Science Fiction Poetry

~ emmakosborne ~ 4 Comments

I was recently notified that a poem of mine has been accepted at a big-name, very cool market! I can’t talk about it yet, but yay! Can’t wait to reveal the full news!

I’m excited that a lot of places seem to be upping their poetry content (or including it in the first place!) There’s something quite beautiful about rendering the mixture of science and fiction into carefully constructed poems. I think that poetry allows you to explore the abstract or the wondrous with a lot more precision and perhaps with less stricture than regular fiction. Certainly, the narrative can sometimes be more varied and more experimental.

My favourite science fiction poetry is definitely the words sprouted by the hybrids in Battlestar Galactica. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Courtesy of the Battlestar Wiki:

End of line. FTL system check, diagnostic functions within parameters repeats the harlequin the agony exquisite, the colors run the path of ashes, neuronal network run fifty-two percent of heat exchanger cross-collateralized with hyper-dimensional matrix, upper senses, repair ordered relay to zero zero zero zero. – Battlestar Galactica, Torn.

Do you write poetry, SF-themed or otherwise? Got any favourites?

One More Clarion Post

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No Clarion for me this year. I received rejections from both UCSD and West, much to my disappointment.

I know that it’s not the be all and end all, and I intend to continue to work hard on my writing. I will keep submitting. I’ve got three upcoming publications within the next 2-4 months and a few more irons in the fire.

Still, I would have loved to have taken six weeks away from my day job to write, to learn, to meet people and to improve my craft.

Next year. There is always next year.

I’m reminded of one of my favourite Robin Hobb quotes:

“The fight isn’t over until you win.”

― Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin

Tenterhooks

~ emmakosborne ~ 5 Comments

At this point, all I can do is hold myself in a state of cat-like readiness.

If you’ve found me by searching for people waiting on Clarion news, welcome. Pull up a chair. UCSD is pretty much sorted, I suspect, but you and I both know that West is a mystery.

Maybe a writing exercise would help pass the time?

You’ll have to excuse me, I’m far too frazzled to come up with something, but do hit me up in the comments if you’re up for some kind of word-related challenge.

General Villainy

~ emmakosborne ~ 3 Comments

It has been said many times over that a good villain is the hero of their own story. Couldn’t agree more.

Personally, I like villains with complex backgrounds and high ideals that make perfect sense if you squint. Y’know, like Magneto. He has lived through terrible things and is a product of those struggles. (Plus, him breaking out of his plastic prison in X-Men 2 is my favourite scene from any action movie EVER.)

Think about Walter White or Tywin Lannister. Arguably, Tywin is the more noble of the two – yes, he lies and schemes and kills his foes, but his declaration that his actions are all for his family and his legacy actually ring true when you hold his words up against Walt’s endless lies and ego.

Sometimes it is all in where you stand. Daenarys Targaryen is a conquerer as much as a liberator, and shows no mercy to those who have wronged the weak. Remember, this is the woman who has crucified people (OK, so they had just done the same to a bunch of slaves…) She fights fire with fire and rules in some cases by asserting her values onto several different ancient cultures (not that they were necessarily GOOD, of course.) Would the people of Meereen and Pentos and Yunkai see her as a villain or a hero?

I adore a good villain and I love a solid antihero. Got any favourites?

Clarion Season

~ emmakosborne ~ 18 Comments

It has rolled around for the fourth time. Like, oh, hundreds of writers around the world, I have submitted an application to both Clarion UCSD and Clarion West.

I can’t stop checking my email.

Usually I’m waiting on something writing related – a submission, a beta read, very occasionally a contract – but this is different. I know (promise) that I’m not going to hear anything for a little while. I still can’t help checking. And checking. And checking.

Brain, Please Stop.

I really, really, REALLY hope that this year is my year. But, you know, all of the other times I’ve missed out have only made me a better writer, and if I don’t go to Clarion then I’ll be off on a holiday to Europe. You could call that win-win, yes?

I’ll just be over here, pushing F5 and thinking positive thoughts.

*stares*

Edited to add: So, I’ve gotten a rejection from Clarion UCSD. Holding out for news from West. Eeeeeeeeeeek.

Award Eligibility – Chronos and Ditmar Awards

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Turns out that my short story Squeak as published by Daily Science Fiction is eligible to be nominated for both the 2014 Chronos (Best Short Fiction) and Ditmar (Best Short Story) awards. Cool!

The Chronos honours genre work by Victorians, whilst the Ditmar is an Australia-wide award. You can find a full list of the eligible stories here:

Chronos eligibility list

Ditmar eligibility list

Nomination info can be found on the Continuum site – generally, you need to be a member of the fan community to nominate, but voting memberships can be picked up for a fiver if in doubt.

Go take a look! Loads of great stories and novels up this year. And if you decide to take a look at mine, thank you for reading!

What would you do for a story?

~ emmakosborne ~ 5 Comments

I heard about a guy who got arrested on purpose. He walked up to a couple sitting at a restaurant, flipped over the table and started ranting. He got arrested, alright.

Turns out, he did it because he’s an actor, and he wanted to know what it was like.

