Outer Alliance Julia Rios

Keffy Kehrli joins me to talk about his new LGBTQ SF/F fiction podcast, GlitterShip, which is Kickstarting now!After you've finished backing the GlitterShip Kickstarter, you can find Keffy online at his website and on Twitter as @keffy. He's also going to be at Norwescon from the 2nd-5th of April, and he has a story forthcoming in Uncanny. Yay!I also wanted to congratulate all the Lambda Literary Award finalists. Great list, this year, and you can find all the details on the Lambda site. And finally, there are still a few days left to back Brimstone Rhine, the music project C.S.E. Cooney is doing. That campaign is just a few hundred dollars shy of having a music video to go along with the two EPs.

Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith talk to me about their YA novels (Stranger and Hostage), and C.S.E. Cooney talks to me about her music project, Brimstone Rhine.First, a congratulatory note to all the Nebula nominees this year! Many OA members on that list, which is full of awesome people and awesome stories! Special congratulations to Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette), Ann Leckie, Ken Liu, Richard Bowes, Rachel Swirsky, Sarah Pinsker, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Aliette de Bodard, Alyssa Wong, Sam J. Miller, Usman T. Malik, Carmen Maria Machado, Ursula Vernon, and Eugie Foster (who passed just after her last story was published). Hugo nominations are open until the 10th of March. If you are an attending or supporting member of Sasquan, or if you attended or supported LonCon last year, you should be eligible to nominate! I (Julia Rios) personally am eligible in Best Editor Short Form for my work with Strange Horizons, and on Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories. I'm also eligible in Best Fancast for this very podcast as well as for The Skiffy and Fanty Show, and Strange Horizons is eligible in Best Semiprozine. There are a bunch of other super worthy OA member projects, but I wanted to give another special shoutout to Catherine Lundoff's series on LGBT SF History over at SF Signal. I believe she's eligible for best fan writer for that series. Stranger and Hostage are the first two books in the Change quartet, set in a post apocalyptic LA. Rebel and Traitor (books 3 and 4) should be out later this year and early next year respectively.Prisoner, Partner, and Laura's Wolf are Rachel's three books featuring werewolf marines, hot sex, and PTSD. You can download Prisoner for free.Angel in the Attic is Rachel's lesbian werewolf romantic comedy.Brimstone Rhine is C.S.E. Cooney's made up rockstar alter ego, who is crowdfunding two EPs right now on indiegogo. Rewards include things like Claire's books (in addition to the music of course). For a free taste of Claire's Witch's Garden world, you can read "Witch, Beast, Saint" in Strange Horizons. The books that are part of the Brimstone Rhine campaign rewards include The Witch In the Almond Tree, The Breaker Queen, The Two Paupers, and Bone Swans. The Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadors are one of C.S.E. Cooney's other music  and storytelling projects, which, if Brimstone Rhine ends up hitting far beyond the initial funding goal, might also produce an album of Distant Star Ballads.

SFWA Vice President Cat Rambo joins me to talk about SFWA, her work, and more.SFWA is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Cat is currently Vice President, and is running for President. Her presidential platform statement is here. SFWA members can nominate and vote for the Nebula Awards, which are presented at the Nebula Awards Weekend each year. 2015 is the 50th year!Cat talked a bit about her forthcoming novel, The Beasts of Tabat, and her forthcoming collection, Neither Here Nor There. You can find out more about those and all her other work on the fiction section of her website. If you'd like a free taste with some QUILTBAG content, Cat Recommends starting with "Miss Liberty Gets a Haircut" in Strange Horizons. A good starter collection to purchase is Near + Far, which contains her Nebula-nominated story, "Five Ways to Fall in Love on the Planet Porcelain". Cat Also recommended Catherine Lundoff’s SF Signal series on LGBT SF.

Susan Jane Bigelow joins me to talk about The Seeker Star, all her other awesome work, and the rambly stuff I ramble on about. You can buy The Seeker Star (and all of Susan's other novels) at Candlemark and Gleam. Susan is on Twitter as @whateversusan, and she blogs about her fiction at http://susanjanebigelow.wordpress.com/ and writes a political column for CT News Junkie.You can read her story, "Sarah's Child" for free at Strange Horizons. And finally, here's the article I mentioned about a black man whose brother is a white cop who shot a black man.  If you have feedback, feel free to send it to julia@juliarios.com, or tweet @outeralliance.

It’s the Butt Panel from Readercon! Moderated by Amal El-Mohtar with Mikki Kendall, Julia Sparkymonster, Emily Wagner, and Vinnie Tesla. Here’s the official description:The Booty Don’t Lie: A Cheeky Discussion of Butts in Literature.This panel is about butts. Fundamentally divisive, throughout history the humble buttocks has often found itself at the intersection of concerns about gender, sexuality, race, and truly terrible puns. This gameshow-style discussion of butts in literature and popular culture promises to be deep, probing, and entertaining in equal measure; join us in reasoning a posteriori. Picture of the panelists twerkingThings mentioned in the panel:Saartjie Baartman,the “Hottentot Venus”“Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix A Lot (“She’s so … black.” and “LA face with Oakland Booty” and "An itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face.")  “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child  (“I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly. My body’s too bootylicious for ya babe.”)“Q.U.E.E.N.” by Janelle Monae, featuring Erykah Badu (“The booty don’t lie.”) “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe (“Never trust a big butt and a smile.”) Insults of note:Bundle of ass twigs (Amal’s gift to the world)Ass bucketAss hat (as a gateway to ass haberdashery — “What is this ass haberdashery?”)Fashion:Alexander McQueen’s Bumster trousers Chaps (Should they be worn with or without trousers? The panelists say yes.)Prince’s buttless pants at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards Visual Art:Vegetable art by Guiseppe Arcimboldo Amal passed around a similar piece of art depicting a face made of butts. Possible it was by André Martins de Barros? Avengers Booty Ass-emble by Kevin Bolk The Hieronymus Bosch butt song Misc pop culture:Hellboy: The Soul of Venice (about Cloacina, the Etruscan sewer goddess) Le Pétomane Literature:“The Miller’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Finally a note that the Queers Destroy Science Fiction special issue of Lightspeed is now open to submissions!

Dennis R. Upkins joins me to talk about his new book, West of Sunset, and about Black Speculative Fiction Month. Denny also Blogs for Nashville Geek Life and is on Twitter as @drupkins.I also took a moment to remember Eugie Foster, who passed away in late September. She was a big part of the Atlanta fandom community, the science fiction writing community in general, and the QUILTBAG community in particular. She will be greatly missed. Her Nebula winning novelette, "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest, Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" is available to read online at Apex, to listen to at Escape Pod, or to buy as an ebook. Black Speculative Fiction Month is October! You can find out all about that over on the Black Speculative Fiction Month website. That's got quite a few links to explore. Denny particularly recommends Chronicles of Harriet. Denny also recommends Amaya Radjani, and Clementine by Cherie Priest.