SKINWALKERS reading at Powell’s!

I’m so excited to announce my upcoming reading at Powell’s Books! If you’re an Oregonian, you know that Powell’s is pretty much the mother ship for all things bookish, so you’ll be hanging out with not just me, but some of the coolest book lovers in the Portland area. Join us!  SKINWALKERS clean cover

SKINWALKERS reading

7 pm, April 4th

Powell’s Books at Cedar Crossing

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton

 

Come out and enjoy an evening of adventure!

New Jendara story!

My three-part serial, “Winter’s Wolves,” is going up on the Paizo site! The first chapter has already posted, and the next two will be available on 3/12 and 3/19. I really enjoyed creating the characters of Lugh, Irlu, and Grotnir, so I’m very excited to share it.

“Winter’s Wolves” is set about a month before the beginning of Skinwalkers, so it’s a great way to prepare for what you’ll see in the novel!

Crossing the Streams 2014: Massive, multi-author contest!

Edited 3/20/2014: The contest is now closed. I’ll be announcing winners on 3/22. Thanks to everyone who entered!

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I’m taking part in Crossing the Streams 2014, an awesome book giveaway contest where readers have the opportunity to win a lot of books from twenty exciting writers of fantasy and science fiction. Here’s how it works.

Each author is running their own book giveaway on their site, and you’re welcome to enter every author’s contest. Two winners will be selected for each site (although each author will have their own criteria for winning–pay attention when you’re signing up!), but every single person who enters the contest will also be entered into the Super Prize Drawing, where you can win the mega-package of a signed book from each and every one of us. That’s right: you could win nineteen amazing books! (I know I said there were twenty writers and nineteen books–two of the authors work together as a team.)

My contest:

You may only enter once. Send an email to wendy at winniewoohoo dot com, with CROSSING THE STREAMS as the subject line. In your email, tell me about a mother you think should be recognized for her awesomeness–maybe she’s your mom, maybe she’s a historical figure, it doesn’t matter. You can write as little as one sentence or as much as a few paragraphs, but please know that by submitting, you consent to let me quote your entry and use your name on my blog. (I’m writing a big post about amazing mothers, and if you say something really great, I want to share it.)

One winner will be selected based upon how interesting your entry is. The other will be chosen totally at random! And of course, every entrant will be entered into the Massive Multi-Author Contest (MMAC?).

Entries must be received between February 19th and March 19th, 2014.

SKINWALKERS Cover - SMALL

What you win:

I’ll be giving away signed copies of Skinwalkers, my new Pathfinder Tales adventure novel. The book isn’t due out until mid- to late-March, so you might have to wait a few weeks before I can actually mail it to you. But don’t worry, you’ll get it!

Why don’t you go check out the other authors who are participating in this great giveaway? I can promise you: they’re all terrific writers with amazing projects out in the world.

Thanks, and good luck!

The state of SF (and me!)

So … background. Last year was a rough year for women working in the science fiction and fantasy genres. The first half of the year, the publication of genre’s primary professional organization–the SFWA Bulletin–had a number of issues that were offensive due of their sexist artwork or articles. Here’s a great summary. Blogs discussed the depressing facts that women’s fiction doesn’t get as many reviews as men’s, and best-of lists included hardly any women’s work (this post by Ian Sales summarizes this stuff nicely). Then the relaunched Amazing Stories published a personal essay called “When is Science Fiction Not Science Fiction“–where the author, Paul Cook, complained that Lois McMaster Bujold’s work (which is crammed full of space travel and other elements we’d usually see in a science fiction adventure) wasn’t actually science fiction. Cook said he could tell it wasn’t really SF,  because “Bujold tips her hand in the eloquence of her language (normally a good thing) and the attention to detail that only women would find attractive:  balls, courts, military dress, palace intrigues, gossiping, and whispering in the corridors.”

People got mad, and for good reason. (After all, everyone loves Dune, and it’s full of gossip and intrigue. Nobody says it’s not science fiction!)  And somebody decided to do something about it: Christie Yant.

