Calling All Problem Daughters!

Hello, hello dear Reader! Happiest of New Years! It’s so good to see you again! What? Where have I been, you ask? Nowhere. Everywhere. I can’t say. There’s no time. Shut up!

Something wonderful has happened,  dear Reader! In the time since we last spoke, I have undergone a marvelous transformation. I have become… an EDITOR!!!

I’m pleased to announce that I will be co-editing (with Rivqa Rafael and Djibril al-Ayad) Problem Daughtersa brand-spanking-new anthology of Feminist speculative fiction forthcoming from the Future Fire.

But this ain’t your mom’s Feminist speculative fiction anthology! (Or maybe it totally is.) Here’s our brief:

Problem Daughters will amplify the voices of women who are sometimes excluded from mainstream feminism. It will be an anthology of beautiful, thoughtful, unconventional speculative fiction and poetry around the theme of intersectional feminism, with a specific focus on the lives and experiences of women of colour, QUILTBAG women, disabled women, sex workers, and any intersection of these.

Sound cool? We think so, too. Female agency isn’t something invented by middle-class North Americans in the mid-to-late  20th century, after all.  Empowered women have always existed, across culture and across time. And they have lived millions and billions of lives, and carried entire communities on their backs.

Not all women choose to express their agency in the same way, and not all feminists share the same vision of the world. We want to bring you lots of sparkling new sci-fi and fantasy tales filled with bold, actively compelling heroines unlike any you’ve met before!

Help us bring them to you a little faster. Check out our freshly launched fundraiser here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/problem-daughters-fantasy-feminism/x/10044963#/

We’re up to our ears in kick-ass perks! Head on over and pick out something you like. There’s something for everyone:

You’ll be able to pre-order  Problem Daughters in whatever format you may desire (there’s even a super-limited edition hardcover with personalized insert, custom  crocheted bookmark and numbered bookplate, signed by the editors. How cool is that?! Only three of these  left in the whole wide world! Make one of them yours!)

We’ve got complete canon book bundles for all you Future Fire fans of all Future Fire titles (including  Accessing the Future, home of my space opera Pirate Songs). For you book collectors, we have a  signed and personalized hardcover of Sofia Samatar’ s new book The Winged  Histories , the story of four “problem daughters” seeking not just to survive war, but to be remembered by history.

For all of you  writers  wanting to give your short fiction that extra edge, we’ve got short story critiques and coaching sessions aplenty,  from acclaimed authors as well as editors, so you can see how this short fiction racket works from both sides of the slush pile (you can even get your story critiqued by one of the Problem Daughters editors, if you’re interested to know what kinds of  stories knock our socks off). And the television writer seeking an experienced set of eyes on her pilot or spec script can win herself a comprehensive script critique (not to mention usable and practical advice) from a 20- year industry veteran.

We’ve got some simply fucking adorable, very limited edition  and completely custom-made crocheted “Problem Daughter” dolls. Have one created for you in the likeness of any historical problem daughter you wish. Crocheted Lady Godiva doll, anyone? I wonder if she’ll come with her own little crocheted horse? Get ’em while they’re hot. Only two remain.

If you really feel like digging deep and helping this beautiful book get made, 5-time Bram Stoker winner Nancy Holder needs a name for a very complex and important character (well, a character, anyway) in her next book, and she wants to use yours! In the biz, we call it a Tuckerization.  Act quickly, and you could be a character in the next Teen Wolf. Or Buffy novel. Or something entirely new and equally cool!

I can’t tell you any of these awesome perks will go unclaimed for long, but there’s more perks to come, so stay tuned! I’ve heard rumblings of signed art prints, and super exclusive batches of a certain writer’s rare-breed grape jam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hooray for Locus, Ellen Kushner, and Early Reviews!

So, holy crap! The people have cast their votes. The Locus Award finalists are in, and it appears that the home of my very first pro sale, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History has made the shortlist for Best Anthology!

That’s some truly head-exploding news for a baby writer to wake up to. It’s been over a year, and I still feel dizzyingly fortunate to have been a part of something as varied and wonderful as Long Hidden. To discover that other people find it to be  as utterly full of wonders as I do…  well, that’s just the most beautiful and sparking icing on the cake I can think of.

Very few people can say that their first paid work as a writer found a home in such company as Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Sarah Pinsker, Ken Liu, Thoraiya Dyer, Christina Lynch… and even fewer people can say that their first paid work was part an anthology so well-appreciated that it incited its readers to want to bestow on it something  they’d normally only give to that Song of Ice and Fire guy.

Needless to say, I’m crazy humbled. Congratulations to all my Long Hidden betters, in particular to the radiant Sofia Samatar, whose absolutely wonder-stuffed, “Ogres of East Africa” is up for Best Short Story. Good luck everyone. In the words of the marginalized poet, Fezzik the Giant: “Inigo… I hope we win!”

In other writerly news, the order period for the e-book Angels of the Meanwhile has been extended for one glorious month. You now have until June 1st to order this eclectic and beautifully strange volume of prose, poetry, and short fiction. And, good God, if we’re gonna talk about icing, another one of my favorite living authors, Ellen Kushner, has added her prose piece to the table of contents! How cool is that? I’ll tell you. It’s ridiculously cool. It’s a dog-pile of cool.

So, for the price of your choosing, you get poetry by the shimmering Catherynne M. Valente, (oh my God!!), prose by the unbeatable Ellen Kushner (oh my God, folks, oh my God!!!) a new story by me (it’s a nice, short one) and tons of other cool works, both new and previously published. Here’s the link again, for those of you who need it. Just ignore the place where it tells you the pre-order ends May 1st. JUNE 1st is your date. Go and do it!

http://alexandraerin.dreamwidth.org/638796.html

Also, most nerve-wrackingly, the reviews have already started to trickle in for Accessing the Future. I’m sure it will all be very exciting, once I stop hyperventilating and shake the feeling back into my legs. Before I go, check out this early shout-out from Publishers Weekly! Nice work Future Crew, we snagged a star! (my pirates earned themselves a little mention, too!)

http://publishersweekly.com/pw/reviews/single/978-0-9573975-4-5