Katherine Fabian

50K on Project: Get Shit First Novel Written, Damn It! *\o/*, as we say on the internet.

holyschist has a really great, informative round of up links to do with #yesGayYA -- there's a lot going on in this conversation, and it's interesting, if rather painful, to watch how people with power hide behind the notion of ineffable market forces.



This post is not about microeconomics. It's about why my heart hurts whenever I try to focus on this discussion.



I want kids. I plan to have kids. The woman I plan to have kids with once told me -- brimming over with delight -- that if we split up and both ended up with other women, our kids would have four mummies. (We've decided to keep this as a backup, rather than Plan A.)

My kids' lives will be shaped by the stories we tell each other -- in books and TV and film and music and casual conversation and epic poetry and my half-hearted attempts to inculcate some Jewishness in them -- and they will learn about life through imagination and experience.

I don't know my kids yet. I haven't met them. I don't know anything about them, apart from that I hope to love them with all my heart. But whoever my kids are, I want them to see themselves in the stories they hear. All their lives, I want them to have stories that include them and their friends and their family (however many mothers it contains...). And, just as much, I want them to have stories about people they've never met and points of view they've never considered and joys they didn't know existed to reach for.

I want that for my kids at all their ages, whoever they turn out to be, whoever they turn out to love. I want them to know that they and everyone else have a place in the stories we tell, the happinesses and sorrows we imagine. I want that when they're five, when they're fifteen, when they're fifty.

And I can't do that alone.

I'm so excited by the newly announced table of contents for Steam-Powered II: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories, ed. JoSelle Vanderhooft!

Introduction: Kevin Steil (of Airship Ambassador)

Journey's End: Elizabeth Porter Birdsall
Amphitrite: S.L. Knapp
In the Heart of Yellow Mountain: Jaymee Goh
Playing Chess in New Persepolis: Sean Holland
A Thousand Mill Lofts Gray: Jeannelle Ferreira
Dark Horse: A.M. Tuomala
The Return of Cherie: Nisi Shawl
One Last Interruption before We Begin: Stephanie Lai
Selin That Has Grown in the Desert: Alex Dally MacFarlane
Granada's Library: Rebecca Fraimow
The Canary of Candletown: C.S.E. Cooney
Fruit Jar Drinkin', Cheatin' Heart Blues: Patty Templeton
Deal: Nichole Kornher-Stace
Not the Moon but the Stars: Shveta Thakrar
The Terracotta Bride: Zen Cho

Article/Afterword: Winding Down the House: Taking the Steam out of Steampunk: Amal El-Mohtar

So many fabulous writers, so many cool stories to look forward to!

First rejection! I'm now 1/12th of my way to my new year's resolution (twelve rejections in a year -- if I make it, I get a sense of achievement, and if some pesky acceptances get in the way, I think I'll cope), and I feel like I've just undergone an important rite of passage. I got some helpful feedback in the rejection, too, which was really kind. When I can bear to, I shall see if I can apply it to the story.

Short story status:

1 published (In Orbit @ Expanded Horizons)
1 rejected (demons!)
1 under consideration (the tree in the garden of winter)
2 in progress (homesickness, transmutation)

Longer works:

Still around 10 000 words on the post-magical-war murder mystery.
6 000 words on a superhero romance for Samhain Publishing.

I am in a fight with one of my stories.

Normally when I fight with a story, it's all pointed huffs, slammed doors and refusing to speak to each other. Then, once we've both had a chance to sulk, the story might say, "This is not an apology, but did I mention I'm actually twice the length you thought I was?" or I might say, "Hey, I had an idea -- if you're not still in a mood, maybe we could check it out?" and we put it all behind us.

Not this story. This story has an inflated sense of its own importance and serious entitlement issues. (That's my side of things. Its side of things is that if I'm going to persist in not telling it right, I should just leave it alone.) We've tried five different iterations so far, and the best I can say is at least neither of us has tried to poison the other one yet.

It's a shame, because it really could be a good story if [it were possible to tell / it weren't being written by an incompetent hack]*, but, hey, these things happen.

*delete as applicable

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see whether or not I can order arsenic online.

My golems story just last night got accepted by Expanded Horizons! \:D/

My short story status right now is:

1 acceptance (golems!)
1 under consideration (demons!)
3 in progress (the tree in the garden of winter, skin stealing, homesickness)

Longer works:

Just hit 10 000 words on the post-magical-war murder mystery.
Considering whether to have a stab at a novella for Samhain Publishing's up and coming superhero romance anthology. (I think my favourite bit about this call is that "the romance must end happily ever after or happy for now.")

And now for the day's big decision: Work on the skin stealing story, or catch up on the archives for Passive Aggressive Notes? My life is full of hard choices.

My writerly New Year's resolution is to get twelve rejection letters this year.

If I manage it, at least I'll get a sense of achievement. And if I don't manage it because I get a few pesky non-rejection letters, well, I suppose I'll cope.

However, if I don't manage it because I don't send enough stories out, there's a slight risk that come November I will start my own SF&F magazine just for the purpose of rejecting myself.

Dear Katherine,

Thank you for your recent submission to People In A Sci Fi Setting Fail To Talk About Their Feelings. We are sorry to inform you that you still need to do the washing up from last night, you owe your flatmate $57 for bills, it looks like it's going to rain tomorrow, and we're not actually a real magazine.

But thanks anyway,
Katherine

The plan needs some work, I'll admit, but I think the basic idea is sound.