What would you do for a story? Drop acid? Join the army? Put on a bunch of weight? Go talk to engineers, watchmakers, fishers, surgeons, physicists, homeless people?

I write mostly science fiction and a bit of fantasy. I make a lot of shit up. Like, a lot. Sure, you can wear a suit that allows you to cling to walls and heals when you tear it. Yep, you can totally run a ship that has a garden instead of an engine. Go ahead, shoot with a gun that switches bullets when you shout at it.

Granted, I try to run my stories past a scientist if there’s something I’m worried about nailing after I’ve done my research (aeroponics and photovoltaic cells were SO FREAKING INTERESTING) Luckily, I know a bunch of scientists (thanks, you guys!) But sometimes you can only really get something right if you’ve experienced it, eh?

The novel I’m working on might just require me to run a couple of obstacle courses. Yeah, we’ll see how I go with that.

How about you? How far would you go for art? How far have you gone?

Women Destroy… ALL GENRES! RAAAAAAAAH.

~ emmakosborne ~ 1 Comment

I’ve recently posted about this, but OOH LOOK. NEW THINGS! Apparently the women of the world are not content with destroying JUST science fiction. Of course, we’re in a pretty spectacular situation here – Lightspeed’s kickstarter has raised over $15k to fund their special issue containing a stack of new stories, reprints and flash fiction authored, collaborated and edited by an all-women team of awesome. What’s next? Horror! Fantasy! Maybe getting our hands on some kind of multi-genre lair so that we can all hang out and discuss general geekery? Who knows! THE WORLD IS OURS.

Ahem.

Anyway. If you haven’t kicked in, please do! There are some awesome bundles available in the mix, and every cent thrown their way funds more content for the female genre writers of the world. This is a very good thing.

Clearly this is an exciting time. I absolutely love writing science fiction and fantasy (and also a bit of horror, sometimes, if that’s the mood that takes me) because it is so very much fun to make things up and to explore any and every world that is out there (or hey, worlds that I ENTIRELY MAKE UP ALL BY MYSELF!) I love writing it because I love to think about what’s beyond the here and now. I’m the sort of girl who thinks all the time about  mind controlling drugs, about dwarven caverns that wend and weave under mountains, about blasters and spider-web rope and cosmic warps and engines made from photosynthetic plants. I think about settlement wars within Mars colonies, cursed pocket watches and people who can yank your soul right out of your mouth. There are so many ideas out there to explore, and I love the fact that I can let my brain run rampant during the creative process. I think that my best stories are also tangled up with my heart. I find myself wondering about the people I write. What are they seeking? Which words, when said by a loved one, will tear them to pieces? How do they move past tragedies? Do they find joy? What are they positively overwhelmed by?

Writing science fiction and fantasy and horror and hey, general weird stuff allows me to mix in all of the above and that makes me so very happy. Funding the Lightspeed kickstarter is a small step to making the writing of all female genre writers more visible, more mainstream, more accessible. I’m sure that you’ll agree that this is a very good thing. 

Women Destroy Science Fiction Submission Call

~ emmakosborne ~ 4 Comments

Hark, female writers of the science fiction! Something cool is happening. The illustrious Lightspeed magazine are throwing their doors open to women (and whomever identifies as a woman) for a special issue to come out in the middle of the year. It must also be noted that Lightspeed keeps a gender balance in terms of their regular issues. But, you know, it’s kinda awesome that they’re having a specific issue for women, huh?

If you have something that suits, I encourage you to submit. I have! You can find the details, as well as a wonderfully inspirational message from Christie Yant (the guest editor) right here. Submissions close on February 14th.

And hey, if you don’t have anything ready to go by then, keep writing. Keep submitting. Some claim that women do not (or cannot) write science fiction. Ridiculous. Just look at the ladies out there who have and do destroy the joint. Octavia Butler. Karen Joy Fowler. Lois McMaster Bujold. Charlie Jane Anders. Margaret Atwood, FFS.  Kij Johnson. Kelly Link! Nalo Hopkinson. The wonderful Eleanor Wood. There are also many, many more.

I believe that creative women should all strive to write, strive to publish our work. Every story is important, no matter the genre or where it is accepted. As Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One’s Own:

“Literature is open to everybody. I refuse to allow you, Beadle though you are, to turn me off the grass. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”

Go get ’em, ladies.

2013 Round Up

~ emmakosborne ~ 2 Comments

So here’s my round up of the best things of 2013. You know what? It has been a pretty great year, all in all.

Major spoilers below (mostly for Breaking Bad…)

Best TV Show

Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad. BREAKING BAD. I had S1 sitting around on my DVD shelf for ages after my little brother lent it to me. And I never watched it. I thought it would be kinda clichéd or boring or mildly comical or… Hell, I don’t know. It was none of those things. I tore through all five seasons with all of the horror of watching someone die on the ground in front of you. Never before have I seen a show where people are so horribly, awfully cruel to one another. I have never cried more. I have never seen such sickening, worn-out, relentless lies. Walt’s journey from powerless nobody to a vengeful, violent killer was poetic (sometimes quite literally – see Ozymandias) and heartbreaking. Walt strongly reminded me of my own mustachioed, frustrated, hopelessly dying father.  I hated him. I loved him. I wanted, like Skylar, for him to be a better person.

