Lillian Cohen-Moore

Two little things to tell you before the year is up.

1. The ever-sweet Daniel Solis did a post today about the women he worked with this year. I’m in excellent company on that list, and you should check out the work of the other august women on it!

2. I can finally tell you something I’ve been sitting on for awhile: I’m blogging for Geek’s Dream Girl next year!

I have some other writing and editing announcements for 2012, but I sadly have to continue waiting on them. Till then, Happy New Year to you all, and to my fellow Jews, may your 5772 continue to improve, as we exit the darkness of the season and head towards the light. Have a lovely 5th of Tevet!

Who has two thumbs and chased Nate Crowder down for an interview? This newsie. Chasing Nate down is short-form for saying managed to schedule a time to find coffee and an outlet for my interview rig. My mobile recording failures aside (topic for another post, that) it was a lot of fun to catch up with Nate about his work as a writer and publisher.  You can check it out over at Another Passion.

It’s that time of year again! Where I holler from digital mountain tops and await the deluge.

The Broadsheet is an online publication put out by Broad Universe, an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror and other speculative genres. Put out three times a year in March, July and November, the Broadsheet is a paying market that accepts art and articles from men and women, regardless of membership status.

Our submissions window opens December 20th 2011 and closes February 13th 2012. The March issue will be published February 27th 2012.

For our submissions call, you can go here and a short link hop will take you to our Writer’s Guidelines.

Fat Girl in a Strange Land**

Crossed Genres Publications

Edited: Kay T. Holt, Bart R Leib.

Cover: Lili Ibrahim

Fat Girl in a Strange Land does something that I’ve seen escape other anthologies: it starts and ends on strong notes. The opening story, “La Gorda and the City of Silver,” by Sabrina Vourvoulias, moved me to tears. It starts with a first line as fierce as the punch of a luchadora, and never lets up.

Not every story made the same killer landing. “The Tradeoff,” by Lauren C. Teffeau, was impeccably written, yet emotionally flat. “The Right Stuffed,” from Brian Jungwiwattanaporn, was hurried and uneven, though there’s a very real sense of writing chops waiting to be honed. “How Do You Want To Die?” from Rick Silva, and “Sharks & Seals,” Jennifer Brozek’s contribution, both suffered from the same ailment. Silva and Brozek can be counted on for a good read, but neither story reads as a short story. Silva’s read like something from a longer work. Brozek’s visit to Kendrick is an enjoyable one, but it reads as a trip that needs follow-up, not a stand-alone.

As a fan of horror, the anthology snuck in two I’d classify as part of the genre. Bonnie Ferrante’s ”Flesh of my Flesh” and “Davy,” by Anna Dickinson. Ferrante’s story was a short, deeply disturbing foray into science-fiction. It’s excellently written, but dark enough to leave a mark if you have issues concerning physical or emotional violence. Dickinson’s story was both delightful and fucking scary. She not only channels the day to day horror of postpartum depression, but employs the sort of nightmarish landscapes I usually only find in the role-playing game Don’t Rest Your Head.

The rest of the stories are a grab-bag of fantasy and science fiction.

“Cartography, and the Death of Shoes,” from AJ Fitzwater is quirky: the writing is a bit uneven, but it gives it character instead of a sense of technical instability. It’s one of the better pieces of fantasy I’ve read lately.  Katherine Elmer’s “Tangwystl the Unwanted” rings as true as one of the Russian faerie tales I grew up on, it’s a refreshingly well-crafted story. “Marilee and the S.O.B.” is a romp through fantasy from Barbara Krasnoff; totally unapologetic about marrying faerie tales with modern setting, I would happily read it again. “Blueprints,” by Anna Caro, is by turns a bright and somber read about what happens after the end of everything we’ve ever known.

Some of the other stories that hit real high notes for me include Josh Roseman’s  ”Survivor,” because he fucking kills it in that story.  His protagonist Wen is a believable teenage girl. Sometimes whiny, sometimes brave, Wen is faced with a fight for survival on her own that could cripple an adult, and meets it head on. I threw the horns with both hands at the end. Nicole Prestin’s “Nemesis” got past my usual dislike for the superhero genre, providing readers with the protagonist Flux, the ‘Midwestern Soccer Mom’ I could identify with. “Nemesis” occupies the same mental shelf for me as Seanan McGuire’s “Velveteen vs.” stories, and I hope we see more of both Nicole Prestin and Flux. The anthology ends with “Lift” by Pete “Patch” Alberti, and this story would be worth the price of admission alone. This is for everyone who wanted a smart, determined female protagonist as teenagers. It is so fucking good. I sincerely hope we see more from him in the future, particularly YA. Mary Beth is the girl I would have looked up to as a teenager.

Or right about now.

* Review copy provided by publisher

* Disclosure: I work with author Jennifer Brozek on a regular basis.

P.S. Go check out cover artist Lili Ibrahim’s work. Well worth losing some of your productivity today.

I could say this is about sharing some love and giving a shout out to some great folks. That also wouldn’t be entirely accurate. This is about sharing the love in a shout out post that contains so much information I hyperlink everything ever.

