For Your Consideration

It's that time of year again, to WillSmith dot jpg at my stories from 2019 for award consideration, including the Sir Julius Vogel Awards, Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, and the Otherwise Award (formerly Tiptree). In a lovely piece of serendipity, I will be able to attend the award ceremonies for all of them next year!

These are listed in chronological order:

• "Hearts Made Marble, Weapons Shaped From Bone" - Apparition Lit, Issue 5 "Resistance", January 15, 2019
  Unicorns aren't as put together as myth makes them out to be - it takes near annihilation for them to find their truth, strength, and anger.
  
• "Hunger's Truth" - Giganotosaurus, April 2019
  People with an X chromosome - not just women - have evolved a taste for man-flesh. Their sharp teeth have been blunted by the patriarchy, and Danyor must struggle with dentures, detainment, and daddy as revolution rises.
  
• "With God As Our Witness" - Lackingtons, Issue 19 Voyages, May 14, 2019
  Knights with genital embossed armour fly by dragon to meet God on the moon. Every mission before has failed, until Ser Serena comes along with A Plan.
  
• "Power Chord" - Capricious, July 31, 2019
  Punks in space! Surl must play the performance of her life with a guitar keyed to ignite the giant fusion engines of the Gilman, a generation ship taking an anarchist collective to the stars. 

News roundabout these parts

It's been a busy couple of months in these here writerly parts.

Edits for "The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper" and "No Man's Land" have been completed and handed in. "Cinrak" is now heading into the formatting stage and ARCs will be made available soon. If you'd like an eARC for reviewing purposes, contact me or editor Catherine Lundoff at Queen of Swords Press.

I'll have more details soon about my World War 2 land girl shapeshifters novella "No Man's Land", I'm just waiting for ducks to line up. When I have release date (hopefully May 2020), cover art, and ARCs to share, I'll be shouting about it.

Recent events I've done Word volunteering duties for include Zadie Smith and Behrouz Boochani. Working crowd control for Zadie Smith was enlightening, giving me the chance to watch a star author at the top of their game interacting with readers. And the Boochani event was incredibly emotional - I hope New Zealand can find it's way to grant asylum to him.

In October, I traveled to Wellington to be a part of the double book release by Paper Road Press for "Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Speculative Fiction Volume 1", which includes my story "Logistics", and Andi Buchanan's brilliant "From a Shadow Grave". A good time was had reading in the shadow of the Beehive, and both Year's Best and "From a Shadow Grave" made the following week's Top Ten New Zealand Fiction Sellers.

I was flattered to be part of a group of local wordsmiths creating the Word Up Cabaret in late November. Local storyteller The Unicorn brought together poets, spoken word artists, songwriters, and authors to perform a buffet of beautiful prose over a few nights. The night I performed, I read one of my unicorn stories (not related to our generous host). It was a fun experience, one I need more practice at for next year!

I've started planning a big travel event for May 2020, including Wiscon (finally!) and the Nebula conference. I'm hoping I'll be able to do a book release and readings at Wiscon. Let me know if you're going to be at either conference.

Worldcon 2020 planning is also underway. At least I don't have to travel so far for this major event! I hope to take part in some interesting panels and readings. I'm looking forward to sharing Wellington with all my writer friends, and Aotearoa New Zealand speculative fiction with the world.

Overall, 2020 is going to be a big year of travel, promotion, and book releases, a big new step for me. And I have to fit my regular writing schedule in there too! I'm looking forward to the challenge. I really want to up my game.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of my cat Bug:

A black and white tuxedo cat sits on a window ledge enjoying sunshine

Why Capybara?

Since I've started giving the quick pitch on my upcoming short story collection "The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper" (Queen of Swords Press, April 2020) - dapper lesbian capybara pirate captain and the magical adventures of her queer found family - one of the first reactions is delighted chuckles at the idea of a capybara protagonist.

Why a capybara (latin: Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris; reader, remember this because there will be a test!)?

Blogging Revival

Kick it in the guts, Trev.

2020 is shaping up to be The Year of Everything, and I gotta be prepared for it.

A few years back, I used to blog about anything my mind settled on, and I found it used to take up a lot of writing mental energy I should have been directing towards my fiction work. So I cut this blog back to the information basics only.

Next year I'll have two, TWO, books out, will be be travelling to Wiscon, attending Worldcon in Wellington (hooray for a Worldcon in my backyard), and doing all sorts of book release and promo (personal and NZ community) things. And that's outside of my writing plans for the year!

So I've decided to revive this blog to help out with the publicity, and put me on that marketing learning curve, for "The Voyages of Cinrak The Dapper" (Queen of Swords Press, April) and "No Man's Land" (Paper Road Press, May). I aim to post at least once or twice a month. I've yet to decide whether I keep content on this blog or create a newsletter, but I'll have something in place in the next week or so.

If there's anything you'd like me to post about, drop a suggestion in comments. I plan to put out my first post up at the start of October.

To quote Rik the Anarchist, let's get on this last freedom moped to Nowhere City!

[Image: a silver and white kitten playing a red guitar]
ROCK 'N ROLL! \m/

The Cover: "The Voyages of Cinrak The Dapper", coming April 2020

Baby's First Cover Reveal!

I feel like I've hit the jackpot on my first book cover art. An enormous thanks to Dian Huynh for my beautiful star lit Cinrak. Lettering by Terry Roy.

"The Voyages of Cinrak The Dapper" will be released in April 2020 by Queen of Swords Press and is a collection of stories about Cinrak and her Ratdom pals. There's Loqui, her marmot soprano diva lover, the rat queen Orvillia who is the other part of their ethical poly triad, Benj the trans boy chinchilla and his kraken friend Agnes, a mysterious rainbow whale, and lots of unionized pirate shenanigans.

