Monthly Archives: June 2016

Disjointed thoughts

The shock is wearing off from the news about the Pulse, and I’m having to get through a workday without the convenient dissociation of Dragon Age.  I’m still not particularly coherent on the subject — I’ve been using Twitter for a lot of my thought bursts, and otherwise retweeting/reblogging things.

  1. On June 28, 1969, drag queens and trans people of color said ENOUGH at Stonewall and fought back against police.  It is no accident that the people targeted in this attack were queers and trans folk of color, with drag queens of color and trans women of color headlining the event that was attacked.  Our queer family of color has always been in the bloody vanguard of the fight to get the American public to recognize our basic humanity.
  2. This is not the deadliest mass shooting in US history.  This is the deadliest mass shooting in modern times, certainly in the 21st century.  To state that sweeping “in US history” ignores the state-sanctioned mass murders of Native Americans and blacks and other people of color.  At Wounded Knee, for instance, something between 150 and 300 civilians (women, children, elderly people) were murdered by the US Army.
  3. Politicians and mainstream media are trying to make this about Islam.  It’s not. It’s about the morass of homophobia and transphobia and racism and toxic masculinity that our culture is soaking in.

My writing is almost entirely a love letter to my queer family and our straight allies.  I love you all.  I don’t say it enough, I sometimes say it badly, but I love you all.

Please exercise self-care around all media and social media.  Pamper yourselves.  We all deserve treats.  This grief is real.

Please keep being fabulous and amazing and marvelous, because you all are.

Please don’t stop celebrating and being who you are.

Please keep living.

A few very quick updates

  1. I attended Wiscon 40 and it was GREAT.  The three Guest of Honor speeches — Justine Larbalestier, Sofia Samatar, and Nalo Hopkinson —  were amazing.  I described (elseweb) the experience of listening to them  as, “They not only knocked it out of the park, but blew down the bleachers, turned the park into a real green-space park, and renovated the neighborhood without gentrification.”
  2. Also Wiscon 40: My two panels went really well, and I am grateful to my copanelists and our audiences (SRO for the QueerQuisitor panel) for such a lovely experience.  The Broad Universe reading was a little sparse, but only to be expected when we were opposite Nalo Hopkinson’s reading.  Still, it was great to meet my fellow Broads.
  3. This past Monday, I attended the Lambda Literary Award Gala.  Wonder City Stories did not win the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror category, but it was an honor to be listed among such amazing people.  Next time, perhaps!
  4. I have the complete cover art for Ephemera in hand, and Alex Heberling has, as usual, done an amazing job of reading my mind in terms of what the characters look like.  Now to plan out the final schedule for the book’s release with my book designer, so I can tell everyone! 🙂