I heard Minerva Zimmerman’s story “Muffin Everlasting” from Growing-Dread: Biopunk Visions via  a stunt reader at the release party for the anthology. I actually met her in person during NWC34. Since then, she’s kicked out “Apples and Arrows” in Cobalt City Dark Carnival, and “Unicorn Chaser” in Finding Home: Community in Apocalyptic Worlds.

Logan Bonner, who I met over multiple games of Fiasco this year, released his game Refuge in Audacity around a schedule involving intense freelancing and extreme wittiness. Adam Koebel and Sage LaTorra released Dungeon World, a game I bought at GenCon this year and skipped about with in childlike delight.

Daniel Solis, who I had the joy of working with as well as meeting this year, was the designer behind Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. He was also one of the folks  behind the supplement Do: The Book of Letters.

Jason L. Blair, who I sadly only know from the internet (and reading Little Fears), had a busy year. I think he might be a robot, because with this schedule, I don’t think he can sleep. That, or he’s yet to disclose his eldritch secrets.

Jason did the writing and layout on Book 2: Among the Missing, “Campfire Tales #4: Death by Chocolate”, “Campfire Tales #5: Dead Leaves“, “Campfire Tales #6: Old Man Winter” (forthcoming!), all for the Little Fears Nightmare Edition. He was the designer, editor and writer for Happy Birthday, Little Fears.  He wrote “The Danger in Dunsmouth” for ICONS: Super Powered Roleplaying. He was a contributing fiction writer for Don’t Walk In Winter Wood, and brought us a little piece of terror called “It Happened in the Woods at Night” for Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Terror. And on top of all that, he’s the writer and layout man behind Streets of Bedlam, which is slated for a 2012 release. For now, it lives as a Kickstarter you might want to check out before the clock chimes January 13^th.

Jennifer Brozek, much like Jason L. Blair, doesn’t seem to sleep. I suspect dark magic. This year she finished up her Dice and Deadlines column at Geek’s Dream Girl, explained the ins and outs of making an anthology at Apex Publications, had stories in the anthologies No Man’s Land, Showdown at Midnight, Carnage & Consequences, Finding Home: Community in Apocalyptic Worlds, as well as Under the Vale and Other Tales of Valdemar. She edited the anthologies Beauty Has Her Way, Human Tales, Beast Within 2, Space Tramps, and Human for a Day. She had stories in the fine magazines Science Fiction Trails , Tales of the Talisman , and she saw the hard copy publication of Shanghai Vampocalypse.

Just typing all that makes me tired.

Cam Banks, writer/game designer/editor, worked on the Leverage RPG, Smallville High School Yearbook, Dragon Brigade: Opening Salvo, and Smallville: The Watchtower Report.  Cam’s the Creative Director at MWP, handling RPG development, design and production.

Nate Crowder, one of my favorite locals with more stories than you have room on your bar tab, was pretty busy. “Odd Jobs” was in the anthology Space Tramps, while his story “The Invitation” ran in the anthology Rock & Roll is Dead. He edited and did layout for Cobalt City Dark Carnival, and has some RPG related shenanigans in the authorial closet.

Amanda Valentine, one of the most fantastic editors out there was both an editor and project manager on the Smallville High School Yearbook, as well as editing Smallville: The Watchtower Report, Bulldogs!, Fiasco Companion and Dragon Brigade: Opening Salvo. She’s expecting to have  Marvel Heroic Roleplaying cross her desk next year, in addition to The Paranet Papers and a sundry of other projects.

Clark Valentine, writer and other half of the Valentine Dynamic Duo, wrote “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Bulldogs,” an adventure for the Bulldogs! RPG, and you can his name among the writers on the Leverage RPG. Keep your eye out in 2012 for The Paranet Papers, a forthcoming supplement for The Dresden Files RPG from EHP; Clark is one of the lovely folks writing for it.

Beth Wodzinski, writer, editor, publisher, and ethereal internet dwelling creature, edited two issues of the magazine Shimmer in 2011. Shimmer and its staff are lovely, thoughtful, luminous and strange.

Richard Dansky, writer-for-many-fields, had stories in StorySouth, Tainted Tea, Haunted, and a variety of other publications he  could not recall. I may have asked him what his releases were while he was sleep deprived, freezing, and in a foreign country.

One last word on things we’re hearing about now but will see next year.

The ever charming and modest Will Hindmarch has a lovely little piece of the future for folks in the form of an upcoming 2012 release: Always/Never/Now, a role-playing game with a futuristic setting as pretty as it is dangerous—something that I’ve always wanted. Consider it a belated birthday gift to me if you just go look at the Kickstarter. Say goodbye to your ride into the future January 9^th, 2012.

I emphasize again that this is just a drop in the bucket of what these lovely people did this year. I didn’t include literally everything they released in 2011 because my fingers would have fallen off, and I’d never be able to blog again.

Look for their names again in 2012. It’ll be worth your time.

Since I know not everyone reads the same twitter accounts, blogs and Facebook walls, I wanted to put this here, too.

Elizabeth Sampat and Ryan Macklin (two lovely folks I know) have come together to do a special project: helping out Kelly, a fantastic photographer here in Seattle and all around amazing person. Donations help Kelly, a fellow freelancer, with her cancer expenses, and you get a bundle of indie rpgs. Tell cancer to fuck itself, help Kelly, and tell new stories. That’s what I call a win.