Shenanigans!

Cover for "The Voyages of Cinrak The Dapper". A silhouette of a capybara
stands against a blue and purple star field, with a pirate ship floating through its center.

Baby's First Year's Best

Reprint sale!

Coming November 2019, Paper Road Press will be publishing 'The Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume 1'.

My tampons in the apocalypse story 'Logistics' has been chosen to appear in the collection. Check out the rest of the awesome ToC here, a line up of great NZ short speculative fiction authors working today.

The cover art is by Emma Weakley, whose work I love.

Cover For Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasty: Volume 1
Dark yellow and blue organic machinery intertwining.

Coming in 2020: The Adventures of Cinrak, Capybara Pirate

The character who started out as a prompt for a competition is going to become a book!

I'm delighted to announce that Cinrak the Dapper, Lesbian Capybara Pirate is being turned into a collection of short stories which will be published by Queen of Swords Press in May 2020.

Cinrak and her crew of furry mammalian misfits first appeared in "The Wild Ride of the Untamed Stars", Beneath Ceaseless Skies,  May 2018. Then she made new friends in "Search For The Heart of the Ocean", Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space) from Queen of Swords Press, December 2018.

Editor Catherine Lundoff was so enamored by my rodent rapscallions, she wanted more!

I'll have more details later, like the title and book cover reveal. And if you're going to Wiscon 2020, there is a distinct possibility I'll be there to love up my newly released collection.

Get ready for lots of queer capy and ratties, interspecies kraken-whale love, strange magics, pirate unions, and sentient falling stars, with Cinrak the Dapper, Lesbian Capybara Pirate, May 2020!

A dapper capybara. Not Cinrak, but I love this art.
Artist: Ryan Berkley

This Week In our Terrible History...And I Made The Tiptree Award Longlist.

It's been a devastating week in the history of my city, country, and the world. The undercurrent of white supremacy in Aotearoa has been writ large upon our local Muslim community.

I stand with the people of my city who have had this violence and pain inflicted upon their lives, and thoroughly reject Islamophoba and racism. I have been speaking (nay, raging) about the history, ignorance, and carelessness that created the ground on which this hate flourished on other platforms and venues. Basically, everyone is getting their ear bent whether they like it or not because it's about damn time Aotearoa had a reckoning with their racist white colonialist roots and the hegemonic system they are a part of. I am in no way perfect, but I am always learning and bettering myself.

Listen to the Muslim voices on this subject, as they have long been speaking about the hate and violence, the marginalization and dehumanization they face.

I am encouraged by the swift steps the government has taken to ban various guns and accessories. The quiet, firm leadership Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shown is a model of kindness and compassion other world leaders could learn from. I am heartened by the love and support my country has shown our fellow citizens in the Muslim community. And I'm gearing up for some hard arguments and big reckonings; from the media, to politicians and the system at large, to the everyday person, there will be accountability and change for good.

The sunshine behind the thunderstorm is something I've had on my Writing Things list. This year's Tiptree Awards winner, honours list, and long list has been announced, and "Logistics" made the long list. I am thrilled to be a part of the award that recognizes excellence in the "exploration and expansion of gender", and is named after one of my author heroes.

Congratulations to this year's winner Gabriela Damián Miravete. From the honours list, I'm stoked kiwi editor Andi Buchanan has been recognized for their work on the Diverse Pronouns issue of Capricious Magazine, and Keffy Kehrli tapped for his work on Glittership Year Two (which contains my Freddie Mercury tribute story "Granny Death And The Drag King Of London").

Yay me!

And Be Excellent To Each Other.

Fighting The Power With Stories

The last two years have been a rough ride politically, what with *gestures at the world*. As I expected. And didn't expect. I thought I was ready for the resistance, but it's been a hell of a 99 degree uphill climb.

I've been in two writing modes. Writing stories of resistance against the kyriarchy, or writing fun fluff which somehow ends up with themes of fighting the kyriarchy anyway.

Recently on the fun fluff side, I've had another River City story published in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, issue 73. "Alexandra, Braiding A New Life Beside The Old Braided River, Wigs and Silks And All" carries on the tradition of long, fun titles from River City, and tells the story of the circus's favourite stylist, tea connoisseur, and bearded lady as she starts a new career.

Also in River City, I DID A THING. In 2018, I set myself the task of bringing River City together into a full book-length collection of stories, fleshing out different characters and adventures with Chifwe, Ba Luen, and the crew. I delivered the first draft to myself a week late, but it is DONE. Now all it needs is good editing, rewrites, and a place called home.

2019 has got off to a great start, as I've recently sold three resistance stories.

"Hearts Made Marble, Weapons Shaped From Bone" has just been released in the January issue of Apparition Lit, aptly subtitled "Resistance". My stabby stabby unicorn tale was written in the week after the inauguration in 2016, and it shows.

"Power Chord" is a 2 minute 30 second scream ode to punk anarchists in space. It will appear in an issue of Capricious SF this year.

And "With God As Our Witness" has been picked up by Lackingtons for their "Voyages" issue. Knights riding battle snails with their armoured dicks out to meet God on the moon? It's an absurdist piece I wrote after seeing a Twitter discussion about weird motifs in medieval tapestries that get no literary love. I chucked in dragons and the matriarchy for good measure.

And nomination reminders: The Nebulas, Hugos, and SJVs are now all open for award nominations. If anyone is considering any of my 2018 work, check out my bibliography. Links are all there. I am ESPECIALLY proud of "Logistics" from the April Clarkesworld.