Christie’s working to put together a special double issue of Lightspeed Magazine that will be entirely written, edited, and produced by women. That’s right: all the money and all the time (and the reviews! Don’t forget the reviews!) that would normally be equally divided between men and women (Lightspeed does a great job of publishing balanced genders), will be showered, instead, on women. Actually, TWICE as much time and money will go to them. And why? Because women could use a little more attention in science fiction, and this might help make up for it. Plus, it’s also a cool celebration of women in the industry that will hopefully get them fired up to go write even more awesome fiction. I wouldn’t mind seeing women win every award in the business this year, just to give 2013 a big kick in the ass.WomenDestroy-Final2

Interested in the project? Go check out Lightspeed’s Kickstarter campaign! It takes a little extra money to publish all that extra fiction, so give them a hand. All donors get an ebook copy of the special issue, which you don’t want to miss out on.

And why am I so interested in all of this, besides the fact that I’m a woman? Well, these days I’m Lightspeed’s Managing/Associate Editor, and I’ve been reading slush and collecting personal essays for this project–so I actually know how cool it’s going to be.

Skinwalkers’s Cover is up!

One of the most exciting things about having a book is getting to see the cover. Well, here’s the cover of Skinwalkers!

 

SKINWALKERS Cover

This painting is by Michal Ivan, who has done some other amazing piece for Pathfinder. I can’t wait to see more of his work. And  I’m pretty damn excited for the first week of March, when this book should arrive in bookstores!

For more info, check out the Paizo website, or the fine book merchants of Powells.

The Fingerprints of Poverty

My father was a National Merit Scholar, with an uncle who offered to pay his way to Harvey Mudd, free and clear. Dad took his scholarship to an agricultural program and dropped out after only two years. I can understand. I skipped two grades in elementary school and stood in the top ten percent of my college class–but if the Dean hadn’t refused to sign the paperwork, I, too, would be a college drop-out.

There are a lot of reasons why my dad and I didn’t succeed in college, but I can name one of them: growing up poor. Class isn’t an issue my university knew how to address, and neither do most Americans. Money difficulty is supposed to be a short-term problem, something that enters people’s lives and then gets swept away by a better job and dose of public assistance. But it doesn’t work that way. When you grow up in poverty, it leaves fingerprints on you that never wash off.

Some memories of my childhood are indelible: the wonderful texture of the paper they used to print food stamps on, back when food stamps came in little coupon books and each increment was printed in its own color. The taste of government cheese, salty and waxy and melty and gooier than any cheese I’ve eaten since. The humiliation I felt when the dentist looked at my crooked, horrible teeth and said to his assistant, uncaring if I heard: “What a waste.” The shame I felt when my dad came to school events and showed his toothless smile, or the sadness for my mother, who often covered her mouth to hide the gaps and the dark spots in hers. The heavy weight in my gut when I learned that driver’s ed was no longer free.

I still don’t know how to drive. I didn’t want my parents to pay the $120 fee when I was a senior, and by the time I went to college, I had more pressing things to worry about, like holding down four or more part-time jobs and trying to make the dean’s list so I could keep my scholarship. In college, my stomach always hurt. I knew how to study and work hard, but I didn’t know how to fit in. There was a cachet of belonging that other students had that I could never quite manage. Other students held themselves in some taller fashion, spoke in a way that sounded somehow smarter. Each year it grew worse. I couldn’t stand to open my mouth in my philosophy classes because I knew no matter what I said it would sound coarse and stupid.

I don’t know how or why I thought this. I had already exorcised the words “crick” and “pin” and “fleg” and “beg” from my vocabulary (that’s “creek,” “pen,” “flag,” and “bag,” if you’re not from rural Oregon), so I should have sounded fine. I felt the same way when my daughter started school, and I had to stand with the other parents picking up their kids. We rented an apartment on the edge of a good neighborhood, and the other parents were all doctors, college professors, small business owners. They all looked so comfortable and relaxed as they talked with the other parents or fiddled with their smart phones. I made the best of it by burying myself in a book from the library.

I am much more comfortable at my daughter’s new school. People in our neighborhood are working class, maybe poorer. I don’t know this for sure, I just guess–it’s a Title I school, and most of the kids are on the free or reduced lunch program. But even if I didn’t know the stats, I’d *know*. The people treat me differently. I’m one of them.

I have a hard time explicating the difference between classes, but I can identify people of different classes on sight. I’m sure most people can. And the unfortunate thing about living in America is that there is a deep sense of shame associated with being lower class. If you are poor, there is a sense that it is your fault. That you’re not working hard enough to get ahead, that you are lazy, that you waste your time and your money on worthless shit. People always try not to hold it against the children of poor parents, but when you’re one of those kids, you see pity in their eyes, and it sticks to you like one of those price tags with the incredible adhesive.

