So this year I’ve met three different groups/humans whose work I really admire in the context of like…meet and greets.
This is a very new thing for me! I usually try not to learn anything about the personalities behind the things I like just in case they suck in non-unethical-I am never giving you money again ways.
And my god, I have to say that as much as my “it’s only awkward if you let it be awkward” rule exists…how are you supposed to have a human interaction with someone when the context is literally the thing where you know a lot more about them than they do you 😭 especially given the limited time interaction because I don’t want to be a dick to the more serious fans who, for instance, didn’t think they’d drunkenly hallucinated said meet and greet (yes I have been living my best life this year, thank you for asking).
Anyway if I’ve babbled at you this year please note I am a COOL and FUN person to get drinks and/or forage with. I SWEAR
But yeah I don’t think this will actively be the kind of thing I seek out too often, although I’m certainly not above taking advantage if it does come across my path. 🥲🥲🥲
Anyway I went to bogs in both Ireland and Scotland! I can go on about them so don’t ask unless you want to hear everything I learned at Lullymore!
View of the particularly wet part of the Lullymore bog in Rathnagan, Ireland. Some green plants and purple heather in a partly cloudy blue sky. Yes this is totally typical Irish weather why are you raising an eyebrow at me
If you’re ever in Glasgow, go to Roya, and if you’ve gone there because you heard about it during Worldcon, YOU’RE WELCOME
I dunno the next time I will visit this city and I really need this place to be open when that happens
I thought about making a list of all the places I would recommend to eat but I’ve been getting like 5-6 hours of sleep a night (yes, there were pubs. A few too many hotel bars 😩 damn you logistics) and can’t be bothered! Also I am very very behind on slush….
Oh but I did gravitate to the little organic store and I’m very pleased with myself.
Anyway here is a juvenile European robin I saw while meeping my way up Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. (it looks like shit because it’s a photo of my camera screen)
Oh my goodness why did I make the title so long (the answer is that I never quite got over my Gintama phase. Also I should reread that, it’s been years).
Link in image:
Thanks again to Julia for originally picking up this story and their excellent editorial work, and to Scot for considering it worthy of inclusion in DreamForge Anvil 15!
Starting off the year (and tbh, probably finishing the year…I’ve been really into the fat birds lately) with flash in Clarkesworld. Read it here.
Or continue reading if you like rambles:
I had this text file sitting on my computer for ages, title ‘salt bones’ no contents (well, ok, nothing that survived more than a couple days), finally got some use out of it :’)
Er ok I guess that wasn’t a very long ramble haha. I mean, the title covers the rest of what I had to say?? Here, look at this male hooded merganser instead, and then go read all of the January 2024 issue of Clarkesworld.
The wonderful Deborah L. Davitt invited Amelia Gorman, Floris Kleijne, Tehnuka and myself onto her Shining Moon podcast to discuss environmental and climate fiction! Listen to it on your favorite streaming app via Buzzsprout or on Youtube if that’s more your jam.
I’m quite happy that Mo Usavage’s very good story in Reckoning 7, What It Means to Love a City, also gets some additional time here. (I edited nonfiction for that issue, but did read some fiction as well. I mean, not that much. I’m actually a pretty garbage fiction reader. TELL NO ONE)
And, because I guess this is my whole personality now, here’s some juncos in the snow from last year:
I didn’t blog about this one originally but I’m marginally less self-conscious about my garbage creative process now that it’s been a bit, so I will go ahead and admit that the entire structure of the story is because I had the first line stuck in my head as printed, and decided I had to make everything else work around it staying in present tense, and also this is not remotely the first time that’s happened.
For being horror I’d say it’s pretty light on content warnings actually, there are zero deaths, and I am never going to write sexual assault or bodily development/maturation as horror.
The other part of the story that really gnawed into my brain is the one illustrated by the artist, which is cool because I provided no input on which scene would be illustrated (just notes on the narrator’s appearance and setting). You can see a bit of it here in the header. The funny thing is I couldn’t quote from it now if you asked me. I have a total out of sight, out of mind memory for my own shit as soon as I commit it to writing.
I do remember though that I didn’t have a gender picked out for the narrator until like 2/3 of the way through writing this. I still don’t have a name. He’s basically just privilege.
Originally published in Fantasy & Science Fiction‘s July/August 2021 issue, this one’s now free to read at The Future Fire, along with some excellent steampunky art by Katharine A. Viola!
Here’s the blog I originally wrote about it. I forget if I said it there but I might as well say it here: the original draft of this story was basically me processing learning about the Bengal famine via Madhusree Mukherjee’s CHURCHILL’S SECRET WAR, which was the first time I ever once heard it mentioned. 🙃
Anyway, if you want to read this as it was originally published, skip the first italicized bit, and if you want to read it as it was originally submitted, skip the end italicized bit as well 🥲 I was very content to leave all that stuff in my head haha.
Contains spoilers for ‘Barbie’ (2023). Idk how this looks in readers so just in case, let me toss in some space right below….
(Incidentally I cannot believe that trailer was actually in the movie 😭🤣)
So! Anyway—yeah I went to see it this past weekend, overall it was solid: very funny, emotional beats, did drag in a couple places but took a very solid jab at Citizens United so I’ll forgive it.
But what caught me most off guard initially was the ending. To take back their home, the Barbies exploit the Kens’ need for attention and dominance and get them to fight among themselves until, in what is a pretty solid dance sequence, they figure out camaraderie for themselves.
And my reaction to that was like…isn’t this mean? The Barbies all had their epiphany about complexity, surely they should share with the Kens? Isn’t this all rather manipulative?
(I ended up rewatching, and in what scientists are calling “a profoundly embarrassing thing to miss,” they literally have this conversation before going through with the plan!)
And like…I’m thinking this right after a whole bit where the Kens have manipulated the Barbies into acting like maids in service of the tragically horseless patriarchy. So like yes, eye for an eye is bad and all that, but let’s be very clear: if someone has just been totally shit to you, and is threatening your basic rights, you do not, in fact, have to bend over backwards to fix them.
Specifically, you do not have to do their emotional labor.
I’ve always thought of myself as pretty far removed from patriarchal structures in that I resent about 95% of gender roles and a whole bunch of life stuff I’m not getting into here—but I can’t imagine anyone who knows me would be like “ah yes she is upholding the patriarchy”—but whew. I’m just so used to things working this way, I didn’t even think to question it. (Well, at least not until later that day when I was out paddling.)
OK this is not from paddling cause all those pictures are on my camera, but I thought it looked nice!
To be honest I’m not sure how I’d have reacted to a same-sex, reversed, or nonbinary scenario (to be clear, trans people are the gender they say they are, TERFs fuck off). It’s hard to imagine something like that playing out the same way, to be honest, because this whole sequence is such a direct commentary on gender roles itself. I’m not convinced it should be divorced of that context. This is a movie about contemporary society.
Of course, I might play with it myself later—I’ve been picking at two stories set in worlds where gender doesn’t work the same (only one of which is implicitly about how stupid gender is!), so hey, room for opportunity?
priya chand writes 