Podcasts about broad universe

Books That Make You Go On a Science Fiction Adventure That's Both Epic and Inclusive A writer since she was a child, Rebecca Inch-Partridge grew up writing stories about The Bionic Woman meeting, say, Captain Kirk. Escaping the Dashia, her first novel, is a YA science fantasy that tells the story of young telepath Twyla, abducted by her mother and forced to participate in the criminal organization that comprises the family business. The book was published by Black Rose Writing. A member of the Editorial Freelancers Association and Broad Universe, Rebecca frequently speaks at writers' conferences and pop culture conventions. Her writing, both fiction and non, has appeared in several magazines, and she has won Honorable Mention in the likes of Writers of the Future and Writer's Digest contests. She received her bachelor's degree from William Jessup University in (and she swears this isn't an oxymoron) Management and Ethics. Find out more on Books That Make You. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Kriya Therapeutics Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO Shankar Ramaswamy sits down with Neil. He discusses how the company is changing the way gene therapies are designed, developed, and manufactured in an effort to cut costs, accelerate the time to market, and expand the reach of gene therapies to a broad universe of disease.

Mark interviews Rona Gofstein, an Author Accelerator certified fiction book coach who specializes in helping writers of genre fiction develop, write and revise their novels. She also writes contemporary romance, is the president of Broad Universe, an international organization for women and alternatively gendered authors of speculative fiction, as well as president of the New Hampshire Chapter of RWA.  Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, thanks his patrons and provides them an update on June virtual hangouts and a word about this episode's sponsor. You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway. During their chat, Mark and Rona talk about: When Rona first started to play around with writing when back in college How Julia Cameron's Book The Artist's Way inspired Rona to get serious about writing and publishing a book Being a "feel your way through" type of writer Knowing her characters really well, despite being a planstser How Rona works through character sheets The importance of having a "what would they never, ever do?" element on a character sheet What Broad Universe is within speculative fiction and how they use it to help bring attention to a more diverse range of authors Becoming an accredited Author Accelerator Book coach Rona's love of helping writers realize their dreams of becoming a writer The different types of clients Rona works with and the techniques and elements she helps them understand Where and how Rona fits in her own writing Continuing to do the "Morning Pages" from the previously mentioned book by Julia Cameron How coaching and writing can help feed off one another for Rona The Joan Didion quote: "I don't know what I think until I write it down." And more...   After the interview Mark reflects on the idea of the morning pages that Rona does based on reading Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Links of Interest: Rona Gofstein's Website Broad Universe Findaway Voices Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Best Book Ever Podcast Lovers Moon Podcast The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon   Rona Gofstein is an Author Accelerator certified fiction book coach and specializes in helping writers of genre fiction develop, write and revise their novels. She writes contemporary romance and will be launching a new series and pen name later this year. Rona is the president of Broad Universe, an international organization for women and alternatively gendered authors of speculative fiction, as well as president of the New Hampshire Chapter of RWA. She desperately needs her morning coffee, thinks reservations are the best thing to make for dinner, and believes that one day she will find the magic planner that will keep her perfectly organized.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 

Special Author Interview - JOSH MALERMAN and ELIZABETH BLACK - TUESDAY MARCH 23 -   4 EST 3CST 2MT  http://tobtr.com/11898314 Michigan Avenue Media Podcasts hosted by Marsha Csper Cook are fun, informative discussions that are based on writing and the interesting topics that the guests want to discuss. There's no set format other than great information that new and seasoned writers share. One thing for sure - it's always fun. Josh Malerman is an American novelist, short story writer, film producer, ad one of two singer/songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. He is best known for writing his post-apocalyptic novel, Bird Box, which was the inspiration of the Netflix film Bird Box. In 2020, he founded the production company Spin a Black Yarn with manager Ryan Lewis; their first film, We Need to Do Something, was shot in secret during the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic. E. A Black  had enjoyed telling scary stories to a captive audience since she was a child. She grew up in Baltimore, the home of Edgar Allan Poe who has inspired her to write. Due to her love for speculative fiction she joined Broad Universe, a networking group for women who write speculative fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Zippered Flesh 2, Zippered Flesh 3, Teeming Terrors, Midnight Movie Creature Feature 2, The Horror Zine’s Book of Ghost Stories, Wicked Women, Wicked Tales, Fark in the Time of Covid, and more.  FOR MORE ABOUT THE SHOWS http://www.marshacaspercook.com / http://www.michiganavenuemedia.com

Michigan Avenue Media Podcasts are fun, informative discussions that are based on writing and the interesting topics that the guests want to discuss. There's no set format other than great information that new and seasoned writers share. One thing for sure - it's always fun.    Please join Marsha Casper Cook on Feb 9at 4EST 3CST 2MT 1PST.when her special guests will be Elizabeth Black and Tom Deady.. Tom Deady's first novel, HAVEN, won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. He has since published several novels and novellas, as well as his first collection of short stories in late 2020. Tom has several publications, including the sequel to his second novel (Eternal Darkness) coming out in 2021. He has a Master's Degree in English and Creative Writing and is a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the New England Horror Writers Association. He resides in Massachusetts where he is working on his next novel. Trish Wilson has written horror with the pen name E. A Black. She had enjoyed telling scary stories to a captive audience since she was a child. She grew up in Baltimore, the home of Edgar Allan Poe who has inspired her to write. Due to her love for horror and dark fiction she joined Broad Universe, a networking group for women who write speculative fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Zippered Flesh 2, Zippered Flesh 3, Teeming Terrors, Midnight Movie Creature Feature 2, Wicked Tales: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers Vol. 3, Wicked Women: An Anthology of the New England Horror Writers, and more.              