Because of my husband, who was raised solidly middle class, I have a middle class lifestyle. We don’t have much money, but we aren’t on food stamps. In a month or two, we’ll actually have insurance. It seems like a lot to me, which I think is a legacy of living poor all my life. You learn not to expect much. You have a hard time asking for more.

I think about the way growing up poor damaged me and my relatives. There is something about poverty that can break things inside you, that can make you sabotage your best efforts to get ahead, that sets you up to fall behind. I am a smart woman, but I don’t know what it is or how to fix it. And I’m a *white* woman at that. I only have one deck stacked against me. If I was a person of color, things would be so much harder. To get out of poverty, especially if you are a person of color, is very, very difficult.

But the thing about getting out of poverty is that it never gets out of you. It stays inside, a heavy hand on your heart that squeezes every time you hear a joke about trailer trash. It squeezes every time you go to a job interview. It squeezes every time you go to a store and you worry for one tiny fraction of a second–for no reason, just because it’s what you do–that your debit card will be declined.

I will be poor white trash until the day I die. And no matter how hard I try to ignore that or be proud of my accomplishments, I will always be–just a little, just one tiny nearly unmeasurable bit–ashamed of myself and my family.

How can I not be? I’m an American.

A PhD in button pushing

Okay, I am about 3/4s of the way through with Doctor Sleep, and I can’t wait to get back on the couch and finish it. Say what you will about Stephen King, the man is a master of getting you to turn the pages. For example, I just got to a point in the text with the sweetest fan-service reveal of any sequel. It’s set up in a way that even those folks who haven’t read The Shining will find it clever and meaningful, but if you’ve read the first book, you will do a little happy dance. And while the great SK usually does a good job creating interesting villains, this time around he’s made a pack of horrible monsters that I really can’t help liking. A lot. I *almost* don’t want them to lose!

After I get done reading this one, I definitely want to go back and dissect the plot. I think it will really help me with the project I’m working on right now, and it will help me do a better job planning for fun twists, turns, and pay-offs in my writing.

Besides reading a really fun book and writing, I’ve been working hard to eat this:

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Surprise! It’s chocolate!

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It’s not just any chocolate, but two pounds of scrumptious dark chocolate with bits of crunchy cookies swirled inside. It was an amazing, generous gift from my brilliantly talented friend Brooke Bolander, and it came wrapped on a meat tray, with spots of food coloring seeping down under the plastic like real blood. SO WRONG and SO COOL.

If you need a super-cool gift for a chocolate lover, you would be wise to check out the folks at Dude, Sweet Chocolate.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope it brings you lots of deliciousness and a heart full of gratitude.

ORYCON 35!

Just a week and a half until Orycon, my local SF/F convention! Every time I’ve gone, I’ve had a terrific time. Here’s a picture of me from last year:

wendy n totoro

OMIGAWD Totoro!!! (Photo by Remy Nakamura)

 

I might be having a little too much fun here.

 

This year it looks like I’ll be on a handful of panels and I’ll be doing a reading, as well. Here’s a run-down of my schedule:

FRIDAY:

  • 5 pm: CHOOSE A MONSTER & WRITE THEIR STORY, Broadway Room. This one’s for the kiddos! If you have kids, have them stop by and write a mini-masterpiece. Rawr!

SATURDAY:

  •  1 pm: THE PARANORMAL AS METAPHOR, Ross Island Room. I’ll try not to talk about zombies and werewolves all the damn time, but I can’t promise anything.
  • 7 pm: STRONG CHARACTERS IN SF, Hawthorne Room. How the heck do you write a strong character in a sfnal world?
  • 10 pm: SMUT, GORE, AND MORE, Hamilton Room. My third year in a row on this panel! What does that say about me?

SUNDAY:

  • 11 am: WRITE WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW, Roosevelt Room. Screw writing what you know, because that’s totally boring.
  • 1 pm: WRITING IN OTHER PEOPLE’S WORLDS, Madison Room. Some really talented franchise writers talk about writing tie-in fiction. Oh, and I’ll be there, too.
  • 2:30 pm: MY READING! You know you don’t want to miss that. It’ll be in Grant, like all the other great readings.
  • 3 pm: GARDENING IN FANTASY LAND, Idaho Room. We’re talking about plants in spec fic–my favorite part of worldbuilding!

Just to warn you what you’re getting into, here’s a picture of me on my very first panel, at WFC 2010:

wfc panel

(Photo by the awesome Christopher Cevasco.)

