Outer Alliance

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.

Gemma Files joins me to talk about her new collection of linked stories, We Will All Go Down Together. We Will All Go Down Together releases on the 19th of August from ChiZine Publications.Find out more about Gemma by visiting her website, following her on Twitter, or reading her LiveJournal.

Shirley Jackson Award Winner, Sam J. Miller joins me to talk about “57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides”. Sam J. Miller with his Shirley Jackson AwardThe Shirley Jackson Awards“57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" is Sam's Shirley Jackson Award winning story.Lisa Bolekaja was Sam's Clarion roommate, and the first person he told about his Shirley Jackson Award nomination. Sam mentioned Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler“Allosaurus Burgers” is Sam's latest story, which appeared in Shimmer. He also has two forthcoming stories, "Boy on the Rocks" will be in September's Lightspeed, and "Kenneth: A User's Manual" will appear in Strange Horizons on the 1st of December for World AIDS Day.Maria Dahvana Headley was nominated for "The Traditional"Maria Dahvana Headley and Sam J. Miller being nervous together.

Lynne and Michael Thomas join me to talk about Uncanny Magazine!Uncanny Year One is Kickstarting right now. Lots of great stories, poems, essays and art on the horizon. You've got until the 28th of this month (August, 2014) to become a backer and get one of the fabulous rewards. There is also an official Uncanny website. I'm keeping these show notes short and sweet, but feel free to send feedback to julia@juliarios.com!

Deborah Ross AKA Deborah Wheeler and Connie Wilkins AKA Sacchi Green join me to discuss the Lambda Awards ceremony.Deborah was nominated for Collaborators. The Lambda Literary review is here. Connie won for Wild Girls, Wild Nights: True Lesbian Sex Stories. The Lamba Literary review is here.The interview is very pleasant, but it does mention Marion Zimmer Bradley. In the interim between recording the interview and today, there has been a lot of online discussion of Bradley and her role in enabling abuse and abusing children herself. This is a very fraught emotional topic for many people in the SF, SCA, and QUILTBAG communities because many people looked at her as a role model and influence, and loved her books and/or or made their first sales to her. Here are some links collecting responses to the whole thing. Please note that the materials about MZB and her ex-husband, Walter Breen, are extremely disturbing. Proceed with caution, especially if rape and abuse are trigger topics for you.*Rape, Abuse, and Marion Zimmer Bradley is a links roundup and response by Jim C. Hines, who is a rape crisis counselor. *Silence Is Complicity is another links roundup and response by Natalie Luhrs, who has been actively calling out bad things in the SF community for quite some time. *On Doing a Thing I Had to Do is a post by Janni Lee Simner, an author who made her fist sale to MZB, and who has decided to donate her proceeds to RAINN. *Rachel Manija Brown's post is a personal response from someone who has been abused about the importance of making this visible. *Regarding the Marion Zimmer Bradley Abuse Story is Deborah's personal response, apologizing for an earlier tweet.While I do think it's important to acknowledge all of this, the podcast episode itself is only a tiny bit about MZB, and mostly about The Lambda Awards, and other awards and projects. Here are the episode specific links:*Here's the picture of Connie winning her Lambda Award. *Here's a picture of Cecilia Tan and Mary Anne Mohanraj (in the red sari Connie and Deborah both admired) at the Lambdas.*The Nebula Award winners list. Congratulations to Ann Leckie, Vylar Kaftan, Aliette de Bodard, Rachel Swirsky, Nalo Hopkinson, and Samuel R. Delaney!*Congratulations to Sarah Pinsker for winning the Sturgeon Award! *The Bisexual Book Awards winners are here. Congratulations all, especially Cecilia Tan, Laura Lam, Malida Lo, and Zan Christensen!*The Ditmar Awards were announced at Continuum in Melbourne. Congratulations all, especially Kirstyn McDermott, Sean Wright, Tehani Wessely, David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and all of the Galactic Suburbia and Galactic Chat crews!*Jim C. Hines's Continuum GoH speech. *Congratulations to Cecilia Tan and Mary Robinette Kowal for winning RT awards!And finally, two currently active IndieGoGo campaigns you might like to contribute to:*Gears for Queers is the San Francisco Steampunk community's fundraiser to support the GLBT National Help Center. There are 12 more days to order awesome steampunk items and support a good cause. *Interfictions Online is fundraising to bring us all more excellent interstitial content. They have 19 days left in their campaign, and are working towards some exciting stretch goals.

