It's Sarah Tolmie x3 at Strange Horizons this week

This week at Strange Horizons you can (1) read or listen to Sarah Tolmie's "Dancer on the Stairs," one of the tales in Two Travelers (which Aqueduct released earlier this year), (2) read Maureen Kincaid Speller's interview of her, and (2) read Molly Katz's review of Two Travelers. Reading the interview just now, I saw that serendipity had struck again.

Sarah muses:

 It must be pretty clear to anyone who reads my fiction that I am a fan of the slow approach. It is, in fact, the slowness of writing—and of reading, which, while not so slow, is at least repeatable—that is its main strength, in my opinion. If you are writing, or reading, you can actually have time to think. Great things are accomplished by thinking, and we hardly ever get to do it any more. Our culture doesn’t value it. It is quite separate from talking. Reading books can prompt much silent reflection, and writing one is an enormous, extended act of silent reflection, unlike anything else I can think of. It is, as far as I am concerned, the greatest pleasure there is.

Which resonates, for me, with what Andrea Hairston talks about in her recent post. Sarah and Andrea are utterly distinct writers and thinkers (as am I from them), but we all seem to have arrived at the same sense of reading's importance in creating space for thought (which is what, until recently, I thought "mindfulness" actually meant--which now, apparently, it definitely does not). 

Please support Strange Horizons!

Just a little signal-boost here: Strange Horizons has begun the last week of its fund drive. Many Aqueduct authors have been published in or have served as editors for this excellent publication, which shares some of Aqueduct's dearest values and goals. Here's the pitch from the site:

Our annual fund drive is underway! We're aiming to raise $15,000 to fund Strange Horizons in 2017, and a bit more than that for some special projects. You can make a one-time donation via PayPal or NetworkForGood, or support on an ongoing basis via Patreon—all donors are entered into our prize draw, and various other rewards are also available (and in the US your donations are tax-deductible). As an additional thank-you to donors, as we raise money we're publishing extra material from our fund drive special issue. We've just published "The Troll Who Hid Her Heart" by Jenn Grunigen! When we reach $13,000 we'll release podcasts of all our bonus material!
Special Patreon goal! In addition to the main fund drive special, if our Patreon reaches 300 supporters, as a preview of Samovar, we will publish Lawrence Schimel's translation of "Terpsichore", a story by Argentinian writer Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría. Read a bit more about it here.

Some of the prizes are Aqueduct Press books. Here are the descriptions provided by SH:

Conversation Pieces bundle
A selection of offerings from Aqueduct Press's "Conversation Pieces" series, which showcase connection and conversations within feminist SF. This bundle includes Marginalia to Stone Bird, by Rannu Award winner (and SH contributor) Rose Lemberg, her debut collection reviewed by SH here; A Field Guide to the Spirits, by Jean LeBlanc, exploring the interwoven pathways of ghost, memory, imagination, and desire; Unpronounceable, by Susan diRende, a novel LASplash.com called "reminiscent of the space fantasies of Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut"; and Sleeping Under the Tree of Life, by Sheree Renee Thomas, a collection of the celebrated author's poetry and short stories. All in all, a great introduction to the series. (Donated by Aqueduct Press.)


Will Do Magic for Small Change
A trade paperback copy of Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston. Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But at 5'10" and 180 pounds, she's theatrically challenged. Her family life is a tangle of mystery and deadly secrets, and nobody is telling Cinnamon the whole truth. Before her older brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer, a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform in Paris and at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The Chronicles may be magic or alien science, but the story is definitely connected to Cinnamon's family secrets. When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theatre squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds together. Publishers Weekly had this to say: "The entire work is filled with magic, celebrating West Africans, Native Americans, art, and love that transcends simple binary genders. Hairston's novel is a completely original and stunning work." (Donated by Aqueduct Press.)

 Roadsouls
A trade paperback copy of Roadsouls by Betsy James. Timid Duuni has spent her life as abused and guarded property. Blind, arrogant Raím is determined to be again what he once was: hunter, lover, young lord of the earth. Desperate to escape their lives, the two lift up their hands to the passing Roadsoul caravan, and are—literally—flung together naked. Each of them soon learns that saying "yes" to the Roadsouls is more than just accepting an invitation to a new life—it's a commitment that can't be reversed. For Duuni and Raím, nothing is as it was. Lost to their old lives, hating each other, they are swept out of their cruel old certainties into an unknown, unknowable, ever-changing world of journey and carnival, artists and wrestlers and thieves. Behind them, inexorable, pads a lion. Inexorable, too, is Duuni and Raím's inevitable encounter with it, an encounter that will change everything. (Donated by Aqueduct Press.)