I may have just said I’d throw someone out of a mother-f***ing helicopter if I thought they were a threat during a zombie attack, but luckily there is no audio recording of this panel.

Anyway, I plan to be quite a bit more sedate at this convention, because I’ll busy racing around like a maniac to catch readings and great panels with people like Jay Lake, Dale Ivan Smith, Liz Argall, and Liz Gorinsky. Also, I hope to catch some presentations about technology and disaster preparation. Plus, there’s a cool masquerade to watch and lots of filking–not to mention the importance of checking out the craft brew tasting party!

This convention is going to be great!

 

 

 

Living by “The Tao of Maisy”

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You know you want to read it!

A few weeks ago I read Jen Lancaster’s very funny book, The Tao of Martha. Very much in the vein of her other extremely funny books, it had a surprisingly poignant thread running through it: her dog Maisy was dying of cancer as Jen wrote the book, and she wrote it looking for a deeper meaning to life. She found it in her dog’s life, and formulated her new philosophy very simply.

Here it is.

THE TAO OF MAISY

Be Awesome.

Give Awesome.

Get Awesome.

This isn’t brain surgery or something you need a philosophy degree to understand. It’s just a very simple guideline for living one’s life. But somehow the words struck me. Maybe it’s because I hang out with an amazing group of friends who seem to live by it. I am so lucky to have the Inkpunks. When things get rough in my world, a card or a tiny gift will magically appear just when I need it most. When one of us needed a whole new kitchen because their life took a left turn, the Inkpunks whisked a care package onto their doorstep. Time after time, I’ve seen that these are the most caring, thoughtful people in the universe. In short, they’re awesome, and they give awesome every single day.

What the hell does it mean to be Awesome? It means a lot of things: Being packed with positive energy. Being a good listener. Being an artist, both of life and craft. Living in tune with one’s inner principles. Being friendly. Having fun! Sucking all the marrow out of the bones of life. Being the people in the room that everybody wants to sit with, because the atmosphere at the table is brighter and happier and more welcoming than any other. Fighting the darkness of entropy and despair.

Yeah, I want to be Awesome. It’s something to strive for.

How do you give Awesome? Easy. You just give. You give Awesome when an editor asks for a story, and you write one and turn it in on time, with a smile, and it’s great work you’d be proud to put on a shelf next to anything by Neil Gaiman or Terry Windling. You give Awesome when you meet someone at the airport and they say they’re starting to write, you invite them for coffee or to hang out at the upcoming con, and you really do. When someone you know is throwing a Kickstarter, you tell everyone you know about it, even if you have nothing to gain by it. When someone you don’t know is struggling and you offer your help. When you volunteer. When you introduce two people who should know each other, but don’t. When you call your mom/best friend/sister/cousin/grandma just to chit-chat for a few minutes. When you bake your kid’s favorite cookies for no reason except maybe it’s Tuesday. When you smile at somebody on the street.

We can all give more Awesome. Sometimes it’s tempting to give too much, to stretch yourself too thin, but there’s probably a tiny bit of time every day to do something kind or generous for the other people in this world. Don’t forget to give yourself some Awesome every now and then, too!

What about Getting Awesome? It sounds pretty damn amazing, right? I tell you, it is. I have been on the receiving end of so much Awesome that my mind boggles. I have almost nothing in my life that wasn’t the result of someone else extending Awesome to me. I’ve gotten so much Awesome that I’m pretty sure  I will live in karmic debt for the rest of my years on this planet. I hope I can give a little back!

Well, that’s as deep as I get on a Wednesday morning. Despite my BA in philosophy, I usually spend more time reflecting on monster design than on ethics. I’m off for revisions, but I’d love to hear about all the ways you’ve found to be/give/get Awesome. After all, Awesome is all about sharing!

And speaking of sharing, here’s a great roundtable on best media tie-in works. Check out the recs from James Sutter and Chadwick Ginther–they’re brilliant guys and great friends. In my interview, I sound pretty dorky, but that’s how I usually roll!

What Fates Impose

Just a quick update! If you’re looking for a good read, the anthology What Fates Impose is out now! It’s a beautiful anthology with lots of cool stories about fortune telling. My story “Power Steering” is just one of many fun reads inside its covers.

I’m off to go pound revisions on Skinwalkers and hopefully do some Halloween costume planning.

what fates impose

 

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