The Unheard Voices of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror panel from Arisia. Catherine Lundoff moderated this panel, with K. Tempest Bradford (standing in for Nisi Shawl), Julia Rios, Trisha Wooldridge, Andrea Hairston, and Victor Raymond. Listening to this doesn't give you the visual cues that people in the room had, so a note up front: Nisi was in the audience, but wasn't up for sitting on the panel. There was an ongoing joke about Tempest being Nisi, and about Nisi being Nalo Hopkinson, who was not at the convention. Awards season!*Lambda finalists include lots of OA members like Nicola Griffith, Sacchi Green, Mary Ann Mohanraj, Alex Jeffers, Alaya Dawn Johnson, The editors and contributors to Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam Gay City: Volume 5, Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold, Richard Bowes, Lee Thomas, and more. Full list here: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/news/03/06/26th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists-announced/*The Nebula nominee list is also out, and lots of OA types are there too, including Sofia Samatar, Nicola Griffith, Ellen Klages and Andy Duncan, Vylar Kaftan, Catherynne Valente, Christopher Barzak, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Sarah Pinsker, Rachel Swirsky, Karen Healey, and Nalo Hopkinson. Full nominee list here: http://www.sfwa.org/2014/02/2013-nebula-nominees-announced/The Galactic Suburbia Award and Honor List is out now, and the joint winners are N.K. Jemisin and Elise Matthesen. Full Honor List here: http://galactisuburbia.podbean.com/2014/03/23/episode-96-19-march-2014/*Carl Brandon Society is a group for fans and writers of color. They give out the Kindred and Parallax Awards for fiction by and/or about people of colors, and also administer scholarships for students of color to attend Clarion.*Broad Universe is a group for women who write and publish science fiction and fantasy. They have a website, a podcast, and many promotional and support networking opportunities for members, including organizing group readings and book sale tables at conventions. *WisCon is a feminist science fiction convention held each year at the end of May in Madison, Wisconsin. The Carl Brandon Society and Broad Universe both have strong presences there. *Con or Bust is an organization that raises money to send fans of color to conventions. The Carl Brandon Society administers the funds. *Gaylaxicon and Outlantacon are conventions specifically for the QUILTBAG SF fandom community. Gaylaxicon is a roving con (like WorldCon), and Outlantacon happens each year in May in Atlanta. This year's Gaylaxicon will be hosted by Outlantacon.Work by people on the panel:*Filter House is Nisi Shawl's Tiptree Award Winning short story collection (Tempest joked that her collection would be called Filter House 2).*Redwood and Wildfire is Andrea Hairston's Tiptree Award Winning novel (for which she had also just received a Carl Brandon Award on the day of this panel).*Silver Moon is Catherine Lundoff's novel about menopausal werewolves*Catherine writes a series about LGBT SFF for SF Signal.*Julia is an editor for Strange Horizons, which is always interested in publishing diverse voices.*Kaleidoscope is an anthology of diverse YA SF and Fantasy stories Julia is co-editing with Alisa Krasnostein, which is scheduled to launch in August of 2014.*In Other Words is an anthology of poetry and flash by writers of color Julia is co-editing with Saira Ali, which is scheduled to launch at WisCon in May, and which will benefit Con or Bust.Other things mentioned: *Lorraine Hansberry was an African American lesbian playwright, best known for Raisin in the Sun, but Andrea pointed out that she also wrote a lot of science fiction plays. *The SFWA Bulletin incited a lot of pushback in 2013. Here is a timeline: http://www.slhuang.com/blog/2013/07/02/a-timeline-of-the-2013-sfwa-controversies/. It has since changed editorial staff and has just put out the first of the new team's issues, which seems to be a lot more favorably received, as evidenced here: http://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2014/03/the-new-sfwa-bulletin-is-blowing-my-mind.html.*"The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter" by Damien Angelica Walters was written partly in response to the SFWA bulletin's sexism. *A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar came up as an example of a novel by a person of color put out through an independent (not one of the big New York houses--Andrea argued for calling these sorts of publishers independent rather than small) publisher, Small Beer Press. Since the panel, A Stranger in Olondria has won the Crawford Award and been nominated for the Nebula. *Crossed Genres, Twelfth Planet Press, and Papaveria Press are independent presses that publish diverse voices.*Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and Apex are magazines Tempest sees publishing diverse stories. Tor.com is also publishing more diverse stories now, like "The Water That Falls on You From Nowhere" by John Chu. *The Tiptree Award celebrates work that expands our notions of gender.*Dark Matter is an anthology exploring a century of SF by black writers. *Blood Children was an anthology put out by the Carl Brandon Society in 213 to benefit the Octavia Butler Scholarship, which sends students of color to Clarion. *Bending the Landscape, Kindred Spirits, and Worlds Apart were brought up as examples of QUILTBAG anthologies from more than just a few years back. All of these were mentioned as early examples, but the panel agreed we need more. *Daughters of Earth is a collection of stories by women from the early 1900s to 2000 with accompanying critical essays. This collection is edited by Justine Larbalestier. Andrea wrote a critical essay about an Octavia Butler story in this book. *The Cascadia Subduction Zone has a feature where an established writer recommends and reviews an older work that might be obscure. Andrea and Nisi have both done this. *Lethe Press publishes best gay SF stories each year in Wilde Stories, and best lesbian SF stories each year in Heiresses of Russ. Nisi and Julia are both in Heiresses of Russ 2013.*From the audience, Saira Ali recommends Goblin Fruit and Stone Telling as diverse poetry magazines, and Aliens: Recent Encounters (edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane) as a good anthology.

