Category Archives: Appearances

Readings, workshops, conventions–if I’ll be there, it’ll be here.

Where did this Tuesday come from again?

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Since committing to the Write-A-Thon, I’ve gotten to the 10K words mark on the new novel, and the official starting date for the Thon (and for Clarion West) is still about a week away. I started early because I have a couple travel obligations that will cost me a few days of writing time, and I wanted to get into the swing before the 18th in any case. It’s sort of like doing a warm-up lap.

In other news, the latest Buffy rewatch is up–it’s on “The Wish.”

Azure Dwarf has written a short review of Blue Magic, the gist of which is he likes it better than Indigo Springs.And… that may be it, this week.

Black Blade Blues by J.A. Pitts ( #amreading )

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J.A. Pitts and I have been on panels together at events like Norwescon, but until recently I wouldn’t have said we really know each other. But all that’s changing: Tor is sending us to San Francisco for a Pride-themed reading at Borderlands Books on June 23rd at 3:00 p.m. Anyone from that general vicinity is emphatically invited… come one, come all! We promise fun.

Not surprisingly, the two of us decided to get better acquainted, which means I’ve just finished reading Black Blade Blues, the first book in his series about a newly-out lesbian who’s also a blacksmith. It’s set in the here and now. Sarah Beauhall is a sword-wielding member of the SCA (like me, she favors Doc Martens footwear*, though hers aren’t covered in flowers as far as I know) and she’s fallen for a lovely bard named Katie.

(*Here’s Sarah, with a boot showing, on a book cover:)

(Whereas here is the flavor of my Docs, but without grime)
If my boots were clean and new they'd look like this.... (for @sandraoldfield )

Okay! Tangents aside, I don’t want to share too much of the Black Blade story, because I hope some of you will pick it up for yourselves. But it all gets rolling when Sarah reforges a busted sword that turns out to be magical. Her fate gets entangled with that of the sword, and this leads her down a monster-packed and delightfully (if you’re me) violent road.

About a week before I began Black Blade Blues, another reader told me she’d been unhappy with it, and Sarah specifically, because she’s incredibly hung up. Her big non-monster conflict is with internalized homophobia; she’s from an uptight religious background, and hasn’t dealt with it. She hasn’t had a girlfriend before, certainly isn’t out.

That first big process of coming out happened, for me, a long time ago. But much as the world has improved since I was a twenty-something in love, there are plenty of queers coming out of rabidly homophobic homes and carrying all the baggage that brings. Do I actively seek out those stories? No, not really. Do I think this novel did a good job with the material? Yes, I really do. It’s a cool book.

But I’ve no idea how I’d have felt about the novel if I hadn’t been braced for that particular story element. Sarah’s catastrophic fucking up didn’t ring false for me, but I was always watching, to see if it would. This in a nutshell is why I’m spoilerphobic.

Anyway, I recommend BBB, and if you like it there are two more Sarah Beauhall books: Honeyed Words and the upcoming Forged in Fire, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens as she casts away some of that baggage and continues to get her warrior on.

And, as usual,
Previously read in 2012
BOOKS
1. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2. Among Others, by Jo Walton
3. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester
4. Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter
5. Kat, Incorrigible (Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson), by Stephanie Burgis
6. Remote, by Donn Cortez
7.The Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet
8. one awesome draft novel by a dear friend
9. Property of A Lady, by Sarah Rayne
10. Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton
11. Black Blade Blues, by J.A. Pitts

Feline protest of Powell’s Reading

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I am very happy to say I’m going to be reading at Powell’s Books in Oregon (the Cedar Hills / Beaverton location) on Monday the 7th, at 7:00 p.m.

This is a genuine bucket list item for me: here in the Pacific Northwest, Powell’s is pretty much mecca for bibliophiles, and I’ve always wanted to read there. When I am out and about in my Powell’s shirt, strangers ask, often in hushed tones if I’ve been there, and when I brag that I’ve even been part of the big post-Orycon group author signings at the store. . . well, they’re impressed. You must be a real author after all, is the reaction: it’s serious cred.

I’ll be reading from the steamy and mildly hilarious “Wild Things,” and signing copies of Indigo Springs and Blue Magic, and perhaps even a few anthologies I’ve had stories in. If you’re in Portland, I hope you’ll stop by.

As prep for this first foray into BLUE book touring, I hauled out the little red suitcase Wednesday and started putting in things I’m afraid I might otherwise forget. The battery charger for the camera, par example, and a certain catnip-flavored item for an exalted Portland entity named Xerxes.

So maybe it’s the smell of the treat in the suitcase, or perhaps it’s just the obvious sign that I’m gonna be gone, but Rumble is unimpressed. He’s spent much of the past two days alternating between dragging the case around the house and rendering it inaccessible by means of passive resistance.

Feline protests Powell's Reading

He was also extremely friendly on Wednesday night, and would not be deterred by the squirtgun, which means I spent more of the night awake than is optimal.

Rambling on the Internet

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If it’s Tuesday, Bring on the Buffy Rewatch: Became, Besaw, Beconquered!

Blue Magic Virtual Tour Stops
Last week, Edmonton’s Wayne Arthurson interviewed me for Gigcity. And Janni Simner asked me about my deep deep love for Vancouver, so I blogged about that very happily indeed.
Finally, Muppet asked a question about all the court proceedings in my fiction, so I wrote about that for the Women in SF&F Spotlight at the Fantasy Book Cafe.