking, abuse, injustice, war) using fiction/science/dark humor.”Details here.There’s a trigger warning for this one, but please docome by if it feels right and chat with us about our books and the hard topics that matter to us.

4:00 p.m.

BayCon has great music programmin...

Spindrift Gifts review

Aidee Ladnier’s Spindrift Gifts is a sequel to The Klockwerk Kraken, the story of how space pilot Jimenez and bartender Teo met and fell in love. We follow these two completely adorable characters to Teo’s home planet of Celos in Spindrift Gifts, where Jimenez, who was once a slave, undergoes a kind of medical deprogramming.

We meet Teo’s family, all of whom are loving, strong-minded, constantly up in your business, and have tentacles. One of Aidee Ladnier’s strengths is how she integrates al...

Anatomy of an artist statement

Lately I had the supreme good luckto have a poem accepted in the brand-new publication Atmospheric River. It’ll be published with my real name, Skye Alexander (Skye Allen is my fiction pen name). The editors needed an artist statement. I’d never written one of those before.

I found this handy post,“The Artist Statement and Why They Mostly Suck,”at the Bmore Art blog.These instructionswere vastly helpful:

“The essentials of the artist statement are as following:

1. An explanation of the materi...

AWP and BayCon 2016

I’ll be a guest at the AWP Conferencein LA in March, on a panel about queer voicesin YA literature with Andrew Demcak and Michelle Tea and Kaya Oakes.AND I’ll be a repeat guest at BayCon in San Mateo in May. So much fancy brainy stuff to look forward to!

The Galway Shawl

So I was researching some public domain songs for my new book The Songbird Thief and I came across this smoldering version of “The Galway Shawl” with Seamie O’Dowd. I love how he sticks to the traditional melody for the vocal line, but the guitar part changes everything.

Review: A Little Bit Langston by Andrew Demcak

I’m a fan of Andrew Demcak — I reviewed his book Ghost Songs here a while back —and I was très trèsexcited about the release earlier this month ofA Little Bit Langston, his new YA sci-fi novel.

A Little Bit Langston starts off in your head. No, YOUR head, the head of an LA teenager who has a learning disability and a demanding, self-absorbed mother and a bubbling volcano of feelings for his best friend. Or at least the book starts in the head of someone you love. James, the main character, is...

Spindrift Gifts by Aidee Ladnier

Today is the release day ofSpindrift Gifts by Aidee Ladnier! This is Book 2 in the series started with The Klockwerk Kraken.Aidee will be a guest blogger here on Dec 20. Here’s a teaser about the new story.

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When his memories begin endangering his happily-ever after on Celos, Jimenez is forced to choose between forgetting his lover Teo, or accepting the sometimes painful gifts of Spindrift.

Scars and a tattoo may be the only physical reminders from his years as a slave, but when Jimenez suff...

Spindrift Gifts Giveaway!

Aidee Ladnier’s new book Spindrift Gifts was released last week. And lucky readers, one of you is going home with your very own copy!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post. I’ll pick a winner at random next Sunday, December 27. Which is just about the time you’ll be wishing you had a good holiday-themed read to get you through the rest of the weekend.

I’m about halfway through this wonderful story myself and I just had to share an excerpt. There’s still time to pick it up as a h...