Christian Baines joins me to talk about The Beast Without, a paranormal novel. We also briefly discuss his erotic paranormal short, The Prince and the Practitioner. You can find Christian on twitter as @xtianbaines, or visit his blog at christianbaines.blogspot.com.Christian will be at the Saints and Sinners book festival in New Orleans in May. Finally, I end with a recommendation for Red Caps, a short story collection by Steve Berman. That comes out for Valentines Day, and it's a solid collection of stories. Check out Brit Mandelo's review of it at Tor.com, and then check out the book for yourself.

Gillian Daniels, Emily Wagner, Adam Lipkin, Victor Raymond join Julia Rios talk about QUILTBAG YA in this panel from Arisia.Gillian blogs for New England Theatre Geek and the Analytical Couch Potato and eatyourbooks.blogspot.com.  Emily is a YA Librarian and the programming chair for Readercon.Adam reviews YA books for Publishers Weekly.Victor is a professor of sociology, activist, and founding member of the Carl Brandon Society. Victor Jason Raymond on Facebook. Material For Class Tumblr is coming soon.Julia is the host of this podcast, and is co-editing an anthology of diverse YA SF and fantasy called Kaleidoscope.Things mentioned in the panel:*Flying Higher: an anthology of superhero poetry--all the panelists have poems in this, and it is free.*Malnda Lo's books (Lesbian characters without being problem novels)*Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (good trans character, bi character who is also disabled, complex relationships, very good audiobook version)*If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan (two girls in love in Iran)*The Weetzie Bat series by Francesca Lia Block*Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (as an example of a classic YA book where diversity--in this case race--is played down, so the character reads as white to a lot of people)*The Shattering by Karen Healey (and a blanket recommendation for Karen Healey in general, and Guardian of the Dead has a good asexual character)*The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black (trans character)*AO3 (Archive Of Our Own--a fanfiction website where Emily sees teens going to write their own fix it fics. If they like a story and are disappointed about the representation, they will transform it themselves.)*Cassandra Clare, Sara Rees Brennan, Naomi Novik, Lois McMaster Bujold (authors who got their start in fanfic and/or still write fanfic after being professionally published)*Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (as an example of something where the issue of othernerss--in this case race--is so highlighted that the person portrayed as other must be presented as perfect)*The Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling *The Hobbit by J. R. R.  Tolkien (Teen #1 in audience read and liked it for the adventure)*The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Teen #2 read and loved this because it didn't try to romanticize death, but was blunt and direct)*Fanfiction! (Teen #3 is following over 150 fanfics right now and loves Once Upon a Time fanfic because, "The show is so terrible, but the fanfic is so good!")*The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson (SF in future Brazil with a polyamorous relationship with QUILTBAG characters and characters of color)*Marco Impossible by Hannah Moscowitz (mainstream gay book for middle school age readers)*My Most Excellent Year A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger (another mainstream book with 9th grade protagonists, one of whom is gay)*The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce (to start with one character has two moms, and later one of the main characters is bi. These are good because they start young and get older, so goo books to grow with)*Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson (Audience recommended, but then did not want to spoil it, so I'm unsure why exactly it was recommended)

J. A. Pitts joins me to talk about his work and all sorts of other things. J. A. Pitts is on Twitter as @JAPittsWriter. He's also got a Facebook page.