Barbara in the Frame by Emmalia Harrington       Bab’s stomach growled for the third time in five minutes. “You were right,” she said, pushing away from her desk, “It’s time for a break.” Summer classes meant papers and tests smashed close together. There was hardly time to get enough sleep, let alone shop on a regular basis. The only food in her dorm room was an orange. Bab picked it up and walked to her dresser, where the portrait of Barbara, her grandfather’s great-aunt, sat.   Full story after the cut.     Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip Episode 71 for April 15, 2019! This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. Our story for today is "Barbara in the Frame" by Emmalia Harrington read by Before we get started, a reminder that there's still a Tiptree Honor Book sale going on for the GlitterShip Year One and Year Two anthologies on gumroad! Just go to gumroad.com/keffy and use the coupon code “tiptree,” that’s t-i-p-t-r-e-e to get the ebooks for $5 each. Emmalia Harrington is a nonfiction writer, librarian and student with a deep love of speculative fiction. She hopes to have many more publications under her belt. In the meantime she continues to plug away at her novel and short stories. Her work has previously appeared in Cast of Wonders, FIYAH and is upcoming in other venues. She is a member of Broad Universe and volunteers with the Speculative Literature Foundation. Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali is a writer, editor and narrator. Her publications include Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Fiyah Magazine and others. Her fiction has been featured in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 12 edited by Jonathan Strahan and The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Three edited by Neil Clarke. You can hear her narrations at any of the four Escape Artists podcasts, Far Fetched Fables, and Strange Horizons. She can be found online at http://khaalidah.com.   Barbara in the Frame by Emmalia Harrington       Bab’s stomach growled for the third time in five minutes. “You were right,” she said, pushing away from her desk, “It’s time for a break.” Summer classes meant papers and tests smashed close together. There was hardly time to get enough sleep, let alone shop on a regular basis. The only food in her dorm room was an orange. Bab picked it up and walked to her dresser, where the portrait of Barbara, her grandfather’s great-aunt, sat. She put a segment in her mouth and gagged. “Sorry,” she said, spitting the fruit into her hand. Bab forced it down on the fifth attempt. Aunt Barbara’s portrait frowned and glanced at the bookcase. The clothbound spine of Auntie’s handwritten cookbook stood out among the glossy college texts. “You know it’s too early for the kitchen,” Bab kept her eyes on the shelves and away from her aunt. “Those girls will be there.” Even looking away, Auntie’s disappointment made her wilt. Bab retreated to her desk to choke down the rest of her fruit. “I’m safer here,” she said as she wiped her hands. “It’s just you, me and a locked door.” She closed her eyes, imagining what diet could sustain her until the cafeteria opened for the autumn. Carrots lasted days without refrigeration, and if she soaked oatmeal overnight, it would be soft enough for breakfast. Auntie’s book said food was more potent when shared. It had nothing like the recipes the other girls loved to make for their Soul Food Sundays. Placing succotash next to their cheese grits and fried okra was little better than exposing her whole self. “Remember when I came home from the hospital?” Bab asked, turning back to her aunt. “I was so skinny Dad and Papa wouldn’t let me see you.” She gave a thin smile. “They thought seeing me would crack your frame.” Her throat shrank at the memories. The bureaucracy at her old college insisted on using the name and gender on her birth certificate and stuck her in the boys’ dorms. Her roommates alternated between hitting on her and punching inches from her head when she rebuffed them. One loved spiking her food with hot sauce and worse. After a few weeks she couldn’t sip water without panicking; a full meal was impossible.  “None of that will happen here.” Bab cracked her knuckles and tried to type as memories of the last year washed over her. This women’s college’s administration accepted Bab for who she was, name and all. She still felt safer keeping to herself. That midnight, she entered the kitchen with cookies on her mind. She pulled out her baking sheet and spices before she came to her senses. Food never worked right in an unconsecrated space. After several deep breaths, she was scrubbing the counter and attempting to meditate. Incense was not allowed on campus, but would have done wonders to erase the pork and garlic scent left over from the soul food dinner. Even when her dormmates weren’t there, they were reminding her how she wasn’t. Curvy figures to her still-underweight frame. Cornrows and other cute hairstyles while hers couldn’t grow longer than peach fuzz without breaking combs. Bab bit her tongue. A clear mind was the best way to perform a ritual. A pristine table and stovetop later, she was assembling Auntie’s happiness cookies. Rice flour provided security and cloves purified the mind and heart. Cinnamon brought comfort and strengthened the power of the other ingredients. Mix with water to create a dough, pop them in the oven for fifteen minutes and suffer from anticipation. Tidying right away added power to the food and gave them time to cool, even if the aroma of fresh cookies filled her mouth with drool. Back in her room, there were things she needed to do before eating. She paid homage to Aunt Barbara, placing the nicest smelling piece by her picture frame. Next was covering her desk in a clean towel in lieu of a tablecloth and folding a pretty bandanna into a napkin. A duct tape flower decorated the space. After a prayer of thanks, she took her first bite. At first, it tasted like a cracker in need of dip. As she chewed, spices spread through her mouth and into her nose. Tension fell from her shoulders and neck. The more she ate, the more her cookie took on an extra flavor she couldn’t describe. The closest she could get was “a hug from the whole family.” When she checked on her aunt, Barbara’s cookie was gone, crumbs and all.   College was a never-ending battle between sleeping in and being on time for class. Bab had just enough time to pull on jeans and run to the Humanities Building, cursing herself with every step. Life was hard enough as is, she shouldn’t make it worse by writing papers after 2am. By pinching the back of her hand, she stayed awake all through the lesson. The effect faded as she headed to the bathroom, where she fought not to drift off on the toilet. She was washing up when a familiar voice went “I said ‘Hey!’” It was Jen, dormmate and Political Science/Africana Studies major, standing between her and the exit. Bab stretched her lips into a smile. “Not working today?” Jen laughed and shook her head. The beads tipping her braids tinkled as she moved. Bab wished she had a scarf to hide her own hair. “My internship with the Congresswoman is this afternoon. I’m between classes now.” “I wouldn’t want to keep you,” Bab hoped the other girl didn’t notice the wobble in her voice. “There’s time yet.” Jen headed for the water closets and paused. “You’re the reason the kitchen smelled so good this morning?” Bab forgot how to breathe. Nodding had to do. “Will you come next Sunday? The three of us can’t make dessert to save ourselves.” Without waiting for an answer, Jen entered a stall. The sliding lock sounded like a guillotine blade. It was all Bab could do to run to her next seminar. Terror percolated inside her, tightening her throat until she couldn’t get a lungful. The Number Systems for School Teachers lecture passed in a haze of greying vision. At her next course, the professor took one look at her and ordered her to rest. Back in her room, Bab spent an endless time curled on her bed, fighting for air. Clattering from the dresser pulled Bab out of herself enough to check the noise’s source. Auntie’s picture had fallen. “Thanks,” she returned to the bed, hugging the portrait like a teddy bear. Her heart bumping against the frame’s glass made a double beat, Auntie’s pulse moving in time with hers. Bab’s airway relaxed, and her head cleared enough to grab last night’s cookies. “What should I do?” she said after filling Auntie in on the bathroom encounter. “Dad and Papa couldn’t teach me black girl stuff. Jen and her friends have way more practice than me.” She took a bite. “If I change my mind, they’ll know something’s up, but if they get to know me, they’ll be just like my boy roommates and…” Aunt Barbara was pursing her lips. “You haven’t heard Jen, Maria and Tanya speak. Their majors are going to help them ‘change the world.’” Bab stuck her chest out, superhero style. Auntie raised her eyebrows. “I know becoming a teacher’s important,” she sighed. “But tell that to people outside my department. Anyway, that’s not the main reason they’ll hate me.” She glanced at Auntie’s cookbook. “On Sundays the kitchen smells like those TV shows with sassy mothers who teach girls how to cook the ‘real way.’” She made finger quotes. “Nothing like what we eat at home. They’ll take one look at my food and treat me like my old roommates.” Her stomach twisted. “I don’t want to go to the hospital again.” Finishing the cookie kept the worst throat swelling away. She still felt like barricading herself until graduation. Light glinted from the portrait. When Bab took a closer look, Auntie met her eyes. Aunt Barbara resembled a professor, stern but caring. If photos could speak, Bab would be getting a speech on conquering fear. The eye lecture finished with Auntie glancing in the direction of her book. Bab crossed the room, picked it up, and flipped through the dessert section. She doubted grapenut pudding would go over well. Apple-cheddar pie might work, but she wasn’t masochistic enough to make crust from scratch. Hermits seemed easy enough, but the next recipe stopped her cold. Froggers. Above the recipe, Aunt Barbara had written a few notes about Lucretia Brown, the inventor. Bab read and reread the page before saying “They might like it.”   