A Probability of Being

I will be attending WisCon40! Here is my schedule for the weekend: YES, Our Stories Matter: Encouragement and Support For Creators With Marginalized Identities Friday, 4pm - 5.15pm, University C Jaymee Goh (M), Riley, Alex Jennings, Mark Oshiro, Susan Simensky Bietila  Marginalization affects our success as creators, oppression impacts our ability to create and can grind us down. At the same time, encouragement can come in many ways, from reader comments to supporting each other as marginalized creators. Let's discuss issues like: Why do you keep creating? When do you know you've touched someone with your art? How do you recharge after a setback? How can we support each other within and between different marginalized groups? When it feels like the whole world is telling you that your story doesn't matter, where do you find the strength to pick up the pen? The Downsides to Maker Culture Sat, 9:00–10:15 pm, Conference 1 Georgie L. Schnobrich (M), Candra K...

In loving memory of Goh Mei Mei, passed 4/4/16

Unlike many other people, I didn't apply several times. I apply only for specific line-ups. 2012 was, as I recall, a "year of Asians" with Hiromi Goto teaching at Clarion West, and Ted Chiang and Marjorie Liu teaching at Clarion. Before that, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant were teaching Clarion West, and I highly respect Small Beer Press and wanted to learn from them about the founding process. In general, I've been quite confident in my own skill and learning ability in writing fiction that I can sell. Clarion and Clarion West are highly competitive, and to be sure, there are very many deserving writers who don't get in. Every rejection I received, I would get bummed, and someone would gently remind me, there are other ways of succeeding in the writing world, among them the slow and steady track I've been working on for myself.  This year, I decided to try for Clarion because the instructor line-up (Kelly Link, Ted Chiang, Andy Duncan, Victor LaValle, Del...

It's  Bill Campbell 's birthday! I am now going to tell you a story about him: I first heard of him through the MOTHERSHIP call for submissions, and I was like "well, cool, but I got nothin' for an Afrofuturist anthology." Was totally going to buy it, though. Then suddenly Bill's in my inbox all, "hey, you wanna send us something?" And I'm like "whut, me??" because at the time, I had nothing, just a ranty blog and one steampunk story, and there wasn't much of a market for steampunk stories set in rather obscure countries back then, but Bill says, "yeah, you" so I send it to him anyway. Next thing I know I'm in a book with people I have crazy respect for like  Nisi Shawl  and  Sofia Samatar  and  Nora Jemisin  and  Silvia Moreno-Garcia . I'm sharing space with people I didn't know like  Minister Faust  and  Ernest Hogan  and  Daniel José Older  and  Chinelo Onwualu  who I hadn't met yet, hadn't ...