Traci Castleberry, Elka Cloke, Jeff Mann, and Bill Coleman talk to me about their stories in Suffered from the Night: Queering Bram Stoker's Dracula. At the end of the podcast, I also have a conversation with Alisa Krasnostein about the project we're crowdfunding right now, Kaleidoscope!Traci Castleberry also writes as Nica Berry and Evey Brett. You can find out all about her work on her website.Elka Cloke is active on both Tumblr and Twitter.Jeff Mann has a website with lots of info about his work.Bill Coleman also has a website with lots of info.Bill and Elka both had stories in A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes.Kaleidoscope is fundraising until the end of the month. Click here to back the project! When we hit the $7,000 mark, we'll post our submissions guidelines on the Kaleidoscope Blog.

Lee Martindale moderates the Gay SF panel at WorldCon. I (Julia Rios) am on it along with Scott Bobo, Matthew Johnson, Paul J. Salamoff, and Paige Ewing. After the panel there's a mini interview with Kyell Gold, who talks about the audiobook version of Green Fairy. We also had a great OA lunch meetup at WorldCon, and here's a picture of the group (minus a couple of people who had to dash before we could get our picture taken): Recommended in the panel: *Discord *Outlantacon *Gaylaxicon *The Ladies of Trade Town *Cecilia Tan *Catherine Lundoff *Elizabeth Bear *Circlet Press *Lethe Press *Wilde Stories *Heiresses of Russ *Melissa Scott *Lee Thomas *Clive Barker *Charles Stross *Selina Rosen *Yard Dog Press *Doctor Who *Green Lantern *Milestone Comics *J.A. Pitts *Malinda Lo *Mercedes Lackey *Lost Girl *Ann McCaffrey (Pern) *Marion Zimmer Bradley *Richard Morgan *Perry Moore *Mark Shepherd *Aqueduct Press *Kiini Ibura Salaam *Lamda Sci-Fi *Lambda Literary Awards *Gaylactic Spectrum Awards *Tiptree Awards *Bibrary *Modern Family *Breaking Bad (for disability, not QUILTBAG content) *Kyell Gold *Geoff Ryman Other Podcast recommendations: *The Skiffy and Fanty Show *LadyLike Boock Club

Michael Damian Thomas and Shira Lipkin join me to talk about Flying Higher, an anthology of superhero poetry, which you can get for free on Smashwords. Michael is @michaeldthomas on Twitter and Shira is @shadesong. Shira has also recently had a poem in Apex Magazine and a story in Clockwork Phoenix 4. Michael is also the co-editor of Queers Dig Time Lords and Glitter and Mayhem. Recent conventions with awesome looking program items included Diversicon and Nine Worlds. Catherine Lundoff has two different Diversicon posts! I don't have any Nine Worlds posts to share, but if you were there and want to write in about your experience, I'd love to hear all about it.I also wanted to say congratulations to all the World Fantasy Award nominees! Awesome to see N.K. Jemisin, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Karin Tidbeck, Charles Tan, Kaaron Warren, Meghan McCarron, and L. Timmel Duchamp on the ballot.Finally, Circlet Press is having a Summer Reading Sale! Send feedback to julia@juliarios.com, mention @outeralliance on Twitter, or say hello in person at WorldCon!

The Untragic Trans* Panel from WisCon 37! Moderated by Rhea Ewing, with Autumn Nicole Bradley, Rose Hayes, Brit Mandelo, and Elliott Mason. The panel runs an hour and fifteen minutes, and then I give a little Readercon report after it's over. Things the panelists recommended: *We Happy Trans* is a website specifically for sharing positive trans* experiences. *What Makes a Baby is a book that talks about how babies are made in very inclusive terms for all kinds of families. *Choir Boy by Charlie Anders is a novel about a trans* teen. *Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman is a book about exploring gender in multiple ways. *Being Emily by Rachel Gold is another trans* teen novel, and one which Autumn recommends as really speaking to her experience. *FINE is Rhea's comic about gender. Readercon was great! Big thanks to he concom for working hard to make the space as safe and inclusive as possible. I loved getting to catch up with so many OA members, though I utterly failed to get a lot pictures. I do have two, though! Both from the From Page to Stage workshop run by C.S.E. Cooney and Caitlyn Paxson. At the end, all the participants read from their work, and I caught Kyell Gold and Brad Parks in the act! Here's Kyell: And Brad: Thanks to everyone who made Readercon weekend great!