Summer lessons meant more homework and less time. Bab spent her free days camped in the library, reading hundreds of pages worth of assignments before trudging back to her room to bang out papers. She peeked from her window before going outside. Maria, a Soul Food Sunday girl, wasn’t out running laps. Bab headed to the library, wiping sweat off her palms every couple of steps. If the Pre-Law/Economics student wasn’t marathoning, she was on work-study. Bab needed to find a secluded corner to avoid detection. Maria was nowhere near the front desk when Bab checked out her classes’ reserve texts. She walked the opposite way from the book return cart, in case the girl was shelving. Bab spent the next two hours in the clear until it came time to make copies. The other girl was bent over loading paper into the machine, looking more voluptuous than Bab could hope to be. Bab closed her eyes, praying to avoid a repeat of yesterday. “Hey.” Maybe starting the conversation would help. The other girl yelped, whirling around and overbalancing. Bab rushed to steady her, half-wondering if she landed in a romantic comedy. Maria’s face flushed redder than her shirt. “I didn’t see you.” It was Bab’s turn to freeze. She studied the wall behind the other girl’s head as she tried to form words. “Oh! You’re coming Sunday,” Maria sounded relieved. “We can talk then.” She stepped away from Bab and hurried to the front desk. Two hours and five textbooks later, Bab emerged from the library, dazed. Motor memory led her to the campus coffee shop, where she ordered a red eye. She needed the caffeine to unfry her brain and conduct decent extracurricular research. Maria was nowhere to be found when Bab walked to the reference librarian’s desk. There wasn’t too much on Lucretia Brown, but what existed came from places like the Smithsonian. The state historical society had a series of frogger recipes as well as official documents on Brown’s business. Bab’s coffee went cold as she pored over the papers.   “What do you think, Auntie?” Bab asked that night. “Those three might hate them because they have ‘frog’ in the name.” Aunt Barbara didn’t react. Bab twisted her hands and continued. “I found a zillion ways to make froggers. Some I don’t have to buy a ton of new ingredients for. One is similar to your happiness cookies and isn’t very sweet. They’ll think I was lying about making dessert. Another’s fried, not baked. Those three…” She drifted off as Auntie wrinkled her nose. “What do you think I should do?” Bab said, hoping Auntie wouldn’t give the obvious answer. She gave Bab a hard stare. “I can’t do that,” Bab said, backing away. “I’m safer not making friends.” She bumped into her bed. Auntie looked miserable. Bab stroked the picture frame before returning to fretting. Silently this time. Every recipe called for allspice, which promoted luck, success and health. It was also quite masculine. Bab wasn’t keen on infusing virility in herself or the others. Liquor united the feminine elements of water and earth, but she was too young to buy the rum froggers required. Bab prayed rum extract with its high alcohol content was an acceptable substitute. Auntie’s book had nothing to say about the power of molasses. Maybe it took after its sister sugar in terms of protection and enhancement. It could also be a soul food ingredient, though Bab was too afraid to check.   Spices were never cheap. Bab spent the next few days outside of class in the city. Ethnic enclaves had spices at better cost than supermarkets, and she was going to find the best prices. She always went on foot to channel bus fare into grocery cash. Her feet swelled until she could barely pull her shoes off at night, but she got all the seasonings she needed, plus extra rice flour. By Saturday afternoon, Bab recovered enough to limp to the market nearest to the dorms. Butter was easy enough to find, but molasses and extract remained elusive, no matter how many times she wandered Aisle 5. Between her focus on the shelves and her still complaining legs, she didn’t notice company until she bumped into them. Bab’s heart froze when she realized who she crashed into. Tanya was Jen and Maria’s buddy, a Business/Chemistry major and heir to a cosmetics firm that made products for black women. She might have been in jeans and ponytail, but her skin glowed and her hair smelled of jasmine and coconut oil. “I’m sorry!” Bab couldn’t apologize fast enough. “I should have seen you-” Tanya waved her hand. “I ran into you. Let me make up for it.