Don’t even get me started on Jesse. Boy needs a blankie and a hug, forever.

Hank. Man. What can you say about Hank?

Skylar. Astonishing performance.

If you haven’t watched it, watch it. If you have, you need one of these. <hugs>

Runner Up: Game of Thrones. Season 3 pretty much knocked it out of the park (with the possible exception of Dany’s crowd-surfing. Yeah. Um. That was… Uncomfortable.)

Best Movie

Gravity. I spent the entire movie clutching Eliza’s hand and breathing shallowly. Sandra Bullock FTW.

Runners Up: Pacific Rim and Ender’s Game. Both did better than I thought they would, both were fun and pretty.

Edited to add: How could I forget Catching Fire? LOVED IT. Amazing movie.

Best Book

I enjoyed the hell out of Blackbirds by my sexual bro, Chuck Wendig (or so I called him in the back of a taxi on the way to karaoke). He is SO GOOD.  Blackbirds, starring Miriam Black is a dirty, pacy, horror of a novel. It is so refreshing to read a female character who is totally badass but not “strong” in a cliché way. She’s more like Shane from the L Word cross with Buffy cross with Brooke Bolander. Buy it. Read it. You’ll thank me later.

It also must be noted that Chuck is a marvelous and hilarious human being. It was an absolutely pleasure to meet him in Brisbane and I am extraordinarily privileged to call him a friend.

Runner Up: Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch. Not quuuite as strong as The Lies of Locke Lamora or Red Seas Under Red Skies. I still loved it. Calo and Galdo, awww.

Best Personal Accomplishment

Going off on a solo adventure to Vietnam may fit better under ‘Travel’ but it was a huge deal for me to do that. Of course, it wasn’t solo for the entire time – I also met up with the delightful Emma Cosh in Ho Chi Minh City, which was wonderful. Lady knows her cafes. We got to hang out for a little while, although unfortunately our plans had to change at the last minute. Still, it gave me a deep and abiding sense of satisfaction to wander the country (I say wander. I mean ‘flew’) and look for restaurants (and tiny pho shops) and meet French tourists whilst looking for the Temple of Literature, and buy too-small shoes from Hoi An and get drunk in my hotel room and watch My Drunk Kitchen and book things at the last minute and go on impromptu Easy Rider tours and spend a day on a boat with some very cool retirees from China and Malaysia who took me under their wing.

Perhaps as a result of losing my twin when I was young, I’ve always experienced intense anxiety when I’ve contemplated traveling alone. Doing Big Things by myself has always been particularly scary. This year, I jumped that hurdle and I am so very glad that I did.

Runner Up: I sold three stories this year, two to US-based professional markets and one to one of the biggest Australian markets. I almost can’t quite believe it.

Best Trip

Vietnam was amazing. I’m so glad that I went. But the best trip would actually have been my visit to Brisbane for GenreCon. It was fucking great. The library there is wonderful, I met a host of wonderful writers from a bunch of genres (it was very cool to make friends with crime and romance writers and editors, especially) and the weather was deliciously warm. Eliza and I had a blast. I’d highly recommend GenreCon for writers out there, especially the ball.

Runner Up: It was really special to head up to the country over the holidays. Hanging out with my family (and my brand new niece! SHE IS THE BEST AND I LOVE HER) was just perfect. Sappy, I know. But still.

Best Album

The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae. Go buy it. It’s rad. And while you’re at it, get your hands on her back-catalog. A friend introduced me to her when she released Metropolis: The Chase Suite and I have adored her ever since. The Electric Lady lacks the epic final track that The ArchAndroid so wonderfully contained (“BabopbyeYa” is one of my all-time favourite songs) but the opening half is scarily addictive. I had it on repeat for weeks. Go, Janelle. Go.

Runner Up: Beyonce, Beyonce. Otherwise known as ‘The Beyonslaught’. 10 points to whomever made that one up.

Best Party

Well, that just had to be NYE. I got to hang out on a country property with outrageously fun people. There was a deck. There was a BBQ (which doubled as a breakfast grill, and I cannot begin to tell you how grateful we all were for that). There was dancing and drinks and an outdoor screen, upon which we watched The Big Lebowski. I learned that I probably shouldn’t yank a party-popper’s cord with my teeth. A cracker of a night, and a great day, too.

Runner Up: My birthday. Spice Girls party to which I wore a hilarious pink dress and a wig. Although some couldn’t attend, it was a brilliant time. I’m still picking stray boa feathers out of my carpet (not a metaphor).

It really was a wonderful year. In 2014, I am going to have another go at getting into Clarion, finish the novel I’m working on and will keep writing and sending out short stories. I’m also looking forward to reading All the Things, eating at all of my favourite places (and also, discovering some new ones) and catching up on a truly prestigious amount of television.

I hope that everyone had a great year in 2013 and that 2014 only gets more awesome as the days roll on.