The Queers Dig Time Lords panel from WisCon! This panel was moderated by Sigrid Ellis, and the other panelists were Michael Damian Thomas, Amal El-Mohtar, Na'amen Tilahun, Brit Mandelo, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and me, Julia Rios. Even though this panel happened at 10am, it still gets the explicit tag (and how!), so consider yourself forewarned! Congratulations to award winners! The last month saw both the Bisexual Book Awards and the Lambda Literary Awards announced, as well as the Chronos Awards in Australia, and Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint won best Audio Drama at the Audies! Congratulations, all! If you want to see pictures from WisCon 37, you can check out my photo set on Flickr. Finally, if you were not able to attend WisCon, and would like to with the OA WisCon Prize Package (signed copies of Queers Dig Time Lords and Amal El-Mohtar's The Honey Month, plus a souvenir Queers Dig Time Lords test tube), e-mail me at julia@juliarios.com any time during the month of June. I'll draw a winner in early July.

Eight OA members answer the same four questions (about SF awards, what "metrosexual" means, identity politics and the term QUILTBAG, and recommended media from 2013), so we can see a bit of the wide variety of opinions on each topic. Gabriel Murray is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a first reader for Strange Horizons. Cheryl Morgan is a a noted reviewer, and proprietor of Wizard's Tower Books. H. B. Kurtzwilde is the Lambda nominated author of Chocolatiers of the High Winds. Sunny Moraine is the co-author of Line and Orbit. Sunny also has a story forthcoming in Apex Magazine. Dennis R. Upkins is a critic and writer. His non-fiction appears at Ars Marginal, and his first YA novel is Hollowstone, and his second novel, West of Sunset, is coming out this summer. Sarah Pinsker is a singer-songwriter and a short story writer. She did the music for the Strange Horizons Podcast, and has a story forthcoming in Strange Horizons this summer. Rahul Kanakia's short stories have appeared in all sorts of places including Clarkesworld,  Apex Magazine and Wilde Stories 2013. His novels are represented by the Greenhouse Literary Agency. Jude McLaughlin is the mastermind behind Wonder City Stories. She was our one e-mail correspondent this episode, and her answers are all together at the very end. Stuff We Mentioned Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (sad story, strong female friendship, set in WWII) The Ditmar Award Winners (congratulations, all!) Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck Ancient, Ancient by Kiini Ibura Salaam "Robot" by Helena Bell "Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard "Fade to White" by Catherynne M. Valente Stoker (an interestingly disappointing movie, according to Gabe) Batgirl #19 by Gail Simone (Cheryl is excited about the trans character in this comic) Gemsigns by Stephanie Salter (currently only available in the UK) Video Game High School The Binding of Isaac (a flash game) The Starz series Spartacus (which Sunny notes is problematic, but also has some great stuff in it, including a healthy gay couple) The Evil Dead remake (again Sunny notes there are problems with this, it's not for everyone, but it does interesting things with women) Selo & Inya by Ankhesen Mie Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II (both games have queer characters) G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Denny appreciates that this features people of color) The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord Marbles by Ellen Forney (Out-Bechdels Allison Bechdel, according to Sarah) "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" by Rachel Swirsky "Variations on Bluebeard and Dalton's Law Along the Event Horizon" by Helena Bell "Selkie Stories Are For Losers" by Sofia Samatar (Sarah heard this story many times while working on the very first Strange Horizons podcast episode, and she never got tired of it!) The Good Wife (TV legal drama, which Rahul enjoys for the plots and the abundance of queer characters) Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Rahul says this one made him feel like he was living the story) Puella Magi Madoka Magica Dicebox by Jen Manley Lee Family Man by Dylan Meconis I Do Not Have an Eating Disorder Send feedback to julia@juliarios.com, and if you're coming to WisCon, say hello to me at the Queers Dig Time Lords / OA party on Friday night!