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wad of papers. “Have a coupon.” Bab reached for the offering, doing her best not to brush Tanya’s fingers. She didn’t want to piss the girl off by mistake. There were discounts on powdered soup, meal replacement shakes, frozen dinners… “Mind if I have this one?” Bab held up a voucher for oranges. Tanya shrugged. “It’s not like I’ll get scurvy.” Bab’s grin felt foreign on her mouth. “They’re also great for clearing the mind and cheering you up.” The other girl raised an eyebrow, something Bab had yet to master. “Isn’t that what chocolate’s for?” Bab’s cheeks burned, but before she could answer, Tanya said, “Maybe I’ll get some chocolate peanut butter this week. They taste good with strawberry Caffeine Bombs.” She waved goodbye. Bab couldn’t decide whether to stare at her, or her basket of white bread and neon drinks. She resumed her search for the remaining ingredients, trying to imagine what Auntie would think of Tanya’s cuisine. There could be rage, terror, or horrific rage. “Victory!” Bab announced later in her room. “Now I have everything for froggers.” She picked up the portrait. “Will it be all right?” Auntie beamed. “Of course you think that, we’re family. I don’t have that advantage for tomorrow.” Aunt Barbara looked Bab up and down before raising her chin. Bab crossed her arms over her bust. “They’re prettier than I am, and I don’t think a padded bra would help.” Auntie’s eye narrowed. “What’s worth knowing about me?” Her voice wobbled. Auntie glanced at the mirror. Bab stood in front of it for ages, trying to see what Aunt Barbara did. It never appeared. Whenever she turned away, Auntie nodded for Bab to return. Her throat ached from not shrieking her frustration. Her reflection continued to show someone who did not have the looks, goals or background as the other black girls in the dorm. She had bits and pieces of other kin in her appearance, like Papa’s forehead, Grandfather’s nose, and Auntie’s love of frilly blouses. Bab straightened her back and assumed the formal pose of Auntie’s portrait. She still couldn’t find what Auntie saw, but her urge to scream faded. Maybe one of these years she’d be as awesome as Auntie believed.   If Bab was going to bake undisturbed, she was better off starting at midnight. The cookies wouldn’t be the freshest, but she half-remembered one recipe saying froggers grew tastier with time. Or she could scrub the kitchen for so long, Monday would roll by before she finished. Giving the counter, sink and other surfaces the once-over wasn’t going to be enough if she wanted to win the trio’s favor. Bab scoured until her arms ached, shook them out, and started again. She filled her head with prayers for the cookies’ success and her continued safety. Whenever her mind wandered, she bit hard on her tongue. Now that she thought about it, froggers might taste better if she rewashed the baking sheet. As she worried it with a sponge, she caught a glimpse of herself on the aluminum. She was nothing more than a blobby outline, but it was enough to remember the afternoon. Auntie thought she was worth something and Bab needed to act the part. She preheated the oven and pulled out the measuring cup. Auntie’s recipe didn’t specify rice flour, but she could do with its protection. The spices that went into happiness cookies went into the mixing bowl, along with lucky nutmeg and ginger’s love. Macho allspice went in after all, to impart success. Wet ingredients went into another bowl, before she combined everything to make a sticky dough. Nothing a bit of flour couldn’t fix. She rolled everything out with the side of an empty glass, used the mouth of the same cup to cut out froggers and stuck them in the oven. Baking and cooling times stretched until every second felt like forever. Despite her best efforts, no amount of tidying would speed things. Sweat oozed from her face and armpits. As soon as she could move the cookies without burning herself, Bab fled to her room. “I did it!” She hitched her shoulders in lieu of a fist pump. Dropping the froggers now would mean baking them later in front of an audience. Once they were safely on her desk, she fell to her knees. “I thought of you as much as I could and how you want me to be.” On the floor, she couldn’t meet Auntie’s face. “I’m still not there, sorry.” Even through her jeans, the tiled floor felt so cool, but passing out here would mean a stiff back in the morning. “Just a minute.” It took a few tries to lurch off the floor and back on her feet. Bab placed a frogger by Auntie’s picture. “What do you think?” Between one blink and the next, the cookie vanished. Auntie’s smile threatened to push her cheeks off.   