The Waterdancer's World
A trade paperback copy of The Waterdancer's World by L Timmel Duchamp. Humans have been struggling to live on Frogmore for almost five centuries, adapting themselves to punishing gravity and the deadly mistflowers that dominate its ecology. Financier Inez Gauthier, patron of the arts and daughter of the general commanding the planet's occupation forces, dreams of eliminating the mistflowers that make exploitation of the planet's natural wealth so difficult and impede her father's efforts to crush the native insurgency. Fascinated by the new art-form of waterdancing created by Solstice Balalzalar, celebrating the planet's indigenous lifeforms, Inez assumes that her patronage will be enough to sustain Solstice's art even as she ruthlessly pursues windfall profits at the expense of all that has made waterdancing possible. (Donated by Aqueducut Press.)

 Hwarhath Stories
A paperback copy of Eleanor Arnason's Hwarhath Stories. A collection of a dozen Hwarhath tales with commentary by their translator. As the translator notes, "Humanity has encountered only one other species able to travel among the stars. This species, who call themselves the hwarhath, or 'people,' are also the only intelligent species so far encountered." Reviewing for Strange Horizons this September, Kelly Jennings said "This is a powerhouse of a collection. It is not to be missed." Includes stories nominated for the Nebula, Sturgeon, Tiptree and Locus Awards. (Donated by Aqueduct Press.)

  
Flesh & Wires
A trade paperback of the Locus Recommended first novel for 2015, Flesh & Wires, by Jackie Hatton. Following a failed alien invasion the world left is sparsely populated with psychologically scarred survivors, some of them technologically-enhanced women like Lo, leader of the small safe haven of Saugatuck. A book Publisher's Weekly calls "a promising work of feminist science fiction." (Donated by Aqueduct Press.)

Two Travelers
A trade paperback copy of Two Travelers by Sarah Tolmie. In "Dancer on the Stairs," a woman wakes up on a stone staircase in a baroque palace, not speaking the language of the place and lacking the chemical signature that allows people to identify each other within a complex social hierarchy. Unable to communicate in words, she resorts to dance. In "The Burning Furrow," a man who runs a diner in present-day America is also a freedom-fighter in the northern, courtly realm of Dinesen. His people are abused foreigners at home, the servants of strangers, bound not by their overlords, but by their world itself, through a ritual known as the burning of the furrows. Only he and his family are free—for a time. Now that time is ending. (Donated by Aqueduct Press.)

Strange Horizons Fund Drive: in the home stretch

As I write this, the Strange Horizons fund drive ends in 2 days and 12 hours: if you're intending to contribute and haven't yet done so, you still have time to do it. They're within $1000 of meeting their goal. Many of Aqueduct's authors (including me) are or have been contributors to Strange Horizons. They live in our corner of the galaxy.

In case you don't already know:

Every donation, from $1 to $1,000, is hugely appreciated. As a thank you, we have our regular prize draw, and fund drive special issue. For the first time, you can also sign up (via Patreon) to receive SH in ebook form—and to mark our fifteenth anniversary, we've also put together an anniversary ebook, containing some of our favourite stories.

How do you get these things?

Everyone who donates, via any route, is entered into the prize draw, featuring an array of books, artwork, and other goodies. Check out the prizes page throughout the fund drive, as we add more.

Everyone who donates at least $10 by any route (including Patreon, at any level) will also receive an eBook copy of Strange Horizons: The First Fifteen Years at the end of the fund drive. This ebook includes stories by Elizabeth Bear, Ken Liu, Carmen Maria Machado, Vandana Singh, and many others, plus a history of the magazine.

I'll just note here that several Aqueduct Press books are among the booty available through the prize draw.

This week at Strange Horizons

As a special feature of its fundraising drive, currently underway, Strange Horizons has posted three excellent essays I know most Aqueduct readers will find interesting:

--Recentering Science Fiction and the Fantastic: What would a non-Anglocentric understanding of science fiction and fantasy look like?, by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

--Set Truth on Stun: Reimagining an Anti-Oppressive SF/F, by Daniel José Older

--Recent Brazilian Science Fiction and Fantasy Written by Women, by M. Elizabeth Ginway

I'd also urge you to make a contribution to Strange Horizons. Many Aqueduct Press and Cascadia Subduction Zone writers publish both fiction and nonfiction with Strange Horizons. Strange Horizons reviews more of Aqueduct Press's books than any other review publication. And finally, a donation will give you a chance at winning one of many excellent books, including several recent titles from  Aqueduct Press book. Details can be found at http://www.strangehorizons.com/fund_drives/2013/main.shtml.

Reviews of Online Stories (Jan1-Feb15) at Last Short Story

I'm reviewing stories at Last Short Story now. I've done my first roundup, reviewing the stories from the eight online magazines I'm planning to follow this year, from Jan 1st through Feb 15th.

Here's my favorite:

"Aftermath" by Joy Kennedy-O'Neill (Strange Horizons) - This extremely affecting story features zombies--which you're probably sick of (I am)--but it looks at them through the lends of reconciliation. How do people move on after a civil war, an apartheid, a genocide, a zombie attack--where neighbors kill each other and subsequently have to live side by side? The emotional and character work here is very skillful. I found it hard to read; it made me cry.

Click through to see other cool stories.