It was ten when Bab woke up, and eleven before she rolled out of bed. She only had a few hours, and laundry wouldn’t do itself. Typical for Sunday, all the machines were full, but one just had a few minutes left to run. She buried herself in a textbook, wondering if she could drop out of dinner, saying she had a test tomorrow. Auntie would be disappointed in her. The afternoon vanished in a flurry of chores, grooming and actual homework reading. Bab shaved, brushed her hair until her arm ached, and smoothed out the wrinkles in one of her nicer shirts. Whenever her throat threatened to swell, she turned back to studying. An hour before the event, Bab’s heart thrummed in her ears. She had one last thing to do before she was ready, but it meant going to the kitchen, possibly in front of everyone. The room was filled with cell phone music and off-key singing. Tanya and Maria’s backs were to Bab as they chopped away. Jen hadn’t arrived. Bab was free to cover the table with a freshly washed sheet, though she ached to clap her hands over her ears. The file quality, song genre and the girls’ lack of skill made it Vogon poetry in human mouths. She placed her duct tape flower in the center of the table before retreating to gather the froggers. When she returned, the pair was belting out what might have been “Baby Come to Me.” Bab prayed “4:33” was next on the playlist as she arranged cookies on her largest plate. She couldn’t do anything more artful than a pyramid of concentric circles, but it looked good enough for a magazine. A shriek stole the last of her hearing. “Bab, when did you get here?” Bab turned to Tanya, rubbing her ears. “I didn’t want to interrupt.” Tanya laughed. “It’s either sing or put up with Maria’s preaching.” “Soul food _isn’t_ vegan,” the third girl hissed. “Aren’t you making peas and carrots?” Tanya said. “Doesn’t count, I use butter,” Maria said. “See what I mean?” Tanya said to Bab with a hammy sigh. Bab’s smile shook around the edges. “Why not vegan?” “Thank you!” Tanya abandoned her cutting board to crush Bab in a hug. “You understand.” “Does that mean no cookies tonight?” Bab winced at her lack of subtlety. “They have dairy.” “Of course cookies,” Tanya stepped back, giving her a hard look. “Cookies need butter, chicken need salt, and collard greens are better with orange juice instead of pork.” “Blasphemy,” called a new voice from the doorway. Jen walked in, arms full of cans and equipment. “Smoked pork is food of the gods.” As the trio rambled amongst themselves, tension fell from Bab’s shoulders. She set the table, making sure everything was picture perfect while the others worked by the stove and countertops. Aside from the odd comment thrown in her direction, they left her alone until their food was ready. “What did you do?” Jen breathed as she took in Bab’s handiwork. “It looks like a real Sunday dinner now.” “Ahem,” Tanya said, looking in the direction of the garbage bin. An empty tube of biscuit dough and gravy can sat on top of the trash. “I was busy--” Jen started, but Maria cut her off. “I forgot salt, gravy will help the peas and carrots.” She plopped her dish next to the duct tape flower. “Let’s start?” No one commented on Bab sitting in the spot closest to the door. They were too busy saying things that threatened to stop her heart. “How’s the food? Maria used fresh carrots this time.” Tanya wiggled her eyebrows. Maria, Bab’s bench partner, turned the color of rust. The taste was on par with cafeteria food. Bab liked safety too much to say it aloud. “You’re right, it does go well with gravy.” Maria stared at her plate as more blood rushed to her face. “You know what would be great? Bacon.” Jen said. “Everything it touches turns to magic.” Bab opened her mouth, closed it and lowered her head so no one could see her face. Auntie’s cookbook never limited power to a single ingredient. The other girls were too busy arguing which brand of cured meat was best to notice Bab. It wasn’t long before the serving plates emptied. With competition out of the way, the froggers perfumed the table and made full stomachs grumble. “Are these the cookies you made last week?” Jen asked. Bab shook her head. “It’s a diff--” the trio snatched froggers for themselves and went to work reducing them to crumbs. Jen’s first bite took out a third of her cookie. Her eyes widened. Tanya chewed slowly, lost in thought. Maria closed her eyes and clasped her hands like a church lady. “What did you say these were?” “They’re molasses cookies.” Bab coughed, but her throat kept tingling. “Froggers.” “Made with real frogs?” Tanya said, her mouth wry. Bab took a deep breath and wished her lungs were bigger. “A woman named Lucretia Brown invented them.” All eyes were on her, none of them hateful. She looked at Tanya. “Lucretia was a black woman who ran an inn and made perfume and other things to sell.” To Jen and Maria she added “She was born in 1772 Massachusetts and owned property.” No one spoke. They were too busy considering their froggers. Bab took one for herself and bit in deep. Spices spread through her mouth and seeped into her being. Her throat relaxed enough to ask “Maria, mind if I jog with you tomorrow?” before she realized it. A second mouthful of cookie kept panic at bay. Maria’s ears darkened, but she said “I’d like that. Front door at eight A.M.? Wear good shoes.” Bab took a second frogger, but when she reached for a third, all she found was an empty plate. Hearing the trio tease each other as they helped with cleanup almost made up for it. The lack of singing certainly did. With four people helping, dishes and everything else were done in no time. Bab trailed the other girls out of the kitchen, itching to tell Aunt Barbara about tonight. It was too soon to tell how they’d take knowing Bab’s whole self, but for now they added warmth she couldn’t get with cookies alone. END     "Barbara in the Frame” was originally published in FIYAH and is copyright Emmalia Harrington, 2017. This recording is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license which means you can share it with anyone you’d like, but please don’t change or sell it. Our theme is “Aurora Borealis” by Bird Creek, available through the Google Audio Library. You can support GlitterShip by checking out our Patreon at patreon.com/keffy, subscribing to our feed, leaving reviews on iTunes, or buying your own copy of the Summer 2018 issue at www.glittership.com/buy. You can also support us by picking up a free audiobook at  www.audibletrial.com/glittership. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back soon with a new issue and a GlitterShip original, "Raders" by Nelson Stanley.

This week on “In Process: Conversations about Business in the 21st Century,” we continue with the next podcast in our series dedicated to the topic of preparing your business for sale. This series leads up to the physical event we are hosting at 5:30 p.m., on Thursday, Apr. 19, 2018, in Atlanta titled, "Prepping the Princess for the Party: Is Your Business Ready to Sell?" In the fourth installment of our six-part podcast series, show hosts Evelyn Ashley and John Monahon speak with FOCUS Investment Banking’s George Shea, partner and IT team leader, and Manan Shah, managing partner and leader of the Government, Aerospace and Defense Group, about how to find the right buyer for a business in the broad universe of prospects. FOCUS Investment Banking is a national middle-market investment banking firm providing merger, acquisition, divestiture and corporate finance services. During the course of the podcast, entrepreneurs, business owners and C-level executives will learn about the: Three categories of buyers along with challenges and opportunities for each Elements that make a business sellable Factors that business owners should focus on to get ready for their exits Key industries that buyers and investors are interested in now Important role both internal and external research plays in attracting buyers Did you enjoy the podcast? Please give us a review and share the episode with anyone you know who would benefit.

To Make Haste by Dawn Vogel.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword recorded by Dawn Vogel.  #Fantasy #Library #Magic #Spell #Books #Fiction #podcast "Monique returned to her scanning, pausing to glance over the unintelligible language she'd been scanning all evening.        For a moment, the words on the page wavered before her eyes.  It didn't last more than a second or two, but she would have sworn the page said 'to make haste'." Dawn Vogel writes and edits both fiction and non-fiction.  Her academic background is in history, so its not surprising that much of her fiction is set in earlier times.  By day, she edits reports for historians and archaeologists.  In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, co-edits Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time for writing.  She is a member of Broad Universe and an associate member of SFWA.  Her first novel, Brass and Glass: The Cask of Cranglimmering, is available from Razorgirl Press.  She lives in Seattle with her awesome husband (and fellow author), Jeremy Zimmerman, and their herd of cats.  Visit her at historythatneverwas.com.   Please help support the Overcast.  Become a Patron Today!   Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.  While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!   Reach thousands promoting your book on the Overcast!  Sponsor spots start at just $5.  Email: overcastsubmissions@gmail.com for details.        

Main Fiction: "A Packhorse for your Silly Memes" by Rebecca DeVendra  Originally published in Outliers of Speculative Fiction Rebecca DeVendra is a figure artist and speculative fiction writer living in Boston. She serves as a first reader for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She's also a mom to three cacophonous, early-rising children. She's probably in her pajamas, but she has an emergency collar shirt for video calls. Check out more of her work: rebeccadevendra.com Narrated by: Amy H. Sturgis Amy H. Sturgis holds a Ph.D. in Intellectual History from Vanderbilt University and specializes in both Science Fiction and Indigenous American Studies. Since 2008, she has been contributing monthly "Looking Back at Genre History" segments to StarShipSofa. Editor in Chief of Hocus Pocus Comics and faculty at Lenoir-Rhyne University, Sturgis lives with her husband in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. Learn more about her award-winning work at amyhsturgis.com. Short Fiction: "My First Duty" by Eric Reynolds Originally published at Galaxy's Edge Eric T. Reynolds is  Editor/Publisher with Hadley Rille Books (hrbpress.com) and has edited over 40 highly-acclaimed anthologies, collections, and novels. His short fiction has appeared in Galaxy’s Edge, Sci Phi Journal, several  indie press publications, and had several non-fiction science articles published about space exploration and history of technology. He is a member of SFWA and Broad Universe. You can visit him on Facebook at "Eric T. Reynolds." He blogs occasionally at ericreynolds.livejournal.com. Narrated by: Jason Satterlund  Satterlund has been writing and working on films for over 25 years. He has extensive experience in all areas of production, including directing, writing, cinematography, and editing.  He travels the world producing feature films, television series, commercials, music videos, and documentaries. He is the only person ever to conduct a night shoot in the ancient city of Petra, and the first person in America to use film lenses on an HD camera. Satterlund wrote and directed the award-winning feature film The Record Keeper, which premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London and is currently on the world wide festival circuit. He is also the director of the Star Wars fan film The Force and the Fury, viewable on YouTube. When he isn't busy directing his own projects, he enjoys teaching film making workshops, shaping the film makers of the future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join RevKess and Kalisara as we talk about the Bad-Ass Faeries books and the Kickstarter campaign for the Best of Anthology with editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail. "If you sort through the accounts of the fae most of them were not pleasant. Mischevious, Malicious, Warlike... those are the words used to describe fae creatures. The Bad-Ass Faeries series has been around for a decade now. The original anthologies were edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Lee C. Hillman, and Jeffrey Lyman, but with the completion of Bad-Ass Faeries: It's Elemental, the editorial team has taken a hiatus." The 10-year anniversary edition of Bad-Ass Faeries will be a Best of... anthology, containing 20 of the best of the Bad-Ass Faerie stories. Author and editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with husband Mike McPhail and friend Greg Schauer to form her own publishing house, eSpec Books. Her published works include six novels, including Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, and Today’s Promise. She is also the author of solo collections, including A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, and Transcendence, as well as The Literary Handyman. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Dragon’s Lure, and In an Iron Cage. She is a member of Broad Universe, a writer’s organization focusing on promoting the works of women authors in the speculative genres.

Marcy Arlin teaches Theater for Social Change at Pace University and is artistic director of the OBIE-winning Immigrants' Theatre project and is a Fulbright scholar to Romania and the Czech Republic. She is a long-time member of BSFW, Theater Without Borders, Broad Universe, and her work has been published in Daily Science Fiction, Perihelionsf.com, Broad Universe Sampler, and Man.In.Fest theater journal. Marcy has several more short stories out there and is working on a sci-fi murder mystery. Author Richard Bowes has published six novels, four story collections and over eighty short stories. He has won two World Fantasy Awards, a Lambda Award, a story South Million Writers Award, and an International Horror Guild Award. His most recent novel, Dust Devil On a Quiet Street, was on the 2014 World Fantasy and Lambda short lists. A new edition of his 2005 novel, From The Files of the Time Rangers, a Nebula finalist, will appear later this year from Lethe Press. Last year, his 9/11 story, "There’s A Hole In The City," got a very nice review in The New Yorker. Recent and forthcoming appearances include: Fantasy Magazine's Queers Destroy Fantasy special issue, Interfictions, Nightmare, Grendel Song, and the anthologies The Doll Collection and Black Feathers. He is currently writing stories that will be chapters in a novel about life as a gay kid in 1950’s Boston. Bradley Robert Parks lives, writes, and performs in and around Brooklyn, NY, where he founded the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers (BSFWriters.com). His passion for writing blossomed while growing up in a family of genre readers. While he's been pursuing writing for a while, the crazy energy of NYC and BSFW have given him the focus and motivation to finally get published. His stories have appeared on BuzzyMag.com and on the Kaleidocast podcast. He also sings and narrates stories when time permits. Along with these achievements, he's obtained one husband, Michael, and Insanity Anne Magoo (best cat ever). Keep up with his exploits on Facebook or at BradleyRobertParks.com.

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.

Silly question, of course they should. But what do they do differently from male writers? Kathy Sullivan is from Broad Universe, an organisation with the goal of promoting women science fiction writers. I caught up with Kathy at Worldcon (aka Aussiecon4) in Melbourne. www.BroadUniverse.